God and the Ox: Our ‘Rights' and the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:1-14)

[Sung Psalm: 126]

We saw last time that when Paul deals with the question of “food offered to idols,” he is not just talking about ancient superstitions. He is talking about questions of basic loyalties. In Corinth, if your patron invited you to the celebration of his son’s coming-of-age, the party would be held at a dining room connected with a pagan temple. The feast would be “barely” religious – maybe there would be a pagan priest doing his little ritual at the beginning, but if you arrived a few minutes late – you’d miss the worst parts.

The question for Paul is not just an abstract question of “was the food offered to idols?” The question is “what does your participation in this meal mean?” Not just to you, personally, but to your Christian community – as well as to your former pagan community....