Years ago, I visited an Indian restaurant, Annalakshmi, a few times. It was good food, with great views over the swan river. It’s also a restaurant dedicated to the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. If I recall correctly, I discovered on one occassion that the food on offer was being dedicated to the goddess, of whom there is a prominent statue on display. The restaurant also has a philosophy that guests are divine, and should be treated as such.
Should Christians go to restaurants like that? Isn’t food food? Aren’t idols simply lifeless amalgams of wood, stone and/or metal?
There aren’t many times here in WA that we encounter occassions where food is offered to idols. It was, however, a much bigger deal in the ancient world, including the world of the early Corinthian Christians. Many of them had turned from paganism to follow Jesus. They had grown up attending temple feasts, and sacrifices made to idols. Deeply ingrained was a connection between the food they ate and the false gods they used to worship.
A lot of the meat available to purchase would also have been a by-product of sacrifices: sacrifices create a lot of food!
Some Corinthian Christians were more than happy to eat whatever wherever. For others, their consciences just didn’t sit well with eating food that had been sacrificed to idols.
Says Paul: flee idolatry. Christians can’t partake in idols. But food sold in a secular setting isn’t tainted. It’s just food! But there’s more at play than our freedom to eat… there’s also our love for one another, and whether our actions are glorifying God.
This isn’t just about food…
Today’s text: 1 CORINTHIANS 10:14-11:1
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