Day 118

Never be a stumbling block

1 Corinthians 8

Key Verses: 4, 8, 9, 13

Here in the United States we don’t confront idols on a daily basis as other cultures do. Hinduism has over a hundred million gods, so those in India face it daily. And yet we hear certain groups of people pushing for human rights to be applied to animals, plants, and even the planet itself! They are making a god out of these things. There is only one Creator God, one ultimate eternal being, who is separate from and prior to the creation itself.

For the Corinthians, food offered to an idol took on special significance culturally. And once it had that special significance, it was hard for some of them to not be influenced by that old way of thinking, even though they were Jesus-followers now.

Let me give you an example that might help bring this dilemma up to the 21^st century. I have many friends for whom Facebook is a way to stay connected to friends far and wide. Sometimes FB can have very negative connotations, like when a spouse starts an affair using FB. FB takes on a new significance. It becomes the vehicle of affairs, and they have trouble allowing FB any role in their lives because FB = affair. So when someone else talks about their use of FB it brings up all these connections with the affair that are very detrimental.

So it was with food offered to idols for the Corinthians. Although they knew that idols are nothing, the connection was still burned into their experience of life. They had problems disconnecting idol worship from the food itself, like FB from the affair.

Paul says that we need to be aware of these connections in other people’s experience and avoid things that might cause them to stumble. This does not mean that we must all give up FB, but it might mean that we don’t spend all our time talking about FB when that friend is around.

I don’t know if you have ever heard the term “recovering catholic” before, but for some people, their experience of the church was so negative that they avoid any experience that even comes close. They will avoid all organized religious activity because it brings up such powerful negative images. I know some people who watched a documentary on food production and are now vegetarians in reaction to what they saw.

We are connected to our fellow Jesus-followers, and have a responsibility to help them in their spiritual walk. Paul says that food is just food, that there is no innate connection between its past and now. FB is just a tool with no innate good or bad.