freedom and responsibility, part 2

Good morning friends,
Our reading for today continues Paul's theme of giving up our rights sometimes for the sake of others. Yesterday he talked about how Christians are free from laws about food and, religiously speaking, have the right and freedom to eat food sacrificed to idols. The thing is for Christians what is most important isn't our rights, but how our behavior impacts others. So while we have the right to eat whatever we want, we are called to be mindful of others in our choices. For this reason, he warns that eating food sacrificed to idols might harm the faith of weaker believers who are used to idols and might get the wrong idea.

In today's reading Paul uses himself as an example because, as an apostle, he has the right to devote himself to the work of proclaiming the gospel without having to make a living besides that. In today's reading he spends a lot of energy explaining why he does have that right, tomorrow we'll see that he's making that case not to use his right but to show how he gives up that right to serve the community better. Service comes before self in the Christian family; responsibility has more weight than rights.

God bless,
Sam

1 Corinthians 9:1-14

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. 3This is my defense to those who would examine me. 4Do we not have the right to our food and drink? 5Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? 6Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? 7Who at any time pays the expenses for doing military service? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not get any of its milk?



8Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law also say the same? 9For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10Or does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was indeed written for our sake, for whoever plows should plow in hope and whoever threshes should thresh in hope of a share in the crop. 11If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits? 12If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we still more?


Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. 13Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is sacrificed on the altar? 14In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.