Kehillah in Corinth I 9:4

4 Do I not have the privilege of eating and drinking?

Kehillah in Corinth I 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 ) .

Kehillah in Corinth I 9:4 In-Context

2 If to others I am not a Shliach, surely I am to you, for you are the chotam (seal) of my shlichus (Ga 2:10), in Hashem.

3 My apologetic to the ones cross-examining me is this:

4 Do I not have the privilege of eating and drinking?

5 Is the privilege not mine to take an achot b’Moshiach as isha in my travels for Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach’s avodas kodesh, just as the rest of his Shlichim do and the Achim [see p.848] of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Adoneinu and Kefa?

6 Or is it only Bar-Nabba and I who are denied the privilege of not working at a parnasah?