The AMI QT Devotionals from March 13-20 are provided by Pastor Jason Sato of OTR in Cincinnati. Jason, a graduate of UC San Diego (B.S.) and Westminster Theological Seminary in California (M.Div.), is married to Jessica, and they have two young children: Jonah and Lily.
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT FOR TODAY
To Eat or Not To Eat
1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1 (ESV)
“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. [24] Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. [25] Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. [26] For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” [27] If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. [28] But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—[29] I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? [30] If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?
[31] So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. [32] Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, [33] just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. [4:1] Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
In Living Water’s after-school program, one of our most popular songs has a refrain that goes: “Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh do remember me – way beyond the blue.” While this song is catchy and fun, I’m not sure what that line is getting at. When we like a song or a quote but we’re uncertain as to what it means, we tend to fill in the blanks ourselves. Sometimes we do this to Scripture.
I have heard (and probably given) many teachings on 1 Corinthians 10:31 (“whether you eat or drink…do all to the glory of God”) and 11:1 (“be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”). These are amazingly inspiring words, but I’ve often felt that they were sort of vague in regards to application. This is probably because I was reading these verses out of context.
Paul is making a very clear point. In v. 25-27, Paul instructs believers not to raise any question when sharing a meal with their host. This is so that believers can enjoy the meat as well as not trouble their unbelieving host. In v. 28-29, Paul then teaches believers to refrain from eating the same meat if it bothers the conscience of another person (either another guest, an unbeliever, who assumes Christians should not eat the meat offered to idols, or a believing guest with a weak conscience). Again, the Christian’s goal is to avoid troubling the other person. Therefore, the decision of whether to eat/drink or not is a battle between the believer’s freedom and another’s conscience. The decision is decided by the same principle: do what troubles the other person least. This glorifies God (v. 31).
Christians are called to “give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God” (v. 32). This does not mean that Christians are to be people-pleasers. No, we are people willing to surrender our own advantage that many might be saved. We are not interested in avoiding conflict but in the eternal salvation of all peoples for the glory of God.
This was the concern and practice of the apostle Paul, and according to him and all Scriptures, this was and is the concern and practice of the Lord Jesus Christ (11:1).
Brothers and Sisters, may God reveal to us which freedom and preference hinder our witness so that we may freely surrender them.
Prayer: Oh Lord, forgive me, for I often trouble others for my own benefit. Open my eyes to the beauty of Your Son that I may be free to seek the advantage of others unto their salvation.
Bible Reading for Today: Matthew 8
They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Whether this is sound dating advice or not, we understand that sharing a meal is about much more than counting calories or satisfying hunger. Birthday parties, weddings, and many other events are purposely scheduled at meal times because food is intimately connected with relationships.
We expect children and even adolescents to have misplaced priorities: they want to play, not eat; they want to jump off things, not stay safe; they care about being cool, not the future. But we expect adults to be wiser. I don’t know about you, but I’ve surprised (or disappointed) myself with my foolishness more times than I’d like to admit.
When I was in junior high, my friends and I would rep “AzN PRiDe.” I’m not entirely sure what random capitalization or spikey hair had to do with being Asian, but underneath it was a desire to find a group of people to identify with—or to put it another way, to be with people with whom I felt most comfortable.
The AMI QT Devotionals from March 13-20 are provided by Pastor Jason Sato of OTR in Cincinnati. Jason, a graduate of UC San Diego (B.S.) and Westminster Theological Seminary in California (M.Div.), is married to Jessica, and they have two young children: Jonah and Lily. 
My daughter, around her second birthday, more or less potty-trained herself; my wife and I simply acted as cheerleaders. Now, when a toddler uses the toilet, you congratulate and celebrate; the child should feel proud and accomplished. However, when a forty-year-old man properly uses the toilet, it would be an odd moment to give hi-fives.
Some of America’s most celebrated heroes are those who stood up for their rights and the rights of others: Cesar Chavez fought for migrant workers’ rights; Susan B. Anthony fought for women’s rights; Martin Luther King Jr. fought for civil rights. They were courageous and inspirational. They are still admired today and rightly so.
After writing about singleness and marriage from 1 Corinthians, I thought it would be fitting to end my week of blogs with some thoughts on the family. In the eighties there was show on PBS hosted by John Bradshaw that unpacked the role that our family of origin has on our personality formation. The research is hard to deny. As individuals, we are a product of our upbringing and therefore, we are not as free or as independent as we think we are. Our families impact us to degrees that are unimaginable and outside of our scope of conscious thought. So this has a trickledown effect: if individuals are sick emotionally, this means that our family systems are sick; if our families are dysfunctional, society as a whole manifests these symptoms of brokenness. In his book on the family, Bradshaw cites that “…shame is the source of most of the disturbing inner states which deny full human life. Depression, alienation, self-doubt, isolating loneliness, paranoid and schizoid phenomena, compulsive disorders, splitting of the self, perfectionism, a deep sense of inferiority, inadequacy or failure, the so-called borderline conditions and disorders of narcissism, all result from shame. Shame is a kind of soul murder. Forged in the matrix of our source relationships, shame conditions every other relationship in our lives.”
In our day and age, it has become increasingly unpopular to talk about sin and its consequences. But because we tend not to identify sin, it festers and grows unchecked and ignored. In the early 70’s, the influential American psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote a book entitled Whatever Became of Sin? From his vantage point in the field of mental health (he began as a professor at Harvard Medical school in the 1920’s to the writing of this book in the 70s), he witnessed a dramatic change in the average American’s attitude towards sin. In the opening of his book, he makes this observation:
One excuse that people make to avoid obeying the commands of God is the right for believers to exercise their Christian liberty. However, we need to understand that Christian freedom is not a license to do whatever we want to do. You cannot make the Bible a book of mere suggestions when in fact, these are the very commands of God. Therefore, the Scriptures give us wisdom on how to exercise our Christian liberties and outlines the limits of our freedom.