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1 Corinthians 9:3

WEBKJVBSBESVNKJVNASBNLT
Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,
1 Corinthians 9:3 · King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB My defense to those who examine me is this.
  • BSB This is my defense to those who scrutinize me:
  • NKJV My defense to those who examine me is this:
  • NASB My defense to those who examine me is this:
  • NLT This is my answer to those who question my authority.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

This is Paul's defense to those who scrutinize and criticize him. He now answers his critics regarding his apostolic rights.

Overview

Paul frames the following verses as a formal reply to those who sit in judgment of him. The point of his defense is not to assert privilege for its own sake but to establish that the rights he possesses are real—so that his choice to waive them is meaningful. His self-defense thus serves his larger pastoral aim of teaching loving self-denial by personal example.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 11

  • 2 Tim 4:16At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
  • 2 Cor 13:5Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
  • 2 Cor 10:7–8Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s.
  • 2 Cor 13:10Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.
  • Acts 22:1Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you.
  • Phil 1:17But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.
  • 1 Cor 14:37If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
  • Acts 25:16To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.
  • 2 Cor 13:3Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.
  • Phil 1:7Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.
  • 2 Cor 12:16–19But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.

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Christ at the center

Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.

How 1 Corinthians 9:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.

Mineἐμόςanswerἀπολογίαto them that do examineἀνακρίνωmeἐμέisἐστίthisοὗτος
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