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Today’s reading is I Corinthians 8:1-9:27.

We know the scripture equips us for every good work (II Timothy 3:16-17), but even that verse leaves us wondering how it does it. Today, a great deal of the religious bickering I hear about and am even involved in centers around this very question. Most of the disagreements are not really about whatever issue is discussed but about how we can tell what the Bible permits. Perhaps the most hotly contested aspect of finding authorization through the New Testament is the use of Necessary Inference. That is, whether the Scripture provides permission for some action even when that action is not specifically stated but is a necessary conclusion from all that is stated. I often hear people say, “I understand if something is commanded, stated, or exemplified it is authorized, but I don’t get this idea of Necessary Inference. I think you’re making that up. I don’t think it’s in the Bible.”

Imagine my surprise when my reading today demonstrated Paul himself used Necessary Inference to claim an evangelist, apostle, or some other worker in the church could be provided material support from the congregation. I’ve read this passage numerous times and not even thought about it. But there it is.

In I Corinthians 9:7, Paul wrote, “Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?” What was his point? His point is not that everything soldiers, planters, or shepherds do is somehow authorized for a worker in Christ’s church. His point is that it is natural and necessary to see that someone who has given their lives to some kind of work receives material support from the work. Everyone recognizes it with every walk of life. Why would it be different for soldiers, planters, and shepherds in Christ’s church as well.

Of course, some get a little confused with I Corinthians 9:9, in which Paul wrote, “For it is written in the Law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.’” Is Paul claiming the Old Law is our law and provides actual authorization for us as New Testament Christians? I don’t think so. Rather, Paul is simply demonstrating God Himself recognized this very same Necessary Inference. Someone who was devoted to some work naturally gains material support from that work. If God Himself recognizes this as a necessary conclusion and inference, we are pretty safe in recognizing it as well.

There it is. Perhaps this Necessary Inference concept is not so far out in left field as some act. Keep in mind. If we are going to claim we need authorization, removing Necessary Inference from the table doesn’t increase the number of actions Christians and congregations are allowed to do, it decreases them. Claiming Necessary Inference is not a valid principle does not provide more freedom to act as most who make the claim go on to say. It provides more limitation.

Anyway, it’s something to think about in this passage.

And now for something completely different.

I have a question about today’s reading. I usually do, but don’t always bring them up. Today’s kind of shocked me. I don’t know if it is an issue of using the ESV now and so it just hit me or if I’ve just overlooked this point. Or maybe I’m just super tired this morning so it’s not making sense to me (Trina hardly slept last night). However, I Corinthians 8:4-7 took me by surprise. Paul said “we know” there is only one God. However, then he said not everyone has that knowledge. He then talked about those with “former association with idols” who are weak. Thus, some of those who do not recognize there is only one God were weak Christians. Am I missing something or is this saying some of these early Christians still believed the gods behind the idols were real? Did they just agree that Jehovah was the supreme God? Could polytheists be Christians as long as they did not honor those other “gods”? Help me out on this one.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?