EMQ » July–September 2020 » Volume 56 Issue 3
By Ryan Keating
As a Christian living in the Muslim world, the New Testament’s focus on meat sacrificed to idols is more than an academic question about an interesting piece of historical context. The issue that was so relevant to first century Christians has a close parallel with an equally pressing and controversial question in the context of the church here. Paul’s advice to the churches about navigating this issue is nuanced and profound and has become an important guide for us as we help our own congregations address these questions.
Historical Context
In the first century the gospel had been spreading throughout the multi-religious context of the ancient near east. There was obviously a Jewish background to the new Christian movement, and the Jews had centuries of experience interacting with their polytheistic neighbors. As the gospel spread to non-Jewish peoples, Christianity was faced with new kinds of religious dilemmas in the religious backgrounds of the new, non-Jewish believers. The Church was working to establish its own unique identity in the face of so much religious diversity, and there was often opposition and hostility to the Church, even from the Roman government, which had an official religion that included mandatory worship of the emperor. New believers were coming from these other religious contexts and had to make decisions about how they would relate to their families and communities, and where they needed to draw boundaries, even at the cost of exclusion and rejection.
One of the first theological controversies in the churches had to do with whether Christians could eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols. The apostles address it in Acts 15 at the Jerusalem Council, where we get the sense that there is an additional tension between Jewish background and gentile background believers around this issue. As is still the case, many religious traditions included sacrificing an animal as part of a worship ceremony and then eating or sharing the meat. In fact, meat that was sold by a butcher or at a market might well have been sacrificed in this way before being sold. There were opposing views in the first century Church about whether this represented a problem for believers. And today, Christians living in the Muslim world must navigate the same dilemma. Every year many Muslims around the world sacrifice animals as part of a holiday that coincides with the pilgrimage that takes place in Mecca. The meat from those sheep, goats, cattle, or camels is often shared with neighbors or served at holiday meals. And Christians in the Muslim world are similarly divided about whether that meat is acceptable to eat.
Paul’s Three Arguments
Throughout Paul’s letters we can discern a nuanced perspective on this complex issue, which for him was essentially a missionary problem. Understanding Paul’s argument has provided a framework for me to navigate not only this issue, but so many parallel controversies in the church. I will be focusing here on Paul’s extended treatments of this issue in Romans 14, 1 Corinthians 8, and 1 Corinthians 10. I have often found that Christian responses to these questions oversimplify the issues and misuse one or two phrases from Paul’s letters in defense of a clear “yes” or “no” answer to whether Christians can eat meat sacrificed to idols. I would recommend a thorough reading of at least those chapters to anyone who want to understand the issue for themselves.
While Paul’s perspective is complex, it is also rational and comprehensible. I believe it can be summarized in three points.
First
Meat sacrificed to idols is still just meat. It doesn’t have any spiritual power or moral value of its own. So, any food, including meat sacrificed to idols, can be eaten without fear of spiritual danger or expectation of mystical benefit. In Romans 14:14 Paul writes, “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.” He continues in verse 20: “Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.”
Paul reveals an assumption that stuff as stuff, doesn’t carry spiritual power or moral value. It’s just stuff, even if it has been offered in sacrifice to false gods. Christians don’t have to wonder whether some stuff is spiritually untouchable. He unpacks more of this view in 1 Corinthians 8. In verse 4 he writes: “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.” In 1 Corinthians 8:8, he continues: “But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.” And in 1 Corinthians 10:25–27 Paul comes to the explicit conclusion that believers may confidently eat any meat sold in the marketplace or any food served to them in an unbeliever’s home: “Eat anything sold in the meat marketwithout raising questions of conscience, for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience.”
So, for Paul, the meat sacrificed to idols is just meat, and Christians who understand this truth can eat it, as they can eat anything else. However, Paul’s argument doesn’t stop here, because the issue is not that simple.
Second
It is the intention of the person eating the meat that confers spiritual power and moral value to it.Meat sacrificed to idols may be just meat, but particularly for those who have just emerged from another religious tradition, divorcing the meat from its previous religious associations may be difficult, especially at the outset. If people had been accustomed to eating the meat for its spiritual benefit and as part of a ritual of worship to another God, simply switching to a “just meat” kind of understanding may be a long process. In the meantime, they should avoid the meat and the church should accommodate people in this situation.
