Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Corinthians 9-11.

Paul continues to write about our freedom in Christ and our obligation to use our freedom in a responsible way.   He uses himself as an example by teaching that those who preach the Gospel have a right to receive financial support from those to whom they preach.  However, Paul chose not to exercise that right.  In fact, he chose not to exercise that right because, for him, his reward for preaching the Gospel was doing so free of charge (there is a fairly important but complex message in that which I am not going to go into today).  In fact, Paul tried, to the best of his ability, to put himself into the circumstances of those to whom he preached.  When Paul said that he became all things to all people, he does not mean that he pandered to them the way that some politicians do today (and probably always have).  I don’t believe that he means that he pretended to not be a Jew, or that he pretended to be a Corinthian when in Corinth.  Instead, I think it means that he made sure that he did not act in a way which would make those to whom he preached think that he thought he was better than they.

Which brings us to Paul writing about our freedom in Christ.  He started writing about this subject in yesterday’s passage, but has gone onto other subjects a few times.  He gets back on the subject by writing about the idea of taking part in the religious rituals dedicated to idols.  Paul points out that while the idols which idolaters worship are not real things, the people in these ceremonies and rituals are worshiping demons.  I believe Paul was addressing those who sought to take part in the idol worship which was a part of civic life in Corinth in an attempt to hide how being a Christian made them different from the people around them.  His discussion here serves as a counterpoint to his statement about being all things to all people.  Paul goes on to explain that while we have freedom in Christ to do anything, we should avoid those things which are not beneficial.  He makes clear that he does not mean that we should evaluate whether the things we do our beneficial for ourselves, although that should also play a role in our decisions about in what activities we will take part.  No,  we should decide based on what will be best for those around us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.