Tuesday, June 9: 1Corinthians 8- All we need is love.

Love, love, love… love, love, love... love, love, love 

All you need is love… all you need is love… all you need is love, love, all you need is love.

So the Beatles sang, an entire song about love.

I suspect they had no idea how true their words were, at least their refrain. I also suspect that they didn’t understand God’s view of love, which bursts onto the pages of this letter in verse 1: Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.

Love builds up others is Paul’s message. Love looks out for the other person.

The issue is eating meat, which in Corinth came from idol sacrifices. There weren’t supermarkets, so people understood that if you wanted meat it was a leftover from some temple sacrifice. Some sisters and brothers, maybe fresh out of the pagan world, struggled with eating meat because it had the attachment to on idol.

Well, since LOVE build us, love calls him and us to give up meat, if need be, for the sake of our sister or brother who struggles with eating meat. Paul says it plainly in verse 13: 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.

Paul will moderate his behavior for the sake of others so that they will not fall into sin!

What’s my take-a-way?

I need to think about how I live and moderate my behavior for the spiritual sake of other sisters and brothers. I need to place my rights to do something below its affect on a brother or sister in Jesus.

It is not all about me… it is about growing closer to Jesus for all of us.

Lord, God, I can be so selfish, thinking only about myself and my wants and my this or that. Today’s time with You challenges me to be less ‘self-focused’ and more ‘other-focused’. This will not be easy, Lord.  Help me. Help me for the sake of my growth toward maturity and the advance of Your kingdom. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.