Currently, my youth group is reading through 1 Corinthians in our weekly meetings. The Corinthian duo is definitely my favorite Biblical duo when it comes to books. There is so much packed within these two letters to the church in Corinth that it takes weeks to actually dissect and tear apart everything that Paul is pleading. They're just so good, and if you have never spent time to read them, or even if you have read them in the past but it's been a while, go ahead and read them again because you won't be disappointed.
The last few weeks that we've been studying 1 Corinthians, we've been spending time around chapters 5-8. 5 deals with accountability within the church. 6 talks about judgment within the church before switching gears and tackling sexual immorality. 7 speaks volumes about marriage and the life that it encompasses while also sparring with the life of singleness and the gift that it is from God. This week's chapter, 8 is labeled as, "Food Sacrificed To Idols". My initial thoughts when reading this for the first time were confused. I mean, Paul just got done talking about sexual immorality and accountability while tying the subjects of marriage and being single together into one package. Those subjects flow very well together, but then we come to chapter 8 and it seems out of place. It seems random and haphazardly thrown in at the first glance. It took me a few minutes to actually realize what Paul was trying to get across here.
On the surface, this passage is random. To anyone just skimming their Bible it seems out of place and strange. If you dig a little deeper beyond the surface, it's not really about eating food sacrificed to idols at all. Paul is talking about the unity of believers and touching on accountability again. It was just a mere two chapters prior to writing this that Paul wrote (6:12), "'Everything is permissible for me'--but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible for me'--but I will not be mastered by anything." In chapter 8 he picks up that same thinking and applies it to the church as a unified body of Christ. To really get the meat of what he is saying here, take a look starting at verse 9, "Be careful, however that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block for the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge." To sum this passage up, what I believe Paul is saying here is, "What right for you may not be right for everyone else. Be careful, because it may become a stumbling block to them." He even rephrases what he just said in verse 13, "Therefore, if what I eat [the activities I partake in] causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall."
Think of it this way. There's two groups of friends, group A and group B, with four people total. All claim Christ and live by His Word. Group A goes out to eat and being over 21 orders an alcoholic drink to go with their meal. No problem! Drinking in and of itself is not a sin and neither of them are bound in addiction to alcohol. Their maturity in Christ trumps all other addictions and alcohol is not a problem for either of them. Group B now goes out into the same situation that Group A was just in. Both are Christians walking in Christ. One person in Group B has no problem with alcohol like Group A, and they are not bound to their worldly addictions. Alcoholism and drunkenness is not a temptation for them. The other person, however, is tempted by alcohol. While drinking a drink may not be a sin, it is tempting for them to continue past the point of inebriation (which is a sin and is addressed two chapters earlier in 6:10). Alcohol is tempting to them and it is an addiction, a struggle that they're making war with. What Paul is saying in this passage in 1 Corinthians is that not everyone is the same. All people are tempted by different things and everyone has their weak spot. If you know that a brother struggles with something that you don't struggle with, don't tempt him by exercising your freedom and causing him to struggle all the more (verse 9). Paul goes so far as to say that if you cause your brother to fall into sin and stumble (verse 12), "You sin against Christ."
So what does this mean for us today? It all points back to the body of Christ being unified. One of the main ways that I'm going to know the brothers I have in Christ is by spending time with them. The more I get to know them and spend time with them, the greater the accountability we have to each other. I find out their weaknesses, and I find out their strengths. You don't know what someone likes or dislikes unless you actually get to know the person, and the same goes for here too. I don't know what temptations my best friends face daily unless we're all unified together and sanctified though the blood of Christ and in fellowship with one another.
I had to cut this blog a little short due to leaving for work in a few minutes, but that's no excuse for you not to take your own time and study this passage. Study it, read it, and comment down below on your thoughts.
--DyingAnOriginal
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