The sermon today left me feeling kind of depressed. It's not really the type of message I enjoy presenting but felt that the text left me little choice. It is interesting that Paul doesn't just set everybody straight at the beginning of the discussion on "meat offered to idols" (8:1) by simply stating in a few bullets:
- Stop going to the idol temples
- Your are free to eat idol meat sold in the market unless someone makes a reference to it being sacrificed to idols
I get the feeling that for Paul it was more important that they learn to love one another and take care of each other than it was for them to get all their moral I's dotted and T's crossed. In other words, he was not trying to form a society that was simply "moral" but one that was Christ like.
Someone did tell me I should work on my illustrations. If I45 runs from Houston to Galveston, and the illustration for avoiding temptation is to take the exits provided, then .... does that mean Galveston is Hell? I'll leave that for you to decide.
