So you may eat any meat that is sold in the marketplace without raising questions of conscience.

1 Corinthians 10:25

I have odd memories of meat markets. My earliest such recollections go back to my childhood, when my mother shopped at a local market that had its own meat market. I remember staring through the glass display cases, mesmerized by the cow tongues. They looked like oversized tongues. Yuck! I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to eat them and was thankful my mother didn’t make us try. The liver was bad enough!

Then, in graduate school, I lived near one of the most famous meat markets in the United States. Savenor’s Market in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had its own butcher shop. More importantly, this small, family market had a long relationship with “The French Chef", Julia Child. Thus, Savenor’s had some of the strangest meats I had ever seen, including elk, yak, alligator, veal brain, and rattlesnake . . . oh, yes, and beef tongue. It was almost enough to turn me into a vegetarian.

I never bought any fancy meat at Savenor’s because it was way beyond my grad-school budget, and I had no desire to try it at any rate. But according to 1 Corinthians 10:25, I can eat “any meat that is sold in the marketplace.” The Greek actually reads, “Eat everything sold in the meat market.” But this imperative is meant to give permission, not to demand that we actually try all the different kinds of meat.

Why would this be an issue for Paul and the Corinthians? We’re talking about a meat market here, not a pagan temple. In fact, a substantial percentage of the meat sold in meat markets in Corinth would have come from the temples and would have been offered to idols. But the meat was not spiritually tainted by its history because, as Paul explains, quoting from Psalm 24:1, “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” If a Christian were to eat meat that had been offered to idols, it’s not as if the meat itself carried some pagan disease. In spite of its former use, it was part of this world that belonged, most of all, to the Lord. So it could be enjoyed without guilt.

Of course, there is still room here for personal taste and individual conviction. I was under no compulsion as a Christian to buy a yak burger from Savenor’s. And I am certainly free to choose not to eat meat at all, if I wish. I know many believers who have chosen to be vegetarians of one sort or another. But we can eat food in freedom, without fretting about how something has been used in the past because God’s ownership takes moral and spiritual precedence. Thus we have the liberty to enjoy the good things of creation, just so long as our enjoyment does not hurt others.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: Can you think of situations in your life that are in any way similar to the eating of meat in Corinth? How does Paul’s reasoning in this passage inform your behavior?

PRAYER: Gracious God, you are the creator of all things, and all things ultimately belong to you. Thank you for the boundless variety of your creation: for the stately grandeur of redwood trees, for the delightful songs of birds, for the pleasing tastes of food, and, indeed, for the diversity of flavorful meats.

Thank you as well for the freedom you give me to enjoy the wonders of your creation. May I do this joyfully, but also wisely, knowing that some things in this world are not the best for me or for your creation.

If everything in this world is ultimately yours, Lord, then that means I need to treasure and take good care of all things that have been entrusted to me. May I be a good steward of this world, honoring you in the way I keep it, delighting in it through the freedom you give me, and always thankful for your good gifts.

I pray in the name of Jesus, the Word through whom you created all things, Amen.