We live in a place where festivals are plenty. These festivals honor false gods and idols. We have been invited to attend some of these religious ceremonies, and we kindly arrive as guests, but do not participate in the worhsip or ritual. Still, we are invited to most of them by our neighbors. This week, the Hindu festival called Chhath (pronounced chut) is taking place. This is a sun worship holiday, with the main rituals taking place this morning and evening. The women of the home fast from food and water for 2 days, and many parties are put on with guests showing up and food being cooked and given to the guests. The worship of the sun takes place at sunrise and sunset the chosen day. People buy food, like fruit, cookies and other things and offer them as sacrifice to the sun. The food is then eaten as the ladies break their fast, and the leftovers are offered to the neighbors - which is where we come in. Our good friends in our building brought us some food and actually said that this is the sacrifice food from today. We know that this is just food, and if they just gave us food, we would accept it and eat it. The Bible is clear in stating that you should eat what is put in front of you. But, when the unbeliever gives us food and they say this food has been sacrificed to an idol, then we should politely decline it. Not for our conscience, but for the unbeliever's, because when we witness to these people, they will wonder why we took part in food sacrificed to their idol when we proclaim to follow Jesus only. It is bad for our witness.
I have read this passage in 1 Corinthians 10 many times, but this is the first time I was confronted with it. My first thought was not to be rude. We accepted the food with thanks, but we have not eaten, and will not. The couple left, and then we looked at the passage in scripture again. We discussed and came to the conclusion that we should tell them that we did not eat their gift, though we are thankful for them thinking of us and bringing us food. We must also explain why. They know that we are followers of Christ, but they do not know why we do some things, and refrain from others. This will be an opportunity to witness and share our faith. Another reason we did not eat the food is because the girl who comes and cooks and cleans for us everyday is a believer, and we do not want to be a stumbling block to her walk, as it also says at the end of 1 Cor 10.
Anyways, let me know what you would do/would have done in this situation. Anything different? Give me some feedback.
5 comments:
Personally, I think you did the right thing.
Always be "prayed up" for wisdom for stuff likes this. This is where the spiritual rubber meets the ungodly world.
Rick, We still need to make things right, and explain to our neighbors, which we will do tomorrow. It is just so hard to make the choice and we don't ever want to offend anyone, no matter what. But, as my wife said, we want to offend God less. And yes, praying up is essential.
Steve, I think you are doing the right thing for the neighbor and the young lady who is helping your family. I am thinking of you and asking for wisdom.
SAM,
Sounds like to me that you are handling the situation correctly. While we lived there we encountered the same thing on a regular basis. Normally, if someone offered us food and said nothing about where it came from, we thanked them and took it. If they offered the food and mentioned that it was from a puja or sacrificed to idols, we politely explained why we could not eat food offered to idols but still wanted to accept their hospitality by joining in their celebration following the puja ceremony.
When we went to a party, it was customary to have the food from the puja on a particular table separate from the main meal. There it was a simple matter of avoiding that particular table.
Not an easy thing to deal with but it is always best to be very clear and honest up front, and avoid damaging relationships. The Christ follower must deal with it in a biblical manner, but at the same time must attempt to save face and not bring shame to the one offering their hospitality.
Kyle,
Thanks for the encouragement and prayers for wisdom. I pray for wisdom every day to handle things like this, but sometimes they still come as a surprise.
Tim,
I know you guys dealt with this situation a lot while you were here. This is the first time we have really been offered this type of thing, and we knew what to do but not how. We really want to keep the relationship going, but not at the expense of our witness to those same people, and that is why we need to correct it. We are still so new at all this! Thanks for all your prayers!
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