Religions often have rules and regulations about what can and cannot be eaten. For example, the Jewish religion forbids the consumption of pork and shellfish. Islam forbids pork and alcohol and has regulations regarding the slaughter and preparation of meat. In many places in Britain where there are Moslem populations there are halal butchers who sell meat slaughtered and prepared in accordance with Islamic regulations.

Christianity we know grew out of Judaism. Jesus grew up in the Jewish faith. But we know from the teachings of Jesus that in his church there are no requirements to abstain from particular foods, or to regard them as unclean. In Mark 7 v 18&19 Jesus taught that nothing that people eat could make them unclean. Mark comments that in saying this, Jesus had declared all foods clean.

This truth is confirmed in the early church, where Peter has the vision of a sheet containing all kinds of animals, many of which were unclean according to Jewish law. When Peter protests that they are unclean, God says to him, ‘do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ No foods are banned for Christians.

Yet life is never quite that simple. In Corinth, much of the meat in the butcher’s shops came from animals that had been offered in sacrifice in pagan temples. Should Christians eat such meat? On top of that, a common feature of the pagan temples was that they also served as restaurants. Christians were quite likely to get invitations to meals at such temple restaurants. Should they accept or refuse such invitations?

The Corinthians could not agree on the answers to these questions. Some felt yes it was fine to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols, and even ok for Christians to dine in pagan temples, because they knew as Christians that there is only one God. Pagan gods don’t exist; there was no need to worry about such things.

On the other hand there were the more conservative believers whose consciences were troubled about such things, as Christians they had turned away from the pagan religions, and believed it would be wrong to have anything to do with pagan meat or pagan temples. There is support for this attitude in the early church. We read that when the whole question was raised about whether gentile Christians should be required to be circumcised and observe all the Jewish food regulations, the apostles sent a letter to the new churches in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. That letter specifically asked believers to abstain from food sacrificed to idols.

Maybe we do not have to worry about such things today, but we do have other questions that come up and cause stresses, or even divisions in the church. People can have deeply held views on particular issues. If not dealt with in a proper way, these issues can cause a breach in fellowship and that can not only cause pain, but also can spoil the witness of the church. I am sure most of you have come across such divisions. Sometimes they almost seem laughable, but they can cause such pain and they can be so destructive that it’s important that we learn the lessons we can from scripture on how to deal with them.

Roy Clements told of an instance of this kind of thing that occurred when he was pastor of a church in Nairobi in Kenya. Someone wanted to use an African simba drum in worship. A number of elderly African men raised strong objections. When asked about their objections it turned out their concern was that they associated the simba drum with the old pagan African religions.

Those men who had perhaps once been pagans themselves had this gut reaction against something they thought of as associated with pagan religion. Roy told us that he just put this incident down to primitive superstition and thought thank goodness civilized Europeans don’t behave like that. But he was soon to find out that he was wrong about that. Before long the youth group in the church wanted to introduce electric guitars to use in worship.

Not a word from the old African men about this. But some senior American missionaries caused a dreadful fuss over the matter. When someone pointed out that they were acting just as the old men had over the drums, they retorted that this was a completely different matter. A drum was a biblical instrument; electric guitars were not. In reality though, the problem was the same. The old African’s reactions were because they associated the drum with pagan religion. The old American’s reactions were because they associated the guitar with pop culture, drugs, promiscuous sex etc. 

How we react to pop music, alcohol, football, the Internet or many other things that may be harmless in themselves will depend on our background and our experience of those things. No doubt that was also the case with the Christians in Corinth who were horrified at the prospect of eating meet that that had been sacrificed in the pagan temple.

What does Paul say to help them deal with the issue? It is not a simple black and white matter. What he does is give three principles to use to determine what would be right in any given situation. Those principles are:

1.      Love is more important than knowledge.

2.      Service is more important than rights.

3.      Witness is more important than liberty.

1. Love is more important than knowledge. Love builds up, knowledge puffs up. Paul is talking here to the liberal group who think that because of the knowledge they have gained, particularly the knowledge that idols have no real existence they can do just as they like regarding food. Paul is saying yes, there is nothing wrong with food that has been offered in an idol’s temple. But Paul is also saying there is something more important for your spiritual development than knowledge. That is love.

