1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
2 If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3 My defense to those who examine me is this:
4 Don’t we have the right to eat and drink?
5 Don’t we have the right to be accompanied by a Christian wife like the other apostles, the Lord’s brothers, and Cephas?
6 Or do Barnabas and I alone have no right to refrain from working?
7 Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not drink the milk from the flock?