“Resolved, to maintain the strictest temperance to eating and drinking” (Resolution 20).
“Resolved, to inquire every night, before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could, with respect to eating and drinking” (Resolution 40).
I Corinthians 10:31 commands all to eat and drink and whatever they do to do it to the glory of God. These resolutions reflect the heart of a man that took the word of God seriously. It also reflects a heart that wants to do all things to the glory of God. In the modern United States, this is totally a foreign concept. However, it is one that we will do well to meditate on. The thought of today is to eat as you want and as you please. Food is thought of in terms of how much it pleases the person eating or the person buying or being entertained. On the other hand, food is thought of in terms of the body. Many are fanatical about what they eat in order to maintain the appearance that they want.
Eating for the sheer pleasure of it with no or little thought of God is an act of idolatry. Eating in order to make myself look good without thought of God is also an act of idolatry. The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. In some way, then, believers are to eat out of love for God and His glory. That which moves man to eat should be the glory of God and the regulation for what should be eaten and how much is the glory of God. Man is not to be like the animals that eat by instinct put into them.
While some eat in order to maintain an appearance or to be healthy, that can be no more than self-love. God is to be our ultimate priority in all that we do, not self. Our souls are to be given to God first and foremost in order to glorify Him. We might need to eat food that we ordinarily do not eat in order to glorify God in being with others. Man is an eternal being and his body must not be his god. Man is to serve the living God and not the god of health and food. This is a foreign concept in the modern day where man thinks that as long as he does good things for himself he is serving God.
Let us use an illustration to make the point here. Prayer is far more than what the average person does. The average religious person has a list and asks God for things. He or she then tacks on the name of Jesus at the end. However, we are to pray for the glory of God in all things first and foremost. So all the words lifted to God without concern for His name and glories are really acts of idolatry since they are primarily about our own selfish concerns. Yet we should give thanks for the food we eat and that should be a prayer. Our prayer before our meals should be far more than just a few empty words to God, it should be in line with those set apart to do all for His glory. A clue for this is found in the so-called “Lord’s Prayer” which Jesus gave to the disciples as a pattern for prayer in Matthew 6. First of all, man is to pray that God’s name be hallowed, His kingdom to come, and then His will to be done. Then and only then is man to pray for his daily bread. But if we love God as the Greatest Commandment commands, the reason that we are to pray for our daily bread is so that we can live in a way that hallows His name, advances His kingdom, and enables us to do His will.
What we call “returning thanks” or “saying grace” should really be giving thanks to God for the food and asking Him to sanctify or set apart the food for His use in our bodies which are to be used for His glory. Man is to be totally devoted and set apart to live for the glory of God and that must include what he eats and drinks and the reason he eats and drinks. While there are many secondary reasons for why man is to eat and drink the way he does, if the secondary reasons become primary man becomes and idolater of himself. This is why Edwards could make a resolution regarding temperance but even more importantly to act the best way he could in reference to eating and drinking. He saw himself as a vessel in the hands of God and he wanted to do all that he could, even in eating and drinking, to glorify God. So should all believers.
God Loves... Himself 
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