Real spiritual warfare in the world – Ephesians 6:10-13, Part 4

A few years ago, my Amish neighbor years ago was going to have a new bore hole dug for a well.  So they brought in a “water man.”  This guy came to their property, pulled out a pliers, and started walking around their meadow.  At one point, he said he felt the pliers start vibrating, and that is where he said they should drill the well.  I was over there a couple days later buying some eggs, and my Amish neighbor asked me what I thought.  I said that sounds like divination to me.  Divination is a practice of relying on spiritual powers for direction, and it is condemned throughout scripture.  God doesn’t work by divination.  The dark powers do.  I said I would stay far away from that. 

Between my junior and senior year of college I did a missionary internship in Guyana, South America. My missionary host told me a story about a short-term mission team that had traveled down to work with them for a week a few years prior.  As the mission team was walking around a local neighborhood, they saw people entering a Hindu temple.  Guyana is about 50% Hindu.  One of the American men on the mission team became very internally angry as he watched the people enter the temple, because he believed they were being led astray by a false god.  As he expressed internal hatred toward the devil, right there on the street, he was hit with a wave of spiritual oppression and knocked down to the ground and he could not get up. 

Perhaps there are other ways spiritual warfare can manifest itself in world.

Psychiatrist Richard Gallagher says, “I diagnose mental illness. Also, I help spot demonic possession.”[1]  Many psychiatrists would disagree with Gallagher. But he writes that, “careful observation of the evidence presented to me in my career has led me to believe that certain extremely uncommon cases can be explained no other way.”  He is not saying that mental illness is the same as having demonic interaction in your life.   He is saying he’s seen both. 

What about addiction?  It might not only have a sinful side to it, but a spiritual warfare element.  Addiction seems to be particularly evil. 

I also read about how bullying can be connected to spiritual warfare, and we’ll talk about that next week when we discuss the first piece of the armor of God, the Belt of Truth.

Let me repeat the point I attempted to make in the previous post: the spiritual forces of darkness are not to be trifled with.  We should not see ourselves as demon-slayers.  We should not see ourselves as holy knights whom God has called to do battle with demons.  That is precisely why Paul says what he says in the rest of the verses in Ephesians 6:10-13.

He says we all should be strengthened in the Lord and in the power of his might.  This is a command verse.  Paul makes it clear that this is not an option.  All disciples of Jesus should pursue being strengthened in the Lord.  He is the one with the power.  He is mighty. Not us.  When we have encounters with the spiritual forces of darkness, we should make it very clear that we are depending on God, not ourselves.  We should be very humble.

So how should we interact with evil? We’ll talk about that further in the next post.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/01/as-a-psychiatrist-i-diagnose-mental-illness-and-sometimes-demonic-possession/

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Evil spirits are not to be trifled with – Ephesians 6:10-13, Part 3

In our previous posts this week, here and here, we read in Ephesians 6:10-13 where Paul writes that our battle is not against flesh and blood, not against what we can see and touch, but against a spiritual enemy.  That spiritual is the devil and his demonic forces. That immediately sounds ominous and scary. Should Christians be worried?

In biblical theology, we talk about the difference between spiritual oppression and spiritual possession.  There is much debate about how different these terms are, and to what degree Satan and his demons can impact believers when the Holy Spirit lives in us.  It seems that we cannot be possessed, but we can be oppressed.  I’ve certainly had some really, really dark dreams at night, which can feel like oppression.  Others describe dark presences.  Evil or self-destructive thoughts.  Lies, deception, hatred. 

In Ephesians 4, where Paul writes this:

“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

It seems that when we embrace sin in our lives, we can give the devil a foothold. Clearly we will want to avoid this.  This is yet another reason why we pursue walking in step with the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, and allowing his Fruit of the Spirit to grow in and flow from our lives.

Back to Ephesians 6.  Paul uses numerous words to describe the spiritual darkness in our world.  Look at verse 12.  The NIV translates this spiritual enemy as “the rulers…the authorities…the powers of this dark world and…the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Some of those words sound physical.  Rulers and Authorities.  If we’re not careful, we could read Paul as saying that we are in a physical battle against national governments, kings, leaders.  But that is not at all what Paul is saying.  He is speaking entirely spiritually here.

