Read for This Week’s Study: 1 Corinthians 8; Acts 15:20; 1 Cor. 9:1-6; 1 Cor. 10:5-22; Deut. 6:4, 5; Mark 12:28-31.

Memory Text: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31, NKJV).

The Initial Question: What are Christians supposed to do when a particular issue does not offend one person’s conscience while at the same time it offends others in the same congregation?

In these chapters of his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul takes up a matter that seems to be quite remote from us but one that can be used to learn some significant lessons. The issue had to do with eating food that had been offered to idols. Offering food to idols was a practice that was very common in Paul’s day and for several reasons. The most significant and immediate reason was that people believed there were many demons and devils all around, entities that were looking for ways to gain entrance into people’s lives. And eating was one such way. The thought was that, if food had been offered to a good god, the prospect of being overtaken by demons was erased. Because of that, there was almost no meat that could be bought that had not been through some kind of ritual like that. This meant that if a Christian did not eat meat, and if he or she did not eat meat with other citizens unless it was free of a ceremony, that person would be cut off from almost all social interactions that involved eating.

A second problem had to do with the fact that, when people became Christians, some of them came to the point where they understood that demons and idols are immaterial, that they have no reality that can impact life while others continued to think such things existed. Those who came to the point of negating demons, etc. would eat the meat offered to idols without any qualms for they saw that as mere superstition. On the other hand, those who had not yet progressed to the point of discounting idols and demons, would become quite unsettled when they saw a brother or sister sitting and eating meat blessed by idols. What was a person to do?

Paul then goes on in Chapter 9 to talk about Christian freedom, a freedom that comes because a person has been freed from superstitions by accepting Christ. The first category of people would eat without damaging conscience while the second would be troubled a great deal. What is a person to do? In this section, Paul juxtaposes knowledge over against acting out of love.

Several things have been suggested as responses to what Paul says in this section:

• Christians need to recognize that what is safe in terms of conscience for one person, may be highly detrimental to another person. The context in which a person grew up, and the degree to which another person has matured in their Christian understanding, both play a role in helping direct actions. Paul’s counsel was that we must always think not only of how some action will affect us, but how it will affect others as well. And if our actions are going to be detrimental to others, we should willingly curb them.
• The criteria for making judgments about various practices or actions should never be based only by what a person knows but should also be guided by love. And love may well dictate that a person should refrain from an action they deem permissible in order to show love to others who do not agree.
• When it comes to exercising Christian freedom, no person has the right to indulge in some activity or pleasure that would end up being the ruination of a fellow believer. Christian freedom is not unbounded. It should be corralled by love. This might well mean a person curbs their freedom willingly in order to retain faith in another person.
• The question of individual rights can easily come to the fore here. What is a person to do when they insist on a right that does damage to others? Often, the Christian thing to do is not to claim the privilege or insist on having the right.

Paul resorts to using a sports analogy here. This analogy is useful and helpful for it allows consideration of several more truths:

• Those who desire to achieve athletic success, discipline themselves. And though they all participate and hope to win, everyone knows only one will do so. The rest will have to be gracious losers.
• Anything worth achieving is likely to require discipline and effort.
• The prize humans strive so diligently for is a transitory one. At the same time, Christians struggle to win an eternal prize.
• Humility is to be much more highly prized and sought after than arrogance or over-confidence.