Can we share in pagan customs?

1 Regarding meat from the offerings to idols, we know that all of us have knowledge but knowledge puffs up, while love builds.

2 If anyone thinks that he has knowledge, he does not yet know as he should know,

3 but if someone loves (God), he has been known (by God).

4 Can we, then, eat meat from offerings to the idols? We know that an idol is without existence and that there is no God but one.

5 People speak indeed of other gods in heaven and on earth and, in this sense, there are many gods and lords.

6 Yet for us, there is but one God, the Father, from whom everything comes, and to whom we go. And there is one Lord, Christ Jesus, through whom everything exists and through him we exist.

7 Not everyone, however, has that know ledge. For some persons, who until recently took the idols seriously, that food remains linked to the idol and eating of it stains their conscience which is unformed.

8 It is not food that brings us closer to God. If we eat, we gain nothing, and if we do not eat, we do not lose anything.

9 We are free, of course, but let not your freedom cause others, who are less prepared, to fall.

10 What if others with an unformed conscience see you, a person of knowledge, sitting at the table in the temple of idols? Will not their weak conscience, because of your example, move them to eat also?

11 Then with your knowledge you would have caused your weak brother or sister to perish, the one for whom Christ died.

12 When you disturb the weak conscience of your brother or sister and sin against them, you sin against Christ himself.

13 There fore, if any food will bring my brother to sin, I shall never eat this food lest my brother or sister fall.

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Comments 1 Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 8

• 8.1 We live in a pluralist society, where many do not share our faith and wonder some times if we should take part in their feasts or activities that are not in harmony with our faith. For example, how to deal with relatives or neighbors of another religion. What a married woman may do when her husband does not share her scruples. May a person belong to a group or party when many of its members are opposed to the Church? This is the problem that Paul deals with when answering about meat sacrificed to idols. The discussion begun here continues in paragraph 10:23¨C11:1.

There were many sacrifices of animals in the pagan temples. After the sacrifices, in a room of the temple a banquet was celebrated at which the meat of the victims was served. Christians were often invited to these banquets by their pagan friends. On other occasions, meat from these sacrifices was offered to them in the homes of their pagan friends. Even in the public market, most of the meat was from animals offered to idols.

Paul does not want the Christians to become a group of fanatics keeping themselves apart from society. Although it is true that offering sacrifice to idols is a sin, not for that reason is the meat unclean. False gods do not exist and have no power. Besides Jesus said that it is not what enters into a person that makes him unclean, but what comes out of his heart (Mk 7:15).

Knowledge puffs up, while love builds (v. 1). Christians with an informed conscience could perfectly well eat of that meat, knowing it was not sinful. However it was their duty to respect the opinion of others and so avoid scandalizing those unable to understand their reasons.

In 8:2the words in brackets were most probably added later. Here, Paul contrasts the knowledge of God we can acquire and express by means of words and ideas, and another more authentic riches that is God¡¯s presence to the one he knows and treats in a special way.

In verses 8:10, 11and 12, Paul speaks of those of weak or unformed conscience, mean ing the believers who have not yet had sufficient religious instruction or who have been badly instructed. They think that something is sinful when in reality it is not; or they are weak and follow others when their conscience reproaches them for doing so.

What if others with an unformed conscience see you, a person of knowledge, sitting at the table in the temple of the idols (v. 10). This is more serious. Some in the community already follow a path that will be denounced by John in Revelation (2:23), those who later would be known as the ¡°Nico laites.¡± They wanted to be very open and not separate from the non-Christians around them, so they preferred not to manifest their convictions. Finally one could not tell what truth they were witnesses to. In 10:14-22Paul will clearly state that a Christian may not participate in such a banquet in the temple. For the present he does not say it openly, but he shows that such an attitude should be shocking for many people.