009:009 For in the Law of Moses it is written, "Thou shalt not muzzle
an ox while it is treading out the grain."
009:010 Is God simply thinking about the oxen? Or is it really in our interest that He speaks? Of course, it was written in our interest, because it is His will that when a plough-man ploughs, and a thresher threshes, it should be in the hope of sharing that which comes as the result.
009:011 If it is we who sowed the spiritual grain in you, is it a great thing that we should reap a temporal harvest from you?
009:012 If other teachers possess that right over you, do not we possess it much more? Yet we have not availed ourselves of the right, but we patiently endure all things rather than hinder in the least degree the progress of the Good News of the Christ.
009:013 Do you not know that those who perform the sacred rites have their food from the sacred place, and that those who serve at the altar all alike share with the altar?
009:014 In the same way the Lord also directed those who proclaim the Good News to maintain themselves by the Good News.
009:015 But I, for my part, have not used, and do not use, my full rights in any of these things. Nor do I now write with that object so far as I myself am concerned, for I would rather die than have anybody make this boast of mine an empty one.
009:016 If I go on preaching the Good News, that is nothing for me to boast of; for the necessity is imposed upon me; and alas for me, if I fail to preach it!
009:017 And if I preach willingly, I receive my wages; but if against my will, a stewardship has nevertheless been entrusted to me.
009:018 What are my wages then? The very fact that the Good News which I preach will cost my hearers nothing, so that I cannot be charged with abuse of my privileges as a Christian preacher.