You Are What You Eat! January 29, 2006
1 Corinthians 8: 1-13 Pastor Mark Nieting

Four quick questions: How many of you love broccoli? (?) Is it good for you?
How many of you love fatty foods? 
Are they good for you?

You??ve heard the expression ?´you are what you eat.?? It??s as true for entire countries as it is for individuals. Take the Pilgrims, for example. They quickly found out that wheat?ñthe staple for proper English families?ñ would not grow in Massachusetts. Corn grew just fine, but back home in England, corn was what you fed to pigs. So the Pilgrims copied the Pequot Indians and began to grow and even like eating corn. But when their leader went back to England and made the case that corn was good to eat, the English looked at him like he was recommending eating dog food. It??s when Winthrop realized his people weren??t as English as they used to be. It was one of the realities that fed independence!

What you eat and how you eat it can define a person. It??s as true today?ñ.when we struggle with junk food and trans-fats as it was in Colonial America and in the Corinthian church of the first century. 1st Corinthians is a New Testament book that focuses on keeping a Christian community together and working in harmony. While chapters 1-4 have general doctrinal remarks, chapters 5-12 deal with some very specific issues of how Christians live and work and worship together. 

Paul knows that he cannot be the lawgiver and decision-maker for the disputes in every Christian community in Greece, Asia Minor and Rome. For Paul, the natural law of God??s creation and the Jewish laws of the Torah have been fulfilled in the love of God through the coming, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?ñ.and ultimately, in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says that love is the force that guides everything that we as Christians do. He focuses much of what he says on the tension between individual Christian freedom and the considerations of the entire body of Christ AND how their decisions and practices reflected on the non-believing community around them. 

In today??s text, Paul addresses the critical question of whether or not Christians should eat meat that has been offered to idols. It??s important for us to realize that idol-food was a big deal in first century Corinth?ñ.and actually most of the ancient Mediterranean area. 

The Corinthians were doing what was done by people everywhere at the time. Meat from animals was considered by pagans to be the pre-eminent gift from the gods and so animals were offered in sacrifice and thanksgiving TO the gods by different forms of ritual slaughter. Some of the animal was burned on the altar (for the god) and the rest was distributed among the participants or to the local community, mainly through the local meat markets. It??s kind of gross, but it was very economical. You could get much better deals on ?¨slightly used idol meat!?Æ 

The practice posed a tough problem for the Christians of Corinth. They didn??t want to be associated with meat that had been sacrificed to Greek gods. Given the choice, most of them would rather not have touched the stuff. But it was tough to avoid since it would pop up at the local market or at a neighbor??s barbeque or in a church covered dish supper. It was by far the most common way people acquired meat. So, some of them didn??t want to be identified with the pagan practices, and yet quite a few of them believed that they had the freedom to do whatever they wanted?ñ.so they bought it and ate it.

I suppose that a fairly close analogy today would be that as good German Lutheran Christians we should be free to have an October-fest with all the brats and cold beverages Augie Busch can provide. We are free to do so, but does it reflect well on us in the community in which we live and minister? 

What??s a Christian to do?

From what we can deduce from ?¨reading backwards?Æ into the text, some of the Corinthian leaders must have written to Paul about the situation. Their argument went most likely like this: There is only One God?ñso therefore these Greco-Roman idols aren??t actually gods, so what should it matter what we do with the meat offered to them, since there really isn??t a ?¨them!?Æ 

I absolutely love how Paul begins dealing with this. He agrees (verse 4) that idols really don??t exist?ñ.that they are nothing but blocks of wood or stone and therefore, meat that is offered to an idol is really offered to nothing. ?¨There is no God but one,?Æ Paul says, and Jesus is Lord over all that is, so He has the power even over food sacrificed to idols. In verse 8, Paul says, ?¨Food doesn??t bring us near to God. We are no worse if we do not eat it and no better if we do.?Æ Sounds like a done deal, right? 

Wrong.

