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Verse of the day

All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable All things are lawful, but not all things edify. 1 Corinthians 10:23(NASB)

1 Corinthians 10:23

Thoughts on Today’s Verse
As believers, we live in the Church dispensation and we are not under the Law but under grace. Unlike all other religions, including many denominations in Christendom, we do not have to do certain things or abstain from other things in order to please our God. All we have to do to please God is to trust in Jesus as Saviour, by grace, through faith, knowing that He is God and that He rewards all who diligently seek Him.

We do not have a series of do’s and don’ts to comply with as believers, but we do have the Word of God that outlines all that He expects from His children. His plan is that the new-life-in-Christ that we received when we were born again, grows in grace and in a knowledge of the Lord Jesus, and that the beautiful character of Jesus is formed in us, as we live our lives in spirit and truth by submitting to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit within.

The liberty that we have in the Church dispensation causes some believers to worry that Christians who do not have a series of do’s and don’ts to comply with in the Christian life, are likely to think that our liberty is a licence to sin. “May it never be!” would be Paul’s vehement reaction, and should be the counteraction of all that are one with Christ, as part of His Body and a member of the household of God. God is holy, and His children should be holy too, set apart to do His bidding. But God desires that we live holy lives in the liberty of our free-will, and not by having to comply with restrictive rules of legalism – and the Word of God is our guide.

There is much guidance to believers who live in the Church age on how to conduct our lives in a way that is pleasing to God. A brief look at the gracious life of the Lord Jesus, Whose prayer was always “Thy will not mine be done,” together with a study of the directives of Paul in his Church epistles, tells us very plainly how God expects each of His children to conduct their lives. Believers are one in Christ and should encourage and edify each other. The liberty we have should not be a stumbling block to other believers: “All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build people up.” 

Let us live holy lives that are well pleasing to the Lord so that all we say and do is helpful and edifying to the Body of Christ. And as we walk in newness of life, may we grow more like Jesus, day by day.

My Prayer
Loving Father, thank You for the liberty I have in Christ. Help me to live a life that is worthy of You. Help me to be helpful and edifying to my brothers and sisters in Christ, in all I say and do. May I be increasingly conformed to the likeness of Christ, in Whose name I pray, AMEN.

Bible References

23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast.

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

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