To the Glory of God

“It is good for a man not to sleep with a woman,” he wrote. “But because of sexual sins, each man ought to have a wife of his own, and each woman a husband of her own.

“A husband should give his wife the affection he owes her, and a wife should do the same for her husband. The wife doesn’t have the say over her own body; her husband does. In the same way, the husband doesn’t have the say over his own body; his wife does. Don’t hold back from each other, unless you both agree to it for a time, to give yourselves to fasting and prayer. Then be together again, to keep Satan from tempting you because you lack self-control.

“I say this as something I allow, not as a command. Yet I wish that everyone were like me. But each one has his own gift from God, one of this kind and another of that. To the unmarried and to widows I say this: it is good for them if they stay as I am. But if they don’t have self-control, let them marry. It’s better to marry than to burn with passion.”

“But to the rest I—not the Lord—say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her. The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

“Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

“In any case, whatever the Lord has handed out to each one, and however God has called each one, that is how each should live. I give this command in all the assemblies. Was someone called after he had been circumcised? He shouldn’t become uncircumcised. Was someone called while uncircumcised? He shouldn’t be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; what matters is keeping God’s commandments. Each one should stay in the place in life where he was when he was called.

“Were you called as a slave? Don’t let that bother you. But if you get an opportunity to become free, use it. Anyone who was a slave when he was called in the Lord is the Lord’s free man. In the same way, anyone who was free when he was called is Christ’s slave. You were bought with a price. Don’t become slaves of people. Brothers and sisters, whatever condition each of you was in when you were called, stay in it with God.”

“Here is what I’m telling you, brothers and sisters: the time is short. From now on, a man with a wife may live as though he had none; those who cry, as though they weren’t crying; those who are glad, as though they weren’t glad; those who buy, as though they owned nothing; and those who make use of the world, as though they weren’t using it to the full. This world, the way it is now, is passing away.

“I want you to be free of worries. A man without a wife gives his mind to the things of the Lord, to pleasing the Lord. But a married man gives his mind to the things of the world, to pleasing his wife. There is a difference, too, between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman gives her mind to the things of the Lord, to be holy both in body and in spirit. But a wife gives her mind to the things of the world, to pleasing her husband. This is for your own benefit; I’m not trying to trap you. I say it for the sake of what is proper, and so that you can give the Lord your attention without distraction.

“But if any man thinks he isn’t acting properly toward his virgin, if she is past the bloom of her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he wants. He isn’t sinning. Let them marry. But suppose a man stands firm in his heart, with nothing pressing him. He has power over his own will, and he has made up his mind to keep his own virgin. That man does well. So the man who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and the man who doesn’t give her in marriage does better.

“A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives. But if the husband has died, she is free to marry whoever she chooses, but only in the Lord. But in my judgment she is happier staying as she is. And I think that I also have God’s Spirit.”

“So, when it comes to eating things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one. There are things called ‘gods’, whether in the heavens or on earth; yes, there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’. Yet to us there is one God, the Father: everything is from him, and we are for him. And to us there is one Lord, Jesus Christ: everything is through him, and we live through him.

“But this knowledge isn’t in everyone. Until now some have been used to idols. When they eat this food, they eat it as an offering to an idol, and their weak conscience is made unclean. Food won’t win us favor with God. If we don’t eat, we are none the worse, and if we eat, we are none the better.

“But be careful that this freedom of yours never makes the weak stumble. Suppose someone sees you, who have knowledge, sitting in an idol’s temple. If he is weak, won’t his conscience be made bold enough to eat things sacrificed to idols? And so the weak one perishes through your knowledge—the brother Christ died for. When you sin against the brothers like this, and hurt their conscience while it is weak, you sin against Christ. So if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat ever again, to keep from causing my brother to stumble.”

“Here is my defense to those who question me. Have we no right to eat and to drink? Have 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? Or are Barnabas and I the only ones without the right to stop working? What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and doesn’t eat its fruit? Who feeds a flock and doesn’t drink some of its milk?

“Am I saying these things by human standards? Doesn’t the law also say the same thing? It is written in the law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.’ Is it oxen that God cares about? Or is it for our sake that he says it? Yes, it was written for our sake, because whoever plows ought to plow in hope, and whoever threshes in hope ought to have a share in what he hoped for. If we sowed spiritual things for you, is it such a big thing if we reap your earthly things? If others have a share in this right over you, don’t we even more? Yet we didn’t use this right. We put up with everything, to keep from getting in the way of the Good News of Christ.

