1 Corinthians 9:15

Plain English Version

Well, I am the one that told you the good news, but I haven’t asked you for anything. And even now, while I write to you, I’m not asking you for anything. I reckon it is better for me to die than to ask you for something. Now I can tell people that I gave you that good news, and I didn’t ask for anything. You got it for nothing, and that makes me happy.

Cross References

Acts 18:3

Aquila and Priscilla made tents. That was their work. And Paul made tents too, so he stayed with them in Corinth, and they worked together.

Acts 20:24

But I will keep going to Jerusalem anyway. I want to finish the work that our leader Jesus told me to do. I have to tell people the good news, that God is good to us, and that he saves us. I really don’t care about myself, I don’t even care if they kill me, so long as I can tell them that good news.

Acts 20:33

Listen, you mob know me. You saw the way that I lived when I was with you. I showed you the right way for a Christian to live. I never wanted to get anyone’s money or good clothes. I always worked to get the money that I needed, and to get money for my friends too.

1 Corinthians 4:12

We have to work hard all the time to get money for food. Some people swear at us and ask bad spirits to hurt us, but we just ask God to be good to them. If people are hard on us, we just put up with it.

1 Corinthians 9:12

Other people ask you to give them things, and that’s all right for them, so it has to be all right for us too. But we never ask you to give us anything. You see, if we ask for things when we tell people the good news about Jesus Christ, some of them will not listen to that good news. But we want everybody to listen to our message about Jesus, so we never ask anybody for anything. We reckon it’s better to go short of things.

1 Corinthians 9:18

And I’m very happy when I can give everyone that good news for nothing. That is like my pay. You see, it is all right for me to ask them for those things. I know that. But I don’t do it.

1 Thessalonians 2:9

Christian friends, remember what we did when we were there with you. We worked to get money, and while we did that, we told you the good news from God. We worked a lot to get enough money to look after ourselves. We didn’t only work in the day time, but we worked at night time too. So you didn’t have to give us anything.

2 Thessalonians 3:8

We worked very hard, not only in the day time, but at night time too, so that we could get enough money to look after ourselves. We always paid for the food you gave us. You didn’t have to find money to look after us.