1 Corinthians 9:4

4 Have we no right to food and to 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 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?

6 Or are Barnabas and I the only apostles who must work for a living?