Paul works freely as an apostle
1 I am a free man. I am an apostle. I have seen Jesus, our Lord. You yourselves are the result of the work that I do to serve the Lord. You know that is all true. 2 Other people may not accept me as a true apostle. But you surely must accept me. As a result of my work, you now belong to the Lord. That shows that I am truly his apostle.
3 This is my answer to what some people say against me: 4 As apostles, Barnabas and I should receive food and drink from the people that we help. 5 We should be able to take a Christian wife with us as we travel. The other apostles do this. The Lord's brothers do this too, and also Peter. We have the same authority that they have. 6 Barnabas and I seem to be the only leaders who must work at other jobs. We should not need to do that!
7 Think about these examples: A soldier never has to pay for his own food and clothes. A farmer who plants vines will eat some of the grapes. A person who takes care of sheep or goats will drink some of the milk from those animals. You know that this is what always happens.
8 I am not just telling you human ideas. God's Law teaches the same thing. 9 The Law that God gave to Moses says this: ‘Do not tie shut the mouth of your ox while it walks on your grain.’ But God's Law does not teach this only to help oxen. 10 No, God wanted to help us too. That is why he gave this rule to Moses for his people. Any farmer who works hard to grow food should get some of the food for himself. He ploughs his fields and he threshes the grain. He does that because he hopes to eat some of the food. 11 Our spiritual work among you is like a farmer who plants seeds. So you should give us the food and clothes that we need, as our harvest. 12 You give help to other people who teach you God's message. So surely we deserve it even more!
9:9See Deuteronomy 25:4. Farmers used an ox to walk on the wheat that they had cut. They did that to remove the seeds for food. Moses' Law said that the farmer must let the ox eat some of the seeds. 9:10Moses was a great leader of the Israelites, who gave God's laws to the people.
But Barnabas and I have not used our authority to make you help us like that. Instead, we accept all these difficult things patiently. We want the good news about Christ to go everywhere. We do not want to do anything that might stop it.
13 Think about this: The people who work in the temple get their food from that place. The priests who offer sacrifices on the altar receive part of the offerings for themselves. 14 The Lord has given the same command about the people who tell his good news to others. They should receive what they need to live from the people who hear the good news from them.
15 But I have not used my authority as an apostle to demand these things from you. And I am not writing this letter to ask you to help me now. No! It would be better for me to die than to change the way that I live. I can be proud of that and nobody should stop me. 16 I tell God's good news to people. But I have no reason to be proud because of that. It is something that I have to do. If I did not tell people the good news, I would suffer very much.
17 If I myself had chosen to do this work, I would receive my pay. But I did not choose to do it. God has given this work to me, so I have to do it. 18 What kind of pay do I receive? It is this: I tell people God's good news and I do not ask them to pay me. I have that authority but I do not use it. That is what makes me happy.
