1 Corinthians 9:4-15 It cannot be that we have no right to our food and drink, can it?

Williams⁽ⁱ⁾ ⁴ It cannot be that we have no right to our food and drink, can it? ⁵ It cannot be that we have no right to take a Christian wife about with us, can it, as well as the rest of the apostles and the Lord's brothers, and Cephas? ⁶ Or is it Barnabas and I alone who have no right to refrain from working for a living? ⁷ What soldier ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of its grapes? Who shepherds a flock and does not drink any of the milk the flock produces? ⁸ I am not saying this only by way of human illustrations, am I? Does not the law say so too? ⁹ For in the law of Moses it is written, "You must not muzzle an ox that is treading out your grain." Is it that God is concerned about oxen only? ¹⁰ Is He not really speaking on our behalf? Yes, indeed, this law was written on our behalf, because the plowman ought to plow and the thresher ought to thresh, in the hope of sharing in the crop. ¹¹ If we have sown the spiritual seed for you, is it too great for us to reap a material support from you? ¹² If others share this right with you, have we not a stronger claim? Yet, we have never used this right; no, we keep on bearing everything, to keep from hindering the progress of the good news of Christ. ¹³ Do you not know that those who do the work about the temple get their living from the temple, and those who constantly attend on the altar share its offerings? ¹⁴ Just so the Lord has issued orders that those who preach the good news shall get their living out of it. ¹⁵ But I myself have never used any of these rights. And I am not writing this just to make it so in my case, for I had rather die than do that. No one shall rob me of this ground of boasting.