Consider Others
by Dan Jones, M.D.
I Corinthians 10:23-29
"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.
Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for,
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”
If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience’ sake-the other man’s conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience?
Don’t you wish everything were clearer – in black and white – not in grays? In making medical judgments, we often need to make decisions where there is insufficient evidence for guiding our decisions. We make the best judgment possible based on the information available.
In our spiritual lives, it is easier when we have absolutes, as well. “Thou shalt not steal” is pretty clear. But then we are left to deal with lots of situations where guidance from the scripture is not as clear. Sometimes we struggle over what may not seem important to others. When I was growing up, we went through a series of rules on card playing in my family. We began with “no cards anytime”, transitioned through “cards any day but Sunday”, and finally, “anytime that it doesn’t interfere with church activities”. There is no verse about card games in the Bible to give direct guidance.
Some of the difficult issues we face as health professionals have different interpretations in regard to scriptural guidance. The words “stem cells” don't appear in scripture nor do “organ transplantation” or “life support”. Yet some of us face difficult ethical decisions on a daily basis in our professional lives. We want to do God’s will, but find a lack of absolute guidance in the scriptures. So, what are we to do?
The scripture noted above relates thoughts of Paul to Christians in Corinth who were struggling over the issue of whether to eat meat that had been offered as a sacrifice in an act of worship. Some in the Corinthian Christian community felt this was a sin. Others felt this was unnecessarily being bound by “law” that did not apply in this setting. Paul’s words of wisdom can be summed up by a loose translation of the first rule of medicine: “first do no harm” to others. Paul urged those Christians in Corinth who were comfortable eating this meat to consider the feelings of those who considered it a sin.“Nobody should seek his own good; but the good of others.”
So the first thought on dealing with an issue in the gray zone is to proceed with caution in our own spiritual freedom and to consider the feelings of others above our own.
Lord, as I deal with my own spiritual freedom, help me to consider the ideas of others as I make decisions.
Dan Jones, M.D., MACP, FAHA, a board-certified Internist, a former medical missionary to Korea, professor of medicine at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Dean of the School of Medicine, and Chancellor of the University of Mississippi until 2015. Dr. Dan Jones is a member of CMDA.
Dr. Jones welcomes any comments or questions about what he has written and can be reached at - djones@umc.edu
Rounds with the Master, Spiritual Pearls from the Great Physician Devotionals are released every Monday and Thursday.
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