Podcast Introduction Today we’re going to read 1 Corinthians 7-8, and I’m calling the episode “Looking Out For the Other Guy.” Comments on 1 Corinthians 7-8 Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 7 Let’s quickly look at a couple of different points from today’s reading. These are things that cause some people to wonder what Paul meant, so I hope I can clear them up for you. Let’s first tackle the parts where Paul says he is expressing his opinion. Does that mean that we can discount what he says if we don’t like what we hear? No. Those parts don’t somehow become the uninspired Word of God. If they did, then they would not be included in the Bible. What Paul was saying was that there were no scriptures yet in existence that dealt with the issue, so He wasn’t able to quote any verses to support what he was teaching here. But if you look at how he ended the chapter, he was declaring that he was lead by the Holy Spirit. When he says, “I think that I too have God’s Spirit”, he was not expressing doubt. In the language of the day, he was saying, “I am convinced that I have God’s Spirit.” And since that is true, his teaching on the subject is from God.  The next thing that causes some difficulty for many people is where Paul mentions that the unbelieving spouse is made acceptable to God by the believing spouse. Some people mistakenly think that this means that an unbelieving husband or wife gets a free pass to Heaven because they are married to a believing spouse, or the children of a believer get a free pass. Of course that is not true. Each person must accept Christ on their own. There are no coattails upon which you can ride into Heaven.  If you look at the passage again, you’ll see that Paul was talking about divorce. He was saying that if the unbeliever agrees to live with the believer, then their marriage will be recognized by God as a holy, valid marriage. They do not need to be divorced. And since their marriage is acceptable to God, then their children are not deemed as illegitimate, as they would be if their parents were unmarried.  Paul goes on to say that “God has called you to live in peace”. Of course He doesn’t want lives to be turned upside down by divorce over this. And in staying together, the unbelieving spouse might be convinced of the reality of God’s love by the loving example of the believing spouse, and be brought to the cross of Christ. Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 8 In chapter 8, Paul talks to the Corinthian church about food offered to idols, and whether a believer should eat it. This subject seems sort of strange to us today, but in Greece, where the city of Corinth is, the worship of many different gods and idols was common. And often, certain foods were sacrificed to these idols before it made its way to the marketplace to be sold. So the question for some in the church of Corinth was whether or not this food should be eaten. Some felt that food offered to idols was tainted or unclean. Certainly the Jews who were there avoided it for this very reason. Paul’s teaching on this was surprising to those who thought they should not eat this meat. He said, “Look. Idols are nothing. They aren’t gods. They are just inanimate objects. So eating food offered to them will not separate you from God. He said, “Food…will not improve our relation with God; we shall not lose anything if we do not eat, nor shall we gain anything if we do eat.” But Paul didn’t leave the subject there. There’s more to it than just eating food. Some of the believers in the church in Cori