Am I not free?
Am I not an apostle?
Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord?
Aren’t you my work in the Lord?
If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
My defense to those who examine me is this: Have we no right to eat and to drink?
Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work?