Week 45 Corinthians
Paul took some time to talk about the butcher shops in Corinth. Their practice of ceremonially offering the meat to pagan idols before it went on sale in the market had created a rift among Corinthian believers. The sides were: Meat-Eaters vs. Non-Meat-Eaters…
Meat-Eaters said ‘the idol means nothing. It’s okay to eat this meat’
Non-Meat-Eaters said ‘there’s a big problem. You can’t eat meat devoted to an idol’
Both sides couldn’t be right. And Paul solved that problem: we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God and no other… So in actual fact it was okay to eat the meat. Dilemma resolved…right?
Wrong. All we know now is who was right.
Solving half a problem doesn’t solve it all. There’s still the other half. There’s still the Non-Meat-Eaters Dilemma. Paul says: when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated.
Something that’s okay on the material consumption level is wrong on the conscience level.
In the church I go to we don’t care about meat offered to idols. But we have meat-offered-to-idols issues. So where that leaves me – according to Paul – is that I have to love the people in my church who are right and I also have to love people in my church who aren’t right but think they are.
Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 8:4 & 7 (NLT)