Our Actions Matter

1 Corinthians 8:1 – 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. ² Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. ³ But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.

⁴ 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. ⁵ There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. ⁶ 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.

⁷ 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. ⁸ 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.

⁹ But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. ¹⁰ 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? ¹¹ So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed. ¹² And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. ¹³ 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) 

Take a verse out of its context and you can make the Bible say about anything you want!  Consider the following: “I will never eat meat again as long as I live.” This is a direct quote from the Bible, so eating meat must be a bad thing, right?  Not at all, but we have much to learn from this passage. 

Many people in the Corinthian Church were converts from various pagan religions.  The pagans, like the Jews, would bring an animal to their priest to be sacrificed.  Following the sacrifice, the pagan priests (Jewish priests, as well) would then be free to either use the meat to feed their families, or to sell it in the marketplace.  This is how many of the priests made a living.  In Corinth, the recently pagan Christians were troubled: was it wrong to be eating meat bought in the market that was once part of a pagan ritual?

Paul reassures them that the meat was just meat.  The gods that the meat had been offered to were not gods at all, so they were free to eat the meat.  Paul then states in verse nine: “But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble.”  Paul was not saying that Christians need to give up meat, but he was saying that if it caused someone to stumble in their Christian journey, then he would gladly give meat up forever! 

Are there behaviors that are perfectly fine in and of themselves, but may cause someone to stumble?  Will a glass of wine with a meal cause a weaker Christian, who is prone to alcoholism, stumble?  Will listening to certain types of music, without regard to the lyrics, cause another to think that glorifying such behavior is what Christians are about?  We do not need to live life fearfully analyzing our every move, but as Christians we should be sensitive to how our actions may be understood by others. 

Remembering that we are, indeed, our brothers and sisters keeper, today let us strive to be a little more mindful of how our actions may be perceived. 

Posted by Ramón Torres