For His Glory

Praise the Lord I am feeling much much better tonight!  I'm thankful that the illness was short lived, and I'm praying that the rest of my family remains healthy.  I still feel slightly weak, but tomorrow I expect to be back in full swing (much to Ashlyn's dismay--she enjoyed having another day off of school today).  

The other day I was reading, and I couldn't wait to blog about it, but obviously, haven't had the chance until now.  I was reading a passage in 1 Corinthians 10 about how our attitudes should be, no matter what we are doing.  Verse 23 says, "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.  All things are lawful, but not all things edify."  Now, this scripture has a great meaning to me, not all of which I will get into today on this post.  But, one of the things that God spoke to me about is how we should be treating our fellow believers.  According to 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1, we should be very cautious in certain things that we do, not necessarily because they are wrong before God, but because of the offense it could cause another believer.  My first instinct is to rebut that thought and say, "If God doesn't think it's wrong, then I have every right to do it."  That's true, I guess.  We do have the right.  But, isn't part of being a follower of Christ giving up our rights?  

Let me clarify something here.  Paul, in this passage, is specifically talking about eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols.  Legalism would say that it is wrong.  Paul did not believe it was wrong--unless the person knew it was offensive to a fellow believer and ate it anyway (those who were weaker in the faith, i.e. those who still followed the law).  In verse 31, he writes, "Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."  In other words, we do have freedom because of grace, but within that freedom, we must still do everything to God's glory, honoring Him, even if it means refraining from something that we may not be convicted of in order to keep from offending a fellow believer.

Why should we worry about offending another believer?  Here is the heart of my devotion today:  John 13:35, "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."  Sometimes, in order to respect our fellow believers, we may need to forfeit our rights.  God would rather us live peaceably and lovingly towards each other (believers) than act out on the freedoms that come with grace.  Now, this doesn't mean that we should live legalistically just for the sake of others, I'm not saying that.  But, I do think that we should be careful with our attitudes, not to be haughty and look down upon those who may struggle with legalism, etc.  It is all for His glory, and Jesus Himself said it--the world will know that we belong to Him when we love one another.

Once again, these are just things to think about, and I wish that you would look these scriptures up yourself and see what God says to you through them.  He is faithful to teach when we quiet ourselves and listen to His Word!