If *I* partake with thanksgiving, why am I spoken evil of for what *I* give thanks for?
Paul is finishing a long answer about meat offered to idols, and he ends it with a question rather than a rule. If he thanks God for his food, why should anyone criticise him for it — and when should he give up that freedom for someone else's sake?
Before the restraint comes the liberty. Paul had told them to buy in the market and eat at an unbeliever's table without cross-examining the food.
We may well thank God for the liberty that is set out in this passage. It would have been an unbearable burden to the early Christians if they had to trace the history of every piece of meat. That means every piece they bought in the markets, or ate in the house of someone they knew. For us today, life is far more complicated and artificial, so it would be ten times worse. God's will for His people is plain. They are to accept the conditions they are in, and take a simple path through them. They are not to go hunting for sources of trouble, whether the question is meat or anything else.
The verse does not say "if I eat" but "if I partake with thankfulness." Thanks, not a prayer for permission, is what sets ordinary food apart for a believer's use.
Scripture says that everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. The common idea is that we must pray over each meal before we can properly eat it. But the opposite is true: the Christian's new position makes it holy. "All things are yours… the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours." The action Scripture asks from us is not prayer but thanksgiving… So the Christian's meal-table becomes an altar of praise.
Paul's question is not a defence of his right to press on regardless. He has just said that he will not eat if someone points out that the food came from an idol sacrifice. The reason is the other person's conscience, not his own.
In such a case it is good to deny oneself. Better not to let another judge one's liberty, or to bring evil speaking on oneself for the thing for which I give thanks. In love, one must respect the conscience of the weakest believer, while holding on to the understanding and liberty of Christ.
Refusing the meat is not the collapse of freedom. It is freedom put to a different use. It aims to remove the very thing the verse calls being denounced — someone speaking evil of you.
If I have liberty, let me express it in such a way that the other man's conscience will not judge it. For if my eating would make him stumble, then let me use my liberty not to eat, and his conscience will not judge my liberty. If I partake with thanksgiving to God, why act in a way that gives another cause to speak evil of me? And that over the very thing for which I give thanks!
A believer who walks into such a setting has almost no safe move left.
A believer should not put himself carelessly in a place of danger. He may dull his own conscience by going along with evil — sharing with sinners on their own terms. Or he may cause offence, by acting against the habits and prejudices of the people he has chosen to join. His unbelieving host will judge him either way: for inconsistency if he goes along with it, for stubborn bigotry if he refuses.
Read as a whole, the passage supplies a set of tests far wider than food.
Taking this passage as a whole, we may notice five valuable points. They guide us as to whether any course is according to the will of God, or not. What is according to His will (1) is lawful, (2) is useful or profitable, (3) builds up oneself or others, (4) is to the glory of God, (5) gives no occasion of stumbling to anyone. People often ask, How may I get guidance? Well, here is guidance of a very sure and definite kind. Are we always so willing to be guided when we get the guidance?
- Free. God does not ask you to trace the history of every meal. That freedom is itself a reason to thank Him.
- Thankful. Scripture asks for thanks at the table. That turns an ordinary meal into an altar of praise.
- Limited. When another believer's conscience is troubled, it is good to go without, rather than let someone judge your freedom.
- Redirected. Refusing to eat does not lose your freedom. It uses it — so nobody can speak evil of what you thanked God for.
- Directed. Test any course by five marks: lawful, useful, building up, God's glory, and no stumbling for others.
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all things to God's glory.
Paul closes a long argument about food. He ends it with no list of allowed foods. Instead he gives one standard wide enough to cover eating, drinking, and everything else a person does.
Paul settles the food dispute by changing the question. He moves it off what a person is allowed to do.
The apostle then lays down the still larger and golden rule of Christian conduct: "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." … If someone does everything for God's glory, he is not chasing his own pleasure. He gives it up. So he puts no stumbling block in front of anyone — Jews, Gentiles, or God's assembly. Love alone walks that way, seeking God's glory and man's good.
Eating and drinking are the plainest things a body does. That is why Paul names them.
Let us connect the most ordinary things with Christ's will and glory. Nothing is closer to mere animal life than eating and drinking. Yet the word of God would have us take up even these things for the highest purpose. And no way is so simple and sure as the faith that looks upward and receives them in His name.
Under the law, categories of clean and unclean decided what was holy to eat. The New Testament works differently, and this verse shows how.
In the letters, "You shall" and "You shall not" are strikingly absent. Instead of a list of clean and unclean foods, we find a general principle. The believer applies it to each case as it comes up. "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor 10:31). Because the Christian has the "mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16) and has received "not the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7), he can judge by the word whether a thing is for God's glory, and act on what he sees.
One writer sets the rule against two opposite mistakes about food.
"Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" checks two things at once. It checks heavy indulgence in luxuries. It also checks a monk-like refusal of "foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth."
The standard applies case by case. So it becomes a working test for anything a believer is unsure about.
The question the true believer has to ask about everything that comes before him is simply, "Can I do this to the glory of God? Can I connect the Name of Christ with it?" If not, he must not touch it.
The same writer tells a reader with a divided mind to wait instead of pushing ahead.
So do not do anything with a doubtful mind. "Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." Look to the Lord for guidance in this. See whether you can do it to His glory, and if not, lay it aside.
Two people can do the identical thing. The verse reaches past the action to what drives it.
You may get two men doing exactly the same thing, only with different motives. With the Christian, Christ is his only motive, or ought to be. He may have a thousand things to do, the common duties of life. But he can serve Christ in them. There I get a motive strong enough. … The common things of life do not make a person unspiritual. I must attend to them, and do them well. But if my motive in doing them is Christ, it is a mistake to think they harm my spiritual life.
Darby links the power to obey this verse to staying close to Christ.
You will not have spiritual discernment or power of motive unless the heart is kept near to Christ.
- One rule. This is the golden rule of Christian conduct. A food dispute ends with a standard that covers every action.
- Wide reach. God's glory reaches eating and drinking, the things closest to mere animal life, and lifts them to the highest purpose.
- Real freedom. Instead of lists of clean and unclean, the believer gets one principle to apply case by case. It checks both self-indulgence and needless self-denial.
- A usable test. Ask of anything: can I do this to God's glory, can I connect Christ's name with it? If not, leave it; and never act with a divided mind.
- The motive decides. Two people may do the same act; what makes it glory to God is Christ as the motive — and that comes from a heart kept near to Him.