Study Desk

God bought you for a price; so do not become slaves of people.

and so he is pulled in two directions. An unmarried woman or a virgin concerns herself with the Lord's work, because she wants to be dedicated both in body and spirit; but a married woman concerns herself with worldly matters, because she wants to please her husband.

But if a man, without being forced to do so, has firmly made up his mind not to marry, and if he has his will under complete control and has already decided in his own mind what to do—then he does well not to marry the young woman.

So the man who marries does well, but the one who doesn't marry does even better.

So then, about eating the food offered to idols: we know that an idol stands for something that does not really exist; we know that there is only the one God.

Even if there are so-called "gods," whether in heaven or on earth, and even though there are many of these "gods" and "lords,"

But not everyone knows this truth. Some people have been so used to idols that to this day when they eat such food they still think of it as food that belongs to an idol; their conscience is weak, and they feel they are defiled by the food.

Suppose a person whose conscience is weak in this matter sees you, who have so-called "knowledge," eating in the temple of an idol; will not this encourage him to eat food offered to idols?

And so this weak person, your brother for whom Christ died, will perish because of your "knowledge"!

So then, if food makes a believer sin, I will never eat meat again, so as not to make a believer fall into sin.

I have no right to boast just because I preach the gospel. After all, I am under orders to do so. And how terrible it would be for me if I did not preach the gospel!

Among the weak in faith I become weak like one of them, in order to win them. So I become all things to all people, that I may save some of them by whatever means are possible.

But even then God was not pleased with most of them, and so their dead bodies were scattered over the desert.

Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.

So then, my dear friends, keep away from the worship of idols.

"We are allowed to do anything," so they say. That is true, but not everything is good. "We are allowed to do anything"—but not everything is helpful.

Just do as I do; I try to please everyone in all that I do, not thinking of my own good, but of the good of all, so that they might be saved.

So a man who prays or proclaims God's message in public worship with his head covered disgraces Christ.

(No doubt there must be divisions among you so that the ones who are in the right may be clearly seen.)

For as you eat, you each go ahead with your own meal, so that some are hungry while others get drunk.