1 Corinthians 9:4-18

New American Standard Bible

⁴^[a]^(A)Do we not have a right to eat and drink? ⁵^[b]^(B)Do we not have a right to take along a ^[c]believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the ^(C)brothers of the Lord, and ^[d]^(D)Cephas? ⁶Or do only ^[e]^(E)Barnabas and I have no right to refrain from ^[f]working? ⁷Who at any time serves ^(F)as a soldier at his own expense? Who ^(G)plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not ^[g]consume some of the milk of the flock?

⁸I am not just asserting these things ^(H)according to human judgment, am I? Or does the Law not say these things as well? ⁹For it is written in the Law of Moses: “^(I)You shall not muzzle the ox while it is threshing.” God is not concerned about ^(J)oxen, is He? ¹⁰Or is He speaking entirely for our sake? Yes, it was written ^(K)for our sake, because ^(L)the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing in the crops. ¹¹^(M)If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? ¹²If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we ^(N)did not use this right, but we endure all things ^(O)so that we will cause no hindrance to the ^(P)gospel of Christ. ¹³^(Q)Do you not know that those who ^(R)perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share ^[h]from the altar? ¹⁴So also ^(S)the Lord directed those who proclaim the ^(T)gospel to ^(U)get their living from the gospel.

¹⁵But I have ^(V)used none of these things. And I have not written these things so that it will be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than that. No one shall make ^(W)my boast an empty one! ¹⁶For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about, for ^(X)I am under compulsion; for woe to me if I do not preach ^(Y)the gospel. ¹⁷For if I do this voluntarily, I have a ^(Z)reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a ^(AA)commission nonetheless. ¹⁸What, then, is my ^(AB)reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel ^(AC)without charge, so as ^(AD)not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

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Footnotes

1 Corinthians 9:4 Lit It is not that we have no right to eat and drink, is it?
1 Corinthians 9:5 Lit It is not that we have no right to take along...Cephas, is it?
1 Corinthians 9:5 Lit sister, as a wife
1 Corinthians 9:5 Peter’s Aramaic name
1 Corinthians 9:6 Lit I and Barnabas
1 Corinthians 9:6 I.e., to support themselves
1 Corinthians 9:7 Lit eat from
1 Corinthians 9:13 Lit with