God’s Hope for Your Heart from 1 Corinthians 8
GOD GIVES YOU FREEDOM TO FIGURE IT OUT
Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. (1 Corinthians 8:8-9)
One of the hot moral issues of Paul’s day was eating food sacrificed to idols. It was a divisive issue, to be sure, with people on either side certain the others were not pleasing God by their behavior.
But both sides were wrong.
To be clear, this was not an issue that God had spoken about definitively one way or the other…until now. This was not about a commandment being broken. It was about a cultural practice and a conscience issue.
So, as the Apostle Paul wrote under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration on this hot-button issue, he gave this instruction to the Corinthian Christians…
“God doesn’t care, just be considerate of one another.”
What? God didn’t take a side in this culture war? Nope, He just wanted His people to care for each other.
Again, this was not a cut-and-dry issue like sex or murder or marriage or obeying the law. This was a gray area, and by leaving it gray, God left room for growth.
Here’s why this is good news. It means that in Christ, you have room to figure things out for yourself as you follow the Holy Spirit! It means that in the gray areas in your life, you have the freedom to seek God through His Word and discover where He wants your convictions to be.
In Christ you can rest easy and be free of the fear of getting things wrong, because God gives you freedom to figure it out.
-Pastor Phillip
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