Day 23 - 1 Corinthians 8:9-13

9 But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. 10 For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? 11 So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed. 12 And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. 13 So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.

Tori's Comments:

This passage is such a symbol of love...it's so beautiful. The church argues over so many minuscule that would be blown away in light of this passage. It's all about humbling yourself, always keeping your brother and sisters in mind, and protecting their faith. Unity is our goal, and destroying that for things that won't really matter in the long haul is a dreadful act. 

Terrie's Comments:
This expands on yesterdays post and takes it another step further to be sure we are not only focused on ourselves.  We are to watch out for our fellow believers as well so that they will not violate their conscience.  If we know that a fellow believer, believes that it is wrong to do something, then we should be willing to refrain from doing it so we will not be the ones to cause them to violate their conscience.  Even if we know that we are not made clean or unclean by what we eat but what is in our hearts we should be considerate of others who do not yet have this revealed to them.  Keep in mind that this letter was written to a church that was in a religious culture that had many guidelines about food.  

Take our personal comments or leave them. We would love to hear what stood out to you about today`s passage and how it encouraged you. Tell us in the comments below!

Day 22 - 1 Corinthians 8:1-8

8 Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. 2 Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. 3 But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.

4 So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. 5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. 6 But for us,

There is one God, the Father,
    by whom all things were created,
    and for whom we live.
And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ,
    through whom all things were created,
    and through whom we live.
7 However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. 8 It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do.

Terrie's Comments:
So because we believe that there is only one God and we serve Him alone if we eat meat that has been offered to idols we are not sinning if our conscience allows it because we do not consider those gods to be real. Nothing changes for us if we eat food offered to other idols because they are not real.  However if we violate our conscience by eating food offered to idols then it would be wrong because we believe it is wrong.

Tori's Comments:

I realize that grasping for knowledge can be so important to me. I mean, I'm at bible college and trying to soak up as much as possible. I just have to be careful not to equate my level of knowledge with my relationship with God. While learning about the bible and God is fantastic, it's what we do with the knowledge that really matters. Our knowledge will never be anything compared to God's.

Love is putting that knowledge- the knowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord- into action.

Take our personal comments or leave them. We would love to hear what stood out to you about today`s passage and how it encouraged you. Tell us in the comments below!