This is a very interesting passage to me because of its focus on the importance of understanding people’s backgrounds for people God has put in our lives. In the time this book was written the issue was about eating food that was offered to idols. For those that had firmly placed their foundation in Jesus Christ as their Savior, God says eating or not eating each such food by itself does not change our standing with God since we understand it as just food. However, for those that might be new to the faith and have had a background of worshipping other gods or idols, it may be thought of as an act of worship to that god or idol. So if a strong believer now leads that act of sharing a meal of food offered to an idol, we are now sinning because we are leading a new believer astray.

I think this passage also ties in well with what we have been discussing as a church body about reaching out by building relationships with others first. God is requiring us to be sensitive to other people’s backgrounds so that we can be an encouragement to them and help build them up. Pray for wisdom and discernment to understand in our relationships for what things need to be said and what things need to be done to encourage people and what things not to say and things not to be done to avoid being a stumbling block for them.