In fact, the words he uses can be defined as “a supernatural power having some particular role in controlling the destiny and activities of human beings.”[1]

There is a real supernatural power, and, this is key, it is not weak, and it is not to be trifled with. 

In the next post we’ll talk about how the spiritual world can affect us.

[1] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 146–147.

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Is spiritual warfare real? – Ephesians 6:10-13, Part 2

Is spiritual warfare real?  Perhaps the most famous biblical passage about spiritual warfare is Ephesians 6, verses 10-20, about the Armor of God.

For the next couple months, we will be studying the Armor of God.  This week we are looking at verses 10-13, the introduction to the passage. The writer of this passage is the Apostle Paul, and he is writing to the Christians in the city of Ephesus, which at the time was a very important city in the Roman Empire.  It’s temple to Artemis/Diana, a Greek/Roman goddess, was one of the wonders of the ancient world.  Perhaps because of this pagan temple, spiritual activity was visually and obviously present in the town.  In Acts 19, we read that Paul spent a lot of time in Ephesus.  More than two years.  Here’s one episode from that time:

“God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.”

That gives us an idea of why Paul wrote what he wrote in his letter to the Ephesians, a letter he sent approximately 3-5 years after he had spent all that time with them.  Here is what Paul said in Ephesians 6:10-13,

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place.”

Notice that Paul assumes the reality of the spiritual forces of evil.  That is the question we started with.  Is it real?  Paul answers an unequivocal YES.  In fact, he says in verse 12 that our struggle is far less physical and far more spiritual. 

Paul is really challenging our modern, scientific thinking here.  We tend to have a scientific, medical, rational, physical answer for everything.  And we are not necessarily wrong.  Science is real because God created the world, the universe, in a beautifully organized way.  There are laws of science, and they are laws because they can be repeated over and over.  Science and faith are not mutually exclusive. From the very basic rules of math, that 2 + 2 = 4, to the complex Einsteinian speed of light, e=mc2. 

This week The Sphere opened in Las Vegas.  The Sphere is an astounding building.  It is the biggest man-made spherical building in the world, and its exterior is covered with high-definition video panels, so it can look like a giant basketball, the moon, or any design, photo, video they want to display on it.  Inside, it is a state-of-the-art audio/video venue, with a massive high-definition panel that is like 10 Imax screens put together.  And the first band doing a concert residency there is U2, so I just had to point that out since they are my favorite. I mention all this because The Sphere’s website has a page dedicated to the extensive and intricate science that it took to build this marvel. 

Our contemporary human thought-process is that with enough money, study, experimentation, and research, we can accomplish anything.  Send a human-driven rocket to the moon?  Check.  We did that in 1969.  Send a robot-driven rocket to Mars?  Check.  Been there, done that.  Cure diseases?  Check, check, and many checks.  Connect the world via the internet and satellites?  Check, and check. 

But Paul says that there is another reality.  It’s not a matter of science.  It’s not physics, trigonometry, geometry or engineering.  Paul is saying that our battle is not against flesh and blood, not against what we can see and touch, but against a spiritual enemy. 

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Are ghosts real? – Ephesians 6:10-13, Part 1

Are ghosts real?  If ghosts are real, aren’t they just manifestations of demons?  Are demons real?  And what about spiritual warfare? 

In our scientifically-minded culture we can lean heavily toward believing that ghosts, the spirit world and therefore spiritual warfare is not real.  Some people go so far as to say that  the descriptions of demonic possession in the Bible are actually psychotic episodes that the ancients didn’t know how to understand.  Those same skeptics say that we, however, with our centuries of scientific, medical and mental health research and understanding now know that there is no such thing as spiritual warfare, but instead it’s all in our minds and bodies. 

Clearly, there are plenty of people who believe that.  It’s just science, they say.  But are they right?

If we are reading the New Testament, it seems the naysayers are wrong.  Satan is mentioned frequently.  Jesus and the disciples take it for granted that Satan is real and that he and his demons manifest themselves on a regular basis. 

