1. I am free. I am an apostle. I have seen the Lord Jesus and have led you to have faith in him.
2. Others may think that I am not an apostle, but you are proof that I am an apostle to you.
3. When people question me, I tell them
4. that Barnabas and I have the right to our food and drink.
5. We each have the right to marry one of the Lord's followers and to take her along with us, just as the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Peter do.
6. Are we the only ones who have to support ourselves by working at another job?
7. Do soldiers pay their own salaries? Don't people who raise grapes eat some of what they grow? Don't shepherds get milk from their own goats?
8-9. I am not saying this on my own authority. The Law of Moses tells us not to muzzle an ox when it is grinding grain. But was God concerned only about an ox?
10. No, he wasn't! He was talking about us. This was written in the Scriptures so that all who plough and all who grind the grain will look forward to sharing in the harvest.