“1 Corinthians 8”

Wednesday, March 08, 2017

Chapters 8-10 deal with matters of Christian liberties. Chapter 8 speaks about the problem of eating meat offered to idols. The specific issue is not a problem today but the principles of dealing with others do still apply.

One thing is clear, at least to us two thousand years later. There are no such things as idol gods and, therefore, eating meat that had been sacrificed to “nothing” is not a problem that defiles anyone.

But this chapter emphasizes to us that, even if something is acceptable to the Lord, we must always consider what impact any action would have on other Christians (verses 8-13).

Realizing that there will always be stronger and weaker Christians in every local church, those who are stronger must consider the effect that their actions will have on weaker saints. We should not use our liberty in Christ to do what we want, without some consideration of how weaker disciples might be emboldened to do something similar, but that is actually wrong or sinful.

This section of the book is parallel in many ways to the teaching of Romans 14 (and part of Romans 15). Since scripture is best interpreted in light of other scriptures, we must understand all of this material in these chapters consistently.

These chapters, along with the Romans 14-15 verses, show us just how difficult it was, in the first century, to unite Jews and Gentiles together in the church. The situation is similar, in many respects, to the racial tensions that still exist in our current society. Around the world, there are racial divides that are difficult to bridge. Christians should realize that we hold the key to removing these stumbling blocks. The answer is the love of God and love of our neighbor (Matthew 22:34-40).

We do not serve our God as “Lone Ranger” Christians. We are part of a family and need to think about our influence and how it will appear to others.

--Roger Hillis

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