1 Corinthians 10:23-33 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.… The main cause of men's prejudices against the gospel was that it not only pretended to mysteries far above human understanding, but enjoined such things as were intolerable to human sense. And seeing that this phrase is so hard to be understood, and so much harder to be practised, I shall endeavour — I. TO EXPLAIN THE SENSE OF IT. "Let no man seek his own," i.e. — 1. Be selfish in his designs, be of a narrow private spirit; but let him have an open heart and a public mind. 2. So as to injure or neglect others; but let him also seek another's wealth, and not only his wealth, but his safety, peace, content, honour, everlasting good. Let no man lay it as the first principle of his thoughts, words, and actions, How shall I improve my own affairs? But, How shall I make other people happy? II. TO SHOW THE REASONABLENESS OF IT — the goodness, the agreeableness of it to our interest. Consider — 1. That no good man is a separate and entire being of himself; he is but a part of a whole, or a member of a body. That which gives life and heat to any member is the circulation of spirits that is in common to the whole body. Therefore when ye are bid not to seek your own, ye are bid to live and be happy in the common benefits of mankind; to have an interest in that which others have. It is for your own preservation and happiness that ye are bid not to seek your own. 2. That we ourselves are not our own; we have a proprietor which is God. We neither made ourselves, nor are we anything but what He pleases to make us; and therefore it is very improper to call ourselves, or anything we have, our own, and to seek anything as our own is to withdraw ourselves from Him in whom we life and move and have our being; but not to seek our own — that is, not to place our hopes and desires on anything but God — is to entitle ourselves to His care and protection. 3. That upon the text we may build safely and innocently the greatest self-interest. For if we dedicate all our desires and acquisitions to God, then, and not till then, everything we possess is properly our own; everything we enjoy is the free gift and blessing of God. III. TO DIRECT TO THE PRACTICE OF IT. 1. Our Lord "came unto His own, and His own received Him not," etc. His own were those whose benefit He designed. So, following His example, we may make many things our own which otherwise we should have no relation to. We may "make to ourselves friends, e.g., of the mammon of unrighteousness." The mammon itself will fail them that seek it, but the friends we make with it will never fail us. The poor we have always with us, and we may make them our own, our relations and dependents here; and they, under Christ, will be our advocates hereafter. If we seek out a distressed family to relieve it, that will be our own family, it will always own us before God, and we ourselves shall enjoy, as it were, the affluence, the refreshments, the joys of that family. 2. But that reward must not be the only motive. That will be seeking our own, if what we do for others be only upon the hopes that God will pay it back to us; and much less may we propose to ourselves any temporal advantage from the benefits we confer upon our brethren. We must not do good to our tenants or servants because they may be the better able to pay us or serve us, but because they have a dependence upon us. So likewise in duties to ourselves we must not seek our own upon selfish motives; we must not be temperate for the sake only of health, but in obedience to God and for a good example to others. We must not be sober and discreet only because we are in such a place or office, but because we possess the gospel of Christ and are called by His name. We must not be industrious and frugal that we may fill our bags, but because we have a family to provide for, or some great acts of charity to perform. We must not do great and glorious actions for the reputation that we may gain, but for the glory of God and the honour of our country. All our designs must be of a large and regular circumference, our hopes and desires must be elevated above ourselves. 3. But every one must consider himself as no more than one among the rest of mankind — a servant of Christ's and a member of His body; and therefore he must seek that only as is most pleasing to His Lord and most beneficial to the advantage of the whole. As a tree that brings not forth for itself, but for others. He must look upon himself as poor and miserable, when he has not an opportunity of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, etc. He must seek opportunities of doing all this and much more; and he must rejoice when he hath found out a way of making others happy. For as the enemy of God and man "goes about seeking whom he may devour," so he who will be a friend to God and man must go about seeking whom he may support. (S. Pratt, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. |
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