Daily Text and Bible Reading: Wednesday, December 5 [Press play below]

7.1 Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is better for a man not to touch a woman;
7.2 but because of the prevalence of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife and each woman have her own husband.
7.3 Let the husband give to his wife her due, and let the wife also do likewise to her husband.
7.4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but her husband does; likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but his wife does.
7.5 Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent for an appointed time, so that you may devote time to prayer and may come together again, in order that Satan may not keep tempting you for your lack of self-control.
7.6 However, I say this by way of concession, not as a command.
7.7 But I wish all men were as I am. Nevertheless, each one has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that way.
7.8 Now I say to those who are unmarried and to the widows that it is better for them if they remain as I am.
7.9 But if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to be inflamed with passion.
7.10 To the married people I give instructions, not I but the Lord, that a wife should not separate from her husband.
7.11 But if she does separate, let her remain unmarried or else be reconciled with her husband; and a husband should not leave his wife.
7.12 But to the others I say, yes, I, not the Lord: If any brother has an unbelieving wife and she is agreeable to staying with him, let him not leave her;
7.13 and if a woman has an unbelieving husband and he is agreeable to staying with her, let her not leave her husband.
7.14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in relation to his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in relation to the brother; otherwise, your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.
7.15 But if the unbelieving one chooses to depart, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not bound under such circumstances, but God has called you to peace.
7.16 For wife, how do you know whether you will save your husband? Or, husband, how do you know whether you will save your wife?
7.17 Nevertheless, just as Jehovah has given each one a portion, let each one so walk as God has called him. And so I give this directive in all the congregations.
7.18 Was any man already circumcised when he was called? Let him not undo his circumcision. Has any man been called while uncircumcised? Let him not get circumcised.
7.19 Circumcision means nothing, and uncircumcision means nothing; what means something is the observing of God’s commandments.
7.20 In whatever state each one was called, let him remain in it.
7.21 Were you called when a slave? Do not let it concern you; but if you can become free, then seize the opportunity.
7.22 For anyone who was called in the Lord when a slave is the Lord’s freedman; likewise anyone who was called when a freeman is a slave of Christ.
7.23 You were bought with a price; stop becoming slaves of men.
7.24 In whatever state each one was called, brothers, let him remain in it before God.
7.25 Now concerning virgins, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who had mercy shown him by the Lord to be faithful.
7.26 Therefore, I think that it is best for a man to continue as he is in view of the present difficulty.
7.27 Are you bound to a wife? Stop seeking a release. Are you freed from a wife? Stop seeking a wife.
7.28 But even if you did marry, you would commit no sin. And if a virgin married, such a person would commit no sin. However, those who do will have tribulation in their flesh. But I am trying to spare you.
7.29 Moreover, this I say, brothers, the time left is reduced. From now on, let those who have wives be as though they had none,
7.30 and those who weep as those who do not weep, and those who rejoice as those who do not rejoice, and those who buy as those who do not possess,
7.31 and those making use of the world as those not using it to the full; for the scene of this world is changing.
7.32 Indeed, I want you to be free from anxiety. The unmarried man is anxious for the things of the Lord, how he may gain the Lord’s approval.
7.33 But the married man is anxious for the things of the world, how he may gain the approval of his wife,
7.34 and he is divided. Further, the unmarried woman, as well as the virgin, is anxious for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in her body and in her spirit. However, the married woman is anxious for the things of the world, how she may gain the approval of her husband.
7.35 But I am saying this for your personal advantage, not to restrict you, but to move you to what is appropriate and to constant devotion to the Lord without distraction.
7.36 But if anyone thinks he is behaving improperly by remaining unmarried, and if he is past the bloom of youth, then this is what should take place: Let him do what he wants; he does not sin. Let them marry.
7.37 But if anyone stands settled in his heart and has no necessity, but has authority over his own will and has made the decision in his own heart to remain unmarried, he will do well.
7.38 So also, whoever marries does well, but whoever does not marry will do better.
7.39 A wife is bound as long as her husband is alive. But if her husband should fall asleep in death, she is free to be married to whomever she wants, only in the Lord.
7.40 But in my opinion, she is happier if she remains as she is; and I certainly think I also have God’s spirit.
8.1 Now concerning food offered to idols: We know we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
8.2 If anyone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know it as he should know it.
8.3 But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him.
8.4 Now concerning the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no God but one.
8.5 For even though there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, just as there are many “gods” and many “lords,”
8.6 there is actually to us one God, the Father, from whom all things are and we for him; and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and we through him.
8.7 However, not all have this knowledge. But some, because of their former association with the idol, eat food as something sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
8.8 But food will not bring us nearer to God; we are no worse off if we do not eat, nor better off if we eat.
8.9 But keep watching that your right to choose does not somehow become a stumbling block to those who are weak.
8.10 For if anyone should see you who have knowledge having a meal in an idol temple, will not the conscience of that one who is weak be emboldened to the point of eating food offered to idols?
8.11 So by your knowledge the man who is weak is being ruined, your brother for whose sake Christ died.
8.12 When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ.
8.13 That is why if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat at all, so that I will not make my brother stumble.
