1 Corinthians 9:3

3 This is my defense to those who scrutinize me:

1 Corinthians 9:3 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 9:3

Mine answer to them that do examine me is this.
] These words are referred by some to the following, as if the apostle's answer lay in putting the questions he does in the next verses; but they rather seem to belong to the preceding, and the meaning to be this, that when any persons called in question his apostleship, and examined him upon that head, what he thought fit to say in answer to them, and in defence of himself, was by referring them to the famous church at Corinth, who were as particular persons, and as a church, his work in the Lord, and everyone of them as so many seals of his apostleship; he being the first preacher of the Gospel to them, the founder of them as a church, and the instrument of their conversion.

1 Corinthians 9:3 In-Context

1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you yourselves not my workmanship in the Lord?
2 Even if I am not an apostle to others, surely I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3 This is my defense to those who scrutinize me:
4 Have we no right to food and to drink?
5 Have we no right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?
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