Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-october-9-2023
I Corinthians 10:23-33
The Believer’s Freedom
23 “Everything is permissible,” – but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is constructive. 24 Nobody should seek their own good, but the good of others.
25 Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”
27 If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the conscience’s sake – 29 the other person’s conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience? 30 If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?
31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God – 33 even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
In training preachers, one of the things they say is that the most important goal of a sermon is to “provoke theological reflection.” (Or at least that’s what they tell Presbyterian seminary students. Other traditions probably put it differently.) The point is that we want people to go away from a sermon open to being led by the Holy Spirit in thinking about how to live out our faith in the world.
I can’t help thinking that in this respect, sermons are our poor human attempts to nudge people in the same direction as the parables of Jesus. You might remember that one of the things we’ve said about his parables is that they sometimes present us with ideas and challenges that are aren’t really ‘black-and-white.’ They seem intended to provoke theological reflection – to inspire serious thinking about our relationship with God in Jesus, and about how that relationship is supposed to inform our lives. We’ve suggested that some of the parables seem intended to mean different things to different people – and even different things to people at the various stages of their walk of faith.
This passage from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians strikes me as falling into that same category of teaching. It raises a set of questions that could mean different things to different people. And it needs some serious theological reflection from all of us.
First, a little background: Like most of the congregations that Paul founded, the Corinthian church was a mixture of people who had been raised as Jews and others who had been raised worshiping and sacrificing at the temples of the Greco-Roman gods.
In those pagan temples, it was standard practice for animals to be offered as sacrifices to the Greek gods. But those animals usually weren’t burned away to ash – they were basically just cooked on the altars of those temples. And after the sacrifices, the meat would be sold to the public. The historians say some temples actually had tables and benches, so they functioned as ‘restaurants’ where you could buy the meat and eat it.
It seems that some followers of Jesus in those Greek cities saw no reason to refrain from eating that meat from sacrificed animals. As far as those believers were concerned, it didn’t really matter that the meat had been cooked in front of a statue of some imaginary Greek god. These Christians understood that the pagan gods didn’t even exist, so there was no reason to avoid eating perfectly good meat, just because of where it was cooked.
But other followers of Jesus had a big problem with eating this meat. Some of them were Jews who still observed the laws of Moses. So to them, eating meat sacrificed to idols was a violation of God’s commandments. Other followers of Jesus had a problem with eating that meat because they were former pagans, and they had once worshipped and sacrificed at those pagan temples. So for them, eating that meat felt like sliding back into a false religion they had left behind.
In our passage for today, Paul tells his readers that those who see no problem with eating this meat have the freedom to do so. But he also cautions them that in exercising that freedom, they should be sensitive to how their actions might affect other believers. They should keep in mind that eating this meat in the presence of some of their fellow Christians could cause awkwardness. And those who ate the meat sacrificed to idols should never try get others to go against their conscience and eat it if they had a problem with the practice. No one should compromise their conscience as a follower of Jesus for the sake of a piece of meat.
Paul also raises a situation that would have been a live issue for followers of Jesus trying to share their faith in a Greek world. They might be invited into the homes of gentile friends and neighbors – a great opportunity to develop relationships that could lead to chances to share the good news about Jesus. And in the homes of gentiles, Paul says, they should feel free to eat what is set before them without worrying about where it came from. On the other hand, if the host serves the food in a way that suggests that eating it represents honoring a pagan God, Paul says the believer should refrain.
It seems to me that Paul makes two points in this passage that are still important considerations for followers of Jesus in our time.
The first is that we have the freedom to consume and enjoy any kind of food and drink that we can reasonably regard as gifts from God and give thanks for.
The second point is that in living out our discipleship, including what we eat and drink, we should be mindful of the effects of our actions on others, and especially on our brothers and sisters in Jesus. If other believers have a problem with certain food and drink, we should respect their beliefs, and not flaunt our freedom or try to persuade them to eat what seems wrong to them.
Sometimes believers with the most restrictive practices try to persuade others – sometimes practically bully others – into following their standards. But it doesn’t seem to me that’s what Paul has in mind here. (For one thing, he refers to those restrictive believers as the ones who are “weaker.”) His point, rather, is that we should show some respect and consideration for those who believe differently than we do.
Lots of Christians no doubt find it hard to swallow the idea that some practices might be sins for some people but not for others. The common Christian view is that something is either good for everyone or bad for everyone. But Paul seems to make the case that different disciples can be called to different ways of living out their faith. For instance, if a person regards consuming alcohol as a sin, then for them it is a sin. If a person feels no call to refrain from responsible consumption of alcohol, then for them it’s not.
Our basic human instinct is to try to get others to live by the same standards we feel called to live by. But Paul offers the thought that we should give each other the room to live according to the standards God has called each of us to. In all things, of course, our ultimate calling is to honor God and to live in imitation of Jesus and in obedience to his teachings. That calling, and not someone else’s idea of “correct Christian behavior,” is the standard we’re called to live by.
Let’s pray. Lord, help us to listen carefully to the standards of Christian life you call us to, and strengthen us to live up to those standards. But help us to extend to others the grace that allows them to live out the callings they have received from you, recognizing that it was for our freedom that Jesus set us free. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 29 and 30; II Kings 21:1-18; and Matthew 8:28-34. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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