"No Fences: Pharisees, Philosophers, Legalists, and Jesus" Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Show Me the Buffet!

Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome for disputes over "Chrestus". This is how Paul became acquainted with Priscilla and Aquila. The Jews returned to Rome after Claudius' murder. The returning Jewish Christians (still zealous for the Law of Moses as in Acts 21:20) were distressed at the food the Gentile believers were bringing to the love feasts. Communion was part of a church pot-luck dinner in those days. The word translated as “bread” is more like “staple food”; you can see different dishes in different translations worldwide: Jesus said to remember that He died for us as often as we eat food or drink liquid, and of course we made a ritual of it. Paul's treatment of this issue will enlighten our exploration of the rest of the New Testament's behavioral instructions.  

Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. (Romans 14:1-2) 

This was because the meat and wine available for purchase at the time was likely sacrificed to idols. This is about a serious issue, an Acts 15:20 apostolic prohibition, so how Paul eventually settles it will be of great interest to us in applying the behavior instructions of the New Testament. 

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. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. (Romans 14:3-4)   

That's a beautiful promise that God will give you the will and ability to please Him (Philippians 2:13). See also Jude 24 and Hebrews 13:20-21. Back to Romans 14:  

One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. (Romans 14:5) 

Again, Christ is our Sabbath every day with no special observance required from us. See Hebrews 4. Additionally, renewed attempts to bring back the “blue laws” fly in the face of Colossians 2:16-17 and 1 Corinthians 5:12. Back to Romans 14:  

Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. (Romans 14:6-8) 

Skipping ahead for brevity,  

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. 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. 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. (Romans 14:13-15) 

See also Colossians 2:16-17. We are going to explore some ways that we as Christians have forgotten that the New Testament was written primarily to former pagans who had trouble being formerly pagan. Attempting to adhere more closely to the original words and meanings of Scripture will be seen by some as licentiousness. I’m not writing this book to give you crazy new ideas of how to exploit your freedom in Christ; I just propose that the real line is probably farther away than you think it is (or where you’d even want to be), and that you may be tangled in an imaginary spiderweb of man-made rules. No matter what you learn here or elsewhere, try not to offend your brothers and sisters in Christ, your spouse, the community you are witnessing to, etc. Also, be sure to be fully convinced by Scripture and the Spirit. If you think something is wrong and do it anyway, you did wrong. That "someone" we are warned about destroying is the Body of Christ, church unity, etc. Concern for the "weaker brother" aka the unnecessarily scrupulous is important in all our dealings.  

Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 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. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall. So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 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. (Romans 14:16-23) 

Also, remember that Romans 14 was written in the context of a joint church service with Jewish and Gentile Christians. Colossians 2:16 still applies. They were free to enjoy their pork ribs at home with thanks to God without causing a fight at church. Admittedly, the lines between the compartments of our lives can be blurred by things like oversharing everything we do, eat, or think on social media; just lovingly try to keep the peace, especially among believers. That is, as far as it depends on you (Romans 12:18), because some people are just looking to fight regardless, and that’s not our fault. 

Additionally, let's look at 1 Corinthians 8. The same issue is addressed, with the weaker/scrupulous parties this time being former pagans.

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.” For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. 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. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? (1 Corinthians 8:4-10)

You may know that idols are inanimate and therefore decide to go back to your old church to hit up the buffet (not a service), but someone without that knowledge might be inspired to go worship idols. As with Naaman and Jehu (2 Kings 5:18-19 and 2 Kings 10:25), idolatry must be sincere to be a sin. 

So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 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. (1 Corinthians 8:11-13)

Don’t overthink this. Colossians 2:16 applies. It’s about being respectful of each other in our homes or church gatherings, not permanently swearing off meat and/or alcohol altogether because someone else somewhere in the world has a struggle.

Also, in 1 Corinthians 10:  

Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day 23000 of them died. (1 Corinthians 10:7-8) 

[This refers to the temple prostitution (ritual sex in honor of an idol) in Numbers 25.]  

Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf. Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 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. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than He? “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. (1 Corinthians 10:14-23)  

After all that dire talk of death for idol worship, eating food sacrificed to idols, and temple prostitution, what was Paul's solution?  

Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” (1 Corinthians 10:25-26)  

That's right. Buying known idol worship leftovers at the grocery store is enough of an abstraction. If it’s not exactly the Acts 15:20 material, it doesn’t count, assuming belief in Christ, love of neighbor, or tarnishing the reputation of Christianity aren’t at stake. Wouldn't the demand of Christians buying idol meat encourage additional idolatry to meet the supply? Paul’s answer suggests that we refrain from overthinking things. We will apply this principle elsewhere.  

