“Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’ This ‘knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.” (1 Corinthians 8:1-3)
Are you proud of your freedom in Christ? What things do you do which may not be sinful but which may lead others into sin if they copied your behavior? On social media have you spoken words of hate, loathing, and animosity towards those with whom you disagree politically? Have you spoken unkind and malicious words about or to your brothers and sisters in the Lord? You may think you are exercising your right to free speech, guaranteed by the constitution of the United States. As the Apostle Paul tells us, the Kingdom of God does not grant such freedom or free speech when it comes to hurting, maligning, or misleading our fellow believers.
In the Church at Corinth, certain believers boasted in demonstrations of individual freedom as the highest form of godliness. Yet they were selfish because they did what pleased then without giving thought to how what they did affected anyone else. One of the areas that demonstrated their selfishness was eating meat sacrificed to idols. The problem was they did this at fellowship meals in pagan temples. They figured they could eat such meat because idols had no real existence. In this way they gave the idea to new converts that this behavior showed that they were truly “in the spirit”.
While Paul knew that idols had no real substance, he maintained that the Corinthians sinned, because they did not take into account that they were misleading their weaker brethren and causing them to sin. To these weaker ones, an idol was real and when they saw their “stronger” brethren eating at pagan temples, they thought that fellowship with false gods was part of the Christian experience. The Corinthians sinned by not edifying these weaker ones.
Paul’s argument is that Christian behavior is not merely a matter of exercising personal freedom but of love for one another. Everything we do, no matter how innocuous or neutral, must take into account the affect it may have on our brethren in Christ and what it shows about Christ to the rest of the world. What we do should be determined by the possible effects it may have them. We should never do anything that may be misinterpreted, appear to be sinful, set a bad example, or glorify any person, thing or false idol. All we do must glorify God.