Honoring Christ In Our BodiesSample

Remove We Remove things when the Holy Spirit leads us … We’ve now looked at recognizing , rejoicing , relating , and rejecting , but now let’s consider removing things that are harmful and hurtful to us. 1 Corinthians 10:23 gives us one of the clearest statements of freedom in all of Scripture: “‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say—but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’—but not everything is constructive.” In our world today, freedom is defined by doing what we want. However, much of what we want or feel will only destroy us. Scriptures view of freedom is found in following the Spirit to cause us to do what we ought. Without Jesus, we are enslaved to our wants. This is the crux of all our addictions. We think we have the “right” to do anything. Now, even though Paul would agree, he suggests that the Spirit of God now gives us freedom to do something even better. We can now do what we ought to do. Christ empowers us to do all things that are beneficial to us and to those around us. Christ wants our best, and many of our wants, desires, lusts, appetites, and tastes lead us toward things that are only headed toward destruction. Therefore, freedom is found in Christ filling all things. He’s made all things good, and within all things there’s a beautiful right purpose and a beautiful and right use. However, much of what God made as good has been so perverted that we must question certain things in the world altogether. Many foods, for example, are so full of carbohydrates, high fructose sugars, and the like, that they are literally poison in any form to our body. Though we have the “right” to eat them, we must ask the question, “is this what God called good.” Consider today how much freedom you can allot yourself in your place of struggle. I may be able to eat freely, for I have control and freedom in this area to make wise choices, but I may have to restrict or remove Internet freedoms because I’m not as pure when it comes to search engines. We all must know what our limitations are. This is a humble act to admit what we can and can’t do, even though Christ has made all things pure available to us.