1. I am a free man. I am an apostle. I have seen Jesus our Lord. You people are all an example of my work in the Lord.
2. Others may not accept me as an apostle, but surely you accept me. You are proof that I am an apostle in the Lord.
3. Some people want to judge me. So this is the answer I give them:
4. Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
5. Do we not have the right to bring a believing wife with us when we travel? The other apostles, the Lord’s brothers, and Peter all do this.
6. And are Barnabas and I the only ones who must work to earn our living?
7. No soldier ever serves in the army and pays his own salary. No one ever plants a vineyard without eating some of the grapes himself. No person takes care of a flock of sheep without drinking some of the milk himself.
8. This is not only what men think. God’s law says the same thing.