IDENTIFYING GOD’S INTEREST IN OTHERS (VI)
“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.” 1 Corinthians 8:10-12 NIV
Paul gives a practical example: food sacrificed to idols. In his day, pagan worship and sacrificial rituals were woven into the culture. Believers understood that idols were nothing because “there is no other God but one”. Yet for those whose hearts were just being freed from those old beliefs, seeing a Christian participate could be confusing, even faith-shaking.
To the mature believer, eating food offered to idols meant nothing spiritually. To the weaker believer, it might imply that you endorse idolatry, subconsciously luring them back into bondage.
Thus, the issue is not food but love. It is not superstition but souls. It is not legalism but protecting the tender work of God in another’s life. Christ’s love moves us from asking, “Is this allowed?” to asking: “Does this build my brother’s faith or endanger it?”
This is the heart of Christian maturity: freedom governed by love, and liberty surrendered for the sake of another’s holiness.
Prayer: My Father, I thank You for calling us into a freedom that does not live for itself. I thank you for helping us discern when to enjoy our liberties and when to lay them down for the sake of another’s walk with you. Give us a heart motivated by the same spirit as Christ’s, that is self-emptying, other-honoring, and full of grace. May our freedom always lead others closer to Christ, to the glory of your name. Amen.
CI.
RELATED RESOURCES
• Romans 14:21
• 1 Thessalonians 5:11
• Matthew 18:6