“Don’t you know that those who work with holy things eat from what belongs to the temple, and that those who tend the altar take their share from the altar? So too the Lord has directed that those who announce the Good News should live from the Good News.

“But I have used none of these things, and I am not writing this to have it done for me. I would rather die than let anyone make my boast an empty one. If I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about, because it is something I must do. It will go badly for me if I don’t preach the Good News! If I do this by my own choice, I have a reward. But if not by my own choice, then I have been trusted with a task to look after. What, then, is my reward? It is this: when I preach the Good News, I can give the Good News of Christ without charge, and so not misuse my rights in the Good News.

“Though I am free from everyone, I made myself a slave to all, to gain more people. For Jews I became like a Jew, to gain Jews. For those under the law I became like someone under the law, to gain those under the law. For those without law I became like someone without law, to win those without law. That doesn’t mean I am without law toward God; I am under law toward Christ. For the weak I became weak, to gain the weak. I have become all things to everyone, to save some in any way I can. Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, so that I may have a share in it along with others.

“Don’t you know that everyone in a race runs, yet just one takes the prize? Run like that, so you can win. Everyone who takes part in the games keeps himself under control in every way. They do it to win a crown that decays, but we do it for one that never decays. So I run like that, not aimlessly. I fight like that, not punching the air. Instead I beat my body and make it obey me, so that, after preaching to others, I won’t somehow be disqualified myself.”

“These things were examples for us, to keep us from wanting evil things the way they wanted them. Don’t be idol worshipers, as some of them were. As it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.’ Let’s not commit sexual sin the way some of them did: twenty-three thousand fell dead in one day. Let’s not test Christ the way some of them did, and the snakes killed them. Don’t grumble the way some of them grumbled, and the destroyer killed them.

“All these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written to warn us, who have reached the ends of the ages. So anyone who thinks he is standing should be careful that he doesn’t fall. No temptation has taken hold of you except what people commonly face. God is faithful, and he won’t let you be tempted more than you can stand up to. Along with the temptation he will also make the way of escape, so that you can get through it.”

“Think of the people of Israel by birth. Don’t those who eat the sacrifices have a share in the altar? So what am I saying? That a thing sacrificed to idols counts for anything, or that an idol counts for anything? Rather, I’m saying that what the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I don’t want you to share with demons. You can’t both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can’t both share in the table of the Lord and in the table of demons. Or are we making the Lord jealous? Are we stronger than he is?”

“Whatever is sold in the butcher shop, eat it, and ask no questions for the sake of conscience, because ‘the earth is the Lord’s, and all it holds.’

“If one of those who don’t believe invites you to a meal, and you choose to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no questions for the sake of conscience. But 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, because ‘the earth is the Lord’s, with all it holds.’ I mean the conscience of the other person, not your own. Why should someone else’s conscience pass judgment on my freedom? If I eat with thanks, why am I blamed for something I give thanks for?

“Whether you eat or drink, then, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no one a reason to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks, or the assembly of God. That is what I do, too: I please all people in all things, looking not for my own gain but for the gain of the many, so that they may be saved. Copy me, just as I copy Christ.”

“For a man indeed ought not to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man; for man wasn’t created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this cause the woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels.

“Nevertheless, neither is the woman independent of the man, nor the man independent of the woman, in the Lord. For as woman came from man, so a man also comes through a woman; but all things are from God. Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate that a woman pray to God unveiled? Doesn’t even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering. But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do God’s assemblies.”

“So when you gather, what you eat is not the Lord’s supper. As you eat, each one takes his own supper first. One stays hungry, and another is drunk. What? Don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly and shame those who don’t have enough? What am I to tell you? Should I praise you? In this, I don’t.

“For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.’ In the same way he also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

“Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body.

“For this reason many among you are weak and sickly, and quite a few have died. If we saw ourselves clearly, we wouldn’t be judged. But when we are judged, the Lord is disciplining us, so that we won’t be condemned with the world.

“So when you come together to eat, my brothers and sisters, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home. Then your coming together won’t bring judgment. I will put the rest in order whenever I come.”