If we keep reading beyond the life of Jesus, what we see is that the apostles and the early church also have numerous encounters that could be described as literal spiritual warfare.

What is spiritual warfare? 

In many places around the world today, there are evidently power encounters between the real forces of Satan and angels and humans.  A friend of mine from India sent me a video of an exorcism that looks like it is straight out of a feature film. 

Here in North America we can think that Satan, if he is real, doesn’t care about us, because we have maybe deceived ourselves with consumerism, materialism, and consumed with entertainment, comfort, and ease. There is a point there, but we also have our power encounters.  There is witchcraft and sorcery.  But for most of us, I suspect that we will go throughout most, if not all, of our lives, never having a spiritual power encounter like that. 

Does that mean spiritual warfare exists in other places, but doesn’t affect us at all?  Maybe Satan has decided not to bother with us.  I highly doubt it. 

But what about us?  We need to be careful.  We can blame things on Satan that almost certainly have nothing to do with Satan.  We can trip, fall and break a bone, and say that the enemy was at work.  Maybe, but I doubt it.  We were just clumsy.  We can have a persistent cough for a month, and say that Satan just wouldn’t let up.  Again, I highly doubt it.  A job loss, a broken relationship, a car accident, or having to park really far away from Costco.  Likely none of it is Satan. 

The editor of Christianity Today, Russell Moore recently wrote an article I found very helpful, and the title was that the culture war is not spiritual warfare.  Moore writes, “There’s no absence of spiritual warfare talk from Christians these days. But listen closely to it and you’ll notice something: Rarely is this language of warfare directed toward evil spirits. Instead, it’s usually employed to describe ideological opposition toward fellow human beings. “This is spiritual warfare!” we hear as the lead-in to a call to arms about some political or social stance. But this way of thinking about spiritual warfare reveals a significant disenchantment with the world of the Bible.”[1]

Finally, we Americans sometimes claim that foreign policy is spiritual warfare.  What do I mean?  Have you ever heard international politics described as good versus evil.  That perspective is very American. Former President Ronald Reagan, for example, called the USSR “the evil empire.”  We typically say our enemies are Satanic, and we, America, are good, fighting a holy fight.  We also said this about the war on terror.  Is foreign policy the same as spiritual warfare?  If none of that is spiritual warfare, what is spiritual warfare? We’ll talk about that in the next post.

[1] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/october/culture-war-spiritual-warfare-devil-russell-moore.html

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How should Christians respond to spiritual darkness – Ephesians 6:10-13, Preview

Tomorrow is October 1st, and the pumpkins and Halloween decorations are popping up all over my local community here in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Kids are talking about costumes and trick-or-treating.  Among the princesses and super heroes we’ll see little ghouls, goblins, ghosts and gremlins walking around our neighborhoods.

My personal opinion is that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  I love the ideas of costumes, candy and the way that trick-or-treating brings communities out of their homes and connecting with one another.  Halloween is a natural cultural opportunity to build relationships.  But not all Christians have felt so positive about Halloween.

Perhaps you and your family feel very cautious about the potential connection between Halloween and spiritual darkness.  We are wise to be cautious about spiritual darkness.

Often I have heard people forbid their children from consuming media that depicts spiritual darkness. My wife, for example, was not allowed to watch Star Wars growing up because the story features a mystical, invisible, yet powerful Force, which has both a light and dark side.  Throughout the years, I’ve talked with parents who were concerned that famous fictional stories of witchcraft would negatively influence their children.  Not to mention horror movies, which are frequently released in October to align with Halloween. Are these kinds of prohibitions necessary?

What is a proper Christian response to spiritual darkness?  Is spiritual warfare real?  What about Satan and his demons?  What does the Bible have to say?  This coming week we begin a new blog series on The Armor of God, which is described in Ephesians 6:10-20.  The Armor of God is one of the foremost biblical teachings about how Christians can respond to spiritual darkness.  We’ll be studying this passage through the months of October and November, learning how we Christians can and should respond to spiritual darkness.

