24 The Law of Love in Permissible Activities

Paul drew some conclusions regarding “meat sacrificed to idols.”

1. The actual eating of the meat is unimportant to a person’s faith and while it is allowed it may not be helpful to the believer.
2. The principle of freedom (everything is permissible; cf. 6:12) was to be regulated by love for others.
3. Activities that are not beneficial or constructive or that do not promote the good of others (cf. 10:33) should be avoided when you are in the company of new believers or those who are weak in the faith and have not grown. Some as we have seen might have been Christians for a long while but implemented rules for their lives, which are outside of Biblical orthodoxy. For those individuals we must come along side of them and provide them with challenging instruction to enable growth. The Bible calls this sanctification.