Letters to the Churches

So, as for eating food sacrificed to idols, we “know” that, as you say, “An idol has no real existence in the world, and there is only one God.”

For even if there are so-called “gods,” either in heaven or on earth — as in fact there are “gods” and “lords” galore —

yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things come and for whom we exist; and one Lord, Yeshua the Messiah, through whom were created all things and through whom we have our being.

But not everyone has this knowledge. Moreover, some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat food which has been sacrificed to them, they think of it as really affected by the idol; and their consciences, being weak, are thus defiled.

Now food will not improve our relationship with God — we will be neither poorer if we abstain nor richer if we eat.

However watch out that your mastery of the situation does not become a stumbling block to the weak.

You have this “knowledge”; but suppose someone with a weak conscience sees you sitting, eating a meal in the temple of an idol. Won’t he be built up wrongly to eat this food which has been sacrificed to idols?

Thus by your “knowledge” this weak person is destroyed, this brother for whom the Messiah died;

and so, when you sin against the brothers by wounding their conscience when it is weak, you are sinning against the Messiah!

To sum up, if food will be a snare for my brother, I will never eat meat again, lest I cause my brother to sin.

Am I not a free man? Am I not an emissary of the Messiah? Haven’t I seen Yeshua our Lord? And aren’t you yourselves the result of my work for the Lord?

Even if to others I am not an emissary, at least I am to you; for you are living proof that I am the Lord’s emissary.

That is my defense when people put me under examination.

Don’t we have the right to be given food and drink?

Don’t we have the right to take along with us a believing wife, as do the other emissaries, also the Lord’s brothers and Kefa?

Or are Bar-Nabba and I the only ones required to go on working for our living?

Did you ever hear of a soldier paying his own expenses? or of a farmer planting a vineyard without eating its grapes? Who shepherds a flock without drinking some of the milk?

What I am saying is not based merely on human authority, because the Torah says the same thing —

for in the Torah of Moshe it is written, “You are not to put a muzzle on an ox when it is treading out the grain.” If God is concerned about cattle,

all the more does he say this for our sakes. Yes, it was written for us, meaning that he who plows and he who threshes should work expecting to get a share of the crop.

If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?

If others are sharing in this right to be supported by you, don’t we have a greater claim to it? But we don’t make use of this right. Rather, we put up with all kinds of things so as not to impede in any way the Good News about the Messiah.

Don’t you know that those who work in the Temple get their food from the Temple, and those who serve at the altar get a share of the sacrifices offered there?

In the same way, the Lord directed that those who proclaim the Good News should get their living from the Good News.

But I have not made use of any of these rights. Nor am I writing now to secure them for myself, for I would rather die than be deprived of my ground for boasting!