31 So,
whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1
Corinthians 10:31
Richard Lenski called this principle “the ultimate principle of all Christian
action.”[1] This principle is indeed very foundational.
What makes it interesting is the fact that the Apostle Paul speaks of
this principle to address an issue of eating in the church of Corinth. But why so serious? Isn’t eating just a small matter? Every day we eat. Commonly we eat more than once a day. We eat rice, bread, meat, veggies, candies,
ice cream, and the list goes on. Eating
as an issue is not as big as murder or adultery or blasphemy. But for this seemingly small matter, Paul has
to reveal to the Corinthians “the ultimate principle of all Christian action.”
There was an issue among the
Corinthians regarding eating. The
problem was that in the meat market some meats sold there were first dedicated
to idols. This issue was huge in the
first century because the worship of idols was a hot topic among
Christians. Eating meat that was first
used to worship idols was an extension of the main issue of idol worship. While the Christians eating the meat did not
actually take part in the idol worship, some Christians thought that the meat
was considered defiled by the idols, and thus ought not to be eaten by
Christians, otherwise those who eat it would be defiled as well. This matter might not be a big issue for the
21st century Christians, but it was then.
Now, the issue was first surfaced due
to the Jewish’ influence. Richard Pratt
studied the history and pointed out:
The rabbis placed many restrictions on
Jews who lived in pagan cities like Corinth. Jews had to be sure they bought
meat only from shops that were kosher.[2]
Some of the believers adopted the Jewish’s code of conduct
regarding kosher food. The tendency to
maintain superficial purity was strong, that even a simple dinner invitation
could be a case for spiritual judgment.
Pratt observed:
But this was not Paul’s policy.
Believers could eat anything sold …
without raising questions about whether the meat had been sacrificed to an
idol. Paul supported his counsel by quoting Psalm 24:1: The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. Jews often used this
phrase in mealtime prayers. Paul used it to assert that the Lord is the only
true God of all things, and that idols are insignificant. Followers of Christ
could eat without raising questions of
conscience—without asking questions about the meat’s history that might
trouble the conscience of others.[3]
Thus this becomes a serious matter for
Paul. Eventually this seemingly small
issue is not small at all. The ultimate
principle, or what Robertson Nicoll called as “The supreme
maxim of duty”[4]
must be spoken so as to govern even the smallest action. John Calvin reflected on this and commented:
Lest they should think, that in so
small a matter they should not be so careful to avoid blame, he teaches that
there is no part of our life, and no action so minute, that it ought not to be
directed to the glory of God, and that we must take care that, even in eating
and drinking, we may aim at the advancement of it.[5]
The main operating word here is “to
the glory of God.” This is the
heart of the ultimate principle. But
what exactly is the meaning of “the glory
of God”? We are often blinded by the
big word that its meaning slips away from our consciousness. Paul Ellingworth and Howard Hutton explained
the meaning of “whatever you do, do all
to the glory of God”:
“do
everything in such a way that God will be honored.”[6]
If even eating and drinking, those small matters that we
often take for granted, we must do it so that God will be honored, how much
more things that are greater than those?
This
principle is in no way small or easy to do.
If we are honest, we often stumble upon this principle. The Westminster Catechism lists this as the
first and most important teaching we must internalize as a human being.
What is the chief and highest end of man?
Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, (Rom. 11:36, Cor. 10:31) and fully to enjoy him forever. (Ps. 73:24–28, John 17:21–23).[7]
We find it difficult to fathom the depth of this
principle. We are overwhelmed by the
word “to the glory of God” so that we
become confused. We often use this word
without really grasping its meaning. And
we quickly desire an easy solution or a quick fix, just like those in Corinth
who preferred to give in to the superficial purity. Thus we ask: “How then should we honor God in
our action?” We are ready to leave the
discussion about God’s glory and honor.