Problem was, not everybody in Corinth had the knowledge Paul talks about. Like British aristocrats who looked at corn and thought ?¨pig food,?Æ there were Corinthian Christians who looked at idol-meat and thought ?¨pagan poison.?Æ If they ate it, their consciences would be defiled. There were also Christians who worried about their Christian witness: that the world would not see them as differentiated from the pagans. 

The best course?ñthe best advice?ñ according to Paul to the Corinthians...was to avoid eating it at all. Paul knew there was nothing really poisonous about the stuff, but as a compassionate Christian brother, he didn??t want to do anything to cause a brother or sister to stumble in their faith. It??s right there, crystal clear, in verse 13: If what I eat causes a brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again.

What does Paul mean by this? You are what you eat. Or, in this case, you are what you don??t eat. Paul??s refusal to eat meat shows that he values love over knowledge. More than anything, instead of asserting his freedom and showing his independence, which a more immature Christian might do, Paul wants to behave in a way that nourishes, strengthens, and builds up the entire Body of Christ. 

Most of us modern, Western Christians do not encounter the exact same conundrum faced by the Corinthian Christians, but the principles are still the same. 

Here??s an example. About 25 years ago I had an uncle by marriage who was a Lutheran pastor (not LCMS). Periodically he enjoyed meeting his friends for lunch in an establishment where the sign on the door said ?¨No shirt: No shoes: No service?Æ but the sign didn??t apply to the female employees?ñ.if you catch my drift. He said he enjoyed wearing his clerical collar and watching the expression on their faces. Now he may have been ?¨Free in Christ?Æ to engage in such behavior, but was it good for the body of Christ? Was it a good witness?

That story reminds me of the difference between two of the visual arts, one being in the ?¨good for us?Æ category and the other not?ñ..art and pornography. As the old saying goes, it??s art if you can look at it with your mother. Art won??t cause anyone to stumble, but pornography will. You are what you eat?ñ..and sometimes it doesn??t hurt to go on a diet! And how many of us ever believed the people who said they were buying one of ?¨those magazines?Æ just to read the articles! You are what you eat!

?¨Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up,?Æ says Paul to the Corinthians (8:1). By focusing on the way of love, we can become a community in which people who do have differences can get along. Paul himself focused on the local community of Christians in Corinth, helping them to get along with each other in love and helping them to present a unified message to the community around them.

In today??s culture of global media and global economy, followers of Jesus Christ have to pay attention to much more than just our own neighborhoods. We love buying lettuce for next to nothing, but do we consider who might be suffering so we can do that? And a simple comment like that can divide us right down the middle: some taking up for the cause of the sweat-shop farm workers and others defending free-market economy and free trade. 

In our world today, Paul??s words in 1 Corinthians 8 means that we have to work hard to develop a Christian community of love and care so that we can work at developing such strong bonds with each other that we wouldn??t think of creating any stumbling blocks for one another, no matter what. It means placing the needs of others ahead of our own needs. It means praying to understand those who think differently than we do, not just praying that they will change their minds and come around to our point of view. It means turning the other cheek rather than throwing another stone. It means developing strong personal relationships with each other and sharing Christian principles among ourselves, all so that we can survive and grow as a family of faith.

You are what you eat?ñ..God knows that and we do too. The devil, the world and our own sinful flesh are happy to dish up a daily diet of junk food, some of it physical, which is bad enough, and much of it emotional and spiritual. God wants us to be well nourished and well balanced as the Body of Christ. That??s why He gives us Jesus, the Bread of Life. That??s why He offers us the ?¨Fruit of the Spirit: (Let??s see if we can remember the Fruit of the Spirit. We??ve learned it before.) Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Now that??s a diet we can LIVE ON together!

We??ll close on this. The Sunday School teacher asked, ?¨Now Johnny, tell me, do you say your prayers before eating??Æ ?¨No, ma??am,?Æ the boy replied, ?¨We don??t have to. My mom is a good cook!?Æ 

So is God?ñ.. let??s eat what HE SERVES! 

Amen.