Saturday, January 23, 2010

Being sensitive to others

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.

So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall (1 Corinthians 8:1-13).

Today’s epistle lesson warns us about being sensitive to the spiritual development of our fellow Christians. As a specific example, Paul talks about eating food offered to idols. But Paul lived 2,000 years ago, half way around the world. In modern America, who eats food sacrificed to idols? I would venture to guess that some of you reading this aren’t even sure what an idol is. And how could eating food sacrificed to an idol be dangerous to a Christian’s faith?

An idol represents a god. Usually, an idol was a statue made of stone or wood or clay, although it could also be a carving or painting on a wall. This statue was treated as if it were a god. People would bow down to the statue, tell it how much they loved and respected it, offer it gifts of food and money, and ask it for favors. People would flatter an idol of the sky god with songs and praise, hoping to keep the god happy so that it would not punish them with severe weather. People would offer the lives of their first born children to an idol of the fertility god, hoping that it would reward them with bigger herds of animals, a good harvest, and many healthy children.

Of course, an idol has no use for food, so what happened to these gifts left to honor the god? At the time of Paul, sacrificed food was typically divided into thirds: one third was burned as a sacrifice to the idol, one third was given to the idol’s priests to live on, and one third was returned to the person who brought it. If the priest did not want the meat, he was allowed to sell it for cash in the city market. This presented a problem for the Christians of Paul’s day. What do you do when you are invited to dine with an unbelieving friend—he might serve you food that had been dedicated to an idol. And what about shopping in the city market—you might be purchasing food that had been offered in worship to an idol.

This is an important concern. God describes Himself as jealous—in Exodus chapter 20 He gives the following command: Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds or animals or fish. You must never worship or bow down to them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god! By jealous, God means that He will not tolerate anything else competing for our devotion, just as a jealous husband will not tolerate another man competing for the devotion of his wife. In Isaiah chapter 42 God says, I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else. I will not share my praise with idols.

God has every right to demand our undivided affection. He alone is responsible for our being alive; Psalm 139 praises God, saying: you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. Not only that, but there are in fact no other gods besides the Lord—God says: Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one (Isaiah 44:8). In today’s epistle lesson Paul says, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God and no other. According to some people, there are many so-called gods and many lords, both in heaven and on earth. But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we exist for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life. God certainly has the right to expect our devotion, both because He made us and because any supposed competition for our affections are only misleading shadows, phantom lovers with no substance or reality.

There is only one God, and only one way to approach Him. In John chapter 6 Jesus said, No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. In Matthew chapter 11 He said, no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. And in John chapter 14 our Lord says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. There is only one true God, and He can only be known and approached through His Son, the Son who shed the blood of God that we might have unending life with God. He is the one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:1-2). And so Peter says, There is salvation in no one else! There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them (Acts 4:12).

When you consider that it was God who gave us life, and that it was His Son who suffered hell itself to free us from the condemnation of our sins, you can see why the early Christians were concerned about eating food offered to idols. They cherished their relationship with God—the thought of even accidentally showing respect to a false god concerned them greatly. Paul pointed out, however, that eating food offered to an idol is not in itself sinful--we can't win God's approval by what we eat. We don't miss out on anything if we don't eat it, and we don't gain anything if we do. The food is just that—food. If we eat kosher food, that does not automatically make us Jewish in our beliefs.

But there is another consideration. Paul goes on to say, you must be careful with this freedom of yours. Do not cause a brother or sister with a weaker conscience to stumble. You see, this is what can happen: weak Christians who think it is wrong to eat this food will see you eating in the temple of an idol. You know there's nothing wrong with it, but they will be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been dedicated to the idol. So because of your superior knowledge, a weak Christian for whom Christ died, will be destroyed. And you are sinning against Christ when you sin against other Christians by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong.

Here in America, we are unlikely to face the issue of eating food dedicated to idols. But it is important to remember the underlying principle Paul is trying to teach: don’t become arrogant in your spirituality! Don’t assume that everyone is spiritually mature or sees things the way that you do. Our culture and the culture that Paul lived in are not so very different. Now as then, we Christians are surrounded by many false religions. Now as then, there are times when our faith life collides with beliefs that do not agree with the Bible. How we respond to these collisions can have a profound effect on our fellow Christians.

Take, for example, membership in a lodge. Organizations like the Masonic Lodge are a mixture of civil group, private club, and religious organization. Unlike groups like the Kiwanis or the Lions, lodge membership includes participation in some religious rituals. The problem for the Christian is that some of these secret rituals are not in accord with the teachings of Jesus. So what happens when a Christian also holds membership in a lodge? He might defend his decision by saying something like this: "The lodge isn’t a religion; when we have our ceremonies, I just mouth the words—I don’t really believe them. Jesus is the only deity that I honor."

That may well be true. But suppose that Christian lodge member has a friend who is new to the faith. That friend has learned from going through instruction that God expects us to worship Him alone, in purity and in truth. He believes in his heart that to even be present for a religious ritual at the lodge betrays God. But since he is good friends with the Christian who is a member, he feels torn—maybe bending God’s rules can be okay sometimes. So he joins the lodge, but deep inside, feels that he has betrayed His Savior—and so his faith is damaged.

Let’s consider another example—Halloween. Most Christians decorate their homes with witches and black cats, play creepy music, tell ghost stories, and dress up as people whose deeds ordinarily would frighten or repulse us. They celebrate a holiday dedicated to black magic and death, but they do so with a clear conscience—after all, it’s just make-believe. We know there aren’t really witches who can cast spells, there are no ghosts or monsters—and since it’s all pretend, we’re not giving God’s honor to the supernatural.

But there are Christians who are troubled by Halloween. They know that God forbids the practice of magic. They know that God forbids trying to speak to the dead or see into the future. They fear that even playing around with the occult can lead to an unhealthy fascination with evil. Such Christians start to question where God’s rules apply and where they do not when they see avowed Christians celebrating Halloween or even reading their daily horoscope. They start to question if what they were taught is wrong. And that line of questioning can weaken, possibly even destroy their faith.

So we need to follow Paul’s example. Going back to the subject of food offered to idols, Paul says: If what I eat is going to make another Christian sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live--for I don't want to make another Christian stumble. Paul is so committed to the welfare of his brothers and sisters in Christ that he will bend over backwards to keep their faith healthy—he will even change his daily habits, if necessary. This is a good example for us. We need to be continually sensitive to the spiritual development of the people around us. If you have a Christian friend who is offended by any kind of humor that involves religion, don’t tell those kinds of jokes! If a Christian in your family believes that you are endangering your soul by looking at the daily horoscope in the paper, stop reading it! You may know that as sinners, there is a lot about ourselves that deserves to be laughed at; you may know that horoscopes are made up by people who have no idea what the future will bring. But if your behavior causes another believer to question his faith or doubt what he was taught, you must act responsibly—you have no right to endanger another person’s relationship with Jesus just because your view on things is different.

God expects that when we give credit for the good things in our lives, we give that credit to Him. God expects that when we offer something in gratitude for being blessed, those gifts are given to Him. When we find ourselves in need, God expects us to bring our pleas for help to His ears. When the credit that should be given to God goes elsewhere, we commit idolatry. When the first and best of our income does not go to God but is spent someplace else, we commit idolatry. When we bypass God and look elsewhere for help in times of trouble, we commit idolatry. Only God deserves our devotion; to give our affection to anything else acting as God’s rival is to insult the Father who made us and the Son who remade us through His blood. Idols can offer nothing—don’t let them turn your head, both for your own sake and for the sake of your fellow believers who are looking up to you as an example of what it means to be a Christian.

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