You sin against Christ

But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. – 1 Corinthians 8v12-13

Liberty in Christ is a wonderful thing. Freedom from the law is such a blessing. There is such joy and peace in serving Him apart from legal constraints that if we are not careful we can forget that this liberty is not without limits.

One, that we will read about later, is that our liberty is never to be used as an occasion to serve the flesh. Our liberty also should not be the “in your face” kind because that while all things are lawful, not all things are helpful or expedient. Our liberty should be used for the cause of Christ, not to divide it.

Here we read that another limit to our liberty is our brother’s conscience. The subject that Paul is dealing with is food sacrificed to idols, but the principle is for all those things that might cause my brother to stumble. Paul uses very harsh words here, if I do something that I know is going to cause my brother to stumble, I not only sin against him, but I also sin against Christ.

How does this play out in real life? Does this mean that my every action is based on whether or not someone might take offence to it? Does it mean that my bondage to the law is replaced by a bondage to every other believer’s conscience? If so, what kind of liberty is that? I would rather be bound to God’s requirements that man’s expectations.

This is clearly not what Paul is talking about. He is not talking about submitting to false teachings or unbiblical concepts. He is not talking about submitting to heresy in order to keep one from stumbling. He is not talking about submitting to man made rules and regulations for every aspect of our lives. If he were, every thing we do and every decision we make would offend someone and therefore it would be impossible to live.

I think it is clear here. We need to be aware of our brother’s sensitivities. The clearest example I can think of here is eating black pudding. There are, or at least were, brethren here who took offence at eating black pudding. In their minds this was sin because it contains blood. If I were eating breakfast with that brother I would be foolish to make a show of eating black pudding. I would choose therefore not to offend him.

It is just common sense and being aware of my brother. My liberty is not limitless. I have a responsibility to make sure that I am aware of my brother when I exercise liberty, else I sin against Christ.