Truth About Clean and Unclean

 

“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,” Romans 14:17.

 

There is a certain chocolate-covered peanut candy with a hard candy shell-—that does not melt in your hands—I absolutely enjoy eating it. If there were  a small bowl of this candy in front of me, I will probably eat the entire bowl. If there were a fifty-gallon drum full of this candy in front of me, I would probably not be able to prevent myself from trying to eat it all. It is a weakness, I admit it.  Consequently, we do not keep that candy in the house consistently. I know that it is essentially harmless in small quantities. But I also know that my own natural tendency is to turn something harmless into an opportunity for uncontrolled gluttony, which would create a problem between me and my God. I must determine whether the exposure to temptation is worth the risk to sin.

 

In the text, Paul explained that he was convinced there was nothing unclean in and of itself. That is, there is no food or drink one could ingest in moderation that would affect his standing before God as His child. But in our human weakness, when it comes to food and drink, we need to understand there are at least two different kinds of people. (1) There are those who are tempted to overindulge by certain foods or drinks. (2) There are others who believe in their hearts that if they indulged in certain foods or drinks at all, they would be doing something wrong.  How do we get along and grow in the kingdom of God? We go out of our way to make sure we do not put stumbling blocks in each others’ paths and make the kingdom of God about food and drink when there are far greater blessings available—righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

 

JUST A THOUGHT

 

Will you deny yourself physical pleasure to enjoy

 

spiritual blessings today?

 

Mark Clements