If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God — even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. (1 Corinthians 10:27-33) 

In 1 Corinthians 5:10, Paul discourages leaving the world. We are to be fishers of men, a fragrant aroma of Christ to a world in need of His resurrection life. We are to be accessible to the unbeliever, and to have a presentation more attractive than "Would you like to be as anxious, overworked, and miserable as me?" 

I know that you're probably not dealing with whether to eat at a temple to a false god today. Many pastors try to make this applicable by saying that well-adjusted Christians have lives full of "idols" like spouses, children, jobs, etc. They accuse us of being too worldly, and they pass a hat to help us fix that. Don’t lose sight of the fact that the world that we were warned about loving in the Bible was pagan Rome – in general, a corrupt world system ruled by Satan from Cain’s first city to the Tower of Babel down to “Babylon” in Revelation, but for most of the New Testament the “world” apart from its use in verses like John 3:16 is idol-worshiping, Christian-killing pagan Rome. Rather, let's look at Paul's approach to food sacrificed to idols and apply it to real issues we encounter. Scripture is inspired (2 Timothy 3:16-17), so for so much of it to be devoted to Paul advocating for a position that can be summarized as, “As long as it’s not exactly what is prohibited in Acts 15:20, you’re free in Christ to proceed; just be loving,” especially about a serious matter like idol worship, this interpretation is broadly applicable.

Should you let your kids go trick or treating? Halloween was a pagan holiday, after all. Wait a minute, does the kid wish to sacrifice a classmate to Nergal? Or just dress up like a superhero and get free candy? No idolatry, no problem. Oops, I said superhero. That's just paganism for nerds, right? (The implications of John 10:34-36 and 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 mean you can watch basically all the mythical junk you want to and wear shoes named for fictional goddesses as long as you are clear on the fact that God is God.) Wait, are you sacrificing animals to Superman and asking him for favors? Or is it just a story? Can superhero movies provide conversational and sermon opportunities to share the Gospel? Yes. Wait, what about Christmas and Easter? They used to be pagan holidays. True, but Christianity is how formerly pagan people become holy. Recycling them to celebrate Christ is a beautiful illustration of the new creation, taking formerly dead humans and their inventions and reviving them with the life of Christ. We are to flee from idols (1 Corinthians 10:14), but the evil one cannot touch us (1 John 5:18). Some Christians won’t go on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World because of the simulated seance, and others enjoy special effects and air conditioning because they know it’s nothing more than that. You are free in Christ, just don't be scandalous. Care about the "weaker brother". For example, if a fellow believer doesn't want their kid seeing some movie, don't cause a fight by bringing them along with your kids if you were planning on going. That other parent’s pastor may have walked out of Pollyanna in 1960 during the opening credits when he saw the nudity, and he can only imagine the alleged degeneracy Disney might hypothetically be filming this many years later without necessarily knowing everything about what he’s preaching against. (That’s a G-rated childrens’ movie from a time with a different cultural attitude toward skinny dipping and depictions thereof.) Again, don’t overthink concern for the weaker believer. Colossians 2:16 applies. It’s about being respectful of each other in our homes, churches, and personal dealings; not permanently swearing off behaviors you are okay with in light of what Scripture and the Holy Spirit say because someone else somewhere in the world has an issue with it. Let your light shine so that all may praise your heavenly Father (Matthew 5:16). 

I'd like to offer some conjecture about Revelation to reach another concept. Because of the points we've discussed, you can see that the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2) who were eating food sacrificed to idols and practicing sexual immorality (which is frequently a metaphor for idolatry in the prophets, but actual idolatry was sometimes accompanied by ritual sex, so make of that what you will) were sincerely participating in pagan rites, with Christ being thought to be one of many divine beings. Rather than accept menial jobs outside the trade guilds with patron deities, they kept attending their old pagan worship services, too. The Hebrew phrase pronounced "nokhal" (think Nicolaitan) means "let's eat". Some people will try to tell you John was writing against Pauline believers by conflating grocery store meat purchasers with pagan temple attendees, but John and the rest of the original apostles approved of Paul's work (Galatians 2). Peter called Paul's letters Scripture (2 Peter 3:16). Revelation 21:8 says "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” That sounds harsh. This sort of enumeration of prohibited behaviors is called a "vice list" and was common among the Stoic philosophers that were popular when the New Testament was being written down. The problem with applying it a bit at a time, especially to believers, is that Romans 3:11-13 says we all failed the lying test: 

“There is no one righteous, not even one; 

  there is no one who understands; 

  there is no one who seeks God. 

