Saturday Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:23-24
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 10:23
23 All things are lawful to me, but not all things profit. All things are lawful to me, but not all things build up.
Devotion:
How many times have you thought that you were doing the right thing only to find out later that it was not actually beneficial for the people you thought were going to benefit from what you were doing? Many times we try to do what is right in our own eyes only to upset someone else through what we do. We may ever try to follow the rules and find out that when we do that we upset other people. You could say that that is just part of life but then you would be doing what too many of us do – try to bypass the responsibility that The Lord is trying to show us...
These verses were specifically written about the meats that were being offered for sale in the market by priests after they had been offered to various gods. Though it was certainly not against the law to buy the meat because Christ had already said that it was lawful to eat such meat because it should mean nothing – but when others see us doing what we do we may then be placing doubts in their minds about what we do and the reasons why we do things. When we do things we have to think about others and we have to try and make sure that what we do will always glorify God and not anything else.
Yes, it is very hard to think of others all the time but unless we do we will continue to place doubts in other people’s minds rather than to show them that we uphold our God above all else. When we start to think of ourselves and how we can look good and how we can be good in our own eyes, then we lose track on which direction God would like us to go in. We lose track of how we should be treating others and then we end up treating God in the same manner. Christ was the one who said that if we do anything to any of His brethren then we do it to Him (Matthew 25:40). If we don’t think of others, then are we thinking of God? Keeping within the law is one thing, upholding God’s commandments is something entirely different!
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you do things right?
Do you know if God is pleased with what you do?
