Sept. 13
1 Corinthians 9
1Co 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?
1Co 9:2 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.
1Co 9:3 My defense to
those who examine me is this.
1Co 9:4 Have we no
right to eat and to drink?
1Co 9:5 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?
1Co 9:6 Or have only
Barnabas and I no right to not work?
1Co 9:7 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?
1Co 9:8 Do I speak
these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn't the law also
say the same thing?
1Co 9:9 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,
1Co 9:10 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.
1Co 9:11 If we sowed to
you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly
things?
1Co 9:12 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 Good News of Christ.
1Co 9:13 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?
1Co 9:14 Even so the
Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from
the Good News.
1Co 9:15 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.
1Co 9:16 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.
1Co 9:17 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.
1Co 9:18 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.
1Co 9:19 For though I
was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I
might gain the more.
1Co 9:20 To 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;
1Co 9:21 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.
1Co 9:22 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.
1Co 9:23 Now I do this
for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it.
1Co 9:24 Don't you know
that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run
like that, that you may win.
1Co 9:25 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.
1Co 9:26 I therefore
run like that, as not uncertainly. I fight like that, as not beating
the air,
1Co 9:27 but I beat my
body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have
preached to others, I myself should be rejected.