  All have turned away, 

  they have together become worthless; 

  there is no one who does good, 

  not even one.” 

“Their throats are open graves; 

  their tongues practice deceit.”  

Realizing that Revelation was written by John, let's see what the same author said about "liars" in 1 John 2:22: “Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.” Yes, the problem is Christ-denial. As John also records Jesus saying in John 16:9: “The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in Me.” The list items in Revelation 21:8 are flavors of unbeliever, they are behaviors that we won't have to worry about in the World to Come, but I also see them as a callback to the false believers from Revelation 2 that were still actively engaged in Roman paganism, which meant denying Christ as uniquely divine by affirming the godhood of emperors, etc. While I'm not saying that we shouldn't worry about doing individual behaviors on vice lists, the lists may be also viewed as a combination of attributes describing a particular situation in or known to the early church. 

[An aside: The Enemy is trying to make us forget temple prostitution to muddy things (because apart from a few regulations forbidding priests’ daughters from the trade or the use of it by the Temple for profit, forms of non-religious prostitution were tolerated; the Food and Drug Administration regulates food and drugs but neither is entirely illegal), but as recently as 2014 the January/February Biblical Archaeology Review said: “Indeed, archaeology has shown that Ashtoreth worship and associated rites of sacred prostitution were common throughout the ancient Mediterranean. At the Etruscan site of Pyrgi, excavators identified a temple dedicated to Ashtoreth that featured at least 17 small rooms that may have served as quarters for temple prostitutes. Similarly, at the site of Dura-Europos on the Euphrates, archaeologists uncovered a temple dedicated to Atargatis, the Aramaic goddess of love. Fronting the entrance to the temple were nearly a dozen small rooms, many with low benches. Although the rooms were used primarily for sacred meals, they may also have been reserved for the sexual services of women jailed in the temple for adultery. Such a situation prevailed at the temple of Apollo at Bulla Regia, where a woman was found buried with an inscription reading: ‘Adulteress. Prostitute. Seize (me), because I fled from Bulla Regia.’ Sacred prostitution, therefore, existed in much of the ancient world and reflected the ritual practices of Ashtoreth worship.”] 

Since the meaning of words can creep over time, let’s look at a few from Mark 7:21-22: Greed and envy/“evil eye” (Deuteronomy 15:9) involve coveting what another person has and wanting them not to have it; there is a desire to disobey God’s prohibitions of theft, false weights, etc., baked into those concepts. Famous orator Chris Rock has a good handle on this principle: “Guys actually think that there are other fish in the sea, and if a guy introduces his boy to his new girlfriend…his boy goes, ‘Oh man, she's nice, I gotta get me a girl like that.’ If a woman introduces her new man to her girlfriend, and they walk away, her girlfriend goes, ‘I gotta get him, and I will slit that b*tch's throat to do it.’” Another term which requires a recently former pagan perspective is aselgeia. Aselgeia or “lewdness” in a first century context signifies being utterly amoral, feeling no shame while sinning, participating in pagan orgies, disregarding the boundaries established in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20, etc., rather than mere horniness. We’ll examine the commonly-held “mere lust = adultery” interpretation later. Arrogance is putting yourself on God’s throne (Proverbs 22:4) rather than simply being overconfident. Folly is godlessness (Psalm 14:1). 

Recognizing that the cultural and historical context of the Bible can significantly impact our interpretation is crucial, as well as appreciating the dynamic quality of language. What we think various sins mean has been a moving target over the centuries. People that understand the Reformation quite well still adhere unthinkingly to the definitions that were handed to them after many years of interpretation. Understanding the specific issues and challenges faced by the original audience points us toward the intended meaning of the texts. The Epistles were largely written to former pagans having trouble letting go of things like temple prostitution, orgies, and blackout benders for Bacchus. New people bring new perspectives and emphasize different aspects of the Bible’s teachings based on the social, cultural, and philosophical contexts in which they live. Each generation of apple polishers is tempted to forget history, ignore the progress made with the help of the Holy Spirit in the past, and attempt to apply the text anew to their own situation. Paul telling the fraternity from Animal House “Don't get too crazy” could be read very differently out of context by the Muppets of Sesame Street, for example. The celibate desert ascetics that began Christian monasticism, lingering Greek philosophical ideas (like Platonism’s spirit-good-matter-bad bias against the body), an Aristotelian obsession with the telos (the end, or highest purpose of something – some say something’s highest use should be its only use), etc., have all affected what we read in our Bibles in English in addition to the natural changes to any word’s meaning that happen through common use. 

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