Study Desk

For the unbelieving husband has been set aside for God by the wife, and the unbelieving wife has been set aside for God by the brother — otherwise your children would be "unclean," but as it is, they are set aside for God.

For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

For a person who was a slave when he was called is the Lord's freedman; likewise, someone who was a free man when he was called is a slave of the Messiah.

I suppose that in a time of stress like the present it is good for a person to stay as he is.

That means that if a man has a wife, he should not seek to be free of her; and if he is unmarried, he should not look for a wife.

What I want is for you to be free of concern. An unmarried man concerns himself with the Lord's affairs,

I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to put restrictions on you — I am simply concerned that you live in a proper manner and serve the Lord with undivided devotion.

So, as for eating food sacrificed to idols, we "know" that, as you say, "An idol has no real existence in the world, and there is only one God."

For even if there are so-called "gods," either in heaven or on earth — as in fact there are "gods" and "lords" galore —

yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things come and for whom we exist; and one Lord, Yeshua the Messiah, through whom were created all things and through whom we have our being.

Thus by your "knowledge" this weak person is destroyed, this brother for whom the Messiah died;

To sum up, if food will be a snare for my brother, I will never eat meat again, lest I cause my brother to sin.

Am I not a free man? Am I not an emissary of the Messiah? Haven't I seen Yeshua our Lord? And aren't you yourselves the result of my work for the Lord?

Even if to others I am not an emissary, at least I am to you; for you are living proof that I am the Lord's emissary.

Or are Bar-Nabba and I the only ones required to go on working for our living?

for in the Torah of Moshe it is written, "You are not to put a muzzle on an ox when it is treading out the grain." If God is concerned about cattle,

all the more does he say this for our sakes. Yes, it was written for us, meaning that he who plows and he who threshes should work expecting to get a share of the crop.

But I have not made use of any of these rights. Nor am I writing now to secure them for myself, for I would rather die than be deprived of my ground for boasting!

For I can't boast merely because I proclaim the Good News — this I do from inner compulsion: woe is me if I don't proclaim the Good News!

For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if I do it unwillingly, I still do it, simply because I've been entrusted with a job.