2 Corinthians 12:14
Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
When ready to come to the Corinthians again the third time, Paul determined not to be burdensome to them by requiring them to support him financially. His reason was that he sought not what they owned but the people themselves and their spiritual good. By the comparison of parents and children he meant that as their spiritual parent he should provide for them, since parents ought to lay up for children rather than children for parents.
His willingness to spend himself for them expresses that selfless parental care. His practice of supporting himself by manual labor at his trade, as at Ephesus, lived out this same principle while he ministered. That manual labor also gave him access to people he could not otherwise have reached and shows that ordinary work can honor God.