Greetings, everyone! After reading the PuritanBoard as an onlooker for a while, I've decided to join it. So, for my first post, I wanted to ask what thoughts you all might have regarding 1 Corinthians 10:31 and its command for us to do everything for the glory of God. The way I presently see it, this command requires us to always have an underlying intention to do acts that will glorify God. This underlying intention, I think, need not be consciously contemplated at all times, but should always be guiding one's behavior, akin to how a father's intention to provide his family with food guides his behavior as he performs hard manual labor for payment, even though he may not be consciously contemplating his intention or his ultimate goal while working. So, to use a concrete example, watching television should be done with the underlying intention to glorify God, perhaps through the relief of stress, which then will enable one to more effectively serve the Lord. It is worth noting that if someone really does have this underlying desire for something, then one will usually refuse to engage in acts that are not conducive to that end, just as the working father in the case above will (usually) choose not to, say, play drinking games with his friends after work since playing drinking games does nothing to help him to provide food for his family. So, my questions are:
(1) Is the command of 1 Corinthians 10:31 applicable to us today, or was it applicable only to the Corinthians? If the former, then how might one show this exegetically?
(2) Is the account of action I gave above in accordance with the biblical teaching from 1 Corinthians? If not, what would be the proper account?
(3) How does one deal with cases in which one can achieve the same goals through other means. Suppose, like in the example above, one desires to relieve one's stress through watching television. If there were such thing as a stress-relieving pill that was known to produce the same result, would it then be impermissible to watch television since television can carry more spiritual risks than the pill would? When we engage in merriment, should we do so only when it is necessary for us to glorify God?
Thank you for reading, and I look forward to seeing how we might go about answering these questions.
(1) Is the command of 1 Corinthians 10:31 applicable to us today, or was it applicable only to the Corinthians? If the former, then how might one show this exegetically?
(2) Is the account of action I gave above in accordance with the biblical teaching from 1 Corinthians? If not, what would be the proper account?
(3) How does one deal with cases in which one can achieve the same goals through other means. Suppose, like in the example above, one desires to relieve one's stress through watching television. If there were such thing as a stress-relieving pill that was known to produce the same result, would it then be impermissible to watch television since television can carry more spiritual risks than the pill would? When we engage in merriment, should we do so only when it is necessary for us to glorify God?
Thank you for reading, and I look forward to seeing how we might go about answering these questions.