1 Corinthians 9

A Pattern of Self-Denial

¹Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?²If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

³My defense to those who examine me is this:⁴Do we have no right to eat and drink?⁵Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?⁶Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working?⁷Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?

⁸Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also?⁹For it is written in the law of Moses,“You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about?¹⁰Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.¹¹If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?¹²If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ.¹³Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar?¹⁴Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.

¹⁵But I have used none of these things, nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me; for it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void.¹⁶For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!¹⁷For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.¹⁸What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel.

Serving All Men

¹⁹For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more;²⁰and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law;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;²²to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.²³Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.

Striving for a Crown

²⁴Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.²⁵And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.²⁶Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.²⁷But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.