Weaker brothers (and sisters)

UPDATE: Be sure to check out Bob’s comment. Its a good response to balance out who actually *is* a weaker brother/sister.

Bob Hyatt posted this to twitter Monday morning (link here, if you really need to read it).

Quick synopsis: a “discernment blog” looked at an interview of Tim Keller and decided that he has/is giving up the true gospel in favor of some liberalized form of spirituality that they see cropping up everywhere in the American church.

(For those who don’t know, “discernment blogs” specialize in pointing out what they see as errors in other Christians beliefs, practices, and teachings. Basically, they have taken it upon them selves to guard their version of Biblical Christianity, declare it as the only real Christianity, and to denounce any and all who disagree with them.)

I really get fed up with these “defenders of the one true faith” running around and deciding who is in with Jesus and who isn’t. Usually, my initial reaction to these kind of blogs and articles is anger and dismissal.

But today, I was prompted to think about 1 Corinthians 8.

A while back, the Evergreen community (my church) walked through the book if 1 Corinthians. We saw how Paul kept urging and arguing for unity within the Corinth church. He appealed first and foremost to the fact that the church was/is Christ’s church, not Paul’s, not Appolos’, not Peter’s, and not some ‘super apostles’ either. The church was created by Jesus, equipped by Jesus, and made whole by Jesus as he worked in/through the individual people who together made up his church.

One of the direct implications of this truth is how we who try and live life in the way of Jesus treat others who are trying to live out this Jesus life. Paul addresses several issues of how we live and worship together in this letter.

A major concern in Corinth was eating meat. More specifically, some people in the church were having a hard time eating any meat that was bought in the common marketplace because it had probably mostly for sure been taken from an animal that had been sacrificed in worship to an idol or other god. These people were trying to follow Jesus, so its understandable (and right) that they didn’t want to have anything to do with worship to something other than Jesus.

That wouldn’t have been that big a deal (maybe just a church of vegetarians), except that not everyone had the same concerns. Some members of the church in Corinth had no problem eating meat that might have come from some other religious ceremony. In fact, they were so unconcerned about it that if they went somewhere for dinner and the host flat out told them what idol of god the meat was sacrificed for, they would just dig right in unconcerned in any way. For them, it was just meat. Offering it to an idol meant nothing because they saw Jesus as the only true god. Any one/thing else was empty and meant nothing.

So, there was a debate; which side was right? Should we be extra cautious so as not to take part in anything that has to do with worship to another god, or should we relish in the knowledge that idols are worthless and we eat to the glory of the only true god regardless of from whom or where the meat comes from?

Paul puts it like this:

1Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’ Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up…4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ‘no idol in the world really exists’, and that ‘there is no God but one.’… 6 for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and 7 It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8‘Food will not bring us close to God.’ We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling-block to the weak. 10For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? 11So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. 12But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.

Taken from the NRSV

1 Corinthians 8 is a passage I have heard preached and taught about most of my life. To be honest, its always been troublesome to me. Inevitably, the comparison is made to drinking or watching R rated movies or listening to ‘secular’ music or some other issue of ‘morality’ and personal sensibility.

That has never felt like a completely correct fit for this passage.

Ya, I don’t want to offend other Christians with the way I live my life (usually), but is the modern day comparison of meat sacrificed to idols really weather or not I listen to ‘Christian radio’ exclusively? Is it really a matter of weaker conscious for someone with an alcohol problem if I order a beer with my dinner?

Paul seems to be dealing with not a morality issue (well, not here anyways) but rather a worship issue.
Some people had come from a history where idols carried weight in there life. In trying to leave an old life behind, shed an old belief system and embrace the truth of Christ and gospel, they were still in the habit of thinking (believing) that an idol or another god really was something to worry about. ‘I worship Christ! How can you ask me to eat meat that has been blessed in reverence to Diana?’

Paul urges people with out these convictions, people with stronger consciences, people who knew better to not be pride full and arrogant bastards with their knowledge. Rather, they were called to love their weaker brothers and sisters and to not exercise the freedom that their knowledge granted in ways that would cause the weaker in the community to stumble.

So, how can I who knows better actually love my weaker brothers and sisters who don’t have the same freed conscious I do?

These ‘discernment blogs’ are just one of the many voices I hear telling me about boundaries I should have in my spiritual life. I shouldn’t do contemplative prayer, meditation, or use prayer beads. I should dress sharper, not get tattoos, piercings, or have long hair. I shouldn’t use ‘bad language’, listen to ‘secular music’, drink or read most of the books I do.

Rhetoric like that pisses me off… but if I take a step back, I can hear them really telling me not to eat meat. See, most people who take up this kind of speech (most) are doing so out of concern for how Christians should be living and worshiping Jesus.

It’s a worship issue.

Personally, I see that tattoos, piercings, ‘bad words’, music, dress, types of meditation, different spiritual practices, etc… is usually not a big deal at all. They do nothing detrimental to my worship of Jesus. They are empty in and of them selves, and can actually become something filled with the light and life of Christ.

But, not everyone shares my stronger conscious. So, what can I do to love them, and not just get pissed off and dismiss them as meaningless quacks (although some are)?

I think this is a question we emerging Church types need to really wrestle with more than we have. What does it mean/look like to love our brothers and sisters whose conscious does not give them the liberties we have?