9.1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
9.2 Even if I am not an apostle to others, I most certainly am to you! For you are the seal confirming my apostleship in the Lord.
9.3 My defense to those who examine me is as follows:
9.4 We have the right to eat and drink, do we not?
9.5 We have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as the rest of the apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas, do we not?
9.6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who do not have the right to refrain from working for a living?
9.7 What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not partake of some of the milk of the flock?
9.8 Am I saying these things from a human viewpoint? Or does not the Law also say these things?
9.9 For it is written in the Law of Moses: “You must not muzzle a bull when it is threshing out the grain.” Is it bulls that God is concerned about?
9.10 Or is it actually for our sakes that he says it? It was really written for our sakes, because the man who plows and the man who threshes ought to do so in the hope of receiving a share.
9.11 If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material support from you?
9.12 If other men have this rightful claim over you, do we not have it much more so? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we are enduring all things so that we might not in any way hinder the good news about the Christ.
9.13 Do you not know that the men performing sacred duties eat the things of the temple, and that those regularly serving at the altar receive a share from the altar?
9.14 In this way, too, the Lord commanded for those proclaiming the good news to live by means of the good news.
9.15 But I have not made use of a single one of these provisions. Indeed, I have not written these things so that this would be done for me, for it would be better to die than—no man will take away my grounds for boasting!
9.16 Now if I am declaring the good news, it is no reason for me to boast, for necessity is laid upon me. Really, woe to me if I do not declare the good news!
9.17 If I do this willingly, I have a reward; but even if I do it against my will, I still have a stewardship entrusted to me.
9.18 What, then, is my reward? That when I declare the good news, I may offer the good news without cost, to avoid abusing my authority in the good news.
9.19 For though I am free from all people, I have made myself the slave to all, so that I may gain as many people as possible.
9.20 To the Jews I became as a Jew in order to gain Jews; to those under law I became as under law, though I myself am not under law, in order to gain those under law.
9.21 To those without law I became as without law, although I am not without law toward God but under law toward Christ, in order to gain those without law.
9.22 To the weak I became weak, in order to gain the weak. I have become all things to people of all sorts, so that I might by all possible means save some.
9.23 But I do all things for the sake of the good news, in order to share it with others.
9.24 Do you not know that the runners in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.
9.25 Now everyone competing in a contest exercises self-control in all things. Of course, they do it to receive a crown that can perish, but we, one that does not perish.
9.26 Therefore, the way I am running is not aimlessly; the way I am aiming my blows is so as not to be striking the air;
9.27 but I pummel my body and lead it as a slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself should not become disapproved somehow.
10.1 Now I want you to know, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea
10.2 and all got baptized into Moses by means of the cloud and of the sea,
10.3 and all ate the same spiritual food
10.4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they used to drink from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock meant the Christ.
10.5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.
10.6 Now these things became examples for us, in order for us not to desire injurious things, as they desired them.
10.7 Neither become idolaters, as some of them did; just as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink. Then they got up to have a good time.”
10.8 Neither let us practice sexual immorality, as some of them committed sexual immorality, only to fall, 23,000 of them in one day.
10.9 Neither let us put Jehovah to the test, as some of them put him to the test, only to perish by the serpents.
10.10 Neither be murmurers, as some of them murmured, only to perish by the destroyer.
10.11 Now these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for a warning to us upon whom the ends of the systems of things have come.
10.12 So let the one who thinks he is standing beware that he does not fall.
10.13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to men. But God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but along with the temptation he will also make the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
10.14 Therefore, my beloved ones, flee from idolatry.
10.15 I speak as to men with discernment; judge for yourselves what I say.
10.16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of the Christ? The loaf that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of the Christ?
10.17 Because there is one loaf, we, although many, are one body, for we are all partaking of that one loaf.
10.18 Look at Israel in the fleshly sense: Are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers with the altar?
10.19 What, then, am I saying? That what is sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?
10.20 No; but I say that what the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers with the demons.
10.21 You cannot be drinking the cup of Jehovah and the cup of demons; you cannot be partaking of “the table of Jehovah” and the table of demons.
10.22 Or ‘are we inciting Jehovah to jealousy’? We are not stronger than he is, are we?
10.23 All things are lawful, but not all things are advantageous. All things are lawful, but not all things build up.
10.24 Let each one keep seeking, not his own advantage, but that of the other person.
10.25 Eat whatever is sold in a meat market, making no inquiry because of your conscience,
10.26 for “to Jehovah belong the earth and everything in it.”
10.27 If an unbeliever invites you and you want to go, eat whatever is set before you, making no inquiry on account of your conscience.
10.28 But if anyone says to you, “This is something offered in sacrifice,” do not eat because of the one who told you and because of conscience.
10.29 I do not mean your own conscience, but that of the other person. For why should my freedom be judged by another person’s conscience?
10.30 If I am partaking with thanks, why am I to be spoken of abusively over that for which I give thanks?
10.31 Therefore, whether you are eating or drinking or doing anything else, do all things for God’s glory.
10.32 Keep from becoming causes for stumbling to Jews as well as Greeks and to the congregation of God,
10.33 just as I am trying to please all people in all things, not seeking my own advantage, but that of the many, so that they may be saved.