1 Corinthians 9:4

4 Have we not a right to claim food and drink?

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 If to other men I am not an Apostle, yet at any rate I am one to you; for your very existence as a Christian Church is the seal of my Apostleship.

3 That is how I vindicate myself to those who criticize me.

4 Have we not a right to claim food and drink?

5 Have we not a right to take with us on our journeys a Christian sister as our wife, as the rest of the Apostles do--and the Lord's brothers and Peter?

6 Or again, is it only Barnabas and myself who are not at liberty to give up working with our hands?