Thursday Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:23-33
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 10:31
31 Therefore whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Devotion:
It is very easy to be drawn into discussions or even arguments over whether things are right or wrong according to scriptures. It is also very easy to get side-tracked into reading other things when trying to find out the truth... But what we should be doing is seeking that truth and showing that truth to others. When people have a little knowledge of the bible, it can be a bad thing. Let us take an over simplified example. If we read the first part of Romans 6:23 we find the phrase “for the wages of sin is death”. If someone were just to have that in their knowledge, they may well hate God or someone else for telling them that. But if they were to also know the second phrase from that verse they would find the truth “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Just as a little knowledge of Christianity can discourage people; it can also be used against us. In our passage today we see that the phrase "for the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness of it" could be used by non-believers to try and trip us up; but far worse a cause would be that it would trip up the unbeliever and cause them to stray further from God. For that reason, we need to try to make sure that what we do is not going to offend others to the extent where they will rebel against God’s Word rather than try to find out more about it. It is no use telling people they are going to die unless you can also tell them about God’s wonderful gift!
Whilst it is true that everything on earth is God’s and that He has given it as a place for us to live and told us to “subdue it” and “have dominion over” everything; He did not mean that it gives us free will to do anything we like. If we exercise our absolute free will we will quite quickly come to the point where we are no longer giving God the glory for everything but rejecting Him. We do need to care for what we do and we need to allow others to see we do – so that God will get the glory!
Points to Ponder:
What do you like doing best of all?
How does that give glory to God?
