”So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” — 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV)
The last three stops on this journey moved us gently outward. We sat down at the feet of Jesus and heard Him name the one thing. We opened empty hands and let the God of hope fill us. Then we rose to serve, and learned to do our part and let God give the growth.
But the moment you rise and serve, you run into other people. And other people are where a quiet danger lives — the danger of being completely right and still doing harm.
Paul is writing to a church that loved its freedom. They knew their rights, and they were not wrong about them. “I have the right to do anything,” they said — and Paul, remarkably, doesn’t argue. He agrees. Then he sets a second sentence beside the first, and it reorders everything: “but not everything is beneficial… No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.” (1 Corinthians 10:23–24)
Read that slowly, friend, because it hands you a better question. Most of us live by the first one — Am I allowed? Is this permitted? Am I free? And often the honest answer is yes. Yes, you’re free. Yes, you’re right. But Paul says maturity asks a deeper thing: Who is watching, and will this trip them up?
If some ordinary freedom — what you eat, what you drink, what you post, how you spend an afternoon — would wound another woman’s conscience or cloud her view of Christ, love does not stand on its rights. Love yields. Not because your convictions are small, but because a soul is large. It is a small thing, really, to lay down a preference next to someone’s eternal life.
And notice what that yielding is not. It is not people-pleasing. It is not losing yourself in everyone’s opinion. Paul isn’t telling you to be ruled by what people think; he’s telling you to be ruled by love for what God is doing in them. Those are different masters entirely. One shrinks you. The other frees you — because you no longer have to win. You get to ask the bigger question and let it lead.
Here is where it lands: “whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (v31). Not for the glory of being right. Not for the satisfaction of the point well made. For His glory, and — Paul says it plainly — for the good of “the many, so that they may be saved” (v33). That is the whole aim. When you serve among people, you are never only handling a task; you are always near a soul.
So this week, think of the room you keep trying to win. The relative who does it differently. The sister at church who lands on the other side of some disputable thing. Before you exercise your freedom, ask the better question: Who’s watching? What would love do here? And then, free and unhurried, choose them. You will not have lost a thing. You will have looked the most like Jesus you’ve looked all week.
—
This post is part of the At His Feet, In His Service journey — a Mary and Martha walk into rest and mission, for women who love God and are weary of running on empty. We gather live every Tuesday night for Summer at His Feet, and we’re in the final weeks — there’s still room for you. Come walk it with us in the community, where we’re learning to serve from the overflow and love the people we’re serving. Join us at https://awakewomensministry.com.