Psalm 57^[a](A)

For the director of music. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” Of David. A miktam.^[b] When he had fled from Saul into the cave.^(B)

¹⁴ Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. ¹⁵ Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” ^[16] [a]

¹⁷ After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him^(A) about this parable. ¹⁸ “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods^(B) clean.)^(C)

²⁰ He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. ²¹ For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed,^(D) malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³ All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Paul’s Rights as an Apostle

9 Am I not free?^(A) Am I not an apostle?^(B) Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?^(C) Are you not the result of my work in the Lord?^{(D) 2} Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal^(E) of my apostleship in the Lord.

³ This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. ⁴ Don’t we have the right to food and drink?^{(F) 5} Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife^(G) along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers^(H) and Cephas^[a]?^{(I) 6} Or is it only I and Barnabas^(J) who lack the right to not work for a living?

⁷ Who serves as a soldier^(K) at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard^(L) 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.”^[b](M) Is it about oxen that God is concerned?^{(N) 10} Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us,^(O) because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest.^{(P) 11} If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?^{(Q) 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.^(R) On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder^(S) 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?^{(T) 14} In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.^(U)

¹⁵ But I have not used any of these rights.^(V) 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.^(W)