Daily Bible Reading
Day 86
Today's reading: 1 Corinthians 7-9
Look for the promises in God’s word. As you read and find them, write them in your journal along with the scripture reference.
1 Corinthians 7
Celibacy and Marriage
1. Now with regard to the issues you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”
2. But because of immoralities, each man should have relations with his own wife and each woman with her own husband.
3. A husband should give to his wife her sexual rights, and likewise a wife to her husband.
4. It is not the wife who has the rights to her own body, but the husband. In the same way, it is not the husband who has the rights to his own body, but the wife.
5. Do not deprive each other, except by mutual agreement for a specified time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then resume your relationship, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
6. I say this as a concession, not as a command.
7. I wish that everyone was as I am. But each has his own gift from God, one this way, another that.
8. To the unmarried and widows I say that it is best for them to remain as I am.
9. But if they do not have self-control, let them get married. For it is better to marry than to burn with sexual desire.
10. To the married I give this command – not I, but the Lord – a wife should not divorce a husband
11. (but if she does, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband), and a husband should not divorce his wife.
12. To the rest I say – I, not the Lord – if a brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is happy to live with him, he should not divorce her.
13. And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is happy to live with her, she should not divorce him.
14. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified because of the wife, and the unbelieving wife because of her husband. Otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.
15. But if the unbeliever wants a divorce, let it take place. In these circumstances the brother or sister is not bound. God has called you in peace.
16. For how do you know, wife, whether you will bring your husband to salvation? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will bring your wife to salvation?
The Circumstances of Your Calling
17. Nevertheless, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each person, so must he live. I give this sort of direction in all the churches.
18. Was anyone called after he had been circumcised? He should not try to undo his circumcision. Was anyone called who is uncircumcised? He should not get circumcised.
19. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Instead, keeping God’s commandments is what counts.
20. Let each one remain in that situation in life in which he was called.
21. Were you called as a slave? Do not worry about it. But if indeed you are able to be free, make the most of the opportunity.
22. For the one who was called in the Lord as a slave is the Lord’s freedman. In the same way, the one who was called as a free person is Christ’s slave.
23. You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of men.
24. In whatever situation someone was called, brothers and sisters, let him remain in it with God.
Remaining Unmarried
25. With regard to the question about people who have never married, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one shown mercy by the Lord to be trustworthy.
26. Because of the impending crisis I think it best for you to remain as you are.
27. The one bound to a wife should not seek divorce. The one released from a wife should not seek marriage.
28. But if you marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face difficult circumstances, and I am trying to spare you such problems.
29. And I say this, brothers and sisters: The time is short. So then those who have wives should be as those who have none,
30. those with tears like those not weeping, those who rejoice like those not rejoicing, those who buy like those without possessions,
31. those who use the world as though they were not using it to the full. For the present shape of this world is passing away.
32. And I want you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.
33. But a married man is concerned about the things of the world, how to please his wife,
34. and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, to be holy both in body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the things of the world, how to please her husband.
35. I am saying this for your benefit, not to place a limitation on you, but so that without distraction you may give notable and constant service to the Lord.
36. If anyone thinks he is acting inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the bloom of youth and it seems necessary, he should do what he wishes; he does not sin. Let them marry.
37. But the man who is firm in his commitment, and is under no necessity but has control over his will, and has decided in his own mind to keep his own virgin, does well.
38. So then, the one who marries his own virgin does well, but the one who does not, does better.
39. A wife is bound as long as her husband is living. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes (only someone in the Lord).
40. But in my opinion, she will be happier if she remains as she is – and I think that I too have the Spirit of God!
1 Corinthians 8
Food Sacrificed to Idols
1. With regard to food sacrificed to idols, we know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
2. If someone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know to the degree that he needs to know.
3. But if someone loves God, he is known by God.
4. With regard then to eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that “an idol in this world is nothing,” and that “there is no God but one.”
5. If after all there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords),
6. yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live.
7. But this knowledge is not shared by all. And some, by being accustomed to idols in former times, eat this food as an idol sacrifice, and their conscience, because it is weak, is defiled.
8. Now food will not bring us close to God. We are no worse if we do not eat and no better if we do.
9. But be careful that this liberty of yours does not become a hindrance to the weak.
10. For if someone weak sees you who possess knowledge dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience be “strengthened” to eat food offered to idols?
11. So by your knowledge the weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed.
12. If you sin against your brothers or sisters in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
13. For this reason, if food causes my brother or sister to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause one of them to sin.
1 Corinthians 9
The Rights of an Apostle
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?
2. If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, for you are the confirming sign of my apostleship in the Lord.
3. This is my defense to those who examine me.
4. Do we not have the right to financial support?
5. Do we not have the right to the company of a believing wife, like the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?
6. Or do only Barnabas and I lack the right not to work?
7. Who ever serves in the army at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not consume its milk?
8. Am I saying these things only on the basis of common sense, or does the law not say this as well?
9. For it is written in the law of Moses, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” God is not concerned here about oxen, is he?
10. Or is he not surely speaking for our benefit? It was written for us, because the one plowing and threshing ought to work in hope of enjoying the harvest.
11. If we sowed spiritual blessings among you, is it too much to reap material things from you?
12. If others receive this right from you, are we not more deserving? But we have not made use of this right. Instead we endure everything so that we may not be a hindrance to the gospel of Christ.
13. Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple eat food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar receive a part of the offerings?
14. In the same way the Lord commanded those who proclaim the gospel to receive their living by the gospel.
15. But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing these things so that something will be done for me. In fact, it would be better for me to die than – no one will deprive me of my reason for boasting!
16. For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason for boasting, because I am compelled to do this. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
17. For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward. But if I do it unwillingly, I am entrusted with a responsibility.
18. What then is my reward? That when I preach the gospel I may offer the gospel free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights in the gospel.
19. For since I am free from all I can make myself a slave to all, in order to gain even more people.
20. To the Jews I became like a Jew to gain the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) to gain those under the law.
21. To those free from the law I became like one free from the law (though I am not free from God’s law but under the law of Christ) to gain those free from the law.
22. To the weak I became weak in order to gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I may save some.
23. I do all these things because of the gospel, so that I can be a participant in it.
24. Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win.
25. Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.
26. So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air.
27. Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.