By Colleen Tinker
Recently we received an email that asked this question: “Has the issue of the weaker brother ever come up with your office? Could the issue in 1 Corinthians 8 lead one to think that the weaker brother is a Christian who just has less truth than you and you should respect him?
This question often comes up among former Adventists who feel pressure to observe the Sabbath and to avoid eating meat around their Adventist families in order not to offend the Adventist “weaker brothers” Because so many of us struggle with this question at various times, we will share our answer in this week’s Proclamation! blog
1 Corinthians 8 is the chapter that deals with how to respond to a weaker brother, and in context, the issue is eating foods offered to idols. The first thing we have to address, however, is the definition of a “brother”. In the context of this passage, Paul is addressing the church in Corinth, and in verse three he says, “If anyone loves God, he is known by Him.” In other words, Paul is not addressing people who are unbelievers; he is addressing gentiles who have become believers in the Lord Jesus and have been born again. They “are known” by God. People who have not believed in the Lord Jesus and His finished work are “condemned already”, Jesus said in John 3:18, “because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.”
So, before we even look at what Paul is saying about respecting the weaker brother, we have to understand that he is speaking about believers, not unbelievers or people who are attracted to Christianity but haven’t actually trusted the Lord. He is referring to “brothers” who are known by God and who are part of the body of Christ.
Let’s read the passage before we go on:
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—yet 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 through whom we exist.
However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble (1 Corinthians 8).
Paul also establishes that any of us, even believers, can become puffed up by believing we have superior knowledge, even knowledge of spiritual things. The thing that keeps us humble is loving God as opposed to loving our understanding of things—and a true love for God can only come from one who “is known by God”, or is born again.
Paul then brings up the subject of food offered to idols, and he makes the case that there really are no other gods beside the one true God. He acknowledges that many people believe in “so-called gods in heaven or on earth”, but for us who are Christians, there is only “one God, the Father…and one Lord, Jesus Christ.” In other words, eating foods offered to idols is not an issue for those who know for sure that there are no gods except the One true God.
Then Paul acknowledges that “not all possess this knowledge.” Remember, he is speaking to new Christians who came to faith out of paganism. They have trusted Jesus as their Savior, but they are very tender new believers who haven’t yet left behind all the grave clothes of their past religion. They used to worship those idols, and they feared them and were deeply imprinted with the worship rituals of living under the oppression of those false gods.
Paul then addresses the fact that these young believers, still imprinted with the rituals and beliefs of their past lives, would defile their consciences if they ate meat which had previously been offered to idols. Apparently portions of animals which were not used in the actual sacrifices to the pagan gods were made available to the public, and archeology has also revealed at least two pagan temples in Corinth which had banquet rooms where, apparently, people gathered for feasts and ate meals prepared from the meat of sacrificial animals. Christians were likely invited to these feasts by their unbelieving friends.
Paul argues that, if a Christian does not believe that idols are really gods, there is no spiritual reason for that person NOT to eat any meat offered to him or her. The idol has no power, and the meat cannot defile the one who eats it. Paul puts it this way: “Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.”
Then Paul warns the Christians that their right to eat any meat whatsoever might actually hurt the weak believers. “For if anyone sees you who have knowledge [that the idols are nothing and have no power] eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.”
Paul uses the strongest terms, then, and calls such flaunting of one’s spiritual knowledge”sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience.” He says that when a believer sins in this way, flaunting their freedom to eat what the new believers cannot eat because of their associating the food with pagan rituals, that sin is actually a sin against Christ! He concludes by saying, “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.”
What does this mean?
This chapter is often confusing to former Adventists. First, when people leave Adventism, sometimes it takes some time for them to realize that they cannot automatically consider Adventists to be “Christians”. Because Adventists often militantly believe that they must never eat meat, or that Sabbath-keeping is required for true worship, those who have recently left and still have the Adventist worldview in their minds become confused by the arguments in 1 Corinthians 8.
The discussions often go something like this: “Should I go to the Adventist church on Sabbath when I visit my Adventist relatives? Or should I fix a turkey for us when my Adventist relatives come for Thanksgiving?” The answers often come from both Christians who do not fully understand Adventism and from other formers, “Yes, go to church with them, and forego the turkey so you don’t offend the weaker brother.”
