Study Desk

^[a](g)Do we not have a right to eat and drink?

^[b](h)Do we not have a right to take along a ^[c]believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the ⁽ⁱ⁾brothers of the Lord and ^(j)Cephas?

Or do only ^[d](k)Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?

Who at any time serves ^(l)as a soldier at his own expense? Who ^(m)plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it? Or who tends a flock and does not ^[e]use the milk of the flock?

I am not speaking these things ⁽ⁿ⁾according to ^[f]human judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things?

For it is written in the Law of Moses, "^(o) You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing ." God is not concerned about ^(p)oxen, is He?

Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, ^(q)for our sake it was written, because ^(r)the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops.

^(s)If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we ^(t)did not use this right, but we endure all things ^(u)so that we will cause no hindrance to the ^(v)gospel of Christ.

^(w)Do you not know that those who ^(x)perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share ^[g]from the altar?

So also ^(y)the Lord directed those who proclaim the ^(z)gospel to ^(aa)get their living from the gospel.

But I have ^(ab)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 have any man make ^(ac)my boast an empty one.