I cannot dictate certain spiritual freedoms . . .

 1 Samuel 27; Psalm 44; Ezekiel 6; 1 Corinthians 8

 During this pandemic, people have various thoughts on what is safe and what isn’t. Some stay home and their food is delivered by friends. Others feel free to do almost anything. I’m okay with grocery shopping and going to church because our city has ‘rules’ that stores, restaurants and churches are following. Gyms do too but I don’t feel free to go back yet and have no explanation except that sense of ‘not yet’ that nudges me.

In the early church, many believers came out of a background of idolatry where food was offered to the idols. This is still done in several countries. Some new Christians thought it sinful to eat this food. Others were not concerned. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth with advice for those who felt the most freedom. They were not to impose their thoughts on those who didn’t feel they should touch that food . . .  

Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. (1 Corinthians 8:1–13)

Eating this food was not wrong, like robbing a bank or cheating on your spouse is wrong. The principles in this passage concerns activities that are morally indifferent. That is, I cannot look down my nose at others who are afraid to go anywhere. Buying groceries is not a sin nor is staying home and tending your garden.

A damaged conscience can be a problem, not necessarily in the eating of food offered to idols (for idols are not real, only the demonic influence behind idolatry) if a person’s conscience is instructed by truth. Paul said that he was oblivious to sin without the Law of God. However, he stresses that when another person is in the process of having their conscience shaped by God instead of things like peer pressure or even common sense, it is important that I stay out of it. I might feel free to do something that gets them in trouble.

For example: I am free to eat in restaurants yet another might go there against their conscience because I go there — and wind up getting sick.

I must respect anyone who fears something that is not intrinsically sinful. They may seem bound by ‘rules’ that make no sense to me, but I have no idea what God is doing in their lives. For instance, I am free to eat strawberries but my son refused to try them even as a small child. Later testing showed he is severely allergic to these berries. Pushing him to eat them would have been unloving.

This illustrates why God tells me to restrict my freedoms for the sake of others. I should never tell anyone what they can and cannot do when talking about non-moral issues and I would not appreciate anyone pressuring me to go to the gym when my conscience is saying it is too soon to go.

APPLY: In a way, this is less about giving up certain actions and more about keeping my mouth shut. I have tried to convince a few people that seem fearful to do what I feel free to do, but God is telling me to leave them alone. He could be using their ideas to develop their ability to hear His guidance, but He could also be using the same thing to keep them safe.

 

Sin for you but not sin for me?

A Christian man asked a new believer to join him at a local baseball game. The new believer was horrified. He said that baseball was sinful, and he would never watch it. Later, the older Christian was told this new believer’s background and realized that for this man, baseball had become sinful.

I was not told what he did then. Several responses are possible. He could have been a bit huffy and looked down at this new believer’s ideas as silly. He could have been insulted and decided to move to another church or not go at all if it meant giving up baseball. In thinking about parallels, what are my Christian freedoms and do my actions seem like sin to others?

The church at Corinth asked about issues in their culture that involved activities not covered by the law or any commandments. Today, some of those issues may have been whether they could go to movies, use the Internet, smoke cigarettes, dance, drink wine, or buy a lottery ticket. While the Bible gives no chapter and verse for doing these things, it does present principles — and most of them are not at all what we’d normally expect. One of these principles tells me that instead of fretting about my right to do what seems okay to me, I need to think about others. Like that man who had a problem with baseball, people can be sensitive to issues that are not a problem for me. To this, the Bible says:

But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. (1 Corinthians 8:9–13)

Paul was willing to set his ‘rights’ aside if exercising those rights took a whack at the conscience of another Christian. I’m sad that I’ve not been as sensitive as Paul was nor as dedicated to the gospel. He would do anything and give up anything if it meant that God’s good news would be told, upheld and glorified. When it came to his rights as a Christian, he fully understood God set him free from rules. His conscience was clear, yet he did not cling to those rights.

If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ . . .  So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:12; 26–27)

The word ‘disqualified’ confused me until I read that it means to be phony, or bogus, or having a misleading appearance. That is, if he did whatever he felt free to do, he could come across to some as not being a Christian. Those with a weak conscience would think he was ignoring conviction of sin and therefore was a hypocrite.

All this said, I might feel free to drink wine (my doctor says no), yet if I did, a new Christian with a former life as an alcoholic would see that as sinning. I could ignore that person’s booze issue and maybe become his excuse for falling off the wagon, or I could avoid him and only hang out with people who agree with me, or I could form a new rule of ‘thou shalt not drink wine’ that is not biblical but could be divisive. Or I could not bother drinking. It is one of those ‘take it or leave it’ issues that does not have a biblical guideline except an exhortation against drunkenness. It also says ‘’a little wine” is okay for stomach problems. No wine at all is recommended for me, not by the Bible but my heart specialist.

How do I know what others might stumble over because they think it is sinful even if I don’t see it that way? By less talking and more listening. Paying attention to what people say and how they react is more like Jesus than setting down a list of Do’s and Do nots that myself and others must live by. God will tell me by the inner voice of the Holy Spirit when I should or should not do something, sometimes for my own well-being and sometimes for the well-being of others. I just need to pay attention.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Lord Jesus, I am listening. I am also thankful for the verses in Ecclesiastes that clearly set me up for this reading. They say it is better to be a person of few words than to talk too much!