Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
My defense to those who examine me is this:
Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law say the same?
For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
Or does he speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because whoever plows should plow in hope and whoever threshes should thresh in hope of a share in the crop.
If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits?
If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.
All athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one.
So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air;
but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after proclaiming to others I myself will not be disqualified.
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