It's Not the Meat, Silly

Commentary on 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Khen Lim




Image source: revelationcommentary.blogspot.com

Let’s imagine a scenario concerning two former unbelievers, Jack and Harry, who become new Christians. Jack has nothing to do with his former life and therefore does not eat the meat sold in the market because of its association with paganism. Harry, on the other hand, simply avoids the temple and any of the pagan events but he doesn’t see a problem with eating the same meat from the market. For him, idols have no power to taint good meat and therefore he (correctly) sees no issue eating it.

One day, both friends find themselves in the market. Jack is shocked to see Harry eating the meat that he now despises. To him, such meat is abhorrent because it has been sacrificed to the pagan idols. Seeing his mortified friend, Harry dismisses his paranoia and instead, he encourages him to eat some and so, before Jack could hesitate, he boldly cuts a slice and places it on his plate. Seeing Harry’s boldness, Jack decides to join him in eating the meat.

From the biblical standpoint, sin has befallen both friends. By subduing Jack’s moral conscience, Harry has sinned because he violated his friend’s spiritual integrity. In Jack’s case, his conscience now tells him that he has returned to idolatry because he has succumbed to his friend’s insistence. Therefore he too has sinned. And because of Harry’s boldness, Jack may now have begun to learn how to put aside his moral conscience, which may carve out opportunities in the future for him to sin further.

Unify the Body of Christ

The whole matter of eating meat that comes from idol worship began with the Early Church. Back then, Gentile and Jewish believers were divided on this issue mainly because both were caught up in a Greco-Roman society filled with pagan worship where it was common for meat sold in the market that had been consecrated to false gods as sacrifice. While the Jews maintained their distance to such practice, the Gentiles did not believe they were ‘unclean’ because they asserted that the meat was never offered on the sacrificial altar. Therefore they did not see it a problem to eat such meat.

And because of this potential schism, the Jerusalem Council was set up to deal with it and a few other matters. Acts 15 records that the Syrian Antioch church with its Jewish and Gentile believers that had the problem and in verse 29, the leaders decided the best way to deal with this problem – at least at that time – was to simply practice abstinence. However this should not be looked at as a legalistic practice. Instead it was mainly to keep the warring parties at bay. With abstinence, the leaders had a quick fix but not necessarily a perfect one. At least it bought them time enough for the Jewish believers to continue enjoying eating their veal cuts, confident in the knowledge that it did not come from a sacrificial cow while the Gentile believers stayed out of trouble’s way and not be accused of indulging in idolatry.

The Council’s decision reflects an important point for us and that is, unity in church. The leaders demonstrated consideration for everyone’s feelings and to do that, they went on the principle of self-denial in which the strong spirited should set aside their personal rights and accommodate the vulnerabilities of the weaker in spirit, all for the sake of unity in the Body of Christ. The priority therefore was to uphold spiritual integrity in deference to personal preferences.

Don’t stumble a brother

Given that the Book of Acts offers us the position of a quick fix, Paul is more measured in his view over the matter. In 1 Cor 8:4-13, the apostle has a few important things to say. He begins by saying that because an idol, being a lifeless object, means nothing to us, eating meat offered to one is not immoral and the meat itself is amoral as well. Remember that he says, “Food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat and no better if we do.”

Secondly, Paul asks us to be considerate to believers with a more vulnerable conscience. We would need to handle those with an idolatrous past more delicately concerning such practices because they could view them with a more sensitive moral compass. As the example of Jack and Harry demonstrates, Paul says we must not put ourselves in a position of helping a believer to violate his moral conscience. As Paul writes in Titus 1:15, all things are pure to the pure. To believers who are conscionably fragile, any meat from any pagan temple is spiritually defiled already. For those who embrace such a view, it is better not to eat the meat than to derail their conscience and cause them to fall to sin.

Sacrifice to uphold others

Just because we are liberated in Christ does not mean we should use our freedom in irresponsible ways. Paul suggests to us in 1 Cor 10:25-32 that we ought to think of curbing our liberty if it spiritually benefits others and hence, glorify God with our efforts. To begin with, if we buy meat for our own consumption, don’t go asking where it comes from – it matters not to us if it was or wasn’t sacrificed to some pagan god. Let’s remind ourselves that ‘the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it’ (Ps 24:1), meaning that no matter what, that piece of meat comes from God.

Now, if someone at an invitation dinner says to you that the meat was offered to idols, then hold your tongue and just don’t eat it. For the sake of his sensitivity, don’t compromise his conscience even though you think differently and your (conscience) is fine. The Christian in us glorify God when we impose a limit on our liberties in Christ to benefit the spiritual integrity of our fellow believers.

Compromise with the world

In John’s letter to the church in Thyatira, he tells of Jesus rebuking the believers for accommodating a prophetess who ‘misleads My servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols’ (Rev 2:20). Unlike Paul’s case with the Corinthians, these believers were not just buying meat sacrificed to the idols but were also in the thick of pagan lovefests filled with vulgarity, immorality and feasting (Mardi Gras, anyone?). They had immersed themselves in the partaking of idolatrous sin.

Summing up

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that eating meat offered to idols is wrong. Meat is not ‘defiled’ simply because it came from a pagan sacrifice. In 1 Tim 6:27, Paul says that God ‘richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment’ (my emphasis). It is true, however, that some believers adhere to the conscience that meat once offered to idols becomes tainted and to them, we must respectfully cut them some slack. Out of sheer love, the strong among us must accommodate our weaker siblings in Christ.

If there is anything we can take home with us from this issue, there are four principles:

Firstly, having a personal right doesn’t mean we’re free to impose our convictions on to others especially if our actions can lead others astray. 

Secondly, if limiting our liberties in Christ can help prevent our weaker brothers and sisters from falling into sin against their own conscience, then do it. 

Thirdly, sometimes we need to surrender our personal rights to something in order to uphold the unity of the Spirit bonded in love (Ps 133:1). 

And lastly, we must never do anything that can inadvertently steer a weak believer to think less of his faith or to compel an unbeliever to be comfortable with his sin.