1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
2 If to others I am not an apostle, yet indeed I am to you, for you are my seal of apostleship in the Lord.
3 My defense to those who examine me is this:
4 Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
5 Do we not have the right to take along a sister [as] wife, like the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
6 Or do only I and Barnabas not have the right {to refrain from working}?
7 Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it? Who shepherds a flock and does not drink from the milk of the flock?
8 I am not saying these [things] according to a human perspective. Or does the law not also say these [things]?
9 For in the law of Moses it is written, "You must not muzzle an ox [while it] is threshing." It is not about oxen God is concerned, is it?
10 Or doubtless does he speak {for our sake}? For it is written {for our sake}, because the one who plows ought to plow in hope and the one who threshes [ought to do so] in hope of a share.
11 If we have sown spiritual [things] among you, [is it too] great [a thing] if we reap material [things] from you?
12 If others share this right over you, do we not [do so] even more? Yet we have not made use of this right, but we endure all [things], in order that we may not cause any hindrance to the gospel of Christ.
13 Do you not know that those performing the holy services eat the things from the temple, [and] those attending to the altar have a share with the altar?
14 In the [same] way also the Lord ordered those who proclaim the gospel to live from the gospel.
15 But I have not made use of any of these [rights]. And I am not writing these [things] in order that it may be thus with me. For [it would be] better to me rather to die than [for] anyone to deprive me of my reason for boasting.
16 For if I proclaim the gospel, it is not to me a reason for boasting, for necessity is imposed on me. For woe is to me if I do not proclaim the gospel.
17 For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward, but if [I do so] unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
18 What then is my reward? That [when I] proclaim the gospel, I may offer the gospel free of charge, in order not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
19 For [although I] am free from all [people], I have enslaved myself to all, in order that I may gain more.
20 I have become like a Jew to the Jews, in order that I may gain the Jews. To those under the law [I became] as under the law ([although I] myself am not under the law) in order that I may gain those under the law.
21 To those outside the law [I became] as outside the law ([although I] am not outside the law of God, but subject to the law of Christ) in order that I may gain those outside the law.
22 To the weak I became weak, in order that I may gain the weak. I have become all [things] to all [people], in order that by all means I may save some.
23 I do all [this] for the sake of the gospel, in order that I may become a participant with it.
24 Do you not know that those who run in the stadium all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
25 And everyone who competes exercises self-control in all [things]. Thus those [do so] in order that they may receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable [one].
26 Therefore I run in this way, not as [running] aimlessly; I box in this way, not as beating the air.
27 But I discipline my body and subjugate [it], lest somehow [after] preaching to others, myself should become disqualified.