Qorintiyim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 9
9
1Am I not an emissary? Am I not free? Have I not seen יהושע Messiah our Master? Are you not my work in the Master?
2If to others I am not an emissary, I certainly am to you. For you are the seal of my office of the emissary in the Master.
3My defence to those who examine me is this:
4Do we not have a right to eat and drink?
5Do we not have a right to take along a sister – a wife – as do also the other emissaries, and the brothers of the Master, and Kĕpha?
6Or do only Barnaḇa and I have no right to refrain from working?
7Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not feed on the milk of the flock?
8Do I say this as a man? Or does not the Torah say the same too?
9For it has been written in the Torah of Mosheh, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.”# Deu. 25:4 Is it about oxen Elohim is concerned?
10Or does He say it because of us all? For this was written because of us, that he who ploughs should plough in expectation, and the thresher in expectation of sharing.
11If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap material goods from you?
12If others share authority over you, should not rather we? But we have not used this authority, but we put up with all, lest we hinder the Good News of Messiah.
13Do you not know that those serving the Set-apart Place eat from the Set-apart Place, and those attending at the slaughter-place have their share of the offerings of the slaughter-place?
14So also the Master instituted that those announcing the Good News should live from the Good News.
15But I have used none of these, nor have I written this that it should be done so to me. For it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting empty.
16For if I bring the Good News, it is no boasting for me, for necessity is laid on me, and it is woe to me if I do not bring the Good News!
17For if I do this voluntarily I have a reward, but if not voluntarily, I am entrusted with a management.
18What then is my reward? That in bringing the Good News, I should offer the Good News of Messiah without cost, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News.
19For though I am free from all, I made myself a servant to all, in order to win more,
20and to the Yehuḏim I became as a Yehuḏi, that I might win Yehuḏim; to those who are under Torah, as under Torah, so as to win those who are under Torah;
21to those without Torah, as without Torah – not being without Torah toward Elohim, but under Torah of Messiah – so as to win those who are without Torah.
22To the weak I became as weak, so as to win the weak. To all men I have become all, so as to save some, by all means.
23And I do this because of the Good News, so as to become a fellow-partaker with it.
24Do you not know that those who run in a race indeed all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to obtain it.
25And everyone who competes controls himself in every way. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we for an incorruptible crown.
26Therefore I run accordingly, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air.
27But I treat my body severely and make it my slave, lest having proclaimed to others, I myself might be rejected.
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Copyright© 1993 – 2015 by the Institute for Scripture Research (ISR). All rights reserved.
1 Corinthians 9
9
1-2And don’t tell me that I have no authority to write like this. I’m perfectly free to do this—isn’t that obvious? Haven’t I been given a job to do? Wasn’t I commissioned to this work in a face-to-face meeting with Jesus, our Master? Aren’t you yourselves proof of the good work that I’ve done for the Master? Even if no one else admits the authority of my commission, you can’t deny it. Why, my work with you is living proof of my authority!
3-7I’m not shy in standing up to my critics. We who are on missionary assignments for God have a right to decent accommodations, and 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. So, why me? Is it just Barnabas and I who have to go it alone and pay our own way? Are soldiers self-employed? Are gardeners forbidden to eat vegetables from their own gardens? Don’t dairy farmers get to drink their fill from the pail?
8-12a I’m not just sounding off because I’m irritated. This is all written in the scriptural law. Moses 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? Don’t you think his concern extends to us? Of course. Farmers plow and thresh expecting something when the crop comes in. So if we have planted spiritual seed among you, is it out of line to expect a meal or two from you? Others demand plenty from you in these ways. Don’t we who have never demanded deserve even more?
12b-14 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. All 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? Along the same lines, the Master directed that those who spread the Message be supported by those who believe the Message.
15-18Still, I want it made clear that I’ve never gotten anything out of this for myself, and that I’m not writing now to get something. I’d rather die than give anyone ammunition to discredit me or question my motives. If I proclaim the Message, it’s not to get something out of it for myself. I’m compelled to do it, and doomed if I don’t! If this was my own idea of just another way to make a living, I’d expect some pay. But since it’s not my idea but something solemnly entrusted to me, why would I expect to get paid? So am I getting anything out of it? Yes, as a matter of fact: the pleasure of proclaiming the Message at no cost to you. You don’t even have to pay my expenses!
19-23Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
24-25You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.
26-27I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No lazy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.