Brotherly Love (1 Corinthians 8:13)

Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
– 1 Corinthians 8:13

What a great verse. What if we all lived this way in the body of Christ, in the church, with other brothers and sisters in Christ? Not, “What if we were all vegetarian?”

1 Corinthians 8:13 Encourages Us to Sacrificially Love Our Fellow Christians

The point of this passage in 1 Corinthians 8 is eating food, certain food specifically, is causing brothers and sisters in Christ to stumble in their faith. And so Paul writes, if I’m doing something that’s going to lead my brother or sister in Christ away from God, even if I’m okay with doing that, if it’s going to affect them adversely, then I won’t do it. I will never eat meat. For me, that would be a major statement to make, that I’m never going to eat meat. With all due respect to vegetarian brothers and sisters in Christ, I love meat.

But would I say, “I’ll never eat it again,” if it’s causing my brother or sister in Christ to sin in some way? It’s pulling them away from their intimacy with God. And so, to realize what this verse is saying, God has called us to live, to spur the brothers and sisters in Christ around us toward him and never away from him, and for us to make sacrifices in our lives that say, “I’ll lay down this or that if it will help you grow in Jesus.”

I just want to encourage you, and even as I encourage my own heart in this way, let’s live like this. Let’s look at brothers and sisters in Christ around us this way today. Think right now, who can you make sacrifices for today in some way to help them grow in Jesus? And specifically, is there anything you are doing right now in your life that is causing anyone around you to stumble in their faith, that is causing people around you to not be drawn closer to Jesus?

1 Corinthians 8:13 Reminds Us to Encourage Our Fellow Believers Through Our Actions

Think about that question, both sides of it. Is there anything I need to stop doing or is there anything I need to start doing so that the people around me who are followers of Jesus would grow closer in their relationship with Jesus? Or even to think about people who aren’t followers of Jesus, so they’re not yet your brother or sister in Christ, but is there anything you’re doing that’s hindering them from becoming followers of Jesus, but from becoming your brother or sister in Christ? And don’t do it or start doing this if it would help them become followers of Jesus.

Oh God, we pray that you would transform our perspective and our motives and our ambitions and our desires to be like 1 Corinthians 8:13. God, we pray that you would open our eyes today to anything we are doing in our lives that is hindering others’ growth in Christ or hindering others coming to you. People in our home, friends, in our churches, people we work with. God, we pray that you would open our eyes to anything we need to stop doing for the sake of others to come to you or grow in their relationship with you.

And God, we pray that you would help us to proactively start doing things, to proactively make sacrifices so that our lives are spurring others onto you. God, we pray that that would be true of us today, that when we lay down our head on our pillow tonight, that we will have laid down our lives during the day to help others come to you or grow in their relationship with you.

Prayer for the Valmiki People

Now, God, as we pray for unreached people, for the Valmiki people, 291,000 of them in Northern India, this Sikh people group. There are hardly any, if any, followers of Jesus at all. God, for the Valmiki people, even as we pray for them right now, we realize they won’t be reached if somebody doesn’t make some sacrifices, likely significant sacrifices, in order to reach them. God, we pray that you would raise up children of yours to make sacrifices, to bring the Valmiki people to know you as sons and daughters, to become our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Oh God, forgive us. We’ve not done this. We’ve not made sacrifices. And as a result, over 3 billion people in the world have little to no knowledge of the gospel. Forgive us, oh God, and help us to make changes in our lifestyles so that the Gospel spreads through us to people right around us. And God, to billions of people in the world who have never heard the name or the truth or the love of Jesus, of the one who had laid down his life on a cross for us. In His name we pray, according to 1 Corinthians 8:13, Amen.