Dwell in the Word 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1

Contemplate these questions as you dwell in 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1:

1. Paul emphasizes the importance of doing everything to the glory of God, even in the context of eating and drinking. How can we apply this principle in our daily lives, ensuring that our actions and decisions are aligned with bringing glory to God?

2. Paul advises believers to be mindful of the impact of their actions on others, especially in matters where Christian liberty is involved. How can we strike a balance between exercising our freedom in Christ and being considerate of those who may be weaker in faith or have different convictions?

3. Paul sets an example of imitating Christ's selfless attitude, aiming not to cause offense or stumble others. In what practical ways can we imitate this mindset in our interactions with family, friends, and our broader community? How might this approach strengthen our witness for Christ?

Transcript:

 So, we see Paul finishing up some ideas regarding eating meat that has been offered as a sacrifice to pagan deities or pagan idols. And so, Paul starts out here by saying, you know, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. What he's saying is, you know, they're not really gods and it's perfectly good meat.

It's lawful for you. You can eat that meat, but it's not always helpful.  And the idea here is that Paul is saying, you know, if somebody's conscience is saying you shouldn't eat that meat because it's been offered as a sacrifice to an idol, then don't do it in front of them. You know, he says if you go into the meat market and the meat's there and you think it might be from sacrifices, don't worry about it if it's not a big deal.

But if there's people who are concerned about this, he wants... He wants, he doesn't want anyone to stumble whether that is someone who is weak and doesn't feel Christian liberty in this area He doesn't want them to stumble there based upon their conscience or maybe he's also concerned that people would say if you're a Christian How can you eat meat?

Sacrifice to idols and he doesn't want to lose an opportunity for doing faithful witness to those people. So, what does Paul say?  Verse 31. So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. So, no matter what you do, do it for God's glory. And that's a great thing for us to know.

Uh, we could just take that verse there and we could talk about that for quite a while. Do everything to the glory of God, whether you're eating or drinking, anything.  Having God's glory in mind is a good thing. But in the context of this passage, what he's saying is, you know, as you eat or as you drink, do it for the glory of God, but don't offend anyone, offend anyone, give offense to Jews or to Greeks or to anyone in the church, because We don't want anyone to stumble and now there's a line in here.

That's a little bit tough for us, right? We read verse 33 just as I try to please everyone and everything I do. Ooh  We know we can't we know we can't please everyone right? We know this is difficult, but Paul isn't saying, Oh, just be accommodating to everyone. Make everybody happy. Have that be your life goal.

That's not the idea here. The idea here is that we don't want people to stumble. We want to have an opportunity to witness to the faithfulness of God in what we do. So, Paul is saying, Hey, I want to do these things in this context.  So that I am able to have a voice with them. If they look at me and see me eating meat offered to, to idols, they might say, some Christian you are.

And so, he keeps his, he keeps himself aware of what people might think around him. And so he eats in such a way around other people, so that they don't think that he is somehow being unfaithful to Christ. And as this verse, as this passage ends up that we've looked at today, it says, be imitators of me as I am of Christ.

He's saying. Imitate what I'm doing here, because I am doing what Christ did. He, he went to the people that were around him, and he, he did what he could to reach them. He was proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and that is Paul's goal. And so ultimately, what is Paul saying here? He's saying we are to be imitators of Christ.

Now for us, we need to understand that this, this setting isn't going to be the same. I don't think any of us have probably ever eaten any meat that has been sacrificed to idols. I think I may have said that Friday as well. This just isn't on our radar.  But we have to be mindful of how things that we do, even though we have perfectly good Christian liberty to do them, if we're around somebody, We might not want to flaunt that if it's going to make them stumble.

And so, we want to love others. We want to be able to bring others to Christ by proclaiming the gospel and we want to have a good and faithful witness. But ultimately, what it also says here is be imitators of Paul who is imitating Christ. We are called to be Christ like. We are called to be holy. And as I always say, that's a difficult category for us.

And so, as we think about this passage, it starts with that for us here. How can we imitate Christ? How can we see who he is and be that to our culture, to our family, to our friends, to the people we work with, to the people we come in contact with?  Now, like I said, that is tough, but it's something that we are called to do.

And so may we be looking for opportunities. May our, may our minds be clued in to how we can proclaim Christ and what obstacles there might be there that, that might. Cause us not to have, uh, the audience that we would have because maybe we're doing something that we should not in other people's minds.

Things that are totally lawful for us to do. But we need to be mindful of the people around us. In other words, you know, children, for example, are immature. They might not understand some certain things. And there might be some things we might not want to do around children because they don't fully understand what it is.

You know, that, that's kind of the idea here. I don't have a specific example in mind. But I think that you are understanding what I'm saying. We want to be mindful of our audience and not do anything that would cause them to view Christ incorrectly. Because the goal here is holiness. The goal here is to be imitators of Christ, that we might be faithful witnesses of Him to the world.

So may we be mindful of that today, that all glory might go to God, that we might do everything to His glory, whether we eat or drink, whatever we do. May today be May it be done to the glory of God.