7:21.

you a slave when you were called? Do not let that trouble you. Yes, even if you can become free, prefer to make use of that condition. For he who

was a slave when he was called in the Lord, is Christ's freedman. You were bought, and the price was paid. Do not become slaves of men. Brothers, let each one remain with God in the condition of life in which he was called.

Now, about unmarried women, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one whom the Lord has mercifully enabled to be worthy of trust.

Are

I think, then, that, because of the impending distress, it is good for a man to be as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. Yet, even if you should marry, you have done no wrong. And if a young woman should marry, she has done no wrong. But such will have physical troubles, and it is my desire to spare you.

But this I have to say, brothers, the time is shortened, so that in the future both those who have wives may be as though they had none, and those who are weeping, as though they were not weeping, and those who are rejoicing, as though they were not rejoicing, and those who are buying, as though they were not possessing, and those who are using

1 COR.

7: 31.

THE WORLD IS PASSING AWAY.

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the world, as though they were not carrying its use to excess. For the world, in its present form, is passing away. And I desire you to be free from care. The unmarried man cares for his Lord's affairs, and tries to please him. The married man cares for worldly affairs, and tries to please his wife, and so his interests are divided. The unmarried woman, too, whether old or young, cares for her Lord's affairs, so that she may be devoted to him in body and in spirit. But the married woman cares for worldly affairs, and tries to please her husband. Now this I am saying for your own good, not for the purpose of putting a halter round your necks, but, on the contrary, for the purpose of promoting becoming behavior, and constant devotion to the Lord without distraction.

But if any one thinks he is not acting fairly towards his unmarried daughter, if she is past the prime of life, and she ought to be married, let him do what he desires. He does no wrong. Let them marry. But he who definitely made up his mind, and is under no compulsion, but has full control of his own will, and has decided in his own mind to keep his unmarried daughter at home, will do nobly. So, then, he who allows his daughter to marry does nobly, and yet he who does not allow her to marry will do better.

A wife is bound to her husband so long as he

7: 39.

lives. But if her husband should sleep his last sleep, she is free to be married to whom she desires, only as a follower of the Lord. But she is happier, in my opinion, if she remains as she is, and I think I also have the Spirit of God.

Knowl

Now about things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. edge puffs up, but love builds up. But if any one thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it just as he ought to know it. It is the man who loves God who is known by him.

About the eating of things sacrificed to idols, then, we have this to say: We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are what are called Gods, whether in heaven, or on earth, just as there are many such gods and lords, yet for us there is but one God, our Father, from whom everything comes and for whom we exist; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whose means everything exists, and we as well. Yet everybody does not know this. But some people, because they have been accustomed to the idol up to this very moment, keep eating, as if they were eating a thing sacrificed to an idol, and, because their conscience is weak, it is troubled. But food does not bring us near to God. We are not the worse for not eating, nor are we the better

1 COR.

8:8.

THINGS OFFERED TO IDOLS.

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for eating. But see to it that your freedom does not in some way become a means of offense to the weak. For if some one who is weak should see you who really know what is right, taking part in a feast in the temple of an idol, will he not be led to eat things sacrificed to idols contrary to the dictates of his conscience? In other words, he who is weak is destroyed by your knowledge-that brother of yours, for whose sake Christ died. But when you wrong your brothers in that way, and wound their weak consciences, you are wronging Christ. And, for this very reason, if what I eat is a means of offense to my brother, I will never in all the world eat meat, so that I may not be a means of offense to him.

Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If to others I am not an Apostle, yet at least I am to you. For the very fact of your being in the Lord stamps the seal of authority on my apostleship.

My answer to my critics is this:

Have we no right to food and drink? Have we no right to take a wife about with us, if she is a believer, just like all the other Apostles, and our Lord's brothers, and Cephas, do? Or is it a fact that I, alone, and Barnabas, have no right to give

9: 6.

up manual labor? Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who keeps a flock of sheep and does not get his living from their milk? Surely I am not saying these things as a man? Or, does not the law also say the same? Yes, in the law of Moses it is written:

Thou shalt not muzzle the ox

When he is treading out the grain.

Surely it is not for the oxen God is caring? Or, is he really saying it for our sakes? Yes, for our sakes it was written. For he who ploughs ought to plough in hope of sharing in the product of his labor. And it ought to be the same with him who threshes. If, then, we sowed spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? If others are sharers of this right over you,

are not we rather? But we did not avail ourselves of this right. On the contrary, we endure everything, so that we may not in any way hinder the progress of the Good News of the Christ. Do you not know that those who do the work of the Temple, eat what comes from the Temple, and that those who serve at the altar share the offerings with the altar? In the same way, also, did our Lord arrange for those who tell the Good News, so that they might get their living from the Good News.