Tuesday 23 Oct 2018

October 23: 1 Corinthians 10:31-33

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Devotion:
How many people have you heard saying they have to go and do something or cannot do something because of their religion? I’m not talking about not doing something like drinking alcohol because of their religion; I’m talking about someone turning you down when you ask for help or something like that. In this politically correct age we live in, far too many people are resting on their religion as an excuse to get out of doing things, or even using the religion as an excuse whereby they can break the laws of the land. This is not what Christ taught!

Paul used to use his religion as the excuse to get rid of Christians before he became one himself. He actually thought he was doing things the right way by killing and persecuting Christians. The religious laws clearly stated no man should ever say that he was God and yet this “person” Jesus of Nazareth had come along and said exactly that. So, according to the religious laws, he was correct in punishing anyone who supported this man; at least that was probably Paul’s argument at the time. But, as is often the case, the religious laws had been taken too far. Man had taken on the mantle of upholding the religious laws without keeping God in the equation. They had ignored the fact those same scriptures foretold of the fact a Saviour would come.

And that is exactly what we do when we get caught up in religion... We take on the law as if we are the ones that invented it. We use what parts of the laws we like and choose to ignore others. We do not do things according to God’s glory, but for our own glory! Paul was able to see that in the end and turned to follow Christ when Christ confronted him. Is it going to take something like that to happen before we give up our religious ways and turn to glorify God instead of ourselves? I hope not...

Points to Ponder:
How often do you bend the rules?

How often do you bend God’s rules?