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?
8. Am I saying this from a human perspective? Doesn’t the law also say the same thing?