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How to have strong opinions and be humble too – How to interact with people who view the world differently than you, Part 5

In the first post in this series, I talked about unity as Christians agreeing on top tier issues.  What are top tier issues? That God is father, son and Holy Spirit, and that it is only through God the Son, Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection that sin, death and the devil are defeated, and we have access to new life, both abundant life now and the hope of eternal life after death. 

That is a really, really small top tier.  Perhaps we could add a few things.  But that’s where the temptation snags us.  We think, “Well, surely to be a good Christian we need to agree about more than that, don’t we?”  And then we start adding.  What we believe about the Bible, of course, right?  And we go on and on adding more and more beliefs that we say are non-negotiable until soon enough, our top tier is huge.  Then we start thinking that a true Christian is only one who agrees with all kinds of beliefs in our top tier. 

I think Paul is saying something very different in 1st Corinthians chapters 8 and 10.  Paul teaches us to allow for freedom of disagreement by keeping our second and third tiers wide open for loving, gracious disagreement.  Unity, not uniformity. 

Be humble and teachable, always willing to say, “I could be wrong about this.”  Years ago I had a conversation with someone about a social issue.  We were both Christians, and we disagreed about the issue.  That person was unwilling to say they could possibly be wrong.  It was only after I explained that disciples of Jesus should be humble and teachable that this person would concede that they might be 1% wrong about their view. 

We can have strong opinions. We can believe we are in the right, but we should always be willing to admit it is possible that we are wrong, we should be willing to pause to try to understand where the other person’s perspective is coming from.  What might we be missing? It is simply not worth it to break fellowship over. “They will know we are Christian’s by our LOVE.”

I was in a meeting recently with a person who was displaying tendencies of being a know-it-all.  Have you ever experienced that?  They have a comment about everything, and their perspective is authoritative.  We Christians do not need to have a spirit of authority when sharing our opinions.  Instead we demonstrate the Fruit of the Spirit. 

We can invite others to have a conversation, to research, to learn.  We need to have a healthy view of ourselves, remembering that our personality, our viewpoint, our experiences, our studies are not authoritative.  We don’t have it all figured out.  Deep down inside, even if we might think, “I am almost certain that I am right about my perspective,” we need to lead with humility and teachability.  We need to be listeners, asking questions.

We avoid arguing, and especially we avoid seeking to win arguments. Do not believe the lie that winning arguments will win people over.  It usually just makes things worse.  When people lose an argument, they will not likely think, “Thank you so much for defeating me in that argument, I now see the truth.”  No, they usually feel awful because defeat feels awful, and they actually become more entrenched in their view. 

Instead, be a learner, a listener, a questioner, and have a conversation, with a heart to grow, quick to admit you might be wrong.  Ask God to show you where you might need to grow.

I also encourage you to put in the work by intentionally listening to points of view that do not affirm what you already believe.  If you are a person who regularly listens to one side of the political spectrum, start listening to the other side.  Seek out more balance.  It is rarely the case that one side is all wrong, and the other side is all right.  Avoid that kind of polarized thinking, by listening to the other side, the other person with an open mind, wanting to understand where the other person is coming from.

And when there is error in your thinking, own up to it.  When there is error in other people’s thinking, don’t gloat, but graciously embrace them.

Do not let an opinion or a perspective that you carry overpower the heart of sacrificial love, care, fellowship and unity that God calls us to.  God IS love.  That is so much more than just “God is loving”.  God IS love.  So, that should be a bedrock part of our conversations and interactions with people, whether we carry the same opinions on issues or not.

This is why I love that at Faith Church we are seeking to be a place where people from a variety of viewpoints and backgrounds can warmly, graciously, lovingly commune with one another in real relationships. 

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Why it is so good to be wrong – How to interact with people who view the world differently from you, Part 4

So what does it look like to do all to the glory of God when we are interacting with people with whom we disagree?  It is clearly putting God first.  But how?  In 1st Corinthians chapter 8, verse 9, Paul writes,

“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 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? So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 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.”

Now we have a clearer picture.  Paul shares a key principle: Don’t be a stumbling block; exercise of freedom should not become a stumbling block, the strong/free should abstain from a certain practice so as not to cause the weak in conscience to fall.  Instead restrain yourself out of care for the other person. 

