3 Mine answer to them that do examine me is this, 4 Have we not power to eat and to drink? 5 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? 6 Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?

As we saw in some of the first verses you get the impression people are questioning Paul’s authority even though he started this church.  He says to them that the apostles living should come from the people he ministers to. There were men and women that traveled with Paul on his journeys as ministers and the journeys could sometimes go on for months. Paul was a tent maker and he was saying that even him and Barnabas could work for what they needed and receive a full financial reward for their work. They did this where  they could pay their own way voluntarily with some help from a few churches but not out of obligation necessity.  To me this is saying that we need to be able to supply our needs in the ministry in case the ones we are ministering to can not supply what we need to accomplished what we feel we are called to do.