May 19 – Does Matter – 1 Cor 8:7-8

 May 19 – Does Matter – 1 Cor 8:7-8

 

7 But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, 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.

 

     Paul then points out that not everyone knows what he has just revealed.  Some people are so accustomed to idols they think that the food has been blessed by the god.  They have weak and defiled consciences.  They are of this world.  They have not passed from death onto life.  They have not been enlightened to the truth and the truth has not set them free. 

     Paul then points out a popular misconception of the time and of religion in general.  Food does bring us closer to God.  This was a slight to the Jews in the audience and to the Gnostics.  Paul has been liberated from that concept.  He says that if we eat or do not eat, we are no better or worse off.  I can hear the hush and gasp in the crowd when he wrote this.  The Kingdom of God is not a matter of meat of drink but of righteous, peace, joy, and power in the Holy Spirit.