1/28 Judgmental and hypocritical-In I Corinthians Paul is dealing with a church that seems capable of fighting about almost anything.. Earlier, I would see him saying that we scarcely understand ourselves, but claim to know God? Yet, the very gift of the spirit, the mind of Christ is formed within and among us.
Kosher food was and is an identity marker in Jewish communities, along with sabbath observance and circumcision. In our time, people make ethical statements as vegans, or in slow foods, or in locally grown foods, foods organically produced, or food without chemical additives. This was a trigger issue for a boundary, who is in and who is out. After all, in our present ethos, we consistently raise up matters of personal preference and raise them to the matter of principle. Paul regards the conflict around the issue as an example of being judgmental. We live for the glory of God, not our personal preferences.. To so live includes looking out for the benefits of others more than ourselves.
Paul begins by stipulating that some of the arguments are indeed correct to him. Yes, God is one. Yes, we pay no heed to idols. Paul makes his concern the formation and maintenance of Christian community. Paul is looking for ties of cohesion instead of the splintering nature of dissent. Unlike our time, he is less concerned with exit strategies and protest resignations and spinning off new groups. All Christians have knowledge, not just the in-group. A sense of superior knowledge causes arrogance, but love upbuilds.Let the weak ones get built up. No, love builds up, not puffs up. So, should love take on a mantle of being supercilious toward those with whom we disagree? Can we look down on anyone when we are gazing through the eyes of love? Love is extended to the weak ones as the norm. After all, these could have been recent Gentile converts who grew up with idols. Granted that they have spiritual power/liberty/freedom in regard to eating the meat, but the deeper issue is the effect of their action on others in the community. Further, it is less a matter of knowing than being known by God, to lessen the sense of being in the right.. For Americans, to say that it's my right tends to stop any discussion. Does failing to assert a right make one too passive? (see Hays 156-9) Paul uses family language to get at basic equality and respect. As Bruce Springsteen sings, "we take care of our own." Paul goes to the point of saying that he would forgo meat, period, if it caused one person to stumble. Paul is becoming an example of foregoing his personal liberty and knowledge to accommodate the perceived needs of others in the community.
Granted, all things are lawful for the Christina, but not everything is beneficial to the individual Christian or the community. v. 29 why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience? He uses an ethical maxim that we should look out to the well-being of the other, that we should not seek our advantage but that of the other (v.25).
Paul is trying to hold communities together. As new communities their common bonds have not had much time to solidify. Divisive points to threaten community spirit. They seem to possess all sort of centrifugal forces for blowing apart. They seem to lose sight of Christ as the glue that binds them together, of the baptismal bonds that bring us together. Being judgmental adds impetus to those forces.it undercuts values of loyalty and fidelity to something larger than ourselves. Better to be kind than in the right.
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