ARE SOME SINS OKAY FOR ME BUT NOT OTHERS?
1 Minute Devotional On Subjective Sin
Are some sins okay for me but not for others? I think a lot of this question revolves around idolatry. If we allow someone or something else on the throne/temple of our hearts (Phrase from A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God), then how we interact with those elements can be sinful. Paul deals with this in 1 Corinthians 8 because some people were struggling to eat food that was sacrificed to other idols or gods. We obviously don’t really deal with this today but there’s still wisdom to be gained here.
The bottom line from Paul was this: “Food does not bring us closer to or farther away from God. So while all food may be permissible, we should not use our freedom to cause others to sin.” Eating a cheeseburger may be okay for you, but for the orthodox Jew, it would cause a riot.
Yes, each person is responsible for their own actions – but as Jesus-followers, we are commanded to love others as ourselves and to put the needs and concerns of others above our own. So we should be wise and discerning about how our actions affect others.
Scriptures To Consider
1 Corinthians 8: Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God.
So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
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. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.
Romans 14:14-18: I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.