How to Eat Unto the Glory of God

1 Cor. 6:13b -"The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body."

1 Cor. 6:19b-20 - "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (ESV)."

The point of these verses is that our bodies belong to the Lord. In light of Him owning us, here are 10 ways to eat unto the glory of God:

1. You must not over eat. I realize that this is ambiguous; for, it is meant to be. Do not eat more than you need. Furthermore, there is not an eating contest on earth that glorifies God. If you're a youth pastor, do NOT have an eating contest! Don't encourage your teens to sin!

2. You must not under eat. I believe many young girls and women struggle with this. You must eat in order to provide nourishment to God's body. The only biblical time that voluntarily not-eating is allowed is whenever we are fasting.

3. You must enjoy the Lord before, during, and after eating. It is not enough to merely pray before you eat, but you should be thankful toward God while you are eating.

4. Pleasure in eating should only be one of your motivations. It unfortunately is the main reason that we eat... at least in the West. Oftentimes we enjoy the food so much that we don't even think about God or His glory.

5. The desire to be healthy should only be one of your motivations. If we were only meant to eat tree bark and grass, why then did God give us taste buds? We should enjoy our food, but not to the detriment of His body. There is wonder beyond our finite minds that is bound up in the wonderful taste of food that we often take for granted. His glory is revealed in even this.

6. What you eat matters to God; so it should matter to you. You cannot intentionally eat foods that are purposefully and blatantly bad for your health; it is impossible to enjoy the Lord through eating an entire meal of chocolate cake. However, we have no reason to believe that we are forbidden to enjoy some cake.

7. We must be good stewards of the food that the Lord has provided us with. This does not mean that we must clean our plates, but it does mean that we should handle His resources wisely. We should plan our meals as well as we can so that we do not waste God's provisions. Furthermore, it's interesting how we often hear about managing our finances well from the pulpit; however, we often think nothing of the amount of food we waste in a given month.

8. Beauty in food should be one of our motivations as well. We should ponder every now and again the wonderful reality that an apple is shaped, colored, and textured as an apple and not as an orange. God's masterpiece is all around us, and food is part of this masterpiece. "Stopping to smell the roses" in order to enjoy the Lord is a God-honoring endeavor.

9. If we are to enjoy the Lord through eating, then food cannot be an idol in our lives. Thus, food cannot be seen as an end in and of itself; rather, it must ultimately be viewed as an avenue through which we can enjoy the Lord. If at any point, we eat with selfish motives alone, then we are not truly enjoying food the way that it was intended to be enjoyed. A Christian should enjoy food more than any other person on earth, for we know its author intimately through Christ; and food is merely another avenue through which we can enjoy Him.

10. Finally, in light of food, we should cultivate a love for God in our spouses and children. Each time we sit to eat, the goal should be to enjoy the Lord, not to enjoy one another, the hands that prepared it, or the feast before us; but rather, we must enjoy the Lordthrough enjoying one another, the hands that prepared it, and the feast before us. "Isn't God good," should be on the tips of our tongues; instead of, "Isn't family good," or, "Isn't food good."