Jesus Is Risen by David Limbaugh

Author:David Limbaugh
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Regnery Publishing

CHAPTER 8

* * *

Paul next turns to the Corinthians’ question concerning food offered to idols. Should they eat or purchase at the market the remainders of animals that were offered in sacrifice to pagan gods? Pagan temples that offered these animals for sacrifice sometimes functioned as butcher shops or banquet halls and sold or served the remainders.104 Pagan neighbors and friends would also sometimes offer such food to Christians at a dinner.

Paul begins with the quote, “all of us possess knowledge,” remarking that this knowledge puffs people up, whereas love builds them up. This may be language from the Corinthians’ letter to Paul. Regardless, Paul uses it as a jumping off point to discuss the pitfalls of being proud of one’s knowledge. When a person is proud of his knowledge, he doesn’t know as much as he thinks. But if anyone loves God, God knows him. Self-indulgently showing off one’s knowledge can harm that person (because pride is an obstacle to a true relationship with God) and can be off-putting to others. People must be less focused on self and more on loving God, and this will lead to a greater love for their neighbors. We must not consider ourselves superior to those less knowledgeable. “In our salutary emphasis on truth and knowledge,” writes D. A. Carson, “we must never succumb to an intellectual arrogance that assigns a small importance to self-denying love for those who do not know as much.”105

There is only one God, and idols are not real. There may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, but for us there is one God, the Father, from Whom are all things and for Whom we exist. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through Whom are all things and through Whom we exist. But not everyone knows these things. Some believe idols are really gods, so when they eat food that was offered to idols, they believe they are worshipping real gods, and this bothers their consciences. But food itself is irrelevant to our relationship with God. Paul is not approving Christians’ participation in feasts dedicated to false, pagan gods while they claim to worship the true God (see Chapter 10)—that is forbidden. One must not eat food in a ceremony that inherently signifies the worship of a false god.106 In this chapter he is addressing a different matter—the propriety of eating the remainders of animals that have been offered to idols.

It doesn’t matter whether Christians eat food that’s been sacrificed to an idol, since they know the idol is nonexistent. But it might bother new Christian converts who worshipped idols in the past. If more mature Christians exercise their freedom to eat in an idol’s temple, a weaker Christian may follow their example and feel guilty for having eaten defiled food. The lesson is that we always must be sensitive to others and that believers should not impose an unnecessary obstacle to converts’ Christian faith. Paul explained it this way in his letter to the Romans: “Those who have doubts are condemned if they eat, because they do not act from faith” (14:23).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.