I often wonder if God cares what kind of ice cream I eat. I am not talking about the decision to eat ice cream... ice cream can be a terribly destructive item to eat, if you are over-weight, or have diabetes, or are lactose intolerant or simply eat too much of it. Any of those conditions can make a single helping of ice cream a very bad thing for your health.
But let’s suppose you are within your healthy weight limits, you have regular exercise in your schedule, you are not endangered by sugar or milk products, you eat a healthy diet, and you limit the amount of ice cream you consume. If all those conditions are true then having a dish of ice cream is not problem-matic.
That being the case, does God care what kind of ice cream it is? Would God be for or against, let’s say, Butter Pecan? Would He care if it was Black Walnut? Some decisions we make in our life are not the kinds of decisions that need spiritual guidance. Some decisions are non threatening to any part of our well being. Some are just plain meaningless.
However, sometimes meaningless can have significance... let’s see what God wants to teach us this morning. ...
Scripture
1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But the man who loves God is known by God. 4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. 7 But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. 9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
This is an age old argument... two main concerns come from this passage; first, is this actually meant for sacrificial meat... or is it a metaphor for other things? How many temples do we have around us that are preparing sacrificial meat? It’s not like we go into the local fast food and order up a Nefertiti burger with cheese. Even in the middle eastern countries there isn’t many meat sacrifices anymore. Modern day technology has created specialized processing plants where holy men can oversee and bless the food before it gets packaged. This meets the criteria for religious rules and keeps people safe from food-born illnesses.
So it’s just not likely that we are faced with too many cases of eating sacrificial food in front of a new believer. It’s much more likely that this is a metaphor... for anything that causes another Christian to stumble in their walk with the Lord. Look at verse 9 again, "9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak." I don’t think it matters what freedom you are engaged in... if the free exercise of your freedom becomes a problem for another Christian then you are treading on dangerous ground.
Maturity is a process... when we accept Christ we begin as spiritual infants and grow in our faith. Turn with me to Ephesians 4:11-15, "11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ."
We begin our spiritual life as infants in faith and we learn and grow as we mature... however.... it takes effort to keep growing just like any other part of our lives. In our work lives we go through school to learn the things we need to know to carry on in our careers. Unfortunately many people achieve some level of education, usually just enough to land a job, and then stop doing educational things; they stop reading the trade journals, stop keeping up with the latest developments in their chosen career, stop learning and as a result become stagnant. That’s why every personnel department in the world wants their people to continually take a class here and there... to keep the thought processes working and the mind stretching and to make sure workers stay up on the latest thinking in their career. In the work world people read technical books and journals, they attend workshops and conferences and they discuss current thoughts with colleagues. But, somehow, in our spiritual life, we take a few Sunday school classes as children and figure we’ve learned all we need to know and thus stop the education process. Most Christians do not attend conferences, most do not read spiritual journals, most do not attend church school or weekly Bible study... in effect... most Christians have stopped learning; stopped growing.
Note in this passage Paul suggests that we are to keep growing until we all reach unity and maturity... why? So that we are not tossed back and forth by every evil deception of man. There is a constant onslaught of spiritual ideas coming at us. New Age, angel-ology, emerging church, purpose driven and multiple pathways... just to name a few. What do you know about these ideologies? Do you know which ones are designed to strengthen the Christian walk and which ones are designed to disrupt and destroy your faith? To protect ourselves and our church we need to be reading spiritual journals and participating in small group things so we can have opportunities to discuss these ideas with other Christians... this is how we become mature. If we choose not to participate then we are choosing not to grow... choosing to stay spiritual infants AND we are unable to defend our church family against deceitful schemes.
Most of us in this room have children... when our children act in some manner that is beneath their age level we get frustrated with them. We want them to learn and grow. God is our Heavenly Father, He wants us to grow. If we choose not to, it’s no different than when our own children refuse to learn anything that we know will help them. Imagine how God feels when we refuse to grow; when we refuse to participate in small group gatherings with other Christians; when we refuse to attend church school.
If you are not currently making the effort to attend some kind of spiritual small group; Bible study or church school, reading about faith, attending conferences, I would urge you to consider how that makes God feel. Are we getting closer to God, or ignoring Him? I know many times we can’t participate in these groups because of the timing; work schedules or other commitments get in the way. I’m certain that Bethel Baptist could develop some kind of group experience that will meet whatever special need you have or topic you are interested in... if you just let me know what that is. I don’t want anyone to NOT grow because we didn’t have a group that met when or focused on what they needed it to.
When we don’t attend some type of group and other Christians watch us in our in-activity then we are causing others to stumble. Immature Christians believe that they don’t need church school or Bible study. Since all these other Christians aren’t going, why should they? The institution of church in America is dying. We can look around any church and see many empty seats... perhaps its because our spiritual infants don’t see the need to attend, since other more mature Christians don’t attend. They don’t see anyone going to the conferences. They don’t see any Christian activity at all. The younger don’t see the commitment to dedicated spiritual growth so they are not committed. The end result is empty pews.
The second interesting thought from this morning’s lesson is that if we aren’t affecting the faith of others, nor getting ourselves into a problem... then it doesn’t much matter what we are doing. If you can maintain a strong faith with the idea of enjoying a cold beer on a hot day, I don’t think God cares. If you order the seafood or the steak I don’t think God is too concerned. It doesn’t really matter if you wear the dark blue pants or the khaki pants. Leisure time can be reading, watching TV, taking a walk, or painting the next great masterpiece. God isn’t burdened nor lifted up if you drive home on route 29 or use the county roads. Many of these kinds of things are decisions we have to make every day, yet they have no eternal consequence. Don’t let them weigh you down.
I know a man who literally stands before his open dresser drawer and waits until God tells him which shirt to wear that day. That’s a bit extreme. As long as there isn’t anything on that shirt that would be an embarrassment to Jesus or to cause a fellow Christian a problem... then it doesn’t matter. These are not spiritual decisions that can ruin our lives.
Conclusion
So the challenge for us this week is to review our daily activities and let go of those things that don’t really matter to our spiritual walk with the Lord. However, we need to take an extra careful look at what things we are engaged in that might become stumbling blocks for less mature Christians and stop doing those things (or, in the case of attending a small group, start doing those things). Paul said if eating meat causes a brother to stumble then he gives up meat...
It’s no better and no worse if we listen to Bach or Sinatra or the Electric Light Orchestra. These kinds of decisions won’t keep us away nor bring us near to God. But if they become problems for other Christians then we need to change what we are doing.
One last thought... ignoring our responsibility in these matters does not relieve us from being held accountable for our actions. We will stand before God one day and will have to answer for these things... it would be to our gain to not ignore the lesson God has for us, today.
Butter Pecan or Black Walnut? It doesn’t really matter, unless my indulgence causes a fellow Christian to also indulge when they shouldn’t. In that case I have to forgo the treat in support of the less mature Christian.
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