Devotional 14 January 2026

January 14, 2026 • Steve Torres

1 Corinthians 9:7.jpg

“Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?” (1 Corinthians 10:25–30, ESV)

Paul affirms something many Christians struggle to hold onto: Christian freedom is real. “Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience” (v. 25). The believer does not live in fear that created things have been corrupted by false worship, because “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof” (v. 26; Ps. 24:1). Creation belongs to God, not idols.

But Paul is equally clear that freedom is not exercised in isolation. When someone says, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” the situation changes (v. 28). The issue is no longer the food itself, but what eating it would communicate. To eat in that moment would reasonably imply approval of idolatry to the one who pointed it out. Paul’s concern is not contamination, but representation. The believer refrains, not because the act is sinful in itself, but because love refuses to represent Christ as approving what God condemns.

This is where Paul’s teaching presses into everyday life. Christian ethics are not governed solely by private intent, but by public meaning. We are not detached individuals; we are united to Christ and act as His representatives (2 Cor. 5:20). What we do publicly says something about who Christ is and what He approves.

A wedding provides one modern example of this principle. A wedding is not a neutral gathering, but a ceremony, an act of public affirmation. Attendance functions as witness. In some cases, participation would reasonably be understood as endorsing what Scripture calls sin. In those moments, the question is not, “Does this bother my conscience?” but, “What does my presence say about Christ?”

The same logic applies elsewhere. Activities or materials that are morally neutral in themselves can take on sinful meaning when they are publicly framed as affirmations of what Scripture condemns. As Paul reminds us, “the conscience I mean is not your own, but his” (v. 29).

Christian freedom is not diminished by restraint. It is clarified by love. We gladly lay down what is permissible when doing so preserves a faithful witness to Christ and builds up others for God’s glory.