February
3, 2018 Saturday
“However,
there is not in everyone that
knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and
their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food does not commend us to God;
for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.
But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those
who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s
temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things
offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish,
for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound
their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my
brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.”
(1Corinthians 8:7-13 NKJV)
We often like to think of ourselves and
our times are very unique but in reality we and our times do not differ that
much. As said in West Virginia “peoples
is peoples”! We could also say times is
times!
Some may think they do not need to
worry about this verse since there is no “meat” that has been offered to
idols. But this misses the point in two
ways:
First
is that we often have “idols” in our own lives and we must be careful to not
draw others into sin.
Second
is that we should treat our brothers and sisters with honor and a deep desire
for their welfare even at our own cost.
If we are not careful our desire to
be “right” or “correct” can be seen as more important than God’s call for us to
love one another! Without acting in love
we can easily fall into false pride in ourselves and do great harm to
ourselves, others and even to God’s Kingdom!
Often people will hold the
judgmental and harsh attitude of Christians (?) against the Church and sadly
even God. In my own life I remember a
time when all was falling apart and I knew everything was out of control. In just a few weeks I would find out I had
three months to live. In great fear I went
to service at a congregation that had a famous TV ministry. I remember feeling so embarrassed to be there
since I knew I didn’t deserve God’s forgiveness that I sat behind a pillar in
the sanctuary. As people starting coming
in an elderly usher touched me on the shoulder and asked me to return for
another service since this was their televised service.
As I left I was not humbled but
humiliated and believed that I was too terrible for God. After all, I knew I was a terrible
sinner! Why would God want me? The usher just confirmed what I felt in my
soul that God could not want me.
We must care for the souls of those
our God and savior loves and cares for! If
you truly love someone you want to be friends with their friends and care for
those they care for. That is just part
of a healthy relationship.
Will you love others as God has
loved you and put their welfare above your pride just as Jesus put your welfare
above His pride as He who did not deserve to died on a cross for you?
Returned this morning from the sleep test and it was without
my CPAP machine. I am so weary and tired
as I didn’t sleep very well. All day I struggled
to stay awake so hopefully I could sleep well at night. A truly bad day!
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