Meat Sacrificed to Idols

January 28, 2024 1 Corinthians 8:1-14 Series B

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loves you with his very life. Amen. 

We are continuing our look into Corinthians today, and today is one of those passages to which we struggle to find a modern parallel. In the ancient world, meat was a pretty rare thing, no pun intended. Commercial feed lots were not really a thing. Kings, nobles, rulers, they had access to meat. In fact, when we read through scripture we learn that the best part of the animal, the most sought after cut of food, is animal fat. A big ol blob of blubber - slightly exaggerating. But it was different then than it is now.

Animals were used in sacrifices. People would take a sheep, a goat or whatever and take it to the temple to offer it as a sacrifice. This happened in pagan religions too. The city of Corinth was a very religious city, full of temples to every pantheon, from Greek, to Roman, to Egyptian, you could go and worship. You could sacrifice an animal - the fattened calf or whatever.

But like, the temple workers can only eat so much food. A portion of sacrifices went to the priests. But what do you do with the rest? They sold it. Either at a restaurant or at a market. So, like, there was a very reasonable chance that when you were walking around the market looking for some meat, you would come across discounted meat that had been pre-sacrificed. 

Archeologists have found remains of such places, of fellowship halls, restaurants, markets, connected to or associated with pagan temples. 

So we have this instruction from the apostle. He tells us that, ya know, we who are Christians know the truth about how the world works. We know there is only 1 God and he aint Zues or krishna or whatever. The people who worship false gods are talking to empty blocks of stone. So sacrificing to an idol really isn't anything. Right? So we are free to go get those discounted lamb chops! 

But he warns us that our knowledge is dangerous. It can puff us up, or to set it a different way, it makes us selfish and we don’t look at the needs of the other brothers and sisters in Christ. You would not be wrong to go and get your lamb chops, you would be free to do that. But, if someone here, in the gathering, in the congregation, had just converted from paganism, maybe whose family and friends still sacrifice at that temple, your freedom would cause their faith harm. Paul warns us not to be puffed up, not to take our knowledge of who and what God is and has done, and wield that to the detriment of our brother or sister in Christ. There is no sin in eating, there is no sin in abstaining. There is sin in hurting the faith of our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

We have reached another milestone along our path of becoming a mature Christian, and that is the exercise of our Christian freedom, because the mature Christian does not demand things neither commanded nor forbidden. 

God gives us many clear instructions throughout scripture, lots of em, from things like, “remember the sabbath day and keep it holy,” to, “be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Clear commands. But there are a lot of things that God doesn’t give us commands about and God wants us to use our judgment, our reason, to figure out what is best. For example, God doesn’t give us commands about cell phones or what side of the road we should drive on, or whether or not to use the metric system. God allows us to decide and formulate our own thoughts on.

Now this is where this all comes together: A mature Christian will not impose their freedom to choose upon their brother or sister in Christ. A mature Christian doesn’t focus on what’s best for them, what they can do, but rather is concerned at all times about the faith of their brothers and sisters in Christ. A mature Christian is willing to sacrifice their desires, their preferences, their freedoms in Christ, for the sake of someone else. I might be free to eat meat sacrificed to idols, but I won’t do it if it hurts someone else’s faith. 

It would be amazing if we all did this, if we all sacrificed our desires for the sake of everyone else. But the problem is, we are sinners and we don’t want to. Right? We prefer to do things the way we want to do them, often not ever considering the effect that our actions have on other people. For example: You are free in Christ to worship on different days of the week, but have you considered how when you miss Sunday morning worship, it hurts the others in the body of Christ? Or, you are free in Christ to dress however you want on Sunday mornings, but have you considered how your actions impact the others around you?

And nowhere do we see this self-sacrificial love more clearly than in Jesus Christ. Jesus, who is perfect as the infinite God, truly and holy good and pure, blameless in every possible sense of the word, that Jesus sacrificed not just his will, but his very self for our sake. We who are weak in faith, we who struggle to keep God's commands, who struggle with our own selfish pride to demand what we want, Jesus died for us. As Jesus said in the garden of gethsemane the night he was arrested, “Father, not my will be done, but yours.” Jesus bore all things for our sake, taking our sin to the cross and forgiving you. Making for you a new heart like his, a heart that doesn’t demand its own way, but instead looks out for the others around us. 

There is a way to make this easier for us to do, to make it easier for us to put someone's else’s needs above our own. To do that, we need to look more at God. And to see each other as God does. To look around and see one another as someone created in God’s image who Jesus Christ died for. We are going to practice this. Turn to the person sitting next to you and say, “You are a beloved child of God, made in God’s image, who Jesus died for. You are my brother/sister in Christ” say, “You are a beloved child of God, made in God’s image, who Jesus died for. You are my brother/sister in Christ.” Lots of words, here they are again.  “You are a beloved child of God, made in God’s image, who Jesus died for. You are my brother/sister in Christ. 

Now turn the other way, find someone else and do the same thing. Say to them, “You are a beloved child of God, made in God’s image, who Jesus died for. You are my brother/sister in Christ.” Here’s the words again, ““You are a beloved child of God, made in God’s image, who Jesus died for. You are my brother/sister in Christ.” 

You are my brothers and sisters in Christ. You are a beloved child of God. You are made in God’s image. Jesus died for you. For (name everyone’s last names)

So let us walk as mature Christians. Seeing each other for who we truly are, brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us sacrifice our wills, our desires that we might encourage one another and help strengthen each other's faith in Christ. Amen.