My 1 Corinthians Experience with Liquid Death
The Corinthians had meat offered in temples to idols. I have sparkling water dedicated to demons. Who would've known?
The Corinthians had meat offered in temples to idols. I have sparkling water dedicated to demons. Who would've known?
As Danyel, Lottie, and I were driving to her family in Indiana, I stopped to buy an energy drink. I decided that I needed a sparkling water as well, and my two options were Topo Chico and Liquid Death. Both have given me various levels of satisfaction, so I decided to give Liquid Death another chance since it was in a can and bigger.
Fast forward to later that night - just as I'm about to drink it, I see an Instagram post from Pastor Jonathan Pokluda about Liquid Death. He says, "I'm out on Liquid Death." I thought this might be an indictment on its taste, but as I press in, I see that (a) they offered for people to sign their souls over to the devil and (b) hired someone to demonize the Super Bowl in 2020 and their drinks less than a month ago.
I was in complete shock and realized I had somehow been placed in a 1 Corinthians situation here. What do I do? Drink it since idols have no power over me? Discard it since I know it's been offered to spiritual evil?
A few seconds later, it found itself flushed down my in-laws' toilet.
What do you do in a situation like this? Luckily, the Bible gives us insight into this exact type of situation (except not with sparkling water because we know Jesus turned water into something with a little more flavor).
Paul addresses the problem with food being offered to idols in two areas in First Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 8:4-13 (CSB): "About eating food sacrificed to idols, then, we