Restricting freedoms

God once called on Peter in a dream to eat anything presented before him on a rug. The things on the rug were all things that are deemed "unclean" within Jewish Law. Peter refused saying, "Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." God answers Peter with, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." (Acts 10)

The point of this story is to show that God has made many things clean now with redemption of the world in Jesus Christ. But that's not the whole story. If that is all you knew of the Bible than you would think that as a Christian you can do anything because it has been redeemed. And knowing that later in scripture the concept of asking for forgiveness is available to everyone all the time, then why would we ever obey any rules/laws from the Old Testament or now. This is where a point from 1 Corinthians needs to come into play.

1 Cor. 10:23-24: "'Everything is permissible' - but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible' - but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others."

The 'everything is permissible' quote is referencing a common concept within the Corinthian church. So the moral of the lesson is that everything is neither beneficial nor constructive. Our goal should not be doing whatever we want to gain what is best for us, as followers of Jesus Christ we are meant to care about others before ourselves. It is undeniable that Jesus lived a life dedicated to and for the benefit of the lives of other people. You don't withstand spiritual temptation, being completely socially ostracized, beatings, full spiritual separation from the Father and death because it is good for you.

Many of the things we do in our lives need to be filtered through whether or not that thing is going to help or hinder others. For example, when around a recovering alcoholic choosing not to drink would be the best option. Though you may think there is nothing wrong with having a glass of wine with dinner is okay, enjoying that wine in front of someone battling an addiction to it would be putting undue temptation in the face of that person.

So my challenge is for everyone to start filtering their actions through a screen of 'what is best for those around me.' This should not be done to the fault of people pleasing, but your own desires and good should not be enacted to the detriment of others. If more business owners and executives followed this example, would we have our current financial crisis? So why not try to do it everyday in our own lives?