1 Corinthians 9:1-6 The Right to Eat and Drink
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: February 24, 2020 1 Corinthians 9:1-6
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
(Understanding the Text) Paul has been telling the Corinthians that they are correct that meat offered to idols is not tainted by this offering and that they are free to eat it by this logic. However, since other Christians have not advanced that far in their experience and have associations of worship in their minds when eating this meat, the Corinthians should refrain from eating it out of love for their fellow Christians, who if they ate it, would actually be worshipping a false god in their minds because they cannot disassociate their past experiences from their present reality. Now, Paul is answering the question that might come up in the Corinthians’ thinking: Why should I deny myself just because someone is weak in their belief? Shouldn’t the onus be on them to become stronger in their belief rather than on me to placate them? Paul says that the Corinthians owe their lives to his own denial of himself and his desires in order to reach them and that they should follow his example.
Paul points out that he is free; he has credentials to speak with authority, including not only having seen Jesus but also the faith that the Corinthians themselves had in Jesus. Paul then shows how he does not use the various freedoms that he has because he wants what is best for the Corinthians and other converts that he strives to reach with the gospel. He starts out with the idea of eating and drinking but then expands his argument to other freedoms such as taking along a believing wife with him on his travels and being supported economically by the believers that he serves.
Here Paul gives some facts in passing that are interesting. First of all, Peter would take his wife with him when he traveled, and she was a believer. Second, at least two of Jesus’ brothers traveled around to share the gospel. These two or more were married with believing wives. I assume James and Jude were included in this list. I wonder if the other two brothers mentioned in the gospel did the same. Third, this shows that Paul was not the only one traveling around spreading the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul claims the Corinthians as his own converts, but there were other converts out there because of Jesus’ brothers. Fourth, Barnabas supported himself economically in his ministry when he traveled. Finally, Barnabas did not take a wife with him when he travelled. Was Barnabas married? It is unclear. Were Paul and Barnabas still traveling and working together at this time, or had they gone their separate ways? I think that they had already separated. If so, this shows that Paul still respected Barnabas and brought him up as a prominent missionary example.
(Application / Prayer / Revelation of God) My application for myself is that I would like to be able to know that my workmanship in the Lord (converted Christians) is good and acceptable. On the other hand, I would hate having to worry about them and their spiritual growth. However, I just want to know that there are people who love You because of my testimony. At the same time, I know that I would not have any lasting satisfaction about that because what I am saying that I want is not something that comes from me. It is only the Holy Spirit who convicts and draws people in, not me. Thus, I’m not sure what I want! I just want to know that I am pleasing You and doing the work that You give me well. I want to be useful in meaningful ways, I guess, and I’m not always sure that what I am doing is meaningful.