all who are thirsty on wednesdays

This morning, I read 1 Corinthians 8. It reminded me of a lot of conversations I’ve been having recently, about struggling with lifestyles we lived before, not knowing whether something is really sinful or not, whether it is from God or not. Yes, the Bible is clear on what is sin and what is not. No, the Bible does not have any gray areas. When it comes to issues of sin and what God expects of us, things are pretty clear. But there are hazy areas when it comes to, what kind of lifestyle choices am I allowed to make now? Am I guilting myself into this, or is it really from God? Because I believe guilt in itself is not from God. He doesn’t guilt us to stop sinning. In fact, I think guilt is one of the biggest weapons Satan has against us. He uses it to weaken and paralyze us from moving forward. But what about the little decisions that the Bible doesn’t explicitly address? Is that sin? Are we allowed to do it if its not explicitly sin?

v 6 says: 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.

But, in v 7 it says 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. ⁸But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. 

I think this is saying that the actual act itself is not sinning. Things are neutral. The act of drinking is neutral. Drinking doesn’t necessarily mean sinning. (Unless however, if its something thats illegal for you because you are underage, then duh, what are you doing drinking?)

 ⁹Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. Is our acting out on our freedom causing others to stumble? ¹¹So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. Wow.To think that I just destroyed someone whom Christ died for because I couldn’t give up something I had been so engrossed in deciding whether I was allowed to do it or not… it would break God’s heart. Paul is amazing, he says he would give up even eating meat if this causes a brother to fall. Such “freedoms” of this world that we hold onto seem so meaningless in the light of eternal glory to our God. If we are really living for our God, and only for our God, the hazy areas will become clear again.

those who use the things of the world as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away - 1 Cor 7:31