(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
The Rights of the Apostles
- Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord?
- If I’m not an apostle to others, then at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
- My defense1The Greek word here is “ἀπολογία” (apologia) is the root of our English word “apologetics”. It specifically refers to a verbal defense, and the term was used for a legal defense in court. It implies providing compelling evidence to answer an accusation or objection that was raised. to the men examining me is this:
- Don’t we definitely have the right to eat and to drink?
- Don’t we definitely have the right to bring along a believing2“believing” is literally “sister”, with sister indicating a wife who is Christian. wife? (Just as also the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas3“Cephas” is Aramaic for “a rock”, and is another name for the disciple/apostle Peter. do.)
- Or do only Barnabas and I not have the right to not work?
- Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and doesn’t drink from the milk of the flock?
- I don’t speak these things according to man, do I? Or doesn’t the law also say these things?
- For it is *written in the law of Moses; “you shall not muzzle an ox that’s threshing“4quotation/allusion to Deuteronomy 25:4 Threshing is part of the process for separating chaff from grain. Threshing involves beating the grain to break the chaff free from the grain. It was typically done on a “threshing floor” with either a tool or by animals. Once the chaff is broken free, you then “winnow” the chaff and grain mixture by throwing it in the air so the wind carries away the lighter, useless chaff, while the heavier grain falls back to the earth. Once ground into flour and cooked, the grains are ready to eat. God isn’t concerned about the oxen, is He?
- Or does He speak entirely for our sake? For it was written for our sake, because the man plowing ought to plow in expectation, and the man threshing5“threshing” is literal. See note on previous verse does so in expectation to partake of the grain.
- If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it a great thing if we will reap material things from you?
- If others partake of their right from you, couldn’t we do so more? But we didn’t make use of this right, but instead, we patiently endure all things so we wouldn’t put any hindrance on the gospel of the Anointed.
- Don’t you *know that the men working in the temple eat the food from the temple? And don’t the men serving at the altar have a share in the altar sacrifices?
- And in this way, the Lord appointed for the men proclaiming the gospel to live from the gospel.
- But I haven’t used any of these rights. (And I didn’t write these things so it might become this way with me.) For it’s better for me to die rather than for anyone to make6“to make” is literally “will make” my boasting empty.
- For if I proclaim the gospel, there isn’t a boast for me, for a compulsion is placed on me; for woe is me if I don’t proclaim the gospel.
- For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
- What then is my reward? That by preaching the gospel free of charge, I might offer the gospel without needing to make full use of my right in the gospel.
All things to all men
- For while being free from all men, I made myself a slave to all men so I might gain more of them.
- And I became like a Jew to the Jews, so I might win the Jews. To men under the law, like I’m under the law – though not being under the law myself – so I might win men under the law.
- To men without the law,7“without the law” is one word in Greek. It can mean “lawless” in the sense of wicked, but it can also refer to those without the Mosaic Law; i.e. Gentiles. That is likely the intended sense here. like a man without the law – though not being without God’s law, but lawful in the Anointed – so I might win men without the law.
- I became weak to the weak, so I might win the weak. I *become all things to all men, so that by all means I might save some.
- But I do all things for the gospel’s sake, so I might become a fellow partaker in it.
- Don’t you *know that the men running in a race all indeed run, but only one receives the prize? Run like this so you might seize it.
- And every man competing uses self-control in all things. Then these men indeed compete so they might receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.
- Therefore, I run like this, but not like I’m running aimlessly. I box like this, but not like I’m punching the air.
- But I discipline my body and make it my slave, lest after having preached to others, I myself might become disqualified.
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