I Corinthians 9-10

I Corinthians 9

¹Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord?

²If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

³My defense to those who examine me is this:

⁴Have we no right to eat and to drink?

⁵Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?

⁶Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work?

⁷What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk?

⁸Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn’t the law also say the same thing?

⁹For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it for the oxen that God cares,

¹⁰or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope.

¹¹If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things?

¹²If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we didn’t use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ.

¹³Don’t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar?

¹⁴Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News.

¹⁵But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void.

¹⁶For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about, for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me if I don’t preach the Good News.

¹⁷For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.

¹⁸What then is my reward? That when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News.

¹⁹For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more.

²⁰To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law;

²¹to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law.

²²To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.

²³Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it.

²⁴Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, so that you may win.

²⁵Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.

²⁶I therefore run like that, not aimlessly. I fight like that, not beating the air,

²⁷but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.

I Corinthians 10

¹Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

²and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

³and all ate the same spiritual food;

⁴and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.

⁵However with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

⁶Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

⁷Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”

⁸Let’s not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell.

⁹Let’s not test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents.

¹⁰Don’t grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer.

¹¹Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.

¹²Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn’t fall.

¹³No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

¹⁴Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

¹⁵I speak as to wise men. Judge what I say.

¹⁶The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ?

¹⁷Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf of bread.

¹⁸Consider Israel according to the flesh. Don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?

¹⁹What am I saying then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?

²⁰But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I don’t desire that you would have fellowship with demons.

²¹You can’t both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can’t both partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.

²²Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

²³“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are profitable. “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things build up.

²⁴Let no one seek his own, but each one his neighbor’s good.

²⁵Whatever is sold in the butcher shop, eat, asking no question for the sake of conscience,

²⁶for “the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.”

²⁷But if one of those who don’t believe invites you to a meal, and you are inclined to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no questions for the sake of conscience.

²⁸But if anyone says to you, “This was offered to idols,” don’t eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, with all its fullness.”

²⁹Conscience, I say, not your own, but the other’s conscience. For why is my liberty judged by another conscience?

³⁰If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced for something I give thanks for?

³¹Whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

³²Give no occasion for stumbling, whether to Jews, to Greeks, or to the assembly of God;

³³even as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved.