Should Christians Be Vegetarians or Not?

Now, Contending for the Faith. In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.

Here’s this week’s question: “Dear Dave and T.A., I find 1 Corinthians 8 more than a little puzzling. In its thirteen verses, it seems to tell me that I have to be aware of everything I do even when I’m not sinning that I do not offend the conscious of a brother or sister in Christ or cause them to stumble. How can I possibly do that, when I don’t know for example, what a young believer may erroneously believe? Or does this only refer to the situation of eating things offered to idols?”

Tom: Dave, in 1 Corinthians, and it’s not just chapter 8, but I think 6,7,8 and maybe 9, it really talks about liberty in Christ, and with liberty comes some responsibility. But as this person writes, we’re not to offend someone weaker in the faith. But how do we know what their problems might be?

Dave: Well, Tom, the Bible does not expect you to be omniscient.

Tom: Or a psychic.

Dave: Right.

Tom: Right.

Dave: Certainly not. I think we must have some common sense when we read the Bible. And it does give you some specifics. It says that “if any man see thee, which hast knowledge, sit at meat in the idol’s temple, well shall not the conscious of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols?”

So I think we could just avoid—let’s not go to eat meat in an idol’s temple. I think this is what Paul is saying.

Tom: Dave, is that the only application here? For example, I don’t know when the last time it was that I went into a pagan temple to have a hamburger or something.

Dave: Of course, you wouldn’t get a hamburger in a Hindu temple, right?

Tom: Yeah, that’s what I meant, a veggie burger.

Dave: Veggie burger. Well Tom, he’s telling us something. Verse 13: “Wherefore if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.”

I can recall very few Christians who are vegetarians. And if they’re vegetarians, okay, you can be a vegetarian, and when I invite them over to my house, I’m not going to offer them meat. But they should not be vegetarians for spiritual reasons.

Tom: Right.

Dave: And if they think that being a vegetarian makes them more spiritual or helps them in their walk with Christ, then I should correct them about that. But on the other hand, if something—I can’t think of a good example right now, Tom—well, I could think of it. If you’re in Europe, for example, you find that European Christians drink wine. Now, that would offend a Southern Baptist. Well, then, when they have a Southern Baptist enter their home, I think they should refrain from having wine. I think this is what Paul is saying. Maybe they don’t know that a Southern Baptist takes offense at that. Well, then, they may offend him unwittingly. But I think Paul isn’t expecting us to know every custom of every person.

For example, when I’m in the South Pacific, there are certain customs in these little villages. And, again, it behooves me to find out what they are so that I don’t offend these people. Now, to me, I have perfect liberty in Christ. I don’t have to follow this order in which the food is taken, but if this is some tradition of theirs, and even though these people have become Christians, they still follow that tradition—they don’t think it has anything to do with Christianity, then I’m not going to just trample on that. So I’m not supposed to be all-knowing, but I think Paul is saying let’s be sensitive and be careful, and let’s not offend others.

Tom: Dave, as I mentioned, as I looked not just at chapter 8, but 6,7,8 and 9 and so on, as you said, we’re talking about liberty—the liberty—Paul’s talking about the liberty he has in Christ, and that comes as a responsibility. I know, coming out of Roman Catholicism, one of the most difficult things for me as a new believer in Christ was the liberty that I had in Christ. You see, as a Roman Catholic, you did things by the law, the rules that were imposed upon me. And the nice thing about that was in one sense you felt comfortable with it because you could get around it. You know, there seemed to be—if there’s laws, there were ways to get around the laws, and so on. So you began to manipulate, you know, I did as growing up Roman Catholic, manipulate these things. But with freedom in Christ, now, it was the Lord and me. I had to do things to please the Lord, and He could see my heart. He knew my motivation, and He knew all of that. So it was really kind of a difficult thing to handle, and what I had to come to realize was that, wait a minute, now I’m His bondservant. I want to do everything to please Him, as difficult as that may have been. I mean, He enabled me, but still the idea of it was difficult because I had all of these freedoms, but I wanted to make sure that I was putting Him first.

Dave: Right. Tom, but in as you are saying, in not offending Christ, we don’t want to offend others. In pleasing Him, we don’t want to offend others. And Romans 14 goes into it in far more detail. Paul says, “Him that is weak in the faith receive, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.” Well, don’t despise, you know, if you can eat, don’t despise the one who can’t eat. And let not the one who can’t eat judge the one who does eat.

And then he says, “One esteems one day better than another.” Well, okay, you want to honor the Lord with this day in a particular way, go ahead. Rather interesting, because we see that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but it’s righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost and we are sensitive not to offend others. On the other hand, we’re not going to let some custom become rule in Christianity that you must follow in order to be a Christian.