The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 9 -

(Deuteronomy 18:1–8)

To people who criticize how I work, I reply like this: I am an apostle. I have seen Jesus our Lord. I am free. You are the result of the work I did, you are my workmanship.

Even if some others do not think I am a true apostle, I am a true apostle to you. By the Lord’s stamp of approval, you are the proof that I am a true apostle.

I answer those who say that I am not a true apostle by not using money that you believers give me for payment for my service.

Of course we have the right to live on such money.

We certainly have the right to travel with a believing wife, like the other apostles do, like the Lord’s brother and Cephas.

No one made a rule that only Barnabas and I must work to support ourselves.

No soldier serves in the army at his own expense. No one plants a vineyard without being able to eat the grapes or drink the wine. No one shepherds a flock without drinking some of the milk that comes from the animals.

This is common sense. But the law says this as well.

For the law of Moses says, “When an ox is treading out the grain, do not stop it from eating some of it.” There is more that God is concerned about in this law.

This law is about us. Moses is saying that those who work in any job should benefit from the fruit of that work, just like the ox eating the grain on which he is treading.

If we have sown the seed of the good news to you, is it too much for us to receive money from you in our support?

Others received this kind of help from you, and we have certainly proven that we deserve it even more than they do. However, we have not accepted anything from you, even though we were entitled to it. Instead, we endure all kinds of hardships so that we do not make it more difficult for people to believe in the good news about Messiah.

Certainly you know that those who helped carry out the sacrifices offered to God in the temple received some of those offerings for their own needs. They received some of the food offered to God.

In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who proclaim the good news are to receive their living wages from the good news. They receive part of what is given to God for their needs.

But I have not demanded any of these things for myself. And that is not why I am writing this to you now. I boast that I never demand these things from you, and I would have to stop boasting if you were to pay me, so I would rather die than have you pay me.

If I proclaim the good news, I am not doing anything for which I should boast. I feel obliged to preach the good news. I would grieve with many tears if I could not do what God called me to do.

When I preach the good news because I want to, I have a great reward. But even if I only preached because someone forced me to preach, I would still have to preach, because God trusted me to do this work for him.

So what is the reward that God gives me? It is that when I preach the good news, I offer it without anyone paying me for it. Instead, I offer it for free so that I can do it without receiving the payment the Lord would allow me to take.

Paul the Servant to All

I am not obligated to anyone, but I am a servant to everyone, so that I might persuade more and more people to trust in Messiah.

When working with Jewish people, I become like a Jew, so that I may win them to Messiah. To those who were living under the law I lived as they lived, in order that those living under the law may trust in Messiah as I trust in him. I lived as they lived, even though I am not living my life by the law’s demands.

When I am with those who are non-Jews, those who live apart from the law of Moses, I became like them (though I myself am not outside God’s law, and I am obedient to the law of Messiah), so that I can persuade those apart from the law to trust in Messiah.

To those who are weak about rules and laws, I lived as they did, so I could persuade them to trust in Messiah. I have lived under rules and with many life-styles and with all kinds of people so that in any way God chooses to work, God will rescue some of them.

I do all this so I may proclaim the good news about Messiah, so that I will also experience the good things the good news brings to us.

Run Your Race to Win

You know when people run in a race, they all run, but only one of them wins the prize. So you also should run to win the prize.

Every athlete is careful in how he trains. They are running so one of them may get a crown of victory that is put on their heads; but it is made of olive leaves, and it quickly perishes and fades away. But we are running so we might receive a crown that will last forever.

Therefore, in everything I do, I do it for a purpose. I do not waste my effort or exhaust myself by striking the air like a boxer who has no opponent.

I discipline my body and I make it obey my commands. I do not want to preach the good news to others and then lose my reward because I failed to fulfill what he commanded me to do.

(Deuteronomy 18:1–8)

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.”(a) 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 didn’t use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News 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?

Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News.

But 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.

For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about, for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me if I don’t preach the Good News.

For 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.

What then is my reward? That when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News.

Paul the Servant to All

For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more.

To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law,(b) that I might gain those who are under the law;

to 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.

To 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.

Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it.

Run Your Race to Win

Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, so that you may win.

Every 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.

I therefore run like that, not aimlessly. I fight like that, not beating the air,

but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.

Footnotes

(a)9:9 ℘ Deuteronomy 25:4

(b)9:20 NU adds: though I myself am not under the law