In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul touched on the issue of buying and eating meat that had been previously offered to an idol. It’s not a practice we experience in the USA but it happened in the pagan-rich city of Corinth.

Imagine going to Kroger and asking the butcher to cut you up a few steaks. He goes to the back and, before hacking up the meat, offers a prayer to his false god while the meat sits on a (sanitary) altar.

Would you be okay knowing the food you were ingesting had previously taken part in a pagan ceremony? A lot of the Christians in Corinth were okay with it, while some were not. This divided the church and necessitated Paul’s response.

Notice how he opens the discussion:

Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.
And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

1 Corinthians 8:1-2

Essentially he says “everyone’s got an opinion, and everyone thinks their opinion is ‘right.’ Instead of being puffed up by your opinions, try loving. If you think you “know”so much that you don’t need to learn, then you actually know nothing at all.

To boil it down to one expression: Stay flexible. Stay aware enough of your own imperfections that you can accept the possibility that you may not have it right.

Too often friendships are ruined and battle lines are drawn simply because Person-A is convinced in his rightness and Person-B is assured in his correctness. When the fact is both people are just arguing over an opinion and there isn’t a right and wrong.

Sometimes, of course, there is a correct answer, and opinions are irrelevant. In such cases we should be flexible enough to set aside our egos and ensure that we are right and be willing to change if wrong.

As for the Corinthian issue. Paul states the truth of the matter: An idol is nothing; it’s okay to eat meat offered to an idol (1 Corinthians 8:4). Having said that, some people just don’t want to do it. To them Paul says “go ahead, we won’t attack you for refusing; just don’t attack us from eating the steak (1 Corinthians 8:7-9).