“Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean. For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy, by what you eat, someone for whom Christ died.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
In the early 20th century, some philosophers and literary critics, tired of what they saw as the restrictiveness of modernity, began to explore beyond its limits. Starting from the jumping off point that the meaning of a particular text isn’t fixed, they gradually began to apply this relativistic thinking to all of life. Thus cultural relativism was born. While possessing perhaps a grain of truth, relativism’s impact on culture broadly has mostly been poisonous that at least many Christian philosophers have been working to counter ever since. So then, why does Paul seem to propose a kind of relativism here? Let’s explore what he is saying and how we can create peaceful, welcoming churches.
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The Nexus 