1 Corinthians 9:4

4 Don't I have the right to be given food and drink for my work?

1 Corinthians 9:4 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 9:4

Have we not power to eat and to drink?
] Having proved his apostleship, he proceeds to establish his right to a maintenance as a Gospel minister; which he expresses by various phrases, and confirms by divers arguments: by a "power to eat and drink", he does not mean the common power and right of mankind to perform such actions, which everyone has, provided he acts temperately, and to the glory of God; nor a liberty of eating and drinking things indifferent, or which were prohibited under the ceremonial law; but a comfortable livelihood at the public charge, or at the expense of the persons to whom he ministered; and he seems to have in view the words of Christ, ( Luke 10:7 Luke 10:8 ) .

1 Corinthians 9:4 In-Context

2 Even if others do not accept me as an apostle, surely you do! Because of your life in union with the Lord you yourselves are proof of the fact that I am an apostle.
3 When people criticize me, this is how I defend myself:
4 Don't I have the right to be given food and drink for my work?
5 Don't I have the right to follow the example of the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Peter, by taking a Christian wife with me on my trips?
6 Or are Barnabas and I the only ones who have to work for our living?
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.