"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Tuesday, 27 January 2009 | |||
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For Conscience' Sake | |||
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It feels like wading in way over my head to begin studying
this week's text,
I Corinthians 8:1-13. The scholarly writing on this passage and
others related to it (Romans 14, chapters 9 and 10 of I Corinthians) is
massive and viewpoints vary quite a bit. Scholars raise questions about the actual nature of idol-food practice in ancient Corinth, about the identity of the "weak" and "strong" parties in the church there, and about what Paul's advice actually boils down to. At least one book-long treatise argues that the "weak" point of view is actually a creation of Paul's and does not represent any actual persons in Corinth at the time. Instead, Paul created a hypothetical problem for eating meat offered to idols in order to bolster the prohibition against idol-meat stated more explicitly and directly in chapter 10. Yet Christians constantly experience the reality that our consciences differ on what is acceptable Christian practice in all sorts of areas. It seems highly likely to me that there were, in fact, Christians in Corinth, just as there are today, who had behavioral scruples that were more stringent than those of other Christians. The question of how we are to relate to each other in the face of those differences constantly confronts us. This text may or may not have something to say about these situations. Paul's corrective to overconfidence in one's own spiritual discernment regarding behavior is the end of verse 1, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." And a presumption in favor of loving actions cuts both directions. The "strong" need to take account of those who might be wounded by the performance of an action one deems acceptable but another deems wrong. But those who are merely legalistic cannot pretend to "weakness" and hold everyone else hostage to their own over-tuned scruples. That is also not love that builds up. The "weak" pictured here are those who might actually suffer some damage to faith (fall back into worship of idols) in the face of the "strong" person's behavior. It is *not* merely a matter of the "weak" being *offended* by such behavior. You can see that in verse 13 where the issue is not causing the weak to sin, to fall back into a way of life that is without Christ. We might need to limit the application of this text more than is typical. It may not really speak to situations where equally strong (in the faith) Christians disagree about behavior, teetotalers versus moderate drinkers, for instance. If a drinker merely offends a teetotaler and makes her question the drinker's own Christianity, then it's not clear to me that this text applies. It's only if the drinking does some spiritual damage to the teetotaler that it seems wrong given Paul's criterion here. In the case of alcohol, that might only be the case when Christians are careless about using it around others who have been redeemed into Christ out of alcoholism. The point is that eating idol meat had an intrinsically spiritual dimension to it by virtue of its connection with a false god. To find similar disputed Christian practices today we need to look for the things we do which might connect us in another Christian's mind with forces of evil and invite that Christian to suppose a connection with evil is acceptable. Perhaps viewing a R-rated film might make a weak Christian suppose that use of pornography in general is acceptable. Perhaps my expression of political loyalty could cause another Christian to suppose that there is a loyalty or lordship equal to or greater than the lordship of Christ. Perhaps my participation in the pseudo-religious rites of a fraternal order or the "spirituality" of a yoga class may lead a fellow believer to the false belief that there are various and differing paths to God, all equally good. It's a tough passage. I'm not quite sure I'm on the right track yet, but those are my thoughts for now. | |||
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I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
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