The Law of Love and Liberty
Reading: 1 Corinthians 7, 8 The Corinthian church enjoyed its freedom in Christ—to excess. That sounds like an oxymoron. How can freedom not be, well, free? As in no restrictions, no limits, no rules. So it must have been a rude awakening for the Corinthians to receive Paul’s letter through which he reminded them that the Law of Love needs to be applied to every liberty in life. “ Be careful, however that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak ” (I Corinthians 8:9, NIV). The specific issue here was eating meat that had been offered to idols and then resold to the general public (since idols are on no salt, no fat, no protein, no nothing diets). Paul makes a point of saying that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the meat since an idol is nothing. So for the believer who is secure in his beliefs, a hunk of meat is simply a hunk of meat—neither good nor bad in itself. The lesson was that those who had no problem eating what the idols c...