Christianity is not just a matter of knowing about God; it is a matter of loving him, and loving your fellow Christians too. Although pagan gods are dumb idols, that’s not to say there are no spiritual dangers attached to worshipping them. There are spiritual forces at work; in chapter 10 v 20 Paul talks about pagan sacrifices as having been offered to demons. There are evil spirits in this world, although we need not fear those forces because Christ has overcome them.

But not all Christians know and believe that. ‘Not everyone has your knowledge’ says Paul. Some Christians believe it is absolutely wrong to touch meat offered to idols. Love for those fellow Christians is more important than exercising your freedom to eat. The Christian church is not like the big brother house where we try and prove our selves better than others with a view to getting them excluded. It seems there was a bit of this attitude at Corinth. Paul is saying you have a responsibility of love to your fellow Christians. If you encourage him to eat what he believes is wrong, you are causing him to stumble in his faith.

Out of love we should be sensitive to those whose faith is weak. That is not to say that we should let the difficult folk dominate church life. You sometimes find folk in a church with very strong views who would like to impose their will on everyone. That is something very different. Sometimes out of love for such people and for the common good we have to challenge them and help them to submit to their fellow believers, rather than try to dominate them. Love is more important than knowledge.

2. Service is more important than rights. One of the problems at Corinth was that the Christian there were immature. They were a bit like teenagers who think they know everything, but are completely oblivious of the need to wash up, or do the hovering. They were still basically self centred and oblivious to others and their needs or problems. They had been rather slow in noticing the way that Paul had behaved when he had been in Corinth. Paul had had the right to be supported financially by those Christians when he had been at Corinth. But he took nothing in pay from them. Instead, he worked to earn his living as a tentmaker.

He did it because he did not want to hinder the gospel. He knew, and we know today that some people preach religion simply in order to make money. He knew that if he were to ask for money when he preached the gospel it would have aroused suspicion, and so could have hindered people from believing the good news. So he had preached gladly and freely.

Yet this attitude that Paul himself had displayed was not apparent among the church members. Instead they were rather critical of Paul. In fact they were even suggesting that he was not a proper apostle, he was just an amateur. After all the real apostles accepted their expenses when they visited, they even expected accommodation for their wives as well when they came to town. Paul has to remind them that the Christian call is to be willing to serve others, to love and be committed to others, to understand where they are. That is the way of Jesus. Service is more important than rights.

3. Witness is more important than liberty. Paul himself had learned the wonderful truth of the Gospel. He knew that to know Christ is true freedom. He knew that he was free to eat what he chose, to go where he liked. But he had surrendered those freedoms, because he knew there was something more important, and that was to win men and women to Jesus Christ. Paul says in fact, that he became all things to all people, that he might win some for Christ.

Christianity is not primarily about rights and freedoms. It is about relationships. It’s about being committed to ones fellow believers, of understanding them and helping them on their journey of faith. When the world around sees that the church is a group of people, who love one-another, then they will know that we have the reality of  Christ’s presence among us.

That is the way in which Christians should be different. Sometimes we are different in unhelpful ways. Sometimes Christians stick out like a sore thumb because they are awkward. Although the Pharisees were like that, Jesus certainly wasn’t. He came alongside people were they were. The common people heard him gladly.

Love is more important than knowledge. Service is more important than rights. Witness is more important than liberty. That leaves us in closing with three important questions to guide us as we face the issues that confront us as Christians and a church:

1. What are my motives in relation to this issue? Am I only interested in finding the right answer, or am I motivated by God’s love for all concerned?
    

2. Have I accepted Christ’s humility into my heart? Am I looking for my rights in this situation, or am I willing to act as the humble servant of all?
    

3. How will my attitudes affect non-Christians? Am I intent on exercising my freedom, or am I willing to forgo that freedom in order to win others to Lord who loves them as he loves me?

The answers are obvious. May God grant us grace to see them.

Amen.

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