Baggage – 1 Corinthians 8:9

1 Corinthians 8:9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your right does not become a stumbling block to the weak.

Despite opinions to the contrary, we do need each other. Even billionaires need someone to grow their food, and make and maintain their private jets! They also need others to consume their products and services. Everyone of us need others.

And because we need each other, we have a responsibility to protect each other, and even more so those of us who claim Jesus as Lord. We are part of a new family, with its new connections, obligations and privileges. It is these new connections, obligations and privileges that Paul is addressing with the Corinthian church in this part of the letter.

You see, the church in Corinth was a messy church, just like all growing and healthy churches. There are new believers who haven’t grown enough in their faith to be able to stand on their own. They need the body of believers to steady their feeble attempts at walking, being ready to help them stand once again.

But like all people, their previous life had some baggage that still traveled with them, despite their newfound faith. The way they viewed life had not been completely transformed yet, so how they viewed certain things left gaping holes in their understanding of the freedom they had in Christ. It is these gaps that Paul addresses in this passage.

For many of the Corinthians, idols had been an important part of how they saw the world. Gods’ could make life better for them if they were treated properly. If you got on the bad side of a god, they could make life miserable. As a result of this view of the world, appeasing the god through offerings, prayers, and devotional sacrifices was a normal part of everyday life.

But now that the reality has been shown, gods have been put in their place, manmade objects with no power or significance. They are just hunks of wood, stone, pottery, gems, and precious metals. All these idols only had power because people gave them power. They are just empty shells, filled with human fears, dreams and hopes.

But the reality has been found in Jesus, so the shells no longer have any function, other than as a collector’s item. The meat offered to an idol in reality has not greater significance than any other slab of meat. Since the idol meant nothing, the offering of the meat meant nothing.

But for those whose repeated offerings throughout their life had infused the idol shells with meaning, unlearning that lie was a struggle.

I have been told that quitting smoking cigarettes is one of the most difficult addictions to overcome. That is partially because smoking has been woven into every fabric of their daily life. You wake up and smoke. You have a cup of coffee and you smoke. You get in the car to go to work and you smoke. You take a break at work and go smoke with coworkers and smoke.

So in order to quit, your whole life must be restructured, this time without the smoking.

Now imagine that idol worship was woven into life, into every activity in which you engaged. You lit a candle before you got out of bed. You prepared the god’s offering of food before you prepared your own. You said an incantation before you walked through your front door on your way to work. You saw the roadside idol and stopped to say a prayer. Throughout your day, the idol occupied your thoughts and activities. Everywhere there were reminders of the idols’ importance.

If this was so, then it would be very difficult to unweave that idol worship from your life. And this is what some of these new believers in Corinth were facing. So Paul wants the believers who have already grown in their faith to the place where the idol meant nothing, to be careful in how they live, so as not to hinder the growth of these weaker believers, those who still have not pulled the threads of idolatry from their daily life.

So how does this apply to our lives? There are some things that are not prohibited in Scripture that we choose to not do in order to help a weaker believer. We might not drink alcohol in public so as not to cause an recovering alcoholic to fall off the wagon. We might not go to a casino to help a recovering gambler, even if the buffet is cheap and really good.

We have a responsibility to curb our freedom, so as to help those who are weak.