1 Corinthians 9:4-12

4Have we not the right to our food and drink [at the expense of the churches]?

5Have we not the right to take along with us a believing wife, as do the rest of the apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas (Peter)?

6Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to stop doing manual labor [in order to support our ministry]?

7[Consider this:] Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock?

8Do I say these things only from a man’s perspective? Does the Law not endorse the same principles?

9For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain [to keep it from eating the grain].” Is it [only] for oxen that God cares?

10Or does He speak entirely for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake: The plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the harvest.

11If we have sown [the good seed of] spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

12If others share in this rightful claim over you, do not we even more? However, we did not exercise this right, but we put up with everything so that we will not hinder [the spread of] the good news of Christ.