“Woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!...In my proclamation I make the gospel free of charge….I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them….To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel….”

Like Jesus, who cast out demons (last week)…

Like Jesus, who healed many sick, including Peter’s mother-in-law (this week)…

Like Jesus, who cured even leprosy (next week)…

Like Jesus, Paul also has a wide-ranging ministry, addressing many needs.

Our First Corinthian lessons last week, today, and next week are all from chapters 8-9-10 of this epistle. This section of Paul’s letter deals with a challenge in the Corinthian church. The issue in New Testament studies is usually called the Question of Eating Meat Offered to Idols. It is a difficult issue to hear with Twenty-first Century ears.

Here is a quick overview:

An important issue in Christian ethics is how to find our way between two dangerous extremes:

On the one side is legalism: God’s law is meant as the guide and norm for godly behavior. Christ’s work of salvation ties us in gratitude to the ways of God. We come to internalize and to love the ways of God. All of this is very good and true. BUT without graciousness and patience this motif easily becomes an intolerant insistence on one code of behavior – easily leads to community standards that insist on this one code. It is only a short step to a new enslavement to rules and a legalism divorced from grace and gratitude.

An example of this legalistic extreme might be something from my growing-up years in Dutch Reformed West Michigan. Our rules for Sunday were as strict as anything you might associate with Puritan New England. One of my teachers remembered that as young girls they could not cut paper dolls on Sunday. Making clothes was women’s work, and so playing at girls’ work was a violation of the Sabbath. That culture was not kind to those who were different from us. We were self-righteous and did not make the church or the gospel attractive to our neighbors.

On the other side is libertinism: By God’s grace we have been freed from sin and the condemning hold of the law. The Christian life is one of freedom to find our own way in confidence that nothing separates us from God’s love. Again, all of this is very good and true. BUT without norms for holiness this motif easily becomes a new slavery, a bondage to self-indulgent appetite – easily leads to community without objective codes of behavior beyond some vague idea of what feels loving and authentic in the moment.