As I mentioned in the previous post, 1st Corinthians Paul brings up an issue that was dividing the Corinthian church. Some were okay with the issue, some were not okay, and people were offended.
What was this offensive issue? Here’s what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 8:1-8,
“Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever 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 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. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.”
What is Paul talking about? Eating food that had been sacrificed to idols? Remember that Paul is writing to people living in the city of Corinth. This was a bustling city in the Greco-Roman Empire. There were pagan temples in the city at which people practiced pagan worship, including sacrificing meat/food to the gods. Temple officials and priests could not eat all of it, so they would sell it in the local meat market, like Central Market here in downtown Lancaster. People could shop at the market, buying meat for dinner.
The question Paul is raising here is what do Christians do about this meat that had been sacrificed to idols in the pagan temples? Was it okay for them to buy it and eat it?
Those Christians also might be invited to a party at the temple or a home where the meat was served. What we learn is that some Christians felt free to eat it, others weren’t so sure. Why?
The church at that time was comprised of two very distinct groups of people: those with a Jewish background, and those with a Gentile or non-Jewish background. The Christians from a Jewish background were utterly opposed to idolatry. Think about their Jewish culture. The Ten Commandments say: #1 Do not have any other gods before me, and #2 Do not make or worship idols. And it was idol worship that eventually got the nation of Israel in trouble, invaded, and exiled. So Jews, generally-speaking, had a very hard time with anything remotely connected to idols, and rightly so.
But there was another group of people who were also part of the church, non-Jews. Gentiles. Those people did not grow up in a Jewish, anti-idolatry worldview or context. For them, eating meat that had previously been sacrificed to idols was just food they had been eating all their lives. They didn’t have an emotional or religious feeling about it. It was meat you could easily purchase, so what’s the big deal?
Paul talks about these two groups by using the terms “weak” and “strong”.
The Christians from a Jewish background were the Weak, and they said: “Do not eat the meat sacrificed to idols, because it is connected with idolatry and that will affect our conscience, our relationship with the Lord and each other.” These Jewish Christians felt that way because they were used to all the laws and regulations of the Old Testament Law.
The non-Jews Paul called the Strong and they said: “It’s OK to eat, food is just food. Idols are nothing. God is real.” The strong group had knowledge. It was a knowledge that was based in Christian freedom. We are free in Christ to eat what we want. These non-Jews had no history with the Old Testament Law.
Of course it is unlikely that all the Jewish Christians were anti-idol meat and all the Gentile Christians were pro-idol meat. We’re speaking in generalities.
Here’s the problem: these two groups are in the same church family. They have significantly different viewpoints on the world, because of their background and their history. Imagine the clash. Actually, I think we American Christians can imagine the clash fairly easily because we are living in a clash of our own.
What the Corinthian Christians experienced is very similar to those of us in contemporary American Christianity who might be part of the same church, same family, same neighborhood, but we have different viewpoints about the world, and in particular, we have different viewpoints about what is good and right for America and the church.
What do we do about our disagreements? Sadly, we have far too often chosen poorly. How so? In the next post, I’ll talk about that.
Photo by Obie Fernandez on Unsplash
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