We started class with a list of
things we could all agreed were wrong (murder, adultery, stealing, not
respecting the women in our house (especially your mother), letting your cell
phone ring during class, and like that) and things that were more subjective –
things that some thought were always wrong but others didn’t worry about at all
(alcohol use, movie ratings, dancing, gambling, yoga, acceptable attire for
church, and so on).
The class was discussing I
Corinthians 8, in which Paul addressed a divisive issue in the church. Some of
the people were eating meat that had been used in pagan worship and they were
doing it without concern or reservation. They didn’t believe the false pagan
idols had any real spiritual significance and, after all, it was the best meat
available. So why not enjoy their freedom?
There were others in the church who
had been freed from those very same pagan practices and for them eating this
meat was way too close to their old way of life before Jesus. It caused them a
great deal of spiritual pain to live so close to the edge.
It’s easy for me to imagine the
church members falling into two camps – one preaching careful consideration of
new believers and following a close set of rules to prevent any possible drift
back into paganism … after all, we aren’t the same people we used to be and we
should live differently now. Eating this meat is one more slide down the
slippery slope of losing our identity in an increasingly immoral world.
The other camp preaching freedom
under grace and asking why we shouldn’t enjoy the best food when we’ve been set
free from laws and rules – and maybe this group celebrated their freedom by
serving BBQ at their church parties and wondered why everyone didn’t attend.
Paul started this part of his
letter, not with a checklist of rules as we might expect, (and wouldn’t such a
list have made our lives easier since all we’d have to do is check off the
items as we obeyed) but with this statement: “Knowledge puffs up, but love
builds up.” (NIV)
The Phillips translation says it
this way: “We should remember that while this “knowing” may make a man look
big, it is only love that can make him grow to his full stature.”
Apparently the controversy in the church
at
descended into intellectual debates with both sides using their superior
insight and wisdom to browbeat the other side. It is easy to imagine; even
today there are hundreds of websites and blogs used by Christians to hammer
away at other Christians who disagree with them. They are certain if they yell
loud enough and type hard enough and make their intellectually-superior
argument often enough the other side will have no choice but to submit and
humbly admit they were wrong.
Paul said we don’t need to know
more, we need to love more.
He also gave this advice in verse
8:9, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a
stumbling block to the weak.” But why do I always have to be responsible for
someone else’s weakness? How far do I have to go allowing someone else’s
conscience control my behavior? Why not command the weaker Christian to wise-up
and grow up? Is it fair that we have to continually adjust our life to
accommodate the least common denominator?
I asked the class, “What if someone
joined our group from a church that taught women should never wear pants in
church – should all the women in our class stop wearing pants in order to
accommodate her?”
The answer that came back from the
class was brilliant. “What we have to do first, before changing our behavior,
is get to know the other person. We aren’t here to patronize each other but to
take care of each other, and we can’t do that unless we truly know each other
on a heart level.”
We are always willing to change our
life and our behavior for people we know and love. Our true value isn’t about
how much we know, but about how much we love – and even more – it is about who
we love.
“I run in the path of Your
commands, for You have set my heart free.” Psalm 119:32
To learn more about
With God:” www.runningwithgodonline.com
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Berry directly: berry@stonefoot.org
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