1 Am I not a free person? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord {Iesous Kyrios, Appearing Lord}? Are you not the work {ergon: ministry labor} I have done in the Lord?
2 Even if others do not treat me as an apostle, surely you must, because you are the seal {sphragis: authenticating mark} that confirms my apostleship in the Lord {Kyrios, Reigning Master}.
3 Here is my defense {apologia: formal reply} for those who are examining {anakrino: judicial review} me.
4 Do we not have {echomen: hold entitlement} the right {exousia: delegated authority} to eat and drink?
5 Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife {adelphēn: Christian sister}, just as the other apostles do, and the brothers of the Lord {Kyrios, Lord with Brothers}, and Cephas?
6 Or are Barnabas and I the only {monos: solely us} ones who do not have authority to refrain from working {ergazesthai: manual employment}?
7 What soldier {strateuetai: Enlisted Warrior} ever goes on duty at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard yet does not partake of its produce {karpos: Cultivated Produce}? Or who shepherds a flock and refrains from drinking its milk?
8 Am I expressing these statements by human standards {anthropon: merely human judgment}, or does the Law {nomos: Torah-based authority} not also affirm them?
9 The Law given through Moses {Mouseos: Law Mediator} records, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.” Does God {Theos, Caring Lawgiver} concern Himself with oxen?
10 Or is He {Theos, Just Rewarder} speaking entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake: the one who plows ought to plow in hope {elpidi: confident expectation}, and the one who threshes should do so in hope of sharing.
11 If we have sown spiritual things {pneumatika: spiritual benefits} among you, is it excessive if we reap material things {sarkika: material support} in return?
12 If others share in your right {exousia: rightful claim}, do we not much more? Yet we have not made use of this right; instead, we endure all things so that we may not place any obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ {Christos: Messiah King}.
13 Do you not know that those who work with the holy things {hiera: consecrated offerings} eat from the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar {thysiasterio: sacrificial place} share in the altar?
14 In the same way, the Lord {Kyrios, Supreme Commander} commanded that those who proclaim the gospel {euangelion: good news message} should live from the gospel.
15 But I have not made use of any of these things, nor have I written them so that this might come about for me; for it is better for me to die {apothanein: physical death} than for anyone to nullify my boasting {kauchema: ministry confidence}.
16 For if I preach the gospel, there is no ground for boasting for me, because necessity {ananke: imposed obligation} has been placed on me; indeed, woe {ouai: intense distress} to me if I do not preach the gospel.
17 For if I do this willingly, I have a reward {misthon: due payment}; but if I do it unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship {oikonomian: responsibility to administer}.
18 What, then, is my reward {misthos: ministry recompense}? That, as I preach the gospel, I may set the gospel before people free of charge, so that I do not make full use of my authority {exousia: ministerial right} in the gospel.
19 Although I am free from all, I have made myself a servant {douloo: take slave status} to all, so that I might gain more {kerdaino: win over others}.
20 And I became to the Jews {Ioudaioi: ethnic Israelites} as a Jew, so that I might gain the Jews; to those under the law {hypo nomos: bound to Torah}, as under the law, though I myself am not under the law, so that I might gain those who are under the law.
21 I have lived among those without the law as though I myself had none—though I am not exempt from God’s law {Theos: Divine Legislator} but am subject to Christ’s law {Christos: New Covenant Rule}—so that I might win those without the law {anomos: outside Mosaic code}.
22 I became weak {asthenesin: socially vulnerable} toward the weak, so that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all, so that by all means {pantos: every possible way} I might save some.
23 But I do all things for the sake of the gospel {euangelion: good news message}, so that I might become a joint-partaker {synkoinonos: close sharer} of it.
24 Do you not know that all those running in a stadium run, but only one receives the prize {brabeion: victor’s reward}? In this way, run so that you may obtain {katalabete: fully lay hold} it.
25 But everyone who competes {agonizomenos: contends in contests} exercises self-control in all things. They do it so that they might receive a perishable crown {stephanos: athlete’s wreath}, but we do it for an imperishable one.
26 Therefore I run in this way, not as uncertainly {adelos: without clarity}; and I box in this way, not as one beating the air {aera: empty space}.
27 But I discipline {hypopiazo: rigorous self-control} my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others, I myself might not become disqualified {adokimos: lacking divine approval}.