Beginning

The “rights” of an apostle

9 I’m a free man, aren’t I? I’m an apostle, aren’t I? I’ve seen Jesus our Lord, haven’t I? You are my work in the Lord, aren’t you? ² I may not be an apostle to other people, but I certainly am to you; in fact, you are the authorized stamp of my apostleship in the Lord.

³ This is the defense I make to anyone who wants to bring a charge against me. ⁴ Do we not have the right to eat and drink? ⁵ Do we not have the right to take a Christian wife with us on our travels, as the other apostles do, as the Lord’s brothers do, as Cephas does? ⁶ Or are Barnabas and I the only ones who don’t have the right to be set free from the need to work? ⁷ Who serves in the army at their own expense? Who plants a vineyard and doesn’t eat its fruit? Who looks after animals and doesn’t drink the milk?

⁸ I’m not just using human illustrations to make the point; the law says the same thing, doesn’t it? ⁹ This is what is written in Moses’s law: “You must not muzzle a threshing ox.” God isn’t concerned for oxen, is he? ¹⁰ Doesn’t it refer completely to us? Yes, it does—because it’s written that the one who ploughs should do so in hope of the produce, and the thresher should thresh in hope of a share in the crop. ¹¹ So if we have sown spiritual things among you, is it such a big thing that we should reap worldly things? ¹² If others have that kind of right over you, don’t we have it even more?

Giving up rights for the gospel

But we haven’t made use of this right. Instead, we put up with everything, so as to place no obstacle in the way of the Messiah’s gospel.

¹³ Don’t you know that those who work in the Temple eat the Temple food, and those who serve at the altar share in the food from the altar? ¹⁴ In the same way the Lord has laid it down that those who announce the gospel should get their living from the gospel.

¹⁵ But I haven’t made use of any of this. I’m not writing this in order to make it happen like this for me. It would be better for me to die than . . . Nobody’s going to deprive me of my boast! ¹⁶ If I announce the gospel, you see, that’s no reason for me to be proud. I’m under compulsion! Woe betide me if I don’t announce the gospel! ¹⁷ If I do it willingly, I have a reward; if I do it unwillingly—well, this is the commission that’s been entrusted to me! ¹⁸ So what is my reward? Just this: that when I announce the gospel I should give it away free of charge; that I shouldn’t make use of my rights in the gospel.

The apostle’s freedom—to be enslaved to everyone

¹⁹ The reason for all this is as follows. I am indeed free from everyone; but I have enslaved myself to everyone, so that I can win all the more. ²⁰ I became like a Jew to the Jews, to win Jews. I became like someone under the law to the people who are under the law, even though I’m not myself under the law, so that I could win those under the law. ²¹ To the lawless I became like someone lawless (even though I’m not lawless before God, but under the Messiah’s law), so that I could win the lawless. ²² I became weak to the weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that in all ways I might save some. ²³ I do it all because of the gospel, so that I can be a partner in its benefits.

The Christian athlete

²⁴ Don’t you know that when people run on the racetrack everybody runs, but only one person gets the prize? Run in such a way that you’ll win it. ²⁵ Everyone who goes in for athletics exercises self-discipline in everything. They do it to gain a crown that perishes; we do it for an imperishable one. ²⁶ Well then: I don’t run in an aimless fashion! I don’t box like someone punching the air! ²⁷ No: I give my body rough treatment, and make it my slave, in case, after announcing the message to others, I myself should end up being disqualified.

The first exodus

10 I don’t want you to be ignorant, my brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all went through the sea. ² They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³ They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴ and drank the same spiritual drink. They drank, you see, from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Messiah. ⁵ But God wasn’t pleased with most of them, as you can tell by the fact that he laid them low in the desert.

Don’t make the same mistake again!

⁶ Now these things were patterns for us, so that we should not start to crave for wicked things as they did. ⁷ Nor should we commit idolatry, as some of them did—as the Bible says, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to play.” ⁸ Nor should we become immoral, like some of them became immoral, and twenty-three thousand fell on a single day. ⁹ Nor should we put the Messiah to the test, as some of them put him to the test, and were destroyed by serpents. ¹⁰ Nor should we grumble, as some of them grumbled and were destroyed by the destroyer.

¹¹ Now these things happened to them as a pattern, and they were written for our instruction, since it’s upon us that the ends of the ages have now come. ¹² As a result, anyone who reckons they are standing upright should watch out in case they fall over. ¹³ Every test that comes upon you is normal for human beings. But God is faithful: he won’t let you be tested beyond your ability. Along with the testing, he will provide the way of escape, so that you can bear it.

