The Rights of an Apostle
Paul begins by asking whether he is not free, not an apostle, and not one who has seen Jesus, adding that the Corinthians themselves are the seal of his apostleship. From there he asks whether he and Barnabas do not have the same ordinary rights as other apostles, including food, drink, and the company of a believing wife.
A1m I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you yourselves not my workmanship in the Lord? 2Even if I am not an apostle to others, surely I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. 3This is my defense to those who scrutinize me: 4Have we no right to food and to drink? 5Have we no right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? 6Or are Barnabas and I the only apostles who must work for a living?
Paul supports those rights through common human examples, the Law of Moses, temple service, and the Lord's own instruction that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from it. His point is clear: material support for gospel laborers is no strange claim but a fitting and established pattern.
7Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not drink of its milk? 8Do I say this from a human perspective? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? 9For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? 10Isn’t He actually speaking on our behalf? Indeed, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they should also expect to share in the harvest. 11If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much for us to reap a material harvest from you? 12If others have this right to your support, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not exercise this right. Instead, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. 13Do you not know that those who work in the temple eat of its food, and those who serve at the altar partake of its offerings? 14In the same way, the Lord has prescribed that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
Yet Paul says he has not made use of any of these rights and is not writing to secure them now. Since he is under obligation to preach, his boast is not in preaching itself but in offering the gospel free of charge and declining to make full use of his rights as he does so.
15But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that something be done for me. Indeed, I would rather die than let anyone nullify my boast. 16Yet when I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17If my preaching is voluntary, I have a reward. But if it is not voluntary, I am still entrusted with a responsibility. 18What then is my reward? That in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not use up my rights in preaching it.