In reality, however, this argument is actually inside-out. The Adventists who insist that their former Adventist relatives go to church with them are actually insisting that they participate in a system of false worship that masquerades as truth. Furthermore, the Adventists who would be offended if their former Adventist relatives served turkey along with tofurkey are not being spiritually vulnerable but rather manipulative. No one has the right to impose guilt upon anyone for serving what they wish to serve in their own home. If food is provided that all the guests can eat, no vegetarian guests can justify “offense” if meat is also served.
“Weaker brothers” are new Christian believers who still have the echoes of their old beliefs in their heads. For example, in the case of the Corinthians, the new believers would still have the habits and beliefs of their old worship deeply ingrained in their minds. For them to eat meat they knew was offered to idols would have triggered a cascade of memories and behaviors that they had left behind. Eating that meat would defile their consciences because the old fears and desires to please their old gods would be stimulated by the familiar behaviors.
What about Adventism?
In the case of Adventism, the Adventists who insist their loved ones go to church with them are not the “weaker brothers”. Rather, the new Christians who have just left Adventism are actually the “weaker brothers” in this case! When we realize that the seventh-day Sabbath is not required for salvation but was an idol that held our deepest loyalty, going back to an Adventist church is akin to those Corinthians eating meat offered to idols. Going back to Sabbath school and church triggers all the old proof-texts and warnings, and it generates confusion.
We who have left Adventism have to realize that we can’t rationalize practicing behaviors we no longer believe because we fear causing our “weaker brother” to stumble. In fact, we have to be willing to acknowledge that Adventism is a false gospel, and its worship and lifestyle requirements are not biblical. When Adventists “guilt” us and insist that we practice Adventism when we visit with them, they are not demonstrating spiritual weakness but religious intolerance, in a sense. We, as new believers with Adventism still in our heads, are the “weaker brothers” in relationship to the true body of Christ. We have to stand firmly in the truth of the gospel regardless of the people around us.
Would it be sin for us to attend an Adventist church?
Each of us has to answer that question before the Lord. We must remember, however, that the Adventist church is not conducting worship services to the true Jesus who has finished His atonement at the cross. Instead, it celebrates a false gospel that requires keeping the seventh day holy. We must ask, would we attend a Mormon service or a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall? If not, we must ask ourselves whether we can, in good conscience, attend an Adventist church service.
At the same time, no behaviors are intrinsically forbidden. Our question must be: would our behavior honor the Lord? Would we be representing our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus by attending just to keep our Adventist family happy?
So, who is our weaker brother? First, a brother is a fellow believer who has been born again through believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus in payment for his or her sin. Second, a brother is not someone who merely claims to be a Christian but embraces a religion that teaches a false gospel. In other words, offending an Adventist by not attending an Adventist church on Sabbath and by eating meat in from of them is not the same thing as offending a weaker brother. Finally, a weaker brother is a true believer who is still unpacking their previous worldview. It is a person who trusts Jesus but is still vulnerable to confusion. For example, a young Christian who still struggles with the arguments and proof texts of the past is a weaker brother.
In short, we as former Adventists are not called to keep Adventists comfortable by attending Adventist worship services and pretending our lifestyle practicers are just like theirs. Rather, we are called to protect the weak consciences of tender new believers. If we are meeting with former Adventists who have learned that Jesus alone is all they need for salvation, we are called to be sensitive to their vulnerability to things that could make them stumble, things such as advising them to worship on Sabbath with Adventist family and forgoing the Thanksgiving turkey if normally they would want it. In our unique case as former Adventists, the practices that cause us confusion are those things that trigger our Sabbath-guilt and our fears of abandoning the last-day remnant church.
A brother is only a person who is born again through belief in Jesus, and a weak brother is one who is still unpacking his former worldview. As we grow in Christ and in the knowledge of His word, we are called to care for those who are new in their faith and to encourage them to cling to Jesus and resist the guilt-inducing pressure to practice Adventism. If we encourage practicing Adventist behaviors, we may make our weaker brother stumble. †
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