Accommodate Them!

1 Corinthians 8:9 (NIV) – Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.

1 Corinthians 8:13 (NIV) – Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

Accommodate means create an allowance for them not to be like you but you are okay with it. It means you are okay with having different opinions and remaining friends. It means you accept someone who sis different in ways that divide you.

Apostle Paul in this chapter makes it clear that it is a Christian’s role to accommodate others. That means you make sacrifices to make someone else comfortable. You don’t allow issues to create divisions between you and others.

There is a difference between compromise, which is wrong and accommodation of someone. Compromise means you get converted to sinful practices, helping them thrive, by doing nothing, by rationalizing that it’s somehow right, or by not condemning sin. Accommodation is about the person on the wrong and not the wrong itself.

When someone has a habit of coming late to church, you can compromise or accommodate. When you encourage a late comer by telling them that lateness doesn’t matter, what matters is showing up, you are compromising. The entire program has a purpose. Therefore it’s good to attend the entire program.

You accommodate a late comer by welcoming the person and making them comfortable. Afterwards in the most friendly way and privately, you seek to find out why they have a habit of coming late. That is being accommodative. If after all attempts you discover they have no good reason for coming to church, you accept them as they are as in your own time you pray for them. That is being accommodative. 

Apostle Paul begins by telling believers that idols means nothing. There is only one God in heaven. Any other god is a non- entity that deserves no attention or reverence. Yet, some people still feel and believe that meat offered to idols before sale should not be eaten. They feel and believe that the idols have corrupted the meat and believers should not eat it.

Truly speaking, if idols are nothing then meat offered to them has no corruption or stain. However, because some people still have a weaker faith and they think meat offered to idols has been corrupted, we need a response. Compromise is agreeing with them that idols have power to corrupt meat. Accommodation is not eating meat for their sake so that they don’t get affected in their spiritual growth.

1 Corinthians 8:9 (NIV) – Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.

1 Corinthians 8:13 (NIV) – Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

I will not eat meat again, to accommodate my weak brother or sister. That is the Christian attitude. Ever accommodative!

Bibles online and on phone are as legitimate as hard copy Bibles. Some people have a weak faith and believe that like themselves, everyone is addicted to social media and will therefore visit social media during worship. They wrongly believe that the Bible is not holy when read from an electronic device. For their sake I carry a hard copy Bible whenever possible. They are young and weak in faith.

It is wrong to use weak faith line to force people to adjust to your extremism. For the sake of a weak brother do this or do that, yet in reality you are attempting to impose your skewed uniformity view of faith. Do not abuse accommodative people. 

If you are the weaker brother, strive to grow up in faith. Don’t remain weak forever. Be uncomfortable that people must make sacrifices to accommodate you. To enjoy sacrifices made by others to accommodate you is being narcissistic. A mental disorder of having a sense of self importance that gets satisfied when others seem to struggle and suffer to please you. Don’t remain a weaker faith that must be accommodated forever!

There are so many people who have a weaker faith around us. May we accommodate them. Young people may need to accommodate old people and vice versa. They may differ in non-doctrinal issues of taste and style. We need to be accommodative of each other.

As we move from one community to another, we will meet significant differences. As we become a global village and interact with other people, we would be shocked at what they do or not do. We need to be accommodative if we are not sinning. God created variety of everything and the best response is not pushing for uniformity but for being accommodative.

Sacred music and type of worship practices will differ from place to place. Be accommodative. Dress appropriate for a believer and for place of worship will differ from place to place. Be accommodative. The whole world cannot be tailored after the home of your upbringing. Be accommodative!

May God save us from the sin of compromise. May God give us wisdom to know cultural non-issues that we can accommodate though we may not like them. May God save us from being permanently the weaker person who needs to be accommodated. In Jesus’s name, Amen!

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