My 2025 Theme Verses: Ezra 7:10 (ESV) For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. Daniel 1:8 (ESV) But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Do all to glorify God! - 1 Corinthians 9-10
In this section Paul returns to answer the same topic and question he ended with in chapter eight: Should or shouldn't we eat meat that was first offered to idols? He had just told them in chapter eight that the meat offered to idols controversy could be easily solved if they simply decided to not do anything that might offend another brother and allowed them rather, to practice love. He now moves on and begins an argument about the connection between the servant of the gospel and that servants ability to "share" in the material side of the service. His argument is simple: The material aspect of the gospel (money and meat) is something those who provide ought to benefit from (chapter 9). As a result of that, the argument continues in chapter 10, that those material things, that ministers share in, then become part of the worship we are performing (see his logic?). He even uses the bread of the Lord's Table as an example (10:16). His argument unfolds to the necessary conclusion: If by eating meat offered to idols causes someone's conscious to collapse, than we should not eat meat offered to idols (or do something that causes our brother's conscious to be wounded). Paul is so compelled to not wound his brother he is willing to do what he can to reach them for the gospel (9:22). Are we so interested in our individual rights that we forget our goal is to love our brother and to win the lost for Christ? Our Christian liberty is not a right to do what we want (although we can) it is the responsibility to practice love based on the consciousness of others.
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