Tuesday, December 29, 2009

1 Corinthians 10 Believers Freedom

1 Corinthians 10:23 "Everything is permissible"- but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible" - but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. (see Romans 15:1-2, 1Corinthians 6:12)

This is hard to fully understand or embrace, at least it was for me for awhile. I believe Paul is eluding to the fact that Jesus came and crushed the law (scripture anyone?). We aren't to be like the religious folk who believe their salvation is in their law abiding works, no; we are saved by faith alone. God imparts the grace to take our blinders off and reveal His truth to us then we exercise our faith that is essentially gifted to us.

Paul is saying that we shouldn't condemn ourselves or others so everything is permissible but many of these things in the world shouldn't be done because they have no value. Why would we waste our time doing something of no value? We usually do it because it feels good for a minute and we listen to the lies that say there is value in these things (always selfish). An easy way to check ourselves is to analyze our motivation and decide whether it is for ourselves or others. If our motivation is for the benefit of others then we typically won't be wrong. It is when we are serving ourselves that everything gets sticky, we hurt others, we offend people, and we rub folks the wrong way.

I think this scripture is a great reminder and is well laid out in the sense that Paul makes a controversial point but then brings it back to the basic home of serving others not ourselves. Priceless advice.

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