Paul starts 1 Corinthians 9 defending his apostleship as he had "seen Jesus" and pointing to his fruitful ministry at Corinth as proof that he was an apostle. He then goes on to argue that he has a right be supported in his ministry by the church. However he points out that he has never demanded this right. He in fact is very flexible in his ministry adapting to Jew and Gentile as necessary so that "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some". "All the athletes compete in a race, "but only one gets the prize... so run in such a way as to get the prize... for secular athletes compete to get a crown which won't last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever!... so I beat my body to make sure that after I have preached to others I will myself not be disqualified from the prize!"
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