Deference

1 Cor. 8

Paul began this chapter by saying that knowledge puffs up but love builds up. How important is this to remember! Keeping love as our motivation transforms our lives. It takes the focus away from self and puts it on others. So from this focal point, [that is of love] Paul addressed an important issue, that is eating foods offered to idols. In truth there was no problem in eating this food because these idols were not real. There is only one true God and that is the God that we worship. As Paul said, 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. There it is in a nutshell. No matter the issue [since we are not surrounded by food offered to idols], the principle still exists. 

So here was the problem. Some weaker brothers were offended by this practice of eating foods offered to idols. So Paul urged believers to take care that their behavior did not become a stumbling-block to weaker brothers by allowing their knowledge concerning the one true God and food offered to idols to offend a brother, a brother for whom Christ died. Thus sinning against our brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, we sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. To Paul Jesus Christ was all important as was the well-being and spiritual growth of fellow believers. And it should be for us as well! If our motive is love and not knowledge, then showing deference will be our top concern. Love motivates how we live, and deference dictates how we live.

I have wondered why deference is such a hard thing. Perhaps it is because of the innate selfishness of man coupled with our materialistic culture.Certainly a first world problem! We have so much that we become entitled thinking the world revolves around us. But it doesn't, and it shouldn't! God must be the one for whom all things exist [that means all things in our world] and for whom we exist [and that means not ourselves or only our select group of friends]. Jesus must be the one through whom all things in our lives are, and the one through whom we exist! It comes down to the motive and the God behind the motive. It is God's world not ours! We are Jesus' possession, His slave! He bought us with the price of His life so all we do, say, or think must be through Him. His love reigns!

Father,

How important it is for me to remember for whom I must live and to whom I owe everything. Take my focus off myself and put it on others.

In Jesus name,

Amen