5 Do we have no right to take along1 a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, athe brothers of the Lord, and bCephas?
6 Or isit only Barnabas and I awho have no right to refrain from working?
7 Who ever agoes to war at his own expense? Who bplants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who ctends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?
8 Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also?
9 For it is written in the law of Moses, a“You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about?
10 Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that ahe who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.
11aIf we have sown spiritual things for you, isit a great thing if we reap your material things?
12 If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? aNevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things blest we hinder the gospel of Christ.
13aDo you not know that those who minister the holy things eat ofthethings of the btemple, and those who serve at the altar partake of theofferingsof the altar?
14 Even so athe Lord has commanded bthat those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.
15 But aI have used none of these things, nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me; for bit wouldbe better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void.
16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for anecessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!
17 For if I do this willingly, aI have a reward; but if against my will, bI have been entrusted with a stewardship.
18 What is my reward then? That awhen I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel1 of Christ without charge, that I bmay not abuse my authority in the gospel.
Serving All Men
19 For though I am afree from all men,bI have made myself a servant to all, cthat I might win the more;
20 and ato the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those whoare under the law, as under the1 law, that I might win those whoare under the law;
21ato bthose whoare without law, as without law c(not being without law toward God, but under2 law toward Christ), that I might win those whoare without law;
Who goeth a warfare - at his own charges? - These questions, which are all supposed from the necessity and propriety of the cases to be answered in the affirmative, tend more forcibly to point out that the common sense of man joins with the providence of God in showing the propriety of every man living by the fruits of his labor. The first question applies particularly to the case of the apostle, · Does a soldier provide his own victuals? is used to express the military pay or wages, by the Greek writers; for the Roman soldiers were paid not only in money but in victuals; and hence corn was usually distributed among them. See on Luke 3:14 (note).
Other Adam Clarke entries containing 1 Corinthians 9:7:
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