Thoughts for the Day

Avoid food sacrificed to idols …                                             Acts 15:39

I said previously I would return to the judgement of the Council of Jerusalem because it was so relevant to us today.  If food sacrificed to idols doesn’t sound that relevant, please bear with me!

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth on just this topic in similar vein, but with more detail.  It sounds like some folk had argued for a zero-tolerance approach to food that had been sacrificed to idols.  Paul responded that food is just food, and, since idols are nothing (for there is only one God), food sacrificed to such a nothing is still just food.  So logically there is nothing wrong with eating it, BUT don’t push your right to do so if that causes a problem for someone else.  It could be that the zero-tolerance brigade considered themselves more zealous (in which case Paul rather turned the complaint on its head) but equally these could have been people for whom eating meat sacrificed to idols had meant a great deal before turning to Christ, and to carry on such practices was anathema to them.  We may no longer have meat sacrificed to idols, but I have certainly heard similar questions raised regarding eating halal meat.   So, the principle of being sensitive to others in the exercise of our freedom still resonates.

There is a wider context too.  While the food itself was neutral, the settings in which that food was eaten were not necessarily so.  To eat such food at home would be one thing.  To eat it in a temple celebrating the idol to which it had been sacrificed would be quite another.  When we engage with the non-Christian world around us, there can be a fine line between not causing offense and actually dishonouring God by our action or inaction.