Am I a Stumbling Block? 1 Corinthians 8 (New International Version, ©2010)

Good morning Partners and Friends,

Today is Wednesday 2.23.2011.

We are looking at 1 Corinthians 8 and it is speaking of the freedom we have under Grace to eat anything.

Yes is true we can eat anything but just because we can does not mean we should. We are not to be a stumbling block to our brothers and sisters in Christ. If your freedom causes someone to stumble then we also have the freedom to not  partake of this idem. Because 1 Corinthians 8:9 states:

9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.

Let’s check it out a little closer.

1 Corinthians 8

Concerning Food Sacrificed to Idols

 1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God.[a]

 4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

 7 But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

 9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 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? 11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

Footnotes:

   1. 1 Corinthians 8:3 An early manuscript and another ancient witness think they have knowledge do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves truly knows.