Study Desk

When one of you has something against someone else in your group, why do you go to the judges in the law courts? The way they think and live is wrong. So why do you let them decide who is right? Why don't you let God's holy people decide who is right?

Don't you know that God's people will judge the world? So if you will judge the world, then surely you can judge small arguments like this.

You know that in the future we will judge angels. So surely we can judge life's ordinary problems.

So if you have such matters to be judged, why do you take them to those who are not part of the church? They mean nothing to you.

Surely you know that your bodies are parts of Christ himself. So I must never take what is part of Christ and join it to a prostitute!

The Scriptures say, "The two people will become one." So you should know that anyone who is joined with a prostitute becomes one with her in body.

So run away from sexual sin. It involves the body in a way that no other sin does. So if you commit sexual sin, you are sinning against your own body.

God paid a very high price to make you his. So honor God with your body.

But sexual sin is a danger, so each man should enjoy his own wife, and each woman should enjoy her own husband.

Don't refuse to give your bodies to each other. But you might both agree to stay away from sex for a while so that you can give your time to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not be able to tempt you in your weakness.

God paid a high price for you, so don't be slaves to anyone else.

This is a time of trouble. So I think it is good for you to stay the way you are.

Brothers and sisters, this is what I mean: We don't have much time left. So starting now, those who have wives should be the same as those who don't.

A man might think that he is not doing the right thing with his fiancée. She might be almost past the best age to marry. So he might feel that he should marry her. He should do what he wants. It is no sin for them to get married.

But another man might be more sure in his mind. There may be no need for marriage, so he is free to do what he wants. If he has decided in his own heart not to marry his fiancée, he is doing the right thing.

So the man who marries his fiancée does right, and the man who does not marry does better.

So this is what I say about eating meat: We know that an idol is really nothing in the world, and we know that there is only one God.

But not all people know this. Some have had the habit of worshiping idols. So now when they eat meat, they still feel as if it belongs to an idol. They are not sure that it is right to eat this meat. So when they eat it, they feel guilty.

You understand that it's all right to eat anything, so you can eat even in an idol's temple. But someone who has doubts might see you eating there, and this might encourage them to eat meat sacrificed to idols too. But they really think it is wrong.

So this weak brother or sister—someone Christ died for—is lost because of your better understanding.