Focusing on our action is much easier than truly grasping the height of
God’s glory. So we abandon our quest to
fathom God’s glory and honor, and substitute it for the practical dos and
don’ts. In our confusion we feel more
secure to stick to the restrictions, even if we do not understand why we do or
not do those things. But that is not
what we are supposed to be.
As
followers of Christ, we ought to understand the true meaning of God’s glory and
honor. We must strive to grasp it to the
best of our knowledge. And here I shall
attempt to elaborate to you the meaning of it before we even attempt to put
this passage into our daily Christian practice.
Now, we have known the boundary of our conduct, in which Paul teaches
that in everything we must seek God’s honor.
That’s our boundary. Let me
borrow from Abraham Kuyper’s most famous quote:
“and there is not a square inch in the
whole domain of our human life of which Christ, Who is Sovereign of all,
does not cry: ‘Mine!’”[8]
Therefore, every single thing that we do must intentionally
be done so that God will be honored. In
short, the boundary is everything. This
includes our breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as snacks in between. This also includes the usage of our time,
what we do with our gadgets, how and what we think, as well as our
entertainment and relaxation choice of activities, the words we speak or not
speak, the work and job that we do, and the list is infinitely long.
Now that we
know that nothing should be exempted from honoring God, we must turn to the
true meaning of glorifying and honoring God.
The skeptics would say: “I can’t fathom God’s glory, so why even bother
to glorify God?” Let me tell you that
what the skeptics say is not true.
Because we know deep down the meaning of glorifying and honoring
God. A very important way to understand
a word is by understanding its opposite.
This is a general rule in philosophy.
So before we try to ponder the meaning of glory and honor in its
positive force, we shall attempt to understand it in its negative force. So let me pose the negative force question
here: “What does it mean to dishonor or not glorify God?”
Let me
bring this to the human level so that we could understand easier. We all have parents or at least someone who
took care of us as we grew up, I assume.
Because I do believe that we do not just grow up on our own. Someone must have taken care of us. This is just basic nature for humans. Now, what does it mean to dishonor our
parents? Dishonor is closely tied to the
context of shame, embarrassment, or humiliation. Let us try the word “humiliate” here. Do we honor our parents if we humiliate them? I believe we all can answer that question
with a resounding “No.” And you are
right, when we humiliate them, we do not honor them. Thus, it is safe then to understand the
meaning of honoring as not humiliating.
This is the first and very important meaning. And this meaning is also very practical.
How can we
humiliate our parents? One example is by
speaking harshly to them in public.
Another example is by speaking badly about them. Yet another example is by mocking them in
front of our friends of their quirkiness and whatever things they did that we
consider to be outdated. How do we then
honor our parents? Simply by not doing
things that would humiliate our parents.
In the same way we honor God by not doing things that would humiliate
God. This is the first practical thing
to do and the very first level we may attain in the matter of honoring. Let me give you an example.
There is a
Christian by the name of Boris. He
diligently goes to church every Sunday and actively serving the Lord in his
church. This year Boris is elected as an
elder in his church. Now, Boris is a
trader. He had a stock of corn in his
storehouse. He advertised his corn that
his corn is the best corn there is. Thus
Boris sold it with quite a high price. His
friends came to Boris buying his corn.
Finally Boris sold all his corn.
But then all his friends quickly came back to Boris complaining about
the sale. Andrew, Nina, David, Betty,
and many more sent Boris messages in his whatsapp telling him that the weight
is not accurate. Andrew said that his
100 kg corn weighed only 90 kg when he measured it in his store. Nina’s 1000 kg of corn weighed a mere 900 kg
when she measured it. David lost 50 kg
as he measured his 500 kg corn he bought from Boris. And Betty’s corn weighed 80 kg less than what
she purchased. Finally it was found out
that Boris had cheated 10% from the weight measurement. His friends sent to Boris a message saying:
“I thought you are a Christian Boris, why did you cheat me? Aren’t Christians not supposed to
cheat?” Brothers and sisters, did Boris
honor God or humiliate God in his shrewd dealing?
