1 Corinthians 8, The Message
8 1-3 The question keeps coming up regarding meat that has been offered up to an idol: Should you attend meals where such meat is served, or not? We sometimes tend to think we know all we need to know to answer these kinds of questions—but sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds. We never really know enough until we recognize that God alone knows it all.
Last week we looked at 1 Corinthians 7 and Paul’s answer to questions about marriage. Chapter 8 moves to the next question. What about the gray areas? The Corinthian who asked the question realized that other gods were not really gods at all for there is really only one true God. So the question this person asks is if it is ok to do something that we know has no spiritual power, like eating meat sacrificed to idols, or do we need to refrain so as not to give the wrong impression. We have a lot of these gray areas that divide Christians. We argue about dancing, drinking, smoking, wearing of makeup and any number of activities that we think divide the spiritually mature from the spiritually weak. We have turned from concern about our relationship to God to grade our spirituality on the basis of our works and relationship with people. The truth is, though, that our faith is not just about praying but also about how we play in the sandbox of life.
Paul argues that the question is not our activity, whether we eat or drink or dance or what or what, but whether our freedom to do a certain activity undermines the faith of another. If my freedom to drink alcohol undermines an alcoholic who is trying to stop drinking, then my freedom has been used to hurt another. Paul argues that this is wrong.
It seems to me that it is also possible to live in such a way that we appear duplicitous. We act one way in some situations and then another way in other situations. One of the most impacting meetings in early Christianity was the Jerusalem council of Acts 15 that was called. Peter was confronted about socializing with Gentiles – sometimes. His actions were not consistent with his words and that had to be sorted out. Did Gentiles have to become Jews first to become Christians? It was a huge debate and impacted the development of Christianity. Likewise we may see some of these gray areas as trivial but they can impact our spiritual maturity and the direction of another’s faith.
Paul’s rule of thumb was to not act in a way that is inconsistent with our faith or in a way that hurts the growth of another’s faith. Often this drives us to prayer for only God has that kind of wisdom. Perhaps there are areas of faith that are unclear to you and that impact your lifestyle. I always find that standing on just one verse is a bit dicey but doing a word study using a concordance and seeing how a thought is traced the Bible, is often very interesting. Doing a Bible study with friends and opening your heart to the wisdom of a group of believers might be helpful. Speaking to a mentor is good. Asking myself the tough questions of what motivates my actions is hard. Remember you have the Holy Spirit in you to guide you and teach you. Blessings as you grapple with the gray areas of life.
On the Way to Wonder 