Let's Not

 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. (I Corinthians 8:9)

When people visit psychics to find out about past lives, often, they are told about some famous person, or someone who deserved to be famous. No one wants to hear that they are or were basically nobodies. This morning on one of my social media platforms, someone asked people to identify whether they are individualistic or collectivistic. As I answered (individualistic) the question came to mind of whether those who claimed to be collectivistic would continue to be collectivistic if they were called upon to take on a role of which they didn’t approve, with no opportunity to change it. As with those who want to hear that they were someone special in a past life, those who dream of a collective that makes everything “wonderful” dream of a collective that prizes them.

I don’t think we’re any better as Christians. Today’s passage tells us not to exercise our rights in a way that causes the weak to stumble. Even the wording reflects the idea. We are the strong who must be careful of the weaknesses of the weak. But are we? Is our assumption that we are the strong not evidence that we are weak? That seems to have been the main problem with the Corinthian church. They thought they were strong. They thought they were better than Paul.

There are times when I recognize that I’m what I consider weak, and I punish myself. There are times when I want to be weak, and to have a knight in shining armor come along and make everything all better (and then go away until I need him again.) But that sort of weakness wishes to be coddled, not strengthened or corrected. And my whole “I must become more resourceful” thing is like a Biden’s alba seed. One tooth is “I want to be able to help others,” and the other is “I want to become impressive, capable… a hero.”

All of that is to say that we need to be very careful that we don’t assume too much when we talk about not causing the weak to stumble because if we aren’t careful, we may be stumbling ourselves. But with that warning as preface, it would do us well to consider how we might lead someone into sin by our behavior. Perhaps a better question is what others might do to lead us into sinful behavior.  What would people be doing you a favor if they didn’t offer you or parade it in front of you?

Probably the biggest and easiest example from my life is food.  Life would be easier for me if people didn’t offer treats. I know that alcohol is often listed. Guys are said to struggle because women seem to think that they should be allowed to dress in a manner specifically designed to excite male response and men are supposed to ignore the display – but are considered as insulting the women if they do. There are also folks who struggle with different sorts of videos, whether explicit sex (pornography) or violence.

This is something I have thought about and feel the need to be sensitive because there are folks who find the whole idea of fantasy literature, and the magic and creatures that are so much a part of it to be demonic.

But there’s something else we need to keep in mind about our being careful. Not only do we need to be careful we’re not stumbling, and that we’re not causing others to stumble, but we also need to be careful about  our attitude. If we do not respond out of love for the other person, that’s another way that we stumble. Let us not say, “Oh, we can’t _______ because so-and-so is going to be there.” Instead, perhaps we should say, “Let’s not __________,” and never mind who we’re not doing it for.