Being and Becoming Christian

Dad was the kind of man who it is all or nothing. Randy and I watched him turn up the heat to 90 degrees if he was cold, After awhile of heat, he would get too hot and turn the thermostat in house or car back down to the lowest setting. He wanted maximum comfort…for him…as soon as possible. It was all or nothing for dad.

I think of this funny memory of dad as I read Paul’s continued warnings about being all or nothing for Christ. He warns the Corinthians who are troubled about eating meat sacrificed to idols to not miss the big picture in all of this. Be grateful to God and ask for His blessings! Do we do that sometimes in the church? Do we miss the big picture while arguing over the details of our Christianity? Yeah, sometimes we do. We should be all or nothing for Christ, not all or nothing with each other over minor details. Mm. Let’s read and discover the deeper issue here…

1 Corinthians 10, The Message
15-18 I assume I’m addressing believers now who are mature. Draw your own conclusions: When we drink the cup of blessing, aren’t we taking into ourselves the blood, the very life, of Christ? And isn’t it the same with the loaf of bread we break and eat? Don’t we take into ourselves the body, the very life, of Christ? Because there is one loaf, our many-ness becomes one-ness—Christ doesn’t become fragmented in us. Rather, we become unified in him. We don’t reduce Christ to what we are; he raises us to what he is. That’s basically what happened even in old Israel—those who ate the sacrifices offered on God’s altar entered into God’s action at the altar.

19-22 Do you see the difference? Sacrifices offered to idols are offered to nothing, for what’s the idol but a nothing? Or worse than nothing, a minus, a demon! I don’t want you to become part of something that reduces you to less than yourself. And you can’t have it both ways, banqueting with the Master one day and slumming with demons the next. Besides, the Master won’t put up with it. He wants us—all or nothing. Do you think you can get off with anything less?

23-24 Looking at it one way, you could say, “Anything goes. Because of God’s immense generosity and grace, we don’t have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster.” But the point is not to just get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.

25-28 With that as a base to work from, common sense can take you the rest of the way. Eat anything sold at the butcher shop, for instance; you don’t have to run an “idolatry test” on every item. “The earth,” after all, “is God’s, and everything in it.” That “everything” certainly includes the leg of lamb in the butcher shop. If a nonbeliever invites you to dinner and you feel like going, go ahead and enjoy yourself; eat everything placed before you. It would be both bad manners and bad spirituality to cross-examine your host on the ethical purity of each course as it is served. On the other hand, if he goes out of his way to tell you that this or that was sacrificed to god or goddess so-and-so, you should pass. Even though you may be indifferent as to where it came from, he isn’t, and you don’t want to send mixed messages to him about who you are worshiping.

29-30 But, except for these special cases, I’m not going to walk around on eggshells worrying about what small-minded people might say; I’m going to stride free and easy, knowing what our large-minded Master has already said. If I eat what is served to me, grateful to God for what is on the table, how can I worry about what someone will say? I thanked God for it and he blessed it!

31-33 So eat your meals heartily, not worrying about what others say about you—you’re eating to God’s glory, after all, not to please them. As a matter of fact, do everything that way, heartily and freely to God’s glory. At the same time, don’t be callous in your exercise of freedom, thoughtlessly stepping on the toes of those who aren’t as free as you are. I try my best to be considerate of everyone’s feelings in all these matters; I hope you will be, too.

What do we learn?
–“We don’t reduce Christ to what we are; he raises us to what he is.” (It’s not about us, it’s about Christ in us.)
–“The point is not to just get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.” (Again, it’s not about us, it’s about Christ in us helping others know Him, too.)
–“He wants us—all or nothing. Do you think you can get off with anything less?” (It’s all about Jesus Christ, not our stuff, our jobs, etc. of this world.)
–Do everything for the glory of God!
–Be considerate, kind and well mannered while making it clear it is God that you worship and serve.

Dear Heavenly Father, Although this dissertation of Paul to the people of Corinth seems ambiguous at times, I get the point. I’m all in. You have me, Lord…ALL of me. May all that I think, say and do be pleasing and honorable to You, giving You glory and praise all day long. Help us to be at Your best in us.
In Jesus Name, Amen