Living in the Image of God M05S20
We discuss God’s purpose for food, which includes direct benefits of nourishment of the body and soul to perform functions of living and indirect benefits to others through human interactions. Because the benefits of food can extend to numerous people beyond the person that consumed the food, there are individual responsibilities regarding food consumption and potential blessings by sharing food with others. The responsibilities include appreciation of the human provider and appreciation of God for empowering the human provider and propagating the benefits of food through human interactions. We earn blessings by sharing food because of enabling the recipient to perform their functions of living among a human interactions network.
This bible study begins with understanding that God granted explicit authority for people to draw food from plants and other animals, with limitations against eating live blood or eating your own kind. His purpose for food includes nourishment of the body and soul to support the functions of living. Through human interactions, others benefit from functions of living performed by the consumer and transmit the benefits to others and chains of more others. The study focuses on understanding that food provides direct benefits to the person that consumed the food and indirect benefits to others through human interactions.
Food provides direct benefits to the consumer and indirect benefits to others that interact with the consumer and those that interact with them. The indirect benefits are reciprocal, in that any given pair of persons benefit from each other’s food consumption through interactions among them. Further, the indirect benefits propagate through the human interactions network because each person in the network transmits benefits of food consumption by self and others through interactions among them.
In human interactions involving two persons A and B, person-A benefits from food consumed by person-B while person-B benefits from food consumed by person-A. Additionally, person-A benefits from person-B due to food consumption by others that previously interacted with person-B; and vice versa. Thus, the benefits of food eaten by a person can propagate through an extensive network of people, because of human interactions among them.
The study discusses the direct and indirect benefits of food, how the indirect benefits propagate through others by human interactions, individual responsibilities regarding food, and earning blessing by providing food to others to enable their functions of living among an expanding human interactions network.
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