Modern Literal Version
[1 Corinthians 9]

     ^9:1 Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you^* not my work in the Lord? ^9:2 If I am not an apostle to others, but yet I am to you^*; for^* you^* are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

     ^9:3 My defense to those who are examining me is this: ^9:4 have we no authority to eat and to drink? ^9:5 Have we no authority to lead around a wife, (a sister in the Lord), even as the rest of the apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? ^9:6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no authority not to work? ^9:7 Does anyone ever make war while supplying his own rations? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat from its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not drink from the milk of the flock? ^9:8 I am not speaking these things according to man. Or is the law not also saying these things? ^9:9 For^* it has been written in the Law of Moses, 'You will not muzzle a threshing bull.' {Deu 25:4} God does not care only for the bulls, does he? ^9:10 Or does he certainly say it because of us? For^* it was written because of us, that the one who is plowing ought to plow in hope, and the one who is threshing ought to thresh in hope to partake of his hope.

     ^9:11 If we sowed spiritual things to you^*, is it a great thing if we will be reaping your^* fleshly things? ^9:12 If others are partaking of this authority over you^*, do we not more? But we did not use this authority, but we are forbearing all things, in order that we should not give any hindrance to the good-news of the Christ. ^9:13 Do you^* not know that those who work at the sacred things, eatthe things from the temple, and those who wait-upon the altar have their part together with the altar? ^9:14 So, the Lord also commanded that those who are proclaiming the good-news, to live out of the good-news. ^9:15 But I used nothing of these things, and I did not write these things in order that it may become so with^* me; for^*it would be good for me rather to die, than in order that anyone should make my boasting void. ^9:16 For^* if I proclaim the good-news, it is not boasting to me; for^* necessity is laid upon me, but woe is to me, if I, myself, do not proclaim the good-news.^9:17 For^* if I am doing^* this voluntarily, I have a reward, but if I do so involuntarily, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. ^9:18 Therefore what is the reward to me? In order that, inproclaiming the good-news of the Christ without cost, I might place the good-news before you^*,and^*that^* I should not make full use of my authority in the good-news.

     ^9:19 For^*although^{F} being free from all, I enslaved myself to all, in order that I might gain allthe more. ^9:20 And I became like a Jew to the Jews, in order that I might gain Jews. I became likethose under the law to those who are under the law, in order that I might gain those who areunder the law. ^9:21I became like the lawless to those who are lawless, (not being lawless to God, but lawful to Christ), in order that I might gain the lawless. ^9:22 I became to the weak ones like theweak, in order that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, in order that I may certainly save some. ^9:23 But I am doing^* this because of the good-news, in order that I might become a fellow partner of it.

     {Footnotes: 1Co 9:19, or: being a free man from all, I was a bondservant to all.}

     ^9:24 Do you^* not know that those who run in the stadium, all indeed run, but only one receives the prize? So run^* in order that you^* may grab it. ^9:25 But everyone who struggles in the raceexercises self-control in all things. Therefore indeed, those mendo it in order that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we receive an incorruptible crown.^9:26 Now-then, I run so, as not with uncertainty. I am combating so, as not just whipping the air; ^9:27 but I am buffeting my body and enslaving it; lest somehow after having preached to others, I myself might become unapproved.

Modern Literal Version Preface & Appendix , copyright 1987, 1999, 2013 by G. Allen Walker for the MLV New Testament Committee.
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