1 Corinthians 7-8

After dealing with the church’s issues, Paul turns his attention to answering their questions. Their first question is about marriage. Whether married or single, Paul encourages people to stay in the state they are in. But he says that being single allows you to do more for the Lord, so long as you can handle it. Then Paul addresses an issue with meat offered to idols. The heart of the issue is that more mature believers should not cause others to stumble in their faith because of the freedom they have in Christ.

As Paul says, idols are nothing. So, the meat offered to them is just that: meat. But, for the person who doesn’t understand this yet, we need to be mindful of them. For us today, it means being mindful of things we know are not sinful, but have been associated with sin. If that act or thing causes someone else in the faith to stumble, we should be willing to lay aside our liberty so as to keep them from stumbling.

Has your freedom in Christ caused other believers to stumble?