Comments on First Corinthians - Part 8

1 Corinthians 8-10 (Part 2): "Rights" of a Christian.

Example: Paul himself. The Corinthians thought they had rights. Didn't Paul have "rights" as an apostle... to food and shelter, to take a wife with him. Soldiers don't pay their own expenses. Farmers eat from their own crops and herds. The oxen on the threshing floor get to eat from the grain they are threshing so they have strength to work. So, Paul had a right to expect what he needed from those he labored among -- from them. But... he purposely did not exercise that right, so that nothing would create an obstacle to the message of Christ.

More than that, Paul considered himself a servant of those he worked among, becoming whatever they needed to win them to faith. Paul was for the Body, not for himself and he made every choice with that in view. Winning was winning others, overcoming every obstacle -- not getting his own way. Paul said that if he did otherwise, he was in danger of forfeiting his life purpose and all he had worked for. Even Paul, with all the things endowed to him by God and all the "importance" of his role as an apostle, could lose and disqualify himself from God's work by living selfishly. His standard: I (we) win when the Body wins.

Example: Israel in the wilderness. They had been chosen for great blessing, for a great work. They had been set free from enslavement and provided for -- for what? To satisfy their own lusts? To desire evil things? To fool around with idols and false gods? To complain about what God had done and would do for them in the future? God made an example of them to us -- who have also had a great deliverance and given a great calling in God's purpose for the world. If we live for ourselves and "play both sides of the fence" we are in danger of being disqualified. God knows we live with temptation. God knows that no one has "unique" temptations. He will bear us up through it. He uses it to improve us, not disprove us. There is a vast difference between being tempted to sin and doing sin (living out the temptation).

Therefore, don't be arrogant with your "superior" knowledge, don't play with demonic things. If you eat some meat from the meat market, and it has been sacrificed to idols, don't worry about it since idols are nothing. However, if someone says, "This meat is special, it has been blessed by sacrificing it to Zeus" or "We're celebrating Gaia! Come join us in our celebration meal..." don't eat it for their conscience sake. More than that, if you join them in celebrating Gaia -- YOU are participating willfully with demons!