Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech: 1 Corinthians | Page 8

for me, if I fail to preach it! 009:017 And if I preach willingly, I receive my wages; but if against my will, a stewardship has nevertheless been entrusted to me. 009:018 What are my wages then? The very fact that the Good News which I preach will cost my hearers nothing, so that I cannot be charged with abuse of my privileges as a Christian preacher. 009:019 Though free from all human control, I have made myself the slave of all in the hope of winning as many converts as possible. 009:020 To the Jews I have become like a Jew in order to win Jews; to men under the Law as if I were under the Law--although I am not-- in order to win those who are under the Law; 009:021 to men without Law as if I were without Law--although I am not without Law in relation to God but am abiding in Christ's Law-- in order to win those who are without Law. 009:022 To the weak I have become weak, so as to gain the weak. To all men I have become all things, in the hope that in every one of these ways I may save some. 009:023 And I do everything for the sake of the Good News, that I may share with my hearers in its benefits. 009:024 Do you not know that in the foot-race the runners all run, but that only one gets the prize? You must run like him, in order to win with certainty. 009:025 But every competitor in an athletic contest practices abstemiousness in all directions. They indeed do this for the sake of securing a perishable wreath, but we for the sake of securing one that will not perish. 009:026 That is how I run, not being in any doubt as to my goal. I am a boxer who does not inflict blows on the air, 009:027 but I hit hard and straight at my own body and lead it off into slavery, lest possibly, after I have been a herald to others, I should myself be rejected. 010:001 For I would have you remember, brethren, how our forefathers were all of them sheltered by the cloud, and all got safely through the Red Sea. 010:002 All were baptized in the cloud and in the sea to be followers of Moses. 010:003 All ate the same spiritual food, 010:004 and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they long drank the water that flowed from the spiritual rock that went with them-- and that rock was the Christ. 010:005 But with most of them God was not well pleased; for they were laid low in the Desert. 010:006 And in this they became a warning to us, to teach us not to be eager, as they were eager, in pursuit of what is evil. 010:007 And you must not be worshippers of idols, as some of them were. For it is written, "The People sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to dance." 010:008 Nor may we be fornicators, like some of them who committed fornication and on a single day 23,000 of them fell dead. 010:009 And do not let us test the Lord too far, as some of them tested Him and were destroyed by the serpents. 010:010 And do not be discontented, as some of them were, and they were destroyed by the Destroyer. 010:011 All this kept happening to them with a figurative meaning; but it was put on record by way of admonition to us upon whom the ends of the Ages have come. 010:012 So then let him who thinks he is standing securely beware of falling. 010:013 No temptation has you in its power but such as is common to human nature; and God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. But, when the temptation comes, He will also provide the way of escape; so that you may be able to bear it. 010:014 Therefore, my dear friends, avoid all connection with the worship of idols. 010:015 I speak as to men of sense: judge for yourselves of what I say. 010:016 The cup of blessing, which we bless, does it not mean a joint-participation in the blood of Christ? The loaf of bread which we break, does it not mean a joint-participation in the body of Christ? 010:017 Since there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; we, all of us, share in that one loaf. 010:018 Look at the Israelites--the nation and their ritual. Are not those who eat the sacrifices joint-partakers in the altar? 010:019 Do I mean that a thing sacrificed to an idol is what it claims to be, or that an idol