How about
the positive force of glorifying and honoring God? Let me caution you that we can’t exhaust it
here. But let me focus on one thing at
this point, obedience. Actively obeying
God means positively glorifying and honoring God. Why so?
Obedience is our voluntary act to follow and do what God has
commanded. When we obey God, we are in
tune with Him. Just like our body, when
our hand is in tune with our head, then as our head commands our hand to pick
up the book, the hand would obey and do as told without grumbling or complaining. Why Moses was considered dishonoring God when
he strikes the rock twice?
10 Then Moses
and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them,
“Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up
his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out
abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. 12 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because
you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of
Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have
given them.” 13 These
are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself
holy.
(Numbers 20:10-13)
Because,
6 Then Moses
and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of
meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, 7 and
the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff, and
assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before
their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for
them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” 9 And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him. (Numbers 20:6-9)
The Lord did not instruct Moses to strike the rock, but
merely tell the rock to yield water. The
miracle was meant to be performed through mere words, no striking
necessary. Yet Moses disobeyed the
Lord. When Moses disobeyed the Lord, he
dishonored the Lord. To demonstrate
God’s holiness, Moses was supposed to mimic the Lord. As the Lord gave instructions to the people,
Moses too was supposed to instruct the rock.
The Lord’s instruction was to be obeyed, and so when Moses, as he was
supposed to do but didn’t, instructed the rock, the rock would obey. The Lord did not need to strike Israel so as
to command their obedience. In the same
way, Moses did not need to strike the rock so as to command its obedience.
Therefore,
to positively glorify God we are to actively obey Him. The Lord instructs His people to do to others
what they would want others do to them (Matthew 7:12). Boris was supposed to deal with his customers
honestly. He should not cheat. Boris too would not like it if someone
cheated on him. So he ought to
positively obey the Lord’s instruction, and in that way he would honor the
Lord.
To glorify
God in everything we do is “the ultimate
principle of all Christian action.”
Whatever we do, we must intentionally aim them to honor God. Negatively, if it does not honor God, do not
do it. Positively, if what we are about
to do is in tune with His command, then we must do it regardless of the
consequences that entail. God’s ultimate
grace to us is when He gave His Son to redeem us from sin and eternal death. Jesus actively obeyed the Father and in that
way He honored the Father. Jesus obeyed
the Father even when life came to Him unjustly and brutally. Thus in Him we are now saved. This is the ultimate grace. And moreover, Jesus’ act of obedience, His
act of honoring God, serves as our ultimate model of life that is glorifying
God. There are many more things we can
elaborate regarding the matter of glorifying God, but space and time does not
allow us to do so right now. I want to
close with this: if we truly put this simple teaching into practice, we can
truly sing the glory of God – the doxology: “For from him and through him and
to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36). Amen.
[1] R. C. H.
Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s First
and Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg
Publishing House, 1963), 424–425.
[2] Richard L.
Pratt Jr, I & II Corinthians, vol. 7,
Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman
Publishers, 2000), 169.
[3] Richard L.
Pratt Jr, I & II Corinthians, vol. 7,
Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman
Publishers, 2000), 169.
[4] W. Robertson Nicoll, The Expositor’s Greek Testament: Commentary, vol. 2 (New York: George H.
Doran Company, n.d.), 869.
[5] John Calvin
and John Pringle, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul
the Apostle to the Corinthians, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible
Software, 2010), 347.
[6] Paul
Ellingworth, Howard Hatton, and Paul Ellingworth, A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to
the Corinthians,
UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1995), 237.
[7] The Westminster Larger Catechism: With
Scripture Proofs.
(Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996).
[8] Kuyper, Abraham. Sphere Sovereignty: A public address
delivered at the Inauguration of the Free University, Oct. 20, 1880,
tr. George Kemps, p. 26.
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