¹³ How were you inferior to the other churches, except that I was never a burden to you?^(A) Forgive me this wrong!^(B)

¹⁴ Now I am ready to visit you for the third time,^(C) and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents,^(D) but parents for their children.^{(E) 15} So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well.^(F) If I love you more,^(G) will you love me less? ¹⁶ Be that as it may, I have not been a burden to you.^(H) Yet, crafty fellow that I am, I caught you by trickery! ¹⁷ Did I exploit you through any of the men I sent to you? ¹⁸ I urged^(I) Titus^(J) to go to you and I sent our brother^(K) with him. Titus did not exploit you, did he? Did we not walk in the same footsteps by the same Spirit?

³ and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.^(A)

⁶ Or is it only I and Barnabas^(A) who lack the right to not work for a living?

⁷ Who serves as a soldier^(B) at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard^(C) and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk? ⁸ Do I say this merely on human authority? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? ⁹ For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”^[a](D) Is it about oxen that God is concerned?^{(E) 10} Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us,^(F) because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest.^{(G) 11} If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?^{(H) 12} If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more?

But we did not use this right.^(I) On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder^(J) the gospel of Christ.

¹³ Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?^{(K) 14} In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.^(L)

¹⁵ But I have not used any of these rights.^(M) And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me, for I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast.^{(N) 16} For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach.^(O) Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! ¹⁷ If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward;^(P) if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me.^{(Q) 18} What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge,^(R) and so not make full use of my rights^(S) as a preacher of the gospel.