Knowledge, rights and the table: freedom shaped by love in 1 Corinthians 8-11

8Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ²The one who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. ³But the one who loves God is known by God. ⁴So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one. ⁵For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many so-called gods and lords), ⁶yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist. ⁷But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that they eat such food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. And since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. ⁸But food does not bring us closer to God: We are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. ⁹Be careful, however, that your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰For if someone with a weak conscience sees you who are well informed eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged to eat food sacrificed to idols? ¹¹So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. ¹²By sinning against your brothers in this way and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to stumble.

9Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you yourselves not my workmanship in the Lord? ²Even if I am not an apostle to others, surely I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. ³This is my defense to those who scrutinize me: ⁴Have we no right to food and to drink? ⁵Have we no right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? ⁶Or are Barnabas and I the only apostles who must work for a living? ⁷Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not drink of its milk? ⁸Do I say this from a human perspective? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? ⁹For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? ¹⁰Isn’t He actually speaking on our behalf? Indeed, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they should also expect to share in the harvest. ¹¹If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much for us to reap a material harvest from you? ¹²If others have this right to your support, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not exercise this right. Instead, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. ¹³Do you not know that those who work in the temple eat of its food, and those who serve at the altar partake of its offerings? ¹⁴In the same way, the Lord has prescribed that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. ¹⁵But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that something be done for me. Indeed, I would rather die than let anyone nullify my boast. ¹⁶Yet when I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! ¹⁷If my preaching is voluntary, I have a reward. But if it is not voluntary, I am still entrusted with a responsibility. ¹⁸What then is my reward? That in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not use up my rights in preaching it. ¹⁹Though I am free of obligation to anyone, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. ²⁰To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), to win those under the law. ²¹To those without the law I became like one without the law (though I am not outside the law of God but am under the law of Christ), to win those without the law. ²²To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. ²³I do all this for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings. ²⁴Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize. ²⁵Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. ²⁶Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air. ²⁷No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

10I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea. ²They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness. ⁶These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did. ⁷Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.” ⁸We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. ⁹We should not test Christ, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes. ¹⁰And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel. ¹¹Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. ¹²So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall. ¹³No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it. ¹⁴Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. ¹⁵I speak to reasonable people; judge for yourselves what I say. ¹⁶Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? ¹⁷Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf. ¹⁸Consider the people of Israel: Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar? ¹⁹Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons. ²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too. ²²Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? ²³“Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is edifying. ²⁴No one should seek his own good, but the good of others. ²⁵Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, ²⁶for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” ²⁷If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat anything set before you without raising questions of conscience. ²⁸But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience— ²⁹the other one’s conscience, I mean, not your own. For why should my freedom be determined by someone else’s conscience? ³⁰If I partake in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? ³¹So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. ³²Do not become a stumbling block, whether to Jews or Greeks or the church of God— ³³as I also try to please everyone in all I do. For I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, that they may be saved.

11You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ. ²Now I commend you for remembering me in everything and for maintaining the traditions, just as I passed them on to you. ³But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. ⁴Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. ⁵And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for it is just as if her head were shaved. ⁶If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off. And if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head. ⁷A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. ⁸For man did not come from woman, but woman from man. ⁹Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. ¹⁰For this reason a woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels. ¹¹In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. ¹²For just as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God. ¹³Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? ¹⁴Doesn’t nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, ¹⁵but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. ¹⁶If anyone is inclined to dispute this, we have no other practice, nor do the churches of God. ¹⁷In the following instructions I have no praise to offer, because your gatherings do more harm than good. ¹⁸First of all, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. ¹⁹And indeed, there must be differences among you to show which of you are approved. ²⁰Now then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat. ²¹For as you eat, each of you goes ahead without sharing his meal. While one remains hungry, another gets drunk. ²²Don’t you have your own homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What can I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? No, I will not! ²³For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, ²⁴and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” ²⁵In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” ²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. ²⁷Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸Each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. ²⁹For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. ³⁰That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. ³¹Now if we judged ourselves properly, we would not come under judgment. ³²But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. ³³So, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. ³⁴If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you come together it will not result in judgment. And when I come, I will give instructions about the remaining matters.