1
Am I not free? Am I not an emissary? Have I not seen Yahushua our Master? Are you not my work in the Master?
2
If to others I am not an emissary, yet surely I am to you, for you are the seal of my emissary-work in the Master.
3
This is my defense to those who examine me.
4
Do we not have authority to eat and drink?
5
Do we not have authority to take along a believing ishah as wife, just as the other emissaries and the brothers of the Master and Kepha?
6
Or do only I and Bar-Nabba have no authority not to work?
7
Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not drink from the milk of the flock?
8
Do I speak these things merely according to Adam? Or does not Torah also say these things?
9
For in the Torah of Mosheh it is written: “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads grain.” Is Elohim concerned only with oxen?
10
Or does He say it surely for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because the one plowing ought to plow in hope, and the one threshing in hope of sharing the harvest.
11
If we sowed spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap material things from you?
12
If others share this authority over you, do we not even more? Yet we did not use this authority, but endure all things so that we may not place any obstacle before the Besorah of the Anointed.
13
Do you not know that those performing sacred service eat from the things of the House, and those serving at the altar share in what is offered at the altar?
14
So also the Master directed those proclaiming the Besorah to live from the Besorah.
15
But I have used none of these things. And I do not write these things so that it should be done this way for me, for it would be better for me to die than for anyone to empty my ground for boasting.
16
For if I proclaim the Besorah, I have no ground for boasting, for necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not proclaim the Besorah.
17
For if I do this willingly, I have a reward. But if unwillingly, I have still been entrusted with a stewardship.
18
What then is my reward? That in proclaiming the Besorah, I may present the Besorah without charge, so as not to make full use of my authority in the Besorah.
19
For though I am free from everyone, I made myself a servant to everyone, so that I might gain more.
20
And to the Yehudim I became as a Yehudi, so that I might gain Yehudim. To those under Torah, as one under Torah— though I myself am not under Torah as condemnation— so that I might gain those under Torah.
21
To those without Torah, as without Torah— not being without the Torah of Elohim, but bound to the Torah of the Anointed— so that I might gain those without Torah.
22
To the weak I became weak, so that I might gain the weak. I became all things to all people, so that by all means I might deliver some.
23
And I do all things because of the Besorah, so that I may become a fellow-partaker of it.
24
Do you not know that those running in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
25
And everyone competing exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.
26
Therefore I run not as uncertainly. I fight not as one beating air.
27
But I discipline my body and bring it under control, lest after proclaiming to others, I myself should somehow be disqualified.