9
“For the Sake of All People I Have Become All Things”
1 I am free, am I not? I am an apostle, am I not? It is+ Jesus our Lord on whom I have laid my eyes, is it not? The result+ of my work in union with the Lord is you yourselves,+ is it not?
2 Even if I am not an apostle in the eyes of others,+ surely I am at least in yours+! The proof that I am a genuine apostle,+ you see, is you yourselves,+ in union with the Lord.
3 My defense before those who are putting me under cross-examination is this:
4 We have the right to receive financial support,+ do we not?
5 We have the right to take with us on our travels a believing wife, do we not,+ like the other+ apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Kefa, Peter+?
6 Or are Barnabas and I the only ones who+ have no right to refrain from working for a living?
7 Have you ever heard of a soldier+ serving in the army at his own expense? Have you ever heard of someone planting a vineyard, but then not getting to eat any of its fruit+? Have you ever heard of a shepherd taking care of a flock, but then not getting to use any of the milk+ that the flock produces?
8 Is it+ on mere human authority+ that I am saying these things? The Torah, too, itself+ teaches the same principle,+ doesn’t it?
9 Indeed, in the Torah of Moses+ it is written: “ˢYou must+ not muzzle an ox and keep it from eating+ while it is treading out the grain.”+ Surely it isn’t+ only oxen about which God is here+ concerned, is it?
10 Or is it+ for our benefit that he doubtless says this? It was+ for our benefit that it was written, to show that the one who breaks up the ground+ and the one who separates the grain from the chaff+ should both do their work how?+ In hope, of receiving a share in the harvest.+
11 If we, among you, have sown blessings of the Spirit,+ are we expecting too much+ if we wish to reap+ from you the blessing of life’s everyday necessities+?
12 If others+ share in the right to receive support from you, how much more should we ourselves? Even so, we have refused to avail ourselves of this right. Instead, we endure all+ things in order to keep ourselves from becoming a hindrance+ to the gospel about the Messiah.+
13 Surely you know, don’t you, that those who perform the holy services in the temple,+ from the temple receive their food+?+ And that those who serve at the altar of sacrifice,+ from the sacrificial offerings receive their due portion+?+
14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who proclaim the gospel+ should from the gospel receive their living.++
15 I, however, have chosen not to avail myself of any of these privileges. And my reason in writing these things now isn’t to secure such provisions for myself.+ I would much+ rather die, in fact, than—of this praiseworthy honor of mine+ no one will rob me!+
16 If I proclaim the gospel, you see, that fact in itself gives me no grounds for honor and reward,+ since I would only be doing what I am required+ to do anyway.+ Yes, woe and calamity+ to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!
17 Indeed, if it+ were as a matter of free choice that I were doing+ my work,+ I could expect,+ then,+ a reward. As it is, I have no real choice in the matter;+ it is+ a stewardship with which I have been entrusted.+
18 Precisely+ what, then, is my reward? That when proclaiming the gospel I may offer it freely,+ thus making only sparing use of my right to receive support from it.+
19 Even though+ I’m not a slave,+ you see,+ to any man, for the sake+ of people of all kinds I make myself a slave,+ so that I may win as many people as at all+ possible.+
20 I became,+ for the sake+ of the Jews, like a Jew, in order to win+ Jews; for the sake of those subject to Torah, like someone subject to Torah+ (though I myself am not subject to Torah), in order to win+ those who are subject to Torah;
21 for the sake of those who are without Torah, like one without Torah (although I am not without God’s Torah;+ I am subject to the Torah of the Messiah),+ in order to win those who are without Torah.
22 I became,+ for the sake of the weak, weak, so that I can do what?+ Win the weak. For the sake of all people I have become all things, so that I might be used+ to save, by all possible means,+ at least some.
23 I do all+ these things because of the gospel,+ in the hope+ of sharing,+ along with others, in the things it promises.+
24 Surely you know, don’t you, that those who are running in a stadium+ all+ compete in the race, yet only one+ receives the prize? This is precisely+ how you must run the race, to win the prize.
25 All who contend for the prize, moreover, exercise self-control in every+ respect. Whereas they, therefore, do it to receive a victor’s crown that decays,+ we do it to receive one that will never decay.+
26 So then, in my own race,+ here’s+ how I run: With singular focus on the finish line.+ And in my own fight,+ here’s how+ I box: Without wasting a punch.+
27 I subject my body to strict training and continually make it obey me,+ so that, after having proclaimed the gospel to others,+ I myself don’t turn out to be unapproved+ upon examination.