Do not destroy the
work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a
person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to
eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or
sister to fall.
A particular tricky part of sin is that it’s different for
each person. A particular sin can have a strong grip on some and a weak grip on
others. One person may be completely owned by the sin, highly susceptible to
the temptation while another person hardly shrugs at its enticing pull. For
example, one man may struggle deeply with giving-in to opportunities of lust and
adultery while another man may have no trouble keeping his eyes on the straight
and narrow. Or one person may get pulled into repeated drunkenness very easily while
another has not the slightest desire to touch an alcoholic beverage, much less
binge drink. While we are all tempted by different things, we all still fail at
something. We all have a particular sin, or sins, that if given the
opportunity, it grabs us by the throat and holds us hostage. Therefore as
fellow believers called to care for one another, we must be careful what we do
in our own lives for risk of pulling another person into sin. If we have a
friend that revels in the opportunity to gossip and slander another, we must be
careful not to start or encourage a conversation that treads that path. If we
have a friend that gets tangled up in excessive gambling easily, then a trip to
Vegas might not be the best idea for a group vacation. Of course one could
argue that another person’s sin is their own responsibility, not ours. Sure,
but remember that we all mess up at times…we all need propping up when the sin
in our own lives takes us down a notch or two. That, and God calls us as members
of his family to support one another…and to avoid putting an obstacle in the way
of another that might cause them to stumble…as seen in Romans 14:13, “Instead, make up your mind not to put any
stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.” So today,
may we look to not only rid our own lives of sin and temptation, but also help
our fellow brothers and sisters to avoid temptations in their own lives…doing
it all for the glory of God!
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