Whether therefore ye eat or drink
Which may principally refer to eating things sacrificed to idols,
and drinking the libations of wine offered to them, since this is
the subject of the apostle's discourse; in doing of which he
directs them to have the glory of God in view, and so to conduct,
that that end may be answered: and it may also be applied to
common eating and drinking, or to ordinary meals upon food, about
which there is no dispute; and which common actions of life are
done to the glory of God, when every mercy is considered and
owned as coming from him; and when we confess ourselves unworthy
of any; and when we ascribe all we have to the free and unmerited
goodness of God; and enjoy every mercy of this kind, as a fruit
of our Father's love to us, as a blessing of the covenant, and as
coming to us through the blood of Christ; when we are contented
and satisfied with what we have, and act faith continually on God
for future fresh supplies, and give thanks for all we receive:
and if this, then much more eating and drinking in an ordinance
way should be directed to the glory of God and Christ, as eating
the bread, and drinking the wine in the Lord's supper; and which
is so done, when it is done in a decent and reverend manner, in
the exercise of faith, discerning the Lord's body, eating his
flesh, and drinking his blood in a spiritual manner, without
dependence on the actions done, and in remembrance of the love of
God and Christ.
Or whatsoever ye do;
in a natural, civil, or religious respect, in preaching, hearing,
praying, fasting, giving of alms whatever in the closet, in the
family, in the church, or in the world, in private, or in public:
do all to the glory of God;
God's glory is the end of all his works and actions; in creation,
providence, and grace; in election, in the covenant, in the
blessings and promises of it, in redemption, in the effectual
calling, and in bringing many sons to glory. The same is the end
of all Christ's actions, as man and Mediator, of his doctrines
and miracles, of his obedience, sufferings, and death in this
world, and of his interceding life in the other; who, as he lives
to make intercession for us, lives unto God, to the glory of God;
and therefore the glory of God should be the end of all our
actions: besides, without this no action can be truly called a
good one; if a man seeks himself, his own glory, and popular
applause, or has any sinister and selfish end in view in what he
does, it cannot be said, nor will it be accounted by God to be a
good action. The Jews have a saying much like this, (Mymv Mvl wyhy Kyvem lk) "let all thy
works be done to the glory of God" F16; which one of their
commentators F17 explains thus:
``even when thou art employed in eating and drinking, and in the business of life, thou shalt not design thy bodily profit, but that thou mayest be strong to do the will of thy Creator.''