Book of Common Prayer

9 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you people not proof of the work I do for the Lord?

² If other people do not call me an apostle, yet surely I am an apostle to you. You people are the proof that I am an apostle for the Lord.

³ Here is what I say to the people who say wrong things about me.

⁴ Do we not have the right to eat and drink?

⁵ Do we not have the right to have a Christian wife with us as do the other apostles, and the brothers of our Lord, and Cephas?

⁶ Must Barnabas and I work for our living though the other apostles do not?

⁷ What soldier pays for his own food when he goes to war? Who plants a garden and does not eat what grows in it? Who takes care of animals and does not get any of the milk?

⁸ Am I saying only what men say? Does not God's law also say the same?

⁹ Moses wrote in his books of the law of God, `Do not tie shut the mouth of an ox when it is treading the grain.' Does God care about the oxen?

¹⁰ Does he not say this altogether for our sakes? Yes, he said it for our sakes. There are people who plough the ground and beat the grain. They do this work because they believe they will have a part of the food for themselves.

¹¹ We have planted seed by teaching you the good things of the Spirit. So we should receive something from you to help us to pay for our living.

¹² If it is right for other teachers to receive something from you, then we have more of a right to receive it. But we did not use our right. Instead, we do anything we can so that we will not stop the good news of Christ from going out.

¹³ You know there are men who do the work in the temple. They get their food from the temple. Those who help to make sacrifices in the temple get a part of the sacrifice.

¹⁴ It is the same with those who work telling the good news. The Lord said they should get their living from that work.

¹⁵ And I am not writing this to ask you to do these things for me. I would rather die! It is something I am proud of, and no one shall take it away from me.

³⁰ The apostles came back to Jesus. They told him all they had done and taught.

³¹ Jesus said to them, `Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while.' Many people were coming and going. They could not even eat.

³² So they went away in a boat to a lonely place by themselves.

³³ The people saw them going. Many people knew them. The people ran from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

³⁴ When the boat got there, Jesus saw the many people. He was very sorry for them because they were like sheep with no one to care for them. He began to teach them many things.

³⁵ When it was late in the day, his disciples came to him. They said, `This is a lonely place and the time is late.

³⁶ Send these people away to farms and villages to buy food for themselves. They have nothing to eat.'

³⁷ Jesus said, `You give them food to eat.' They said, `Shall we go and buy a lot of bread and give them to eat?'

³⁸ He said, `Go and see how much bread you have.' When they knew, they told him, `We have five loaves of bread and two fish.'

³⁹ Jesus told the disciples to make all the people sit on the green grass in groups.

⁴⁰ The people sat down in groups. Some groups were a hundred people and some were fifty people.

⁴¹ Jesus took the five loaves of bread and the two fish. He looked up to heaven and thanked God for them. Then he broke them in pieces. He gave them to the disciples to give to the people. Then he divided the two fish among them all.

⁴² They all ate and had enough.

⁴³ Then they gathered twelve baskets full of pieces that were left.

⁴⁴ The number of men who ate was about five thousand.

⁴⁵ Then Jesus said to the disciples, `You get into the boat right away and go over to Bethsaida. I will send the people away.'

⁴⁶ When he had sent the people away, he went up on the hill to talk with God.