When you disagree with another person in the church, glorifying God means a willingness to abstain, though you know that you are free to hold your viewpoint, your opinion.  What matters to God more than the opinion is your heart and the heart of the other person, and preserving a caring relationship between you. You don’t always need to have the final word or to be sure your point is said the loudest.

Glorifying God means that you care more about loving your brother or sister in Christ, than you care about demonstrating your freedom.  You care more about hurting their faith, than you care about winning the argument.  You care about helping to strengthen their faith.  Without question, the burden in this passage is on the strong to lovingly, graciously, care for the weak.

Basically Paul is saying, “Corinthians, you are free to eat meat sacrificed to idols.  It’s just meat.  But if your freedom is going to wound someone in your church, then don’t exercise your freedom. Care for others more than you care about exercising your freedom.”

The problem is that the weak often do not feel that they are weak, but instead that they are right!

The Weak can be arrogant in their weakness “Look at me, I don’t do that. And neither should you.”

The Strong can also be arrogant in their freedom “Look at me, I DO That, and so should you.”

The motive in both of these is wrong. 

So what should we do?  Look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:23-33,

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.”

Our motive should be, “Do it all to the glory of God.”  And when you do that, you act with love, with humility, with a ready willingness to abstain so as not to hurt another.

This is why I so often refer to the Fruit of the Spirit.  Whenever we interact with people, the Fruit of the Spirit should flow.  Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, Goodness, Faithfulness, and Self-control.

Yes, we will disagree about things.  Yes, it is okay to talk about our disagreements.  Yes, it is okay to have opinions, even strong opinions.  But we hold those opinions with love and humility.  We are quick to say, “I might be wrong about this.”  We avoid speaking with harsh tones or with absolute authority.  We let love for the other rule us.  God loves them. God made them in his image. So we love them too.

We also strive for truth!  That means when it comes to a disagreement about a social, political or theological issue, we should want to learn the truth about the issue.  What is so difficult is that there are often very different opinions about what the truth is. In the final post in this series, we’ll examine how Paul’s teaching in 1st Corinthians chapters 8 and 10 help us in those difficult conversations when our loved ones have very different truths than we do.

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The tragedy of American Christian sorting – How to interact with people who think differently than you, Part 3

What has happened in recent years in American Christianity has been called a sorting.  We American Christians, rather than do what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 10, be unified, we have sorted ourselves into different camps.  Has this happened in your church? In your community? It’s very evident in the wider American church. 

The trend has been that those who have what is considered today a conservative viewpoint have made sure that they are going to churches who affirm their conservative viewpoint.  Those who have what would be considered today a liberal or progressive viewpoint have made sure that they are going to a church that affirms their liberal or progressive viewpoint.  Both sets of churches would have people in them who love the Lord and are trying to follow God’s ways.  American Christians, generally-speaking, have sorted themselves along those conservative and progressive viewpoints.  I believe this is a great tragedy. 

I think Paul would call it a great tragedy also. In Paul’s day it would be like the Strong, the people who are free in Christ to eat meat previously sacrificed to idols, saying, “The weak are wrong, and in fact they might not even be Christians, we should not allow those strict legalistic people in our church, because Jesus has set us free from the law.”  Likewise, the Weak, the people who believe the eating meat sacrificed to idols is sinful, would say, “The Strong are wrong, and in fact they might not even be Christians, we should not allow those free-wheeling wild people to be in our church, because they are not serious about their faith.” 

Both sides, in other words, can be very judgmental about the other.  Both sides can say that the only way, the right way, is to think like them, as if their side is the only side that has it all figured out and they know what is best. What inevitably happens is that each side starts to look upon the other as the enemy, disdainfully, hatefully, incredulously.  “How can they possibly think like that reading the same Bible that I’m reading? They have to be wrong.  They are committing heresy and they are dangerous.” 

That kind of thinking is very tempting.  It is very possible for Christians to think that way about other Christians, breaking relationship with them, harming the church and the mission of Jesus.  So what do we do?  How do we have unity?

