Reading your Bible for today April 29

April 29: 1 Corinthians 6:12

KJV Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 6:12
12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient : all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

Devotion:
“It's OK to do this... it's not going to hurt anyone else” may well be a phrase we think when we start to do something we know is not quite right. But, we think, because it is not doing harm to anyone else, it must be ok. Maybe what we are doing is never going to be found out by anyone, so we assume we are safe in doing it. Maybe we think it even help others – even if it is not right...

There are probably many things in our own lives we have done which we are not proud of. We are not going to admit these to others because we know they are wrong. We are not going to do them again, but we have already done them at least once. We may have used an excuse to justify why we had done it at the time. We may even use the law to prove what we have done is not explicitly said to be wrong. But we know it was not right anyway.

We may even have done something just because the law allows us to do it, even though we know it does not follow Christ's teachings. We prove that it is right through the law of the land – therefore why can't it be ok to do it? We are not above the law. None of us are. We live by the law so we do know what is right and wrong. But when that law falls short of what we know is right and wrong, there is no reason to go a bit further just to prove the law is wrong.

I had an interesting conversation with a young girl during a youth club event when we were revising some scriptures together (Psalm 139:2  Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.). God knows exactly what we get up to. He knows when we stray from the path. He knows when we do things wrong. But He also knows when we think wrong things! (That is when she suddenly went quiet). It may well be lawful to think bad things, but it certainly is not expedient to do so!

Points to Ponder:
How often do you think bad things about others?

How often have you remembered that God is listening?