Sin and Subjectivity – agreeing to disagree

Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Chris Simmonds:

What did I like about today’s passage?

Here once again Paul seems to be addressing some very specific issues, perhaps raised in a letter to which he is responding. We might question what on earth the morality of eating or abstaining from food sacrificed to idols can possibly have to do with day-to-day life in 21st century Bristol..?!

As with so much of scripture however, it is for us to do some work to get to the heart of the principles laid out as well as some creative / sanctified interpretation about how we might apply these to our lives.

There will for instance be vegans and vegetarians in our community who cannot compute how eating the flesh of other creatures could be acceptable to God. For them, perhaps, to do so would be sinful as they would be betraying their inner convictions about what it means to live in harmony with God’s creation. There may be those for whom smoking, or drinking, are complete no-nos for a child of God whose body is a sacred gift. We may well have people with strong environmental convictions for whom boarding a plane would be sinful as they could not in good conscience do so without feeling they are betraying a God who has commissioned us to responsibly steward this planet.

Paul - here as well as in so many of his letters – firstly emphasises the redundancy of the Mosaic law due to our freedom bought by Christ. We are united not by a code of ‘correct’ behaviour, but rather by a Spirit of love. What I love is that he then goes to great pains to stress that this same Spirit of love compels us to take great care about how we behave, how we express our views and respond to those held by the person before us. We don’t necessarily have to behave the same, but we do need to behave lovingly.

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

Again, our triune God is relationship - is, if you like, a unified family of persons. We are here referred to as Christ’s body. The visible expression of his abundant life on planet Earth. A God who exists in eternal harmonious self-giving relationship must surely have the same heart for his ‘imagers’. Surely the Divine longing is for a deep, real and vibrant community that emerges as we sensitively and lovingly express opposing convictions, respecting while not needing to agree. A diverse family united by an inner bond of love. Can we learn to agree to disagree?

What am I going to do differently as a result?

I am going to try to be less obnoxious about my opinions, however ‘right’ I think they are, and more sensitive and curious about the – often more quietly and respectfully – held views of the person in front of me.

Who am I going to share this with?

As many people as possible – but I’ll aim to share by example, by living this out – not just articulating the ideal.