We could jump to the end of chapter 10:31 where Paul summarizes well: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 

That’s a nice, easy principle, right?  “Do all that you do to the glory of God.”  Every choice, every action, every thought…glorify God in all of it!  Easier said than done, right?  If only we could be so robotically faithful to God.  I once knew a guy who said he wanted to be a zombie for Jesus.  He meant well.  Like a zombie is singularly focused on eating human brains, this guy wished that he could do all things to the glory of God all the time. But because we God created us humans with free will, we can sometimes struggle to do all to the glory of God, including handling relationships and conversations with people with whom we disagree.

So what should we do? We should intentionally avoid sorting. We should do what Paul says next in 1st Corinthians 8 & 10, which we’ll look at in the next post.

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A clash of cultures in the church – How to interact with people who view the world differently than you, Part 2

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

The important difference between unity and uniformity – How to interact with people who view the world differently than you, Part 1

A couple years ago, I think it was in 2020 or 2021, I proposed the idea that some members of my extended family listen to the podcast, Seeing White.  The goal was to listen to one episode per week, and then discuss it together on a group text message chat.  I suggested this idea because these family members had already been having a conversation on the group chat about racism in the United States.  The podcast Seeing White had profoundly helped me learn about racism, and I though it would help them too. 

The main theme of the podcast is that we white people need to see our whiteness in order to help us at least begin to understand the experience of people of color in a majority white world.  In a documentary style the podcast works step by step through the history of race in America.  I found it very fair and balanced.  Convicting, for sure.  But fair.  I highly recommend all of you listen to it.

One family member said they would join me.  This person listened to the first episode, a 15+ minute introductory episode, didn’t like it, and decided to stop, saying they would not be continuing and didn’t want to talk about it.

Why am I telling you this story?  Once per quarter, I blog about current events.  Often I look at that week’s headlines, and try to help us apply biblical theology to a hot topic in our world.   Over the years, some people in my church have suggested topics that I might consider for these current event weeks. I welcome their input and yours.  They’ve had great ideas.  One suggestion was about lawn care (posts start here), and another suggestion was about artificial intelligence (posts start here).  This week’s topic is also one of their suggestions: What does the Bible have to say about how we talk with people with whom we have disagreements?  

In particular, what do I do when those in my family, my neighborhood, my community think very differently than I do about social issues, politics, and how to live as a follower of Jesus?  You can check out the preview post here.

Faith Church numbers about 110 people, and that means we have a variety of opinions about things.  Sometimes we disagree!  Shocking, I know. But my guess is that your church family is similar, no matter how big or small.

To begin to learn about how to talk with people who disagree with us, let’s take a look at the beginning of 1st Corinthians, where Paul makes a provocative statement.  In 1 Corinthians 1:10, Paul writes, “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.”  What is Paul talking about?

The Christians in Corinth had all sorts of issues and were fighting, and Paul had to deal with it.  Paul was interested in unity not uniformity.  Uniformity is when everything is identical. Like the Army.  I remember going to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to watch our son graduate from boot camp.  The first event was a demonstration where all the soldiers in the unit perform various military tactics they had learned throughout boot camp. Tossing grenades. Marching formations. Military tactics.  Then at the conclusion of the demonstration the soldiers were allowed to visit with their family members for the first time in two months.  The soldiers all lined up, and they looked exactly the same standing in a row.  That’s not what Jesus and Paul call us to.  We are not called to uniformity. We are called to unity.

Unity means you can have lots of variances of opinion.  How do we have unity when there are times we have such strong disagreements?

We can talk about the pyramid of beliefs where the top part of the pyramid holds the essential beliefs, those things we must agree on to be called brothers and sisters in Christ.  Just like the top of a pyramid is small, essentials are very few in number like Jesus being God, and that he died for our sins and rose again bodily from the dead.  Etc.  But there are a great many things we Christians can disagree about.  Those things are the nonessentials on the second and third tiers of the pyramid. 

Later in 1st Corinthians Paul brings up a third tier issue for the Corinthian church.  Some were okay with it, some were not okay, and people were offended.  What was this offensive issue? In the next post, we’ll find out.

Photo by Joel Rivera-Camacho on Unsplash