If What I Do

3/23/2017

1 Corinthians 8.13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall. – St. Paul

I have a friend who always challenges me with: what is God saying to you? We talk and he listens and then He invariably says: so, what is God telling you to do? Sometimes, I want to yell at my friend: I DON’T KNOW!!! I don’t, but when I read a passage like 1 Corinthians 8 and land on verse 13, I ask myself: what is God saying to me? What did He say to Paul?

Corinth was a city of great decadence in those days. It was a port-town and ports usually have sailors, and if sailors then were like sailors now, well, you get what I mean; even port-towns need Jesus. Paul was called by God to plant a church in Corinth and he did. If you read 1 and 2 Corinthians you might pick up that they had some issues (what church doesn’t), and they were a little rough around the edges.

Like many-a-church, Corinth not only had their issues, but they also had their questions: what do we do about this? What about that? And Paul, absent from the scene, addressed their questions through letters exchanged back and forth between them. And 1 Corinthians 8 addresses: what to do about eating food which had been sacrificed in pagan temples, to idols.

In Israel, in their old days, the slaughtered animals in the sacrificial ceremonies were roasted in the fire, and for the most part, were then eaten by those who sacrificed them. Other cultures did as well. At some point some enterprising soul came along and established restaurants of sorts in temples and it caught on like fast-food. It smelled good, it tasted good, and, no sense in letting it go to waste.

In Corinth, some ate in the temple cafes without so much as a second thought; it smelled good, it tasted good, and who cares how it got there, let’s eat! Other’s weren’t so bold; their conscience wouldn’t let them go that far: the food had been sacrificed to idols, and therefore it was sacrifice-food, and thereby tainted in some way. It smelled good and probably tasted good, but it had a stigma: it had been sacrificed to some pagan god and therefore was bad. And those who ate bad food, were bad – or so the thinking went.

Now, remember, Paul was answering a question and he had to be careful. He stated that knowledge puffed up, but love built up. Some, in Corinth had no problem with temple-food – they knew there was no other God but God, and that sacrificed food was just that: food. So, their knowledge gave them the freedom to eat whatever they wanted without question. But their freedom presented an issue for those who couldn’t go there in their own minds: once sacrificed, always sacrificed. And sin. And distress.

Here is where Paul led them: I care enough about my brothers and sisters in Christ that if what I eat causes [them] to fall into sin (either by judgment, or participation) I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall – they mean that much to me. And the implication: I’m going to err on the side of grace in my eating so as not to cause undue harm to another believer by my choices. Love builds up. I know better, but knowledge puffs up: and forcing a baby to act like an adult is futile, frustrating, and damaging.

Father, You know my preferences and my penchants. May neither be a stumbling block to my brothers and sisters in Christ, and my I live out of deference for them rather than in selfishness for me. Help me to be wise and hear what You are saying to me because I want to love others as You do – amen