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.^[a]

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.

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.

1 Corinthians 8

Dear God, reading this passage this morning reminded me of a conversation I had with my wife yesterday. She is teaching a Bible study for the next several months to a women’s group that she is in, and she will be going through John’s Gospel. We were talking about how one of her friends told her several months ago, “I don’t understand John.” My wife replied, “We aren’t commanded to understand. We are just commanded to believe.” I don’t know if she was consciously aware of why she said that, but she spent the next several weeks going carefully through John to see what Jesus called commanded us to do. His commands include believe, eat, and go. But none of them are “understand.” How interesting.

Maybe I miss the boat so often because I want to understand. I expect my little human brain should be able to figure this out. Why is this happening with my family? Why is this happening with my work? Why is this happening with my health? Why is this happening in someone else’s life? And now that I think about it, Job was never called to understand why everything that was happening to him was happening. And it was never revealed to him. He was just called to worship you and believe. Hmm.

Father, help me to find freedom in this today. I said all of this because of how Paul started out this part of his letter to the Corinthians: 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. So I want to let go of my own quest for knowledge and just believe. Go. Eat. Worship. Love. I want to do what you actually commanded me to do and then just accept the rest of what it happening around me in peace and patience.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen