Drink Away, My Friend! Drink Away!

1 Corinthians 10:31-33 (ESV)
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.  Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, 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."

Tomorrow morning I will be preaching on 1 Corinthians 10:23-33 where I will primarily be focusing on verse 31.  In that verse Paul states that everything we do should be to the glory of God.  Of course, our mission at First Baptist is to glorify God by making disciples and this verse is actually one of the verses the church choose long before I came to  minister to represent their mission.  This verse standing alone is very powerful, but when put into the perspective of the context I believe it becomes even more powerful.

Every week I find a few things that I could say in my sermon that would be challenging and some things, if said, would be very unsettling.  When I study for my messages I try to take the context into account and try to understand the author's perspective rather than what I want to hear.  This passage is no different.  When I read and studied the nine verses before 1 Corinthians 10:31 I began to see where Paul was coming from and what he was trying to convey to the church in Corinth.  In this passage Paul is talking about our freedom as believers.  He says very plainly in verse 23, "'All things are lawful,' but not all things are helpful. 'All things are lawful,' but not all things build up."  In other words, as believers we are free to do many things without the fear of conviction, as long as it is not sinful.  But even those things, though we can do them with good conscience, are no always the best things for us. 

Here is an example: Drinking alcohol is not sinful, but it may not be the best thing for me to do.  Especially is it is against another's conscience.  Though I may not have a problem with drinking, someone else around me (believer or unbeliever) may and so Paul says that we should not drink in front of them lest we violate their conscience.  We do this not because I need to please others around me, but because the guy who doesn't want me to drink is the weaker brother and so I must be willing to help that weaker brother in his growth in Christ, even it means stopping something that is rightfully allowable.

The background to verse 31 is based off of our freedom as believers without violating the conscience of the weaker brother or unbelieving friend.  "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."  We do things in our life not because we want to prove a point of our freedom in Christ, but because we are to bring glory to God through everything.  If it takes for me to not drink to bring God glory than so be it.  But if someone's conscience is not violated then I say, "Drink away, my friend!  Drink away!"  Just do it for God's glory and not to prove a point.