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1 Corinthians 9:3

WEBKJVBSBESVNKJVNASBNLT
My defense to those who examine me is this:
1 Corinthians 9:3 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB My defense to those who examine me is this.
  • KJV Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,
  • BSB This is my defense to those who scrutinize me:
  • 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 defense, no one came to help me, but all left me. May it not be held against them.
  • 2 Cor 13:5Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you are disqualified.
  • 2 Cor 10:7–8Do you look at things only as they appear in front of your face? If anyone trusts in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again with himself, that, even as he is Christ’s, so also we are Christ’s.
  • 2 Cor 13:10For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for tearing down.
  • Acts 22:1“Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense which I now make to you.”
  • Phil 1:17but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Good News.
  • 1 Cor 14:37If any man thinks himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him recognize the things which I write to you, that they are the commandment of the Lord.
  • Acts 25:16To whom I answered that it is not the custom of the Romans to give up any man to destruction, before the accused has met the accusers face to face, and has had opportunity to make his defense concerning the matter laid against him.
  • 2 Cor 13:3seeing that you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me; who toward you is not weak, but is powerful in you.
  • Phil 1:7It is even right for me to think this way on behalf of all of you, because I have you in my heart, because, both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Good News, you all are partakers with me of grace.
  • 2 Cor 12:16–19But be it so, I did not myself burden you. But, being crafty, I caught you with deception.

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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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