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1 COR. LABORER IS WORTHY OF HIS HIRE. 59 9: 15.

But I, for my part, have not availed myself of any of these rights.

Now I am not writing this to secure such an arrangement for myself. For it would be a noble thing for me to die rather than that I should be deprived by any one of my boasting. For if I am telling the Good News, I have no ground for boasting, because I am compelled to do it. For it is woe to me if I do not tell it. For if I keep doing it willingly, I have my reward. But if unwillingly, I have still been entrusted with a duty. What, then, is my reward? It is in telling the Good News free of charge, so as not to use to the full the right which it gives me. For being free from everybody, I made myself everybody's slave, so that I might gain the more. To the Jews I acted as a Jew, so that I might win Jews. To those subject to the law, I became as one subject to the law, though I myself am not subject to it, so that I might win those who are subject to it. To those who have no law, I became as one who has no law,—though I am not free from God's law, but, on the contrary, I am subject to Christ's law,-so that I may win those who have no law. To the weak, I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become everything to everybody so that by every means I might But I do everything for the sake of the Good News, so that I may share in it with the rest.

save some.

9:24.

Do you not know that, when men are competing in a race, they all run, but only one takes the prize? Run your course in the same way, so that you may gain the prize. Again, every one who competes in the games exercises self-control in everything. But while they do it to get a crown which goes to decay, we do it to get one which does not decay. I, for my part, then, keep running in that way, with no uncertain end in view. That, too, is the way I box, not like a man who keeps beating the air. On the contrary, I keep dealing my body effective blows, and bringing it into thorough subjection to my higher self, lest by any means when I have proclaimed the conditions of the contest to others I myself should be rejected.

For I do not wish you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that all our forefathers were under the cloud and all passed safely through the sea, and, because of this fact, they became vitally connected with Moses as their divinely appointed leader; and that they all used to eat the same spiritual food, and used to drink the same spiritual drink, for they used to drink from the rock which kept following them, and that rock was the Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased.

So

Their bodies were left scattered over the face of the wilder

ness.

1 COR. 10: 6.

EXAMPLES FOR US.

61

Now these things happened as examples for us, to warn us not to set our hearts on evil things as they did. And do not become idolaters as some of Just as it is written :

them did.

The people sat down to eat and drink

And got up to engage in light and lewd sports.

Nor let us commit acts of immorality as some of them did, so that twenty-three thousand of them fell in one day. Nor let us put the Lord to an unreasonable test, as some of them did, and were destroyed one after another by the serpents.

Nor let

us become chronic grumblers, as some of them did, and were destroyed in the same way by the Angel of Death.

Now these things happened to them as examples, and they were written as a warning to us who are living at the close of the ages.

So, then, let him who thinks he is standing, see to it that he does not fall. No trial has come on you, except such as man can bear. But God is to be relied on, and he will not allow you to be tried beyond what you are able to bear. On the contrary, he will, with the trial, also make the way out of it, so that you may be able to bear it.

For this very reason, my dear brothers, keep yourselves free from idolatry. I am speaking to you as sensible men. Judge for yourselves what I am saying. Is not the partaking of the consecrated

10: 16.

cup of wine which we consecrate, a sharing in the blood of the Christ? The loaf of bread which we break, is not the partaking of it, a sharing in the body of the Christ? For as there is one loaf, so

we, the many, are one body.

For we all have a

share of the one loaf. Look at Israel carnally considered. Are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers with the altar?

What then? Is the thing sacrificed to the idol anything, or is the idol anything?

On the contrary, what the heathen sacrifice

They sacrifice to demons, and not to God.

And I do not wish you to become sharers with demons. You cannot drink the Lord's cup, and the cup of demons. You cannot share the Lord's Or,

table, and the table of the demons.

Are we provoking Jehovah to jealousy?

Surely we are not stronger than he is?

Everything is lawful.

But not everything is of advantage to us.
Everything is lawful.

But not everything builds us up.

Let no one keep seeking his own good alone, but also his neighbor's.

Eat everything sold in the market, and ask no questions to satisfy your conscience on the subject. For

The earth belongs to Jehovah, and everything in it.

1 COR. 10:27.

PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS.

63

If an unbeliever invites you to a feast and you wish to go, eat everything set before you, and ask no questions to satisfy your conscience. But if any one should say to you: This has been sacrificed to an idol. Do not eat for the sake of the speaker and for conscience' sake. Conscience I say, not

your own, however, but the other man's. For why should my freedom be determined by another man's conscience? For if I, for my part, give thanks for what I eat, why am I abused for doing that for which I give thanks ?

So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the honor of God. Do not become hindrances either to Jews, or Greeks, or the Church of God, just as I also please everybody in everything, not seeking my own good only, but the good of the many, so that they may be saved. Become imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

Now I praise you for the deference you show to me in everything, and for holding fast to the oral instructions just as I gave them to you. But I wish you to know that the Christ is the head of every man, that man is the head of woman, and that God is the head of the Christ. Every man who prays or speaks with his head covered, dishonors his head. Every woman who prays or speaks with her

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