A Christian Diet - 1st Corinthians 8
Mary announced that she was going to start a diet to lose some pounds she had put on recently.
"Great," Sue exclaimed. "I'm ready to start a diet too. We can be dieting buddies and help each other out. And when I feel the urge to drive out and get a burger and fries, I'll call you first."
"Wonderful," Mary replied. "I'll go with you."
In 2009, a Gallup poll revealed that over 63% of the Americans were revealed to be either obese or, at least, overweight. Prior to that finding, but especially since, there has been a great emphasis on getting the population to cure their problem with “dun-laps” disease. With that effort has come one diet right after another, each one promising to help folks reduce the bulge. Earlier this month, U.S. News and World Report released its article detailing the top ten diets for 2012…while there were multiple categories, here are the top ten in the overall best diets.[i]
Number 10. The “Vegetarian Diet.” This meat-free diet really doesn’t need any explanation.
Tied for 8th. The “Ornish Diet.” This diet, developed by Dean Ornish of the University of California, emphasizes aerobic exercise and focusing your food on fish, whole grain breads, and fruits and vegetables.
Also in 8th. The “Biggest Loser Diet,” also focusing on produce, whole grains, and fish, coupled with regular exercise.
In 7th is the familiar Jenny Craig Diet its prepackaged meals delivered to your door.
Everything is up for grabs in the 6th place Volumetrics diet developed by Barbara Rolls of Penn State University. Rather than focus on eliminating foods, it has the dieter considering the density of the food one is eating an adjusting the amounts based on which category the food is located.
Three diets tied for 3rd place: the point-counting Weight Watchers, the Mediterranean diet, patterned after the eating and active lifestyles of those living along the Mediterranean sea, and The Mayo Clinic Diet using their own food pyramid.
2nd place belongs to the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes Diet which is primarily focused on reducing your bad cholesterol and its biggest focus is on reducing the “fat” in your diet along with calorie counting measures.
The Number One diet according to the US News and World Report is the DASH diet. This calorie-counting diet focuses in on lots of fruits and vegetables and getting rid of sweets, red meat, and salt in order to protect your heart.
Others that didn’t make the cut that some of us are familiar with are Curves, the “MyPlate” method of Tops, and, my favorite, Naturally Slim.
Regardless of which diet or life-style changing program any of us, that need it, choose to go with, there are a couple of things that are more important than any calorie or point counting, any loaded platter of fruits and vegetables, and any exercise regimen. The most important thing is a will-power, hopefully undergirded by the Holy Spirit through prayer, and the support of those around us.
Why all this talk about food and diets right before lunchtime? Well, what better time to talk about it? The truth of the matter is, if you recall, eating habits are the focus of the Scripture reading this morning.
To understand what is going on in Corinth, we have to understand a little about the dietary laws of the Hebrew people. There were many dietary laws that focused in on telling the people what they should eat and should not eat. Among those laws was a law banning the eating of meat that had been sacrificed to idols. At the point and time of the institution of this law, the Hebrew people had not yet come to the understanding of there only being one true God...it was a polytheistic worldview in which there were many gods. To eat meat that had been sacrificed to one of these other gods or an idol, was understood, in fact, to be bowing down and worshipping that god or idol—and thus violating the commandments of having no other gods before God and bowing down to idols.
We also have to remember that the first Christians were Jews, and so they brought in with them their Hebrew heritage. In Corinth, Paul is dealing with two groups of folks. The first group consists of those Christians, probably both Gentile and Hebrew, who have come to understand that in confessing that there is only one true God, that all other gods and idols are simply man-made “nothings,” and coupling that with Jesus declaring that nothing that goes into the mouth is unclean[ii] and Peter’s vision that sent him to the Gentile captain Cornelius,[iii] they understood that they could eat anything they wanted.
However, co-existing in this community, were new converts to the faith as well as folks who clung tightly to their Jewish heritage and practices. For this group of people, to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols, a practice common in Corinth and other cities within the Roman Empire, where temples to multiple gods had been set up, was in effect bowing down to the god or idol in whose temple the meat had been sacrificed.
