1 Corinthians 9:4-14
4We who are on missionary assignments for God have a right to decent accommodations,
5and we have a right to support for us and our families. You don''t seem to have raised questions with the other apostles and our Master''s brothers and Peter in these matters.
6So, why me? Is it just Barnabas and I who have to go it alone and pay our own way?
7Are soldiers self-employed? Are gardeners forbidden to eat vegetables from their own gardens? Don''t milkmaids get to drink their fill from the pail?
8I''m not just sounding off because I''m irritated. This is all written in the scriptural law.
9Moses wrote, "Don''t muzzle an ox to keep it from eating the grain when it''s threshing." Do you think Moses'' primary concern was the care of farm animals?a
10Don''t you think his concern extends to us? Of course. Farmers plow and thresh expecting something when the crop comes in.
11So if we have planted spiritual seed among you, is it out of line to expect a meal or two from you?b
12Others demand plenty from you in these ways. Don''t we who have never demanded deserve even more? But we''re not going to start demanding now what we''ve always had a perfect right to. Our decision all along has been to put up with anything rather than to get in the way or detract from the Message of Christ.
13All I''m concerned with right now is that you not use our decision to take advantage of others, depriving them of what is rightly theirs. You know, don''t you, that it''s always been taken for granted that those who work in the Temple live off the proceeds of the Temple, and that those who offer sacrifices at the altar eat their meals from what has been sacrificed?
14Along the same lines, the Master directed that those who spread the Message be supported by those who believe the Message.c