Year 2, Week 43, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 43, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of 1 Corinthians 8-9.

Today’s reading continues the Book of 1 Corinthians. Paul helped start the church at Corinth while on his second missionary journey. The Book of 1 Corinthians consists of Paul’s response to reports about the church there: “For it has been reported to me” (1Corinthians 1:11); but also in response to a letter that the church had written to him: “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote” (1 Corinthians 7:1a). 1 Corinthians 8, is a second question that the church had requested an answer from Paul: “Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge” (1 Corinthians 8:1). In addressing the matter of eating food that had been offered to idols, Paul does not condemn such an activity; but he does apply a principle: loving our brothers and sisters is more important than enjoying our rights. While eating food offered to an idol is not immoral in and of itself, it can be if it is done in a manner that harms a fellow believer whose conscience is weaker: “And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ” (1 Corinthians 8:11-12). 1 Corinthians 9 take this same principle of loving others over exercising personal rights is developed further as Paul describes his own life and ministry: “But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision…What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:15,18). Paul gladly forewent the rights that they other Apostles enjoyed with the aim that he would advance the Gospel further and wide.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the range of accommodations that Paul made in order to see people come to Christ: “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings” (1 Corinthians 9:22b-23). Paul was flexible for the sake of the Gospel.  The nature of Paul’s accommodations were not moral accommodations, but accommodations in personal rights: “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them” (1 Corinthians 9:19). Paul saw his freedom to be a recipient of certain privileges, to, in fact, be a freedom to serve others in his calling to advance the Gospel. In fact, Paul provides important clarifications to what he means by accommodations by supplying three illustrations that demonstrate how Paul accommodated without compromising.

The first illustration of Paul’s willingness to accommodate, without compromise, was his flexibility toward the Jews: "To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law” (1 Corinthians 9:20). In order to strategically minister the Gospel to the Jews, Paul chose to live as Jews under the Mosaic law. While Paul, as a Christian was not under the Mosaic Law as a Covenant arrangement before God, he did nevertheless, while with Jews, live like a Jew. Paul did not wish to become an unnecessary hindrance to the possibility that Jews would hear the Gospel and come to Christ. Thus, Paul chose to flex by following aspects of the Mosaic law that he was no longer obligated to keep.

The second illustration of Paul’s willingness to accommodate, without compromise, was his flexibility toward the Gentiles: "To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law” (1 Corinthians 9:21). In order to strategically minister the Gospel to the Gentiles, Paul chose to live as Gentiles who did not have the Mosaic Law. While Paul, not under the Mosaic Law as a Christian, provides a crucial clarification as to the limits of his accommodation. While he would adapt his lifestyle to the strange customs of the Gentiles, he would not violate the moral law that was necessary for him to uphold as a follower of Christ. Becoming “all things to all people,” did not mean practicing immorality for the sake of reaching people. Paul’s freedom to accommodate was never an argument to compromise the moral law to which he was required to obey.

The third illustration of Paul’s willingness to accommodate, without compromise, was his flexibility toward the weak (those he spoke about in the previous chapter): "To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak” (1 Corinthians 9:22a). The weak are those whose conscience is calibrated in such a way that they believe that either they should not do something that God’s Word does not actually forbid them to do, or they should do something that God’s Word does not actually require them to do. Their conscience—that is their conscious awareness of right and wrong—in not accurate; however, it is not good for anyone to go against the calibration of their conscience. Furthermore, it is not permissible to do in the presence of a weak person, what would otherwise be permissible in some other context. Paul laid aside his right to live according to his properly calibrated conscience so as to not be an obstacle for a person who might come to Christ: "I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.”

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe