³ and ^(A)because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.

⁹ For you remember, brothers, ^(A)our labor and toil: we ^(B)worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

¹² and we ^(A)labor, working with our own hands. ^(B)When reviled, we bless; ^(C)when persecuted, we endure;

⁸ nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but ^(A)with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. ⁹ It was ^(B)not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves ^(C)an example to imitate.

⁹ And when I was with you and was ^(A)in need, ^(B)I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia ^(C)supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain ^(D)from burdening you in any way.

¹³ For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that ^(A)I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong!

⁷ Or ^(A)did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because ^(B)I preached God's gospel to you free of charge?

⁶ Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? ^7 (A)Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? ^(B)Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

⁸ Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? ⁹ For it is written in the Law of Moses, ^(C)“You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? ¹⁰ Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written ^(D)for our sake, because ^(E)the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. ^11 (F)If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? ¹² If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?

Nevertheless, ^(G)we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything ^(H)rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

^34 (A)You yourselves know that ^(B)these hands ministered to my necessities and ^(C)to those who were with me. ³⁵ In all things ^(D)I have shown you that ^(E)by working hard in this way we must ^(F)help the weak and ^(G)remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed ^(H)to give than to receive.’”