One of the things about being a minister is that you get asked a lot of questions. We are faced with a lot of issues today and many Christians want to do their best to live as well as they can according to their faith. As examples, I’ve been asked the following at various times, “Is it OK for a Christian to shop on a Sunday?” “Can I have an Islamic prayer mat as a decorative piece in my house?” “Can I join the Freemasons?” “Can I run a raffle at the church fair?” “Can I take part in the lottery where the proceeds go to charity?” “Are you even actually a minister?”. How do we approach these and other issues that crop up in our lives while living as faithful followers of Jesus? I suspect that the answers I give will be different from the answers that other ministers give. What do we do about this?
A similar issue arises in our reading today. Back then, a lot of the meat for sale in the market would have been dedicated to some god or idol. Some had no issue with this as they knew there were no other gods or idols, so eating this meat was perfectly fine. Others were not so certain and felt uncomfortable eating it as it had been dedicated to something other than God. Those who did eat the meat insisted that the others also ate it which made them go against their conscience. Paul points out that eating or abstaining from eating the meat does not affect your relationship with God. Yet if you insist on others eating it, you are harming them by making people act against their conscience. Your knowledge is making you feel superior to others who don’t know as much as you and you are looking down on them. As Paul puts it, “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”.
If we love others, we will take into account their feelings. We will accept that not everyone has the same opinion as us on morally neutral matters. We will appreciate that everyone is at a different stage of their learning and discipleship and each person is doing their best to be the best disciple they can be. While some Christians drink alcohol, others do not, that’s a matter for their individual consciences. If, however, we look down on someone who does things differently because “they don’t know as much as we do”, we are no better than the Corinthians and are leading others to harm their relationship with God through our sense of superiority. We have been given a great degree of freedom in Christ and that freedom must be exercised with a great sense of responsibility. May we be gracious and supporting of others and not seek to dominate or influence others negatively through our lack of love or consideration.