1Cor 9:2-12 | ESV | STEP | If to others I am not an apostle , at least I am to you , for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord .

1 Corinthians 9:2-12

2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are ^athe seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

3 This is my defense to those who would examine me. 4 ^bDo we not have the right to eat and drink? 5 ^cDo we not have the right to take along a believing wife, ^{▼▼Greek a sister as wife} as do the other apostles and ^ethe brothers of the Lord and ^fCephas? 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? 7 ^gWho serves as a soldier at his own expense? ^hWho plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

8 Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, ⁱ“You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10 Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written ^jfor our sake, because ^kthe plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. 11 ^lIf we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?

Nevertheless, ^mwe have not made use of this right, but we endure anything ⁿrather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.