The table of the Lord and the table of demons

¹⁴ Therefore, my dear people, run away from idolatry. ¹⁵ I’m speaking as to intelligent people: you yourselves must weigh my words. ¹⁶ The cup of blessing which we bless is a sharing in the Messiah’s blood, isn’t it? The bread we break is a sharing in the Messiah’s body, isn’t it? ¹⁷ There is one loaf; well, then, there may be several of us, but we are one body, because we all share the one loaf.

¹⁸ Consider ethnic Israel. Those who eat from the sacrifices share in the altar, don’t they? ¹⁹ So what am I saying? That idol-food is real, or that an idol is a real being? ²⁰ No: but when they offer sacrifices, they offer them to demons, not to God. And I don’t want you to be table-partners with demons. ²¹ You can’t drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can’t share in the table of the Lord and the table of demons. ²² Surely you don’t want to provoke the Lord to jealousy? We aren’t stronger than him, are we?

Do everything to God’s glory

²³ “Everything is lawful,” but not everything is helpful. “Everything is lawful,” but not everything builds you up. ²⁴ Nobody should seek their own advantage, but the other person’s instead.

²⁵ Eat whatever is sold in the market without making any judgments on the basis of conscience. ²⁶ “The earth and its fullness,” after all, “belong to the Lord.” ²⁷ If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner, and you want to go, eat whatever is put in front of you without making any judgments on the basis of conscience. ²⁸ But if someone says “This was offered in sacrifice,” then don’t eat it—because of the person who told you about it, and because of conscience, ²⁹ by which I don’t mean your own conscience, but your neighbor’s. For why should my freedom be condemned by someone else’s conscience? ³⁰ If I eat my share gratefully, why should someone else speak evil of me because of something I’ve given thanks for?

³¹ So, then, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything to God’s glory. ³² Be blameless before Jews and Greeks and the church of God, ³³ just as I try to please everybody in everything, not pursuing my own advantage, but that of the great majority, so that they may be saved.

11 Copy me, just as I’m copying the Messiah.

Male and female in the worshiping church

² I congratulate you that you are remembering me in everything, and you are keeping the traditions as I handed them on to you. ³ But I want you to know this: that the Messiah is the “head” of every man, and the husband is the “head” of every wife, and God is the “head” of the Messiah. ⁴ Every man who prays or prophesies while wearing something on his head brings shame on his “head”; ⁵ and every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered brings shame on her “head.” It would be just the same if she had her head shaved. ⁶ For if a woman isn’t covered, then she should be shaved; but if it’s shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then let her be covered.

⁷ A man ought not to cover his head, you see; he is the image and glory of God. But a wife is the glory of her husband. ⁸ For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. ⁹ And man was not created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man. ¹⁰ That’s why the wife must have authority on her head, because of the angels. ¹¹ However, woman is not apart from man, nor man apart from woman, in the Lord; ¹² for just as woman came from man, so now man comes into the world by means of woman. And everything is from God.

¹³ Judge the matter for yourselves. Is it really appropriate for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? ¹⁴ Doesn’t nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is shameful to him, ¹⁵ but if a woman has long hair, it’s her glory? Her hair is given her, you see, instead of a covering. ¹⁶ If anyone wants to dispute this, we have no other custom, nor do the churches of God.

Rich and poor at the table of the Lord

¹⁷ What I have to talk about now isn’t a matter for praise. When you meet together, you make things worse, not better! ¹⁸ What I mean is this: to begin with, I hear that when you come together in the assembly there are divisions among you. Well, I believe it—at least partly. ¹⁹ There are bound to be groupings among you; that’s how the genuine ones among you will stand out, I suppose! ²⁰ So when you gather together into one meeting, it isn’t the Lord’s Supper that you eat. ²¹ Everyone brings their own food to eat, and one person goes hungry while another gets drunk. ²² Haven’t you got houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly, and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? No, in this matter I shan’t!

Recognizing the body

²³ This, you see, is what I received from the Lord, and handed on to you. On the night when the Lord Jesus was betrayed, he took bread, ²⁴ gave thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body; it’s for you! Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵ He did the same with the cup after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For whenever you eat this bread and drink the cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes.

²⁷ It follows from this that anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸ Everyone should test themselves; that’s how you should eat the bread and drink the cup. ²⁹ You see, if you eat and drink without recognizing the body, you eat and drink judgment on yourself. ³⁰ That’s why several of you are weak and sick, and some have died. ³¹ But if we learned how to judge ourselves, we would not incur judgment. ³² But when we are judged by the Lord, we are punished, so that we won’t be condemned along with the world.

³³ So, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, treat one another as honored guests by waiting for each other. ³⁴ If anyone is hungry, they should eat at home, so that you don’t come together and find yourselves facing judgment. I will put the other matters in order when I come.