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

⁹ You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.^(A)

¹² and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;^(A)

⁸ and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day so that we might not burden any of you.^{(A) 9} This was not because we do not have that right but in order to give you an example to imitate.^(B)

¹³ How have you been worse off than the other churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong!^(A)

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

⁷ Did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I proclaimed God’s good news^[a] to you free of charge?^(A)

⁶ Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?^{(A) 7} Who at any time pays the expenses for doing military service? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not get any of its milk?^(B)

⁸ Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law also say the same? ⁹ For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?^{(C) 10} Or does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was indeed written for our sake, for whoever plows should plow in hope and whoever threshes should thresh in hope of a share in the crop. ¹¹ If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we harvest material^[a] things?^{(D) 12} If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we still more?

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

³⁴ You know for yourselves that I worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions.^{(A) 35} In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”^(B)