2. Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal 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?
5. Don't we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas ?
6. Or is it only I and Barnabas who lack the right to not work for a living?
7. Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard 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." Is it about oxen that God is concerned?
10. Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? Yes, this was written for us, because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest.