1 Thessalonians 5:21 – But test everything; hold fast what is good.
We live in a world that doesn’t like to come to conclusions. Think about it for a second. Coming to a conclusion on something involves thinking, effort, eliminating options, deciding, the possibility of being wrong, inevitably disagreeing with someone, and probably the biggest factor, quite possibly having to change one’s beliefs or even have an entire paradigm shift.
As G.K. Chesterton said, “The purpose of an open mind is the same as that of an open mouth, that it might close on something.” Frankly, in a world where objective truth is an oxymoron, most people don’t care much about “closing on something.”
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In verses 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 6:19, and 2 Corinthians 6:16 Paul uses the Old Testament temple as a metaphor for believers. What this metaphor conveys is the comparison of our New Testament worship to that of the Old Testament. The Levitical law required sacrifices. However, now our worship demands a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), a sacrifice of our lives. The Old Testament worship was centered on locality and the temple building. However, now worship is in spirit and in truth and no longer based on such externals such as location and buildings (John 4:20-24). And finally, just as the Shekinah glory dwelt within the temple, now the same presence of God, the Holy Spirit, dwells within us (1 Corinthians 6:19). And just as the Shekinah glory was the visible presence of God at the temple or tabernacle, so the presence of God should be visible in our lives (i.e., “the fruit of the Spirit,” Gal 5:22-23).
Christians have faith in a large variety of things. We are very trusting people. For example, when we go out to eat we have faith that there is nothing wrong with the food we are eating. Or, if we fly in an large commercial airplane, we have faith in the pilot whom we most likely have never met and know no very little about. When we take extended trips we trust that the gas stations we will need to continue our journey will actually have gas despite the fact we never called a head of time to check if this is so (in fact, we don’t even check to make sure there are gas stations where we are heading; we assume and trust). The list goes on. There are countless other regular things that we never doubt or have second thoughts about.
1 Corinthians 8 is a passage where Paul deals with personal convictions, Christian liberty, weaker and stronger brothers, etc., specifically concerning the issue of meat offered to idols. The principles of the passage, however, are not constrained to this first century dilemma. For instance, in some smaller circles of contemporary Christianity there exists much bickering and debate over the issue of music standards. The following is 1 Corinthians 8 modified to address this specific issue (aka, I have replaced the language that refers to eating meat offered to idols to language referring to music standards; the modified wording is highlighted).
Kirk E. Miller 