23 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. 24 No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. 25 Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” 27 If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. 29 I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience? 30If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? 31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— 33 even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. 1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
–1 Corinthians 10.23-11.1 (NIV)
Pay careful attention to what Paul is writing to a church on the ground in his day because it applies equally to churches in our day. Paul has been asked by the Corinthians to weigh in on whether they are allowed to eat meat sacrificed to idols. That is the presenting issue but there are much broader principles involved, namely, how are we to use our freedom in Christ? Should we use that freedom to benefit ourselves or is there something else going on here? Paul answers, “all of the above.”
Christians are no longer slaves to the Law in the sense that their relationship with God is not contingent on how well they obey the Law. Anyone who calls himself Christian will clearly try to obey God’s Law (love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself), but that is as far as it goes. Their ultimate salvation is not contingent on this because Christians have found peace with God in the blood of Christ shed for them and nothing else. This means there is great freedom for the believer in that he or she is not simply trying to “follow the rules,” strictly defined.
But notice Paul’s focus on the effects of how we use our freedom. He reminds us that we are always to keep the welfare of our fellow believers at the forefront so that we do not express our Christian freedom in ways that are offensive to another or that will cause harm or scandal in the eyes of other believers. For example, whenever my dad would go out to dinner with his minister, he would never consume alcohol in front of the minister because most of them did not drink. Dad was not doing this because he was hypocritical; in fact, he hardly drank at all. Rather, he did it out of honor and respect for his ministers who did not drink themselves. That is what Paul is talking about here.
“But wait!” you say. “What about my rights as a believer? Don’t I have the right to express my Christian freedom in areas that are not clearly defined by Christian doctrine?” “You do,” says Paul. “But your individual rights are not nearly as important as the welfare of your fellow believer and you must respect that and act accordingly. And not only that, you need to conduct yourself in ways that are not offense to unbelievers in the hope that God will use your behaviors to turn them into believers because your actions always speak louder than your words. When you do, you have a clear conscience and do not have to defend your actions to anyone.”
This sounds foreign to our ears precisely because we have made it all about “me” in today’s society. The existence and prevalence of social media stand in massive testimony to that fact. Sure, there has always been self-centered behavior in every generation. But in today’s post-modern world, the emphasis on “me” seems to be on steroids and look at what has happened to us as a society. We have become extremely polarized and prone to demonization and name calling. This does not bode well for any society that wants to maintain its democracy because democracy cannot function like that. It requires mutual trust and respect of the other.
Moreover, this is why many mainline churches today have become irrelevant to greater society. Outsiders see Christians behaving just like everybody else, all in the name of freedom and self-rights. They see us trying to protect our turf and demonizing each other when we do not agree with each other on all sorts of things.
Shame on us, Paul would say. This is not how you witness to unbelievers. Granted, Christians will not get it right all the time. We are as broken as unbelievers. But we have a higher calling in Christ and we are called to march to a different drummer. That drummer tells us if we are to follow him, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross each day, and follow him. That starts with how we treat our fellow believers and here we see Paul giving us practical advice on how to do that. Notice that he ends this section of his letter by telling us that we are to follow his example because Paul follows Christ’s example and we immediately think of the great hymn in Paul’s letter to the Philippians where he essentially tells them the same thing that he is saying here to the Corinthians (cf. Philippians 2).
This business of honoring our fellow believers is hard work because we are by nature self-centered creatures who have been raised in a culture that celebrates rugged individualism and that has confused moral license with freedom of late. That makes it hard to behave in ways that will turn heads and make outsiders wonder what is our secret, even as they envy what we have when they see us imitating Jesus in our interactions with each other. But we have a power greater than those forces that seek to keep us marching to the tune of this world. We have Christ’s very Spirit living in us to help transform us into the humans he created us to be. And when that happens, we will discover that we also have each other to help and support us, precisely because the dynamic of our relationship is not based on self-centeredness.
Make no mistake. This is hard work and there are inevitable setbacks along the way because we are so profoundly broken. But we take heart and hope because we have seen the cross and the empty tomb, and we have experienced the fruit of the Spirit in our individual and collective lives. These are tangible reminders that we are God’s and that nothing in all creation can ever separate us from his great love for us in Jesus. Not only that, but Jesus himself has given us guidelines in how to settle disputes that arise among believers (cf. Matthew 18.15-19).
If you want to make a difference in this life, get involved with other fellow believers and become part of Christ’s Body, the Church. It won’t do for you to sit on the sideline and carp at those who are really trying to live faithful lives but who sometimes fail because they are fallible beings. Instead, you need to become part of the solution rather than be part of the problem. If you become a member of Christ’s Body, it will be the hardest and most satisfying project to which you ever commit because you will have to learn a second nature that is foreign to all of us. That nature is love as Paul explains and applies it in today’s lesson. You will have to put up with all sorts of annoying people and they will have to put up with you. But in doing so, you will learn to love and when that happens you will discover that you are living life to its fullest. When that happens, people will start to take notice and some of them will want to get in on the secret. Sweet. Evangelism at its finest. And remember this. You do not undertake this project alone. You have Jesus’ abiding help and his very word on it.