Study Desk

^(F1)(C1)Do we not have a right to eat and drink?

^(F1)(C1)Do we not have a right to take along a ^(F2)believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the ^(C2)brothers of the Lord, and ^(F3)(C3)Cephas?

Or do only ^(F1)(C1)Barnabas and I have no right to refrain from ^(F2)working?

Who at any time serves ^(C1)as a soldier at his own expense? Who ^(C2)plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not ^(F1)consume some of the milk of the flock?

I am not just asserting these things ^(C1)according to human judgment, am I? Or does the Law not say these things as well?

For it is written in the Law of Moses: "^(C1)YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE IT IS THRESHING." God is not concerned about ^(C2)oxen, is He?

Or is He speaking entirely for our sake? Yes, it was written ^(C1)for our sake, because ^(C2)the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing in the crops.

^(C1)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 ^(C1)did not use this right, but we endure all things ^(C2)so that we will cause no hindrance to the ^(C3)gospel of Christ.

^(C1)Do you not know that those who ^(C2)perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share ^(F1)from the altar?

So also ^(C1)the Lord directed those who proclaim the ^(C2)gospel to ^(C3)get their living from the gospel.

But I have ^(C1)used none of these things. And I have not written these things so that it will be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than that. No one shall make ^(C2)my boast an empty one!

For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about, for ^(C1)I am under compulsion; for woe to me if I do not preach ^(C2)the gospel.

For if I do this voluntarily, I have a ^(C1)reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a ^(C2)commission nonetheless.

What, then, is my ^(C1)reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel ^(C2)without charge, so as ^(C3)not to make full use of my right in the gospel.