Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. | 1 Corinthians 8:8–9
As we looked at the text in Mark 7 last week, the author makes a short aside to connect Jesus’ words with the larger context it was made in. Jesus said this to His disciples:
“Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) | Mark 7:18–20
This comes into the larger discussion about whether Christians needed to follow the Jewish food customs, or if the New Covenant had changed the purity laws in relation to clean/unclean. Jesus’ comment makes it clear that the ceremonial and ritual laws that set the Israelites apart from the surrounding nations were no longer in play, because the gospel was grafting in the Gentiles. Thus He declared people of all nations and all foods, clean.
Paul takes this conversation about eating unclean food to the next level in 1 Corinthians 8 (as well as Romans 14). In these sections, he is pointing out that Christians will have different conclusions on these issues and that they should serve as situations to serve one another’s consciences. They should not be issues to divide over or to elevate ourselves over other people. We will be different, but united in Christ.
What I want to point out is that Paul implies that a person who is strong in the faith will be able to partake and enjoy without hesitation. This is not for the sake of ranking the faithfulness of your friends and family, but to see how powerfully freeing the gospel is. A person with a strong understanding of the grace of God and their own sinfulness will be able to participate in the world on many different levels without being swallowed up by it.
This is important for us, lest we retreat into a defensive position, where we are afraid of the world around us. I have seen many Christians who live their lives as if they must be protected from the the danger that surrounds us. They raise their kids to avoid rather than engage. The world becomes big and scary. The power of God in us seems inadequate to overcome it. In this, faith seems fragile.
To be weak in faith is to assume that we are always on the edge of losing. While we must admit our weakness and inability, the gospel is about the fact that we TAKE ON the righteousness of Christ. We are FILLED with the Spirit of God. The strength of the Eternal God is now working all things together for our good. To believe this and live as if it is true, strengthens us from the inside out. It gives us a foundation with which to engage a world that will attack, shame, and ridicule. None of that matters if your identity has been rooted in Christ.
When Jesus says that it is not what is on the outside that defiles you, but what comes out of the heart, it should cause us to spend a lot more time addressing our hearts, and a lot less time worrying about what is going on around us. If our life is secure in Christ, then we have a bulletproof Christianity, that can survive whatever this world throws at us. What matters is not how difficult the journey, but how powerful the one who carries us through. To depend on and trust in Him is the only way to be strengthened for whatever lies ahead.