Good Morning Friends,
“Let us therefore make every effort to do
what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God
for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything
that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine
or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall. So whatever you
believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man
who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the man who has doubts is
condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that
does not come from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:19-23)
People are more important than rights.
In Paul’s day, there was an argument over
whether a person could eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols. The pagans
took their sacrifices to their temples and offered them to their gods. The
pagan priests then took the meat of the sacrifice and sold it in the city
market. That’s one way that they were able to make their living. The pagans
would then go to the marketplace and buy some of the meat that had been
sacrificed to their gods and take it home to eat in a meal of celebration and
worship.
The question: was the meat tainted by what it
had been used for? Could a Christian eat the meat that had been sacrificed to
an idol? Or, would the Christian be participating in the worship of a false god
by buying and eating that meat?
Not everyone agreed about the answer to those
questions. Those who had been converted out of idol worship were likely to be
appalled that anyone who did not believe in the idols would eat the meat.
Others, who didn’t struggle with idolatry, would likely assume the meat was
just meat and the sacrifice meant nothing because the idol meant nothing.
According to the Bible, those who thought the
meat was fine to eat were right and they could eat the meat with a clear
conscience. But Paul’s point in this passage is that people are more important
than rights. If what they did would hurt someone else, perhaps cause him to
return to idol worship, then giving up the right to eat the meat was right
thing to do.
The principle remains the same to this day –
the people around you are always more important than your rights.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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