Brandon's Writings

[original posting date- Sunday, February 8th, 2009]

in this passage, paul is talking to the corinthians about meat that’s been offered to idols, and whether they should be partaking in it or not. in the end, he basically reinstates what Jesus said about putting others ahead of yourself. i’m also reminded of when Jesus told the pharisees that it’s not what goes into the body that defiles it, but what comes out, because out of our mouths come what we have hidden in our hearts. (mark 7:18-22)
[for me, the kicker is verse three, in bold.]

“Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.
So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we live for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.
However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do.
But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed. And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.” (NLT)
so, what we have is paul telling these believers that it’s not wrong to eat food sacrificed to idols, because the idol is meaningless. we can apply this to many aspects of our lives, and many things that the religious crowd condemns because it is seemingly “of the devil.” i have seen many religious people condemn meaningless thing because they didn’t understand it. what paul is relaying here is that we have the liberty to do things that are condemned by the overly religious folk, if we have knowledge of such things. but he says it’s also important that we don’t hurt a friend with our liberty. let us not destroy ourselves by trying to “please men and please God” though. we serve a king and a kingdom that is not of this world. may we always obey what God is telling us to do above everything else.