1 Corinthians 8:9 (NIV)
9. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.
10. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols?
11. So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.
12. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
13. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.
Apostle Paul was speaking to the Corinthian believers about eating food offered to idols. He was making them to understand that the gods of this world are non-existent and so, to us believers, we know deep down in our spirit that there is Only One God, the Father of The Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Glory and beside Him, is no other God in heaven and on earth.
Therefore, he said, with this boldness and knowledge, some believers count it as nothing, either they eat food offered to idols or not.
However, to some young believers who had been with idols all their life before they were converted, they still hold to that understanding food offered to idols are sacrifices tthato gods and to see a knowledgable believer eating food offered to idols is to confuse their young and weak conscience, and this may wound their weak heart and make them fall into sins.
So, Apostle Paul warned the Corinthians believers to be careful that the exercising of their liberty did not become a stumbling block for the young believers or weak hearted christians. Paul now added in
1 Corinthians 8:11-12 (NIV)
“So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.
When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience,
you sin against Christ.”
Do you know that Jesus Christ said similar thing in Mark 9:42 (NIV)
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.
But do you know that some believers who claim they know what they are doing and that they are enjoying their liberty in Christ never cared if any heart is wounded or not? Do you know that some believers never mind if anyone stumble in faith because of them?
Do you know that some believers do not realize they are daily destroying other believers because of their supposed knowledge of their liberty in Christ. Jesus said, if anyone causes any young believers (in faith or in knowledge) to stumble and fall, it would be better for such believer to be thrown in the sea with a millstone tied around his neck.
I heard a story of a man of God who was invited to preach in a church. As he mounted the pulpit and began to minister, he paused suddenly and turned to the host Pastor and spoke to him to order his ushers remove a woman who was sitting in the front row opposite him. The woman was sitting in the front row, directly in front of the pulpit with a skimpy skirt that revealed all her thighs. The cleavage of her blouse was cut deep down between her breasts and she sat audaciously in the front row, right directly opposite the pulpit of the altar. The ushers had to come to the woman and ushered her to the back before the preacher could preach conveniently.
The issue of if the preacher was weak or not does not come up now, but acting at the prompting of the Holy Spirit against a woman who was to be used of the devil to hinder the flow of the Spirit and thereby hinder the blessing of the people of God that morning.
I once went to a church on invitation and as I sat at the front row with the pastors, it was offering time. Then, among the ushers who were collecting the offering was a lady in a six-inch high heel wearing a cloth that ends at her thighs and walking up and down between the rows with the offering bags. She was an agent of serious distractions. I was an invited minister and I saw it, so also would a lot of young men and young converts who are still trying to find their footings in The Lord, who had come to the church that morning. Many of those young men and even married men would not see God they had come to worship that morning, because their heart had been distracted by a lady who had dressed to the church to please herself and not to please her God.
In the name of liberty in Christ, some christian sisters never cared how brothers who are in flesh and blood are feeling. They adorn themselves with blouses that almost show off all what they are supposed to keep to themselves and they never cared how men and brothers they came across would feel. They never mind if the brothers are left to fight a war of their minds all through the day. A young man who had gone on Youth Service in the east called his father and told him he was not going to church again, but reading his Bible at home. His father asked him why would he take such a wrong decision. He said, each time he went to the church, he came back with his heart corrupted by the sisters in the church who dressed up in a way that made them care less if the brothers would fall or not.
Right in the church, some sisters carry their body and cat-walk around as if in a fashion parade. The skirts of ladies are getting shorter and shorter and their blouses are becoming more tight-fitting and the cleavages are dropping down lower and lower. But, a child of God who desires to please her maker would not flow in this river which is heading towards a deep and deadly waterfall. You would choose to dress and live to please the Master your Maker, not to please the World and please yourself.
Jesus Christ said everyone should be careful never to make anyone fall, or else, it is better for such person to be thrown in the sea with a stone hung around his neck. Sisters, daughters of Zion, do you dress to please The Lord or you dress to please yourselves? Do you care how sensual and tempting your dress-up looks on campus, streets and church?
Some people’s dressing are seriously insulting to the sanctity of the sanctuary, yet they never mind. Some christian sisters are not involved in immorality at all. They are not into flirting around with men. They have kept themselves from fornication and adultery. However, they have stirred up these sins of lustful thinking and immorality in the heart and mind of a lot of men by their dress-ups and carriage. They love it when young men cast lustful looks at them.
Would you use this moment to check through your life as you pray and trust The Lord for massive Incredible Enlargement for your life and ministries. Has your carriages and dress-ups caused many to fall? Has your desire to dress to please yourself made you displeased your Lord and Master? Great Open Doors of miracles and blessing and mighty manifestations are coming along our way this year, and The Lord is purging You ahead of the time. Take time to check through your life and make amends.
Aphorism CITY 