Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: 1 Corinthians 8 and Psalm 119:17-32

In 1 Corinthians 8 Paul dealt with a controversial issue for Christians living in a majority pagan population who worshiped at the temples of the many Greek gods.

To provide context: A portion of the meat of every animal sacrificed at a pagan temple belonged to the priests and was often sold at a temple meat market. This meat was much cheaper than that sold on the open market, so it ended up in many homes. After all, everyone loves a bargain. This raised the question: May a Christian eat meat purchased at the temple meat market in good conscience, or is it an act of idolatry because that meat was technically offered to an idol?

If you cast your mind back to Acts 15, you’ll remember that the apostolic decision had already been made (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) that Christians should “abstain from food sacrificed to idols…” (15:29). But now some Corinthian Christians felt that they knew better and started to push back against the decision – arguing that because idols are nothing at all and there is only One God, there could never be any real harm in eating such meat.

When Paul responded, he made sure to affirm that the preamble to their argument was true: There is indeed only One True God, and idols are indeed nothing. There is indeed no spiritual danger of somehow committing idolatry by eating meat bought at the temple market. BUT, he argued, Christians should not make our life-decisions based only on what we know. Instead, our decisions should be informed by both knowledge and love. And if the two are in conflict with one another, love should carry more weight. After all “knowledge puffs up while love builds up” (v.1).

Paul reasoned that when Christians lived in a context where some fellow-believers’ (particularly Jewish believers’) consciences did not permit them to eat such meat, Christians who knew that they had the freedom to eat it in good conscience should choose to act in selfless love to protect the unity of the fellowship and the spiritual well-being of those who did not feel this freedom, by limiting themselves and choosing not to eat it. In other words, they should make decisions on the basis of love, and not purely on the basis of their knowledge.

Knowledge, when not applied in love, could easily lead to unintentional sin against a sibling-in-Christ.

Life Application: When making decisions today, don’t only make them based on knowledge, but think through the lens of love and consider the impact of your decisions on those around you. Prioritise their highest needs, even if it means limiting the exercise of your own freedom.