# 1 Corinthians 9 (New King James Version)
A Pattern of Self-Denial

##### Chapter 9
###### 1 Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?  
###### 2 If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

###### 3 My defense to those who examine me is this:  
###### 4 Do we have no right to eat and drink?  
###### 5 Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as _do_ also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?  
###### 6 Or _is it_ only Barnabas and I _who_ have no right to refrain from working?  
###### 7 Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends 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, "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 he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.  
###### 11 If we have sown spiritual things for you, _is it_ a great thing if we reap your material things?  
###### 12 If others are partakers of _this_ right over you, _are_ we not even more?
Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ.  
###### 13 Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat _of the things_ of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of _the offerings of_ the altar?  
###### 14 Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.

###### 15 But I have used none of these things, nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me; for it _would be_ 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 necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!  
###### 17 For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.  
###### 18 What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel.Serving All Men

###### 19 For though I am free from all _men,_ I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more;  
###### 20 and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those _who are_ under the law, as under the law, that I might win those _who are_ under the law;  
###### 21 to those _who are_ without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those _who are_ without law;  
###### 22 to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all _men,_ that I might by all means save some.  
###### 23 Now this I do for the gospel's sake, that I may be partaker of it with _you._Striving for a Crown

###### 24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain _it._  
###### 25 And everyone who competes _for the prize_ is temperate in all things. Now they _do it_ to obtain a perishable crown, but we _for_ an imperishable _crown._  
###### 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as _one who_ beats the air.  
###### 27 But I discipline my body and bring _it_ into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.