In 1 Corinthians 8, we’ve seen another way the Corinthian church was missing the others-centered life that Jesus modeled for us. Their pride blinded them to how they were causing other Christians to sin against God. In the last verse of this chapter, Paul says he’d rather abstain from eating meat sacrificed to an idol than be the reason another Christian sinned.
The question now is how. How can we know what to abstain from in order to keep other Christians from sinning?
It begins with awareness. We can only be aware of the things that trigger other people’s consciences if we know them. We have to build relationships with other Christians, especially in our local church. The friendships we develop have to go deeper than sharing a hobby or supporting the same sports team. We need to ask deeper questions.
For example, if you’re okay with drinking a beer with dinner and invite some Christian friends out for a meal, ask them what they think about drinking. Turn it into a conversation—not a debate—about what’s difficult about drinking for them. Or if you’re about to post a politically charged post on social media, reach out to a friend with opposing views to see if your post builds people up or actually tears them down and leads them to lash out. Listen to their point of view and take it seriously.
It all comes down to having deep, self-sacrificing relationships with other Christians.
Think about the Christians in your life right now. Pick one person whom you could talk to about what you learned in this week’s study of 1 Corinthians 8 (and who is not currently in the same group as you). Write his or her name down. Ask them if there’s anything you do that could lead others—or even that person—to sin against his or her conscience.
You have the weekend to do it, then come back here and write about what your friend said.
Text your response to the above prompting questions to your group and/or share it as a comment below
Was talking to my friend and I explained to him what we were studying and asked him if there were ways I cause him or others to stumble. He just says my crude humor but he said it’s not that I’m the one that starts it but I kind of elevate and keep it going instead of letting it die down or stopping it. So just making others fall into crude jokes and saying bad things is what I cause others to do.
I didn’t have a direct conversation but I did pose the question in the chat I have with some of the guys at RP. One thing that was mentioned was the use of crude humor. I think this is something that is present in a lot of the men’s circle and it has given me something to think about in how I interact with others. I think humor is something that I enjoy and perhaps my tolerance is a bit too liberal on the matter if I were to think about it more. But this is something that I will definitely pray about and wonder how I can be better about this. I think I have a few topics or things with which I won’t use in terms of humor but I wonder if there are more areas or things with which I can be more mindful especially if this is something that can cause others to stumble. Like the passage was saying, it is definitely more important to not cause others to sin even if it means restricting something that I or others more mature in the faith may find acceptable.