Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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Rights and Duties of an Apostle
1 Am I not a free man? Am I not
an apostle? Haven't I seen Jesus
our Lord? And aren't you the result
of my work for the Lord?
2 Even if
others do not accept me as an apostle,
surely you do! Because of your
life in union with the Lord you yourselves
are proof of the fact that I am
an apostle.
3 When people criticize me, this is
how I defend myself:
4 Don't I have
the right to be given food and drink
for my work?
5 Don't I have the right
to follow the example of the other
apostles and the Lord's brothers and
Peter, by taking a Christian wife
with me on my trips?
6 Or are Barnabas
and I the only ones who have to
work for our living?
7 What soldier
ever has to pay his own expenses in
the army? What farmer does not eat
the grapes from his own vineyard?
What shepherd does not use the
milk from his own sheep?
8 I don't have to limit myself to
these everyday examples, because
the Law says the same thing.
9 We
read in the Law of Moses, “Do not
muzzle an ox when you are using it
to thresh grain.” Now, is God concerned
about oxen? note
10 Didn't he
really mean us when he said that? Of
course that was written for us. The
man who plows and the man who
reaps should do their work in the
hope of getting a share of the crop.
11 We have sown spiritual seed
among you. Is it too much if we reap
material benefits from you? note
12 If others
have the right to expect this
from you, don't we have an even
greater right?
12 But we haven't made use of this
right. Instead, we have endured
everything in order not to put any
obstacle in the way of the Good
News about Christ.
13 Surely you
know that the men who work in the
Temple get their food from the Temple
and that those who offer the sacrifices
on the altar get a share of the
sacrifices. note
14 In the same way, the
Lord has ordered that those who
preach the gospel should get their
living from it. note
15 But I haven't made use of any of
these rights, nor am I writing this
now in order to claim such rights for
myself. I would rather die first! Nobody
is going to turn my rightful
boast into empty words!
16 I have no
right to boast just because I preach
the gospel. After all, I am under orders
to do so. And how terrible it
would be for me if I did not preach
the gospel!
17 If I did my work as a
matter of free choice, then I could
expect to be paid; but I do it as a
matter of duty, because God has entrusted
me with this task.
18 What
pay do I get, then? It is the privilege
of preaching the Good News without
charging for it, without claiming my
rights in my work for the gospel.
19 I am a free man, nobody's slave;
but I make myself everybody's slave
in order to win as many people as
possible.
20 While working with the
Jews, I live like a Jew in order to win
them; and even though I myself am
not subject to the Law of Moses, I
live as though I were when working
with those who are, in order to win
them.
21 In the same way, when
working with Gentiles, I live like a
Gentile, outside the Jewish Law, in
order to win Gentiles. This does not
mean that I don't obey God's law; I
am really under Christ's law.
22 Among the weak in faith I become
weak like one of them, in order to
win them. So I become all things
to all men, that I may save some
-- --
of them by whatever means are
possible.
23 All this I do for the gospel's
sake, in order to share in its blessings.
24 Surely you know that many
runners take part in a race, but only
one of them wins the prize. Run,
then, in such a way as to win the
prize.
25 Every athlete in training
submits to strict discipline, in order
to be crowned with a wreath that
will not last; but we do it for one that
will last forever. note
26 That is why I run
straight for the finish line; that is
why I am like a boxer who does not
waste his punches.
27 I harden my
body with blows and bring it under
complete control, to keep myself
from being disqualified after having
called others to the contest.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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