Acts 18:3 Cross References

Acts 18:3

3: Paul lived and worked with them, for they were tentmakers just as he was.

Don't you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that our expenses would not be a burden to anyone there as we preached God's Good News among you.

We have worked wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us.

We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so that we would not be a burden to any of you.
It wasn't that we didn't have the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow.

Or is it only Barnabas and I who have to work to support ourselves?
What soldier has to pay his own expenses? And have you ever heard of a farmer who harvests his crop and doesn't have the right to eat some of it? What shepherd takes care of a flock of sheep and isn't allowed to drink some of the milk?
And this isn't merely human opinion. Doesn't God's law say the same thing?
For the law of Moses says, "Do not keep an ox from eating as it treads out the grain." Do you suppose God was thinking only about oxen when he said this?
Wasn't he also speaking to us? Of course he was. Just as farm workers who plow fields and thresh the grain expect a share of the harvest, Christian workers should be paid by those they serve.

The only thing I didn't do, which I do in the other churches, was to become a burden to you. Please forgive me for this wrong!

And when I was with you and didn't have enough to live on, I did not ask you to help me. For the brothers who came from Macedonia brought me another gift. I have never yet asked you for any support, and I never will.

Did I do wrong when I humbled myself and honored you by preaching God's Good News to you without expecting anything in return?

You know that these hands of mine have worked to pay my own way, and I have even supplied the needs of those who were with me.
And I have been a constant example of how you can help the poor by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

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