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. If others do not accept me as an apostle, surely you do, because you are proof that I am an apostle in the Lord.
3. This is the answer I give people who want to judge me:
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 as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Peter?
6. 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. No person takes care of a flock without drinking some of the milk.
8. I do not say this by human authority; God’s law also says the same thing.