Slices
Prepare
Use Psalm 119:169 to help you prepare to listen to God.
Bible passage
Concerning food sacrificed to idols
8 Now about food sacrificed to idols: we know that ‘We all possess knowledge.’ But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God.
4 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.’ 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’), 6 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.
7 But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling-block to the weak. 10 For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.
Explore
Most meat available to ordinary Corinthians would have first been offered to idols. Should Christians eat it, either as part of the big social occasion or even privately at home? Well, what would you say? Notice where Paul begins (vs 1–3). How would you explain the phrase: ‘love builds up’? These three words hold the solution.
Along with tentmakers Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:2–4), sailors, traders, fishermen, herdsmen, builders, town officials, rich and poor may all be part of the church in Corinth. All with different backgrounds, and more, less or no understanding of the things of faith (v 7).
‘It’s not actually about the food itself and where we get it. After all, ultimately it comes from God,’ says Paul (v 6). ‘It’s about the message our eating of the food communicates to other Christians’ (vs 7,10). Although we might well respond, ‘That’s their problem!’, that’s not the way Paul sees it (v 13). No, it’s our problem. Love means sacrifice – giving up for the sake of others what we might otherwise hold on to for ourselves. What might this look like in our own choices, where Christians don’t agree on the rights or wrongs of something?
Respond
Should we be freer on some things so we have more opportunities to share the love of Jesus? Or should we restrict ourselves more, so that less mature Christians don’t get the wrong idea? A tough balance.
Deeper Bible study
‘The dearest idol I have known, / whate’er that idol be, / help me to tear it from thy throne, / and worship only thee.’1
In the Mosaic Law, idolatry was evil, punishable with the death penalty.2 This caused a dilemma for Jewish believers in Corinth. Touching anything that had been in contact with idols had previously rendered them unclean. Idols presented a different problem to Greek Corinthians who had become Christians: the danger that anything connected with idolatry could draw them back to idol worship. When Paul first laid these issues before the Jerusalem Council, they determined that it was not necessary to fulfil Jewish Law before becoming a Christian. The Council, however, asked that Christians abstain from three things: sexual immorality, food offered to idols and meat that had not been bled.3
Paul had learned much in the intervening years about social life. Christians must live in their communities,4 rejecting its values but dealing amicably with neighbours, including socialising, working together and going to market.Paul came to see that an idol is an inanimate ‘nothing’ (v 4). Meat offered to an idol has not changed in any way and Christians are free to eat it5 – but Paul made one extremely important proviso. There are ‘weaker’ sisters and brothers, that is, Christians to whom the attraction of the pagan temple activities are a constant temptation to reengage with their past lives. We may feel we have the Christian maturity to act more freely in our communities but we are not free to lead astray our less mature Christian brothers and sisters. We are the redeemed people of God. We are not free to live only for ourselves. We have been ‘bought at a price’.6 We are to live for others, especially nurturing new or struggling Christians ‘for whom Christ died’ (v 11).
Give me the grace and love, O God, to walk beside those who struggle with their faith and commitment and to gently lead them back to you, in Jesus’ name.
1 William Cowper, 1731–1800, ‘O for a closer walk with God’ 2 Deut 4:15–31; 7:5; 17:2–7 3 Acts 15:20 4 1 Cor 5:10 5 1 Cor 10:25 6 1 Cor 7:23
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Ecclesiastes 1–3; 2 Thessalonians 2
Pray for Scripture Union
There is now a new Guardians of Ancora Collection available to all Faith Guides as part of the Revealing Jesus mission framework. Pray that these resources will give Faith Guides confidence and inspiration and that they will be effective in helping children connect, explore, respond and grow on their own faith journeys.
