1 Corinthians 9:11-13
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
11 If we have sown spiritual seed for you, is it a great thing that we reap a material harvest from you?(A) 12 If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we still more?(B)
Reason for Not Using His Rights. Yet we have not used this right.[a] On the contrary, we endure everything so as not to place an obstacle to the gospel of Christ. 13 [b]Do you not know that those who perform the temple services eat [what] belongs to the temple, and those who minister at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?(C)
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- 9:12 It appears, too, that suspicion or misunderstanding has been created by Paul’s practice of not living from his preaching. The first reason he asserts in defense of this practice is an entirely apostolic one; it anticipates the developments to follow in 1 Cor 9:19–22. He will give a second reason in 1 Cor 9:15–18.
- 9:13–14 The position of these verses produces an interlocking of the two points of Paul’s defense. These arguments by analogy (1 Cor 9:13) and from authority (1 Cor 9:14) belong with those of 1 Cor 9:7–10 and ground the first point. But Paul defers them until he has had a chance to mention “the gospel of Christ” (1 Cor 9:12b), after which it is more appropriate to mention Jesus’ injunction to his preachers and to argue by analogy from the sacred temple service to his own liturgical service, the preaching of the gospel (cf. Rom 1:9; 15:16).
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