THERE is a natural progression from our previous study on "Serving the Lord" to the teaching given here, which is "Living for Others". We actively serve the Lord as we live, not for ourselves, but for others. Here we have one of the distinguishing characteristics of Christian living. When we look out on the world and view the aim and motivation which drives society, we find that it is living for oneself. This is still true even when we see many people doing caring things. For behind the caring things the self motive is still the driving force. People in the world do things that please them to do. The caring person is caring because that is what they like to do. It gives them a good feeling and also gains approval from others in many way. Even the most selfless person in the world has self as the driving force. Marriages are broken because self is not satisfied. Self is seen in standing up for ones rights. This is seen in the ever striving for more wealth in one way or another. This is seen as right even though it is destructive to the common good, and people will not give this up even if the country needs self sacrifice in order to get back out of economic trouble. Human beings who are not Christians through faith in Jesus as Saviour from their sins are without hope, without God, in the world. In this situation they are under the dominion of Satan, because the Bible tells us that the world lies under the power of the evil one.

The Christian has been born again by the Spirit of God, and is a new creation. The Christian has been translated from the kingdom of this world in the the kingdom of God. We have been born into this kingdom by a new creation of life, created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness, and although the corruption of the flesh is still very much present, the ruling principle is the new life which is from God and is heavenly. This new life is revealed as the Christian acts according to the new driving force of the new life, and so acts contrary to the natural temperment, and so self is dethroned, and living for others out of love for Christ rules.

MAKE EVERY EFFORT.

The first thing to understand is that this new life of caring for others and putting others first needs to be work at. Paul says we must make every effort to do what leads to peace. Although we are now under the dominion of the new nature ruled by Christ through the Holy Spirit, the flesh, dominated by self, is still very active, and Satan is very active to stimulate the desires of the flesh. Because of this we must be active in living for others, and not for self. The Christian rule in living is Christ first, our neighbour second, and self last. This is fulfilling the commands, where in the summary of the law that Jesus gave, love for God comes first, then love for our neighbour, and where self is always last. It is naïve to suppose the Christian life is easy. Paul tells us to mortify, that is put to death, the desires of the flesh. We have to make every effort to obey all the promptings of the Holy Spirit on our new nature. We need to spend time in secret with Jesus alone to gain all the life and strength we need for this task. We need to repent quickly of falling short. We must put on the whole armour of God. All this and much more is involved in making every effort.

THE GOAL OF OUR EFFORT.

The goal we aim at in our effort to live for others is two-fold. Paul speaks of living in such a way that it leads to peace, and also to mutual edification. It is easy to pass on from these two goals of life without much thought, but we must not do so, but stop and meditate on what these goals involve, and gain.

What is Paul implying in this idea of peace? Surely it is a community of believers at peace with each other, where the love of Christ reigns supreme, and each believer thinks well of his or her fellow believers, and there is an atmosphere of family love as we live as brothers and sisters in Christ. There is nothing which disturbs peace in human relations so much as the assertion of self. So making every effort to do what leads to peace will mean that we consider our fellow believers well-being before our own. If this means we must sacrifice what is our own wishes, even if those wishes are pure and good, for the wishes of others, this is what we must be willing to do. Further it is not just being willing, but actually acting our our willingness. It is easy to have the right thoughts and motives without implimenting them, and this is of no value.

This may seem very much like bondage, and being bereft of the joy of life, but in practice this will be found not to be so. If we are living in a true Christian family, our self sacrifice will be motivating others in their self sacrifice, and so we will find others ready to consider us as we consider them and their desires and needs. Together with this is the wonder of peace in the presence of Jesus, which pleasing him in loving our neighbour as our selves brings real joy, and peace of heart. Seeking peace with others, results in peace within ourself.

Then Paul speaks of living for others for the goal of mutual edification. What is Paul meaning here? The key to the understanding here is the word mutual. Edification, where Christians grow in knowledge and experience of Christ, is promoted and increased when there is peace and harmony in the family of God. Where there is disharmony and where self is causing discord, the work of God in our souls is hindered. Mutual love brings about sharing of mutual understanding, and there will be a sharing the growth experience, in knowledge and practice. During the Evangelical Revival of the 18th century, both in Wales under Howell Harris, and in England under Wesley, there was the promotion of weekly meeting of groups to share their experience and to examine progress in living for Christ in holiness and joy, and in service and witness. This was for the mutual edification of the believers. If there is disharmony then such edification would be destroyed. For such edification to be beneficial there has to be effort to make it work. So Paul urges the effort to work towards peace and edification.

BEGONE SELF-ASSERTION.

Having urged this effort, Paul speaks of the necessity of renouncing self-assertion. His words are "do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes anyone else to stumble."

Food offered to idols which was then sold in the market was a problem peculiar to the church in Corinth at that time. Some believers were troubled in conscience over meat that had been offered to idols. They believed that they might get spiritually contaminated, or give credence to the idol, or lead other believers into idolatry, by eating such food. Other, perhaps more mature believers, knew that all food was good to eat, despite the process by which it had been brought to the consumer. If these more mature believers ate this food in the presence of and under the knowledge of the believers who had a problem with such food, then harm to another believer happened or was prone to happen. Paul says that a believer must not assert his or her right to eat what they knew to be wholesome if it is going to cause another believer to be made uncomfortable, or even to be troubled in conscience with the one who was eating the food. When appropriate, and when there was no possibility of troubling another believer, then the food may be eaten, but not otherwise. This was making every effort to bring peace and edification.

Now Paul is simply using the problem of food in his day as an example. But it serves the purpose of making the point that there are many non-essentials about belief and behaviour in the Christian life. Paul says that for these there must be no assertion of rights over these things if it is going to cause problems in the fellowship. Essential doctrine and practice must be held firmly without wavering. But where there are non-essentials, they must not be asserted if it causes disharmony.

THE WAY FORWARD.

In verse 21 Paul outlines the way forward in this dilemma in Christian living and practice. Still using the problem of food present in Corinth, Paul tells us that peace and harmony, and the good of other believers and the fellowship, is more important than any personal understanding or freedom.

There is only one acceptable way forward, and that is the way of sacrifice, and sacrifice in love for other believers. The important things is not our rights, or even what we know to be holy and good, but the peace and helping other believers. We must consider the feelings, conscience and convictions of other believers, before we think of our own, and assert our rights.

At times such sacrifice will be easy. At other times it may be very difficult. It may seem that the other person is getting the best deal. Satan will tempt us to argue that we have rights too, and why should we sacrifice for the sake of another Christian who has unnecessary problems in their life. But such thinking is devilish, and promoted by Satan, and must be resisted.

We can only be self-sacrificing when the self-sacrifice of Christ for us, is strong in our mind, understanding, experience, and in our heart. We can only sacrifice self to the degree we have appreciated and felt the greatness of Christ's self-sacrifice for us. Jesus must be our example and our model. For love of him we should be willing to suffer for others.

CONCLUSION.