Eat and Drink for the Good of Others

        As a new year unfolds, diets are being compared and contrasted, which work and which don't for weight loss. Most people have learned, that the reality is weight gain or weight loss is a simple matter of calories in verses calories out. Period. You consume more calories than you burn up, you gain. You burn up the calories you consume, you maintain your weight. You burn up more calories than you consume, you lose weight.

        I found it interesting in my Bible reading today of a reminder from God of another reason to consider what we eat and drink (1Corinthians 10:23-33):

"I have the right to do anything," you say--but not everything is beneficial. "I have the right to do anything"--but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. 

Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it." 

If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience...I am referring to the other person's conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another's conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God...For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

    Marvin Gaye wrote a song in 1961 with the following lyrics, "Let your conscience be your guide. It won't lie to you. If you live as others do someday you'll be blue..." There is some truth in these lyrics, but as Christians we need to remember that the Holy Spirit should be our guide. He will not lie to us, whereas sometimes our own "conscience" or our own thoughts about what is right and wrong, may not be as accurate as we may think. But the Holy Spirit will direct us to "do it all for the glory of God," so that whatever we do, whether dieting, exercising, eating or drinking, we don't seek your own good, "but the good of others."

Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 (NIV) A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?