The Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (WEB)
9:1 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? 9:2If 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. 9:3My defense to those who examine me is this. 9:4Have we no right to
eat and to drink? 9:5Have 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? 9:6Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not
work? 9:7What 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? 9:8Do I speak these things
according to the ways of men? Or doesn't the law also say the same thing? 9:9For it is written in the
law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the corn." Is it for the oxen that
God cares, 9:10or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because he
who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope. 9:11If
we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things? 9:12If 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. 9:13Don'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? 9:14Even so did the Lord ordain that those who proclaim the
gospel should live from the gospel. 9:15But I have used none of these things, and I don't write these
things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my
boasting void. 9:16For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about; for necessity is laid on
me; but woe is to me, if I don't preach the gospel. 9:17For if I do this of my own will, I have a
reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. 9:18What then is my
reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, so as
not to abuse my authority in the gospel. 9:19For though I was free from all, I brought myself under
bondage to all, that I might gain the more. 9:20To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain
Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the
law; 9:21to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under
law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law. 9:22To the weak I became as weak,
that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.
9:23Now I do this for the gospel's sake, that I may be a joint partaker of it. 9:24Don't you know that
those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, that you may win.
9:25Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to
receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. 9:26I therefore run like that, as not uncertainly.
I fight like that, as not beating the air, 9:27but I beat my body and bring it into submission, for fear
that by any means, that after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.