Paul addresses this principle in Romans 14:2–3: “One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them.”
For Paul, this is an issue that must be left to the individual’s conscience. He doesn’t remain neutral about it, since he teaches that those who cannot eat sacrificial meat with a clear conscience have weaker faith in this area. Still, he insists that the church allow believers to come to their own conclusions.
The issue seems to be that some believers will have a difficult time eating the meat without thinking about it as an element of worship to a false god. Some believers might even be tempted to pursue whatever spiritual benefit that those rituals claim to give. On the other hand, believers might also attribute negative spiritual power to the meat, and their consciences might be unsettled by that fear. In either case, Paul instructs those people to avoid eating the meat. In Romans14:14 he makes this point: “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.”
It is the heart condition, the intention, of the person eating that determines the spiritual value of the meat. Similarly, it is the faith of the mature believers that can enable them to eat it, which is Paul’s point in Romans 14:23: “But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.” And he makes a similar point in 1 Corinthians 8:7 saying, “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.”
Paul takes this aspect of the issue seriously. If a person is eating the sacrifice meat while in doubt or while still under the burden of their old religious associations, that isn’t just neutral ignorance, it is an active participation in satanic idolatry. This is the context for Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians 10:20–21, “No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.”
So, while the sacrificed meat is harmless for the person of mature faith who can eat it with a clear conscience, it is potentially harmful for those who don’t yet have that perspective. But there is one more important dimension to this issue which must also be considered.
Third
Believers who do eat meat sacrificed to idols should also consider its impact on believers who do not eat it. While this is a question of faith and freedom, Paul makes it clear that we may not use our freedom to abuse our brothers and sisters or to cause them to act in a way that would be sinful for them. For this reason, if we are with a believer whose conscience is bothered by eating sacrifice meat, then for the sake of love we should submit to that person’s sensitivities in this area. This is Paul’s instruction in Romans 14:13 and 15: “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister… 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.” And he elaborates on this principle in the strongest possible language in 1 Corinthians 8:13: “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.”
While a believer might have the maturity of faith and a clean conscience that comes from the knowledge that Paul describes, the Christian attribute of love trumps any freedom we would otherwise feel to eat meat sacrificed to idols. In 1 Corinthians 10:27–29 Paul describes a hypothetical scenario in which two believers are invited to eat at the home of an unbeliever. Paul insists that they are free to eat whatever is served to them. But, if one of the believers is uncomfortable with the fact that the meat has been sacrificed to an idol and points it out, then the other believer should also not eat it, despite the freedom he would otherwise have.
Making Application Today
The parallel here for Christians living among Muslims is striking. How should they apply Paul’s advice in deciding whether to eat sacrifice meat during Eid al-Adha? First, a believer should examine his own conscience. Are their consciences bothered by the prospect of eating the meat? Are they afraid of the potential negative spiritual impact? Is it still difficult for them to separate eating the meat from the meaning it had in their previous religious context? Are they hoping to gain some spiritual benefit from eating the meat? In any of these cases, they should avoid eating the sacrifice meat for the reasons Paul describes. And we should avoid eating the meat in the presence of believers who are uncomfortable eating it themselves. But, if our faith has matured in this area and we are able to eat the meat with a clean conscience, in the knowledge that it is just meat, then we should feel free to eat the meat.
This perspective also has implications for our disciple-making and pastoral ministries. We should allow enough time for new believers to grow into a mature perspective on their past religious contexts and practices. This will be a personal process in which we can advise believers to pay attention to the work of the Spirit in their hearts regarding these issues. And some believers may never come to a place of wanting to eat meat that has been sacrificed. Paul is clear that the church should not judge them for that. But we should also be helping believers to understand the nuances of the issue as Paul describes it, giving them opportunity to develop in such a way that they do feel comfortable eating whatever is served to them from a place of faith.
As in Paul’s day, this is likely to continue to be a contentious issue among believers, in some cases leading to divisive arguing. In those situations, we should remind the church that there is room for gracious disagreement on this issue and that we should not be looking for opportunity to impose our views on others. As Paul concludes in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Ryan Keating is the Turkey and Central Asia field leader for an international ministry organization. He serves as a pastor in North Cyprus and the director of Exile Ministry Training.
EMQ, Volume 56, Issue 3. Copyright © 2020 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.