At this point in the letter, Paul is addressing those who know that there is no harm in eating the meat because there are really no other gods. Paul tells them that with the knowledge they have, they have a choice. Paul says they can use that knowledge and get “puffed up.” Paul cautions them, “you have that knowledge and you can get all arrogant with that knowledge…you can choose to eat whatever you want to, whenever you want to, regardless of how it may affect those who are just starting in the faith.”
On the other hand, Paul says, rather than choosing to be arrogant and flaunt your knowledge, that those who are more mature in the faith, can choose to love. How does one act in love? To act in love is to put your brother and sister of the faith, to put those around you, ahead of your own wants and desires. For our two buddies in the car at the Colonic drive-in, this would suggest that the guy eating the burger would have said, “You know what, I’m glad you are trying to watch your health now, I’m not going to eat a burger, let me have a salad with you.” For the Corinthians, Paul was saying, “even though you know that the food sacrificed to idols has no bearing on your faith, since your buddy over there thinks it does, don’t eat the cheeseburger, have a salad instead.” Paul says eating that cheeseburger will not bring any of us closer to God…we are no better off to eat it, we are no worse off if we do not eat it. However, if you eat it and it causes your brother or sister to stumble and causes them to sin, then you have sinned not only against them, but also against Christ. Jesus, himself, gives warning against those who might cause another to fall: “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.”[iv]
Before we think that Paul was only connected with dietary habits, this for Paul was an across the board issue…elsewhere in his letter to Corinth and in letters to other congregations, Paul takes the same approach, not only with food, but also in the way we talk to one another, in the stories we share with one another, and, even, with the use of the gifts of the spirit, such as speaking in tongues. Paul emphasizes that our primary focus should be to do the things, not that we know we can do being puffed up and arrogant, but instead, to do only that which shows love and builds up another, strengthening them in their relationship with God.
How do we live this out…it means that if it doesn’t draw us and those around us closer to God…if it might cause another to fail…then we best sacrifice it…
Maybe we know there is nothing wrong with playing a card game such as bridge or canasta, but we are on a weekend retreat and some in the group think that any kind of card playing is a sin. Our knowledge might cause us in arrogance to go on and play and convince the others to play with us, convincing them that it is okay to indulge in something they believe to be a sin.
Maybe we know that Christian pop, rock, or rap music is okay, however, we are with family who believe that if it has a drumbeat it is sinful. Do we, in our knowledge, insist that we are going to play our stereo full blast listening to what we listen to, forcing our family to endure what they believe will lead them away from God?
Maybe we believe that there is no harm in watching a movie or television with lots of vulgar language or promiscuous sex in it (I am not saying it is okay, I am just saying maybe we believe it is), because we know that we can control our tongues and we are not going to sleep around, however, our children are in the room and decide since we are watching it that the language and activity must be acceptable, and therefore they cuss out a teacher or sleep with someone not their spouse.
Maybe we believe that there is nothing wrong with a glass of wine with dinner or a single mixed drink when relaxing at home. I mean we are not going to drink until we get drunk. However, we decided to have that drink in the presence of someone struggling with, or even predisposed to alcoholism, and send them on a drunken binge because if we can drink and handle it, they think they can.
Playing cards will not draw us closer to God…Listening to a particular style of music will not draw us closer to God…Watching that movie or television show will not draw us closer to God…having that drink will not draw us closer to God…so they are not essential to our lives. That means we can, like Paul, say, “Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling; if card playing is a cause of their falling, if Christian rock is a cause of their falling, if those movies are a cause of their falling; if that drink is a cause of their falling; if any of my actions are a cause of their falling, I will never do it again, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.”
What does this mean to us? It means being willing to give up what we may have the “right to do” for the sake of what will help out our brother or sister, or a child. It means sacrificing ourselves for the sake of others out of a love for them…
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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