First Letter to the Corinthians

New Testament

Rainbow Missions, Inc. World English Bible. Rainbow Missions, Inc.; revision of the American Standard Version of 1901. http://ebible.org/bible/web.

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven't I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren't you my work in the Lord?

If to others I am not an apostle, yet 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.

Have we no right to eat and to drink?

Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?

Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work?

What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn't eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn't drink from the flock's milk?

Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn't the law also say the same thing?

For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." Is it for the oxen that God cares,

or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope.

If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things?

If others partake of this right over you, don't we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

Don't you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar?