Reading your Bible for today October 9

October 9: 1 Corinthians 10:23-33

KJV Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 10:31
31 Whether therefore ye eat , or drink , or whatsoever ye do , do all to the glory of God.

Devotion:
It is very easy to be drawn into discussions or even arguments over whether things are right or wrong according to scriptures. It is also very easy to get side-tracked into reading other things when trying to find out the truth... But what we should be doing is seeking that truth and showing it to others. When people have a little knowledge of the bible, it can be a bad thing. Let us take an over simplified example. If we read the first part of Romans 6:23 we find the phrase “for the wages of sin is death”. If someone were just to have that in their knowledge, they may well hate God or someone else for telling them those words. But if they were to also know the second phrase from that verse they would find the truth “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Just as a little knowledge of Christianity can discourage people; it can also be used against us. In our passage today we see phrases which could be used against Christians if they were taken out of context from the whole passage; but far worse a cause would be that it would trip up the unbeliever and cause them to stray further from God. For this reason we are warned in this passage to try and not offend others by going against their beliefs just because we do not agree with their beliefs; how upset would we be if they went against us just because they did not believe in Christ? To take our phrases from Romans: it is no use telling people they are going to die unless you can also tell them about God’s wonderful gift!

Whilst it is true that everything on earth is God’s and He has given it as a place for us to live and told us to “subdue it” and “have dominion over” everything; He did not mean that it gives us free will to do absolutely anything we like. If we exercise our absolute free will we will quite quickly come to the point where we are no longer giving God the glory for everything but rejecting Him. We do need to care for what we do and we need to allow others to see we do – so that God will get the glory!

Points to Ponder:
What do you like doing best of all?

How does that give glory to God?