New Testament · Easy read · 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 9
1Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Yeshua Messiah our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
2If to others I am not an apostle, at least 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 not have a right to eat and drink?
5Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, as also the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
6Or is it only Barnabas and I who do not have the right to not work?
7Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink from the milk of the flock?
8I am not saying these things according to human judgment, am I? Does not the law also say these things?
9For it is written in the law of Moses: "You shall not muzzle the ox while it is threshing." God is not concerned about oxen, is He?
10Or is He speaking entirely for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the one who plows ought to plow in hope, and the one who threshes in hope of partaking.
11If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?
12If others share in this right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the good news of Messiah.
13Do you not know that those who perform the sacred rites eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar share in the altar's offerings?
14So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the good news to get their living from the good news.
15But I have used none of these things; and I am not writing these things so that it will be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than — no man is going to empty my boast.
16For if I proclaim the good news, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not proclaim the good news.
17For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
18What then is my reward? That when I proclaim the good news, I may offer the good news of Messiah without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the good news.
19For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more.
20To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those under law, as under law though not being myself under law, so that I might win those under law;
21to those without law, as without law — though not being without law of God but under law of Messiah — so that I might win those without law.
22To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.
23I do all things for the sake of the good news, so that I may become a fellow-partaker of it.
24Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
25Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things; they then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
26Therefore I run in such a way as not without aim; I box in such a way as not beating the air;
27but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have proclaimed to others I myself will not be unverified.