Selfless

1 Corinthians 10:33


Paul was probably one of the nicest people you could ever meet. The only time I see him getting angry with someone in scripture is when he disagrees with another church leader over something. So, he's passionate about what he believes, but not arrogant about it.


He seems to go out of his way to make the sinner and new believer feel safe around him. I think he was probably very approachable and had a lot of patience for new believers. For goodness sake, if he didn't eat something just to make sure a new or weak believer wouldn't be offended, I'd say he was one of the most selfless men of his time.


We get all bent out of shape over small things that we are asked to do. For example, our particular church organization holds that in order to be holy, a man should wear pants when in public (i.e. no shorts). My understanding of the Bible is that shorts are still considered holy, as long as they are lower than the knee (In the Bible, men "girded up their loins" to prepare to work or fight, which would have bared the lower parts of their legs). However there are many in our local church and in our church organization who would be very offended if I were to wear shorts in public. Therefore, I simply don't wear shorts.


I know of many people who have gotten very upset over something like that and say "why shouldn't I be allowed to do that, it's my right!"


That's exactly what Paul said: there are things that I technically have the right to do. But just because I can do them, it doesn't mean I should do them.


Here's how you can tell what you should and shouldn't do as a mature Christian: Ask yourself these questions
1. Does God disapprove?
2. Does my church/spiritual leadership disapprove?
3. Would my brother or sister be offended?


If you pass those three questions, then you are good to go. If the answer to any of those questions is "Yes", then Paul tells us that we should not do that thing.


Disclaimer: There are some people who are offended over the slightest things.  You could sneeze in church and they would get offended.  I'm not referring to those people in question #3.  Question #3 refers to sincere believers who are not just being cantankerous and carnal, but really do have a problem with something.  This may be because of something they struggle with personally or struggled with in the past or something like that.  Don't do anything around those people that may cause them to stumble.  God's working on them so don't be a stumbling block to them.