1. Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? Have I not seen Christ Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
2. And if I am not an Apostle to others, yet still I am to you. For you are the seal of my Apostleship in the Lord.
3. My defense with those who question me is this:
4. Do we not have the authority to eat and to drink?
5. Do we not have the authority to travel around with a woman who is a sister, just as do the other Apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
6. Or is it only myself and Barnabas who do not have the authority to act in this way?
7. Who has ever served as a soldier and paid his own stipend? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat from its produce? Who pastures a flock and does not drink from the milk of the flock?
8. Am I saying these things according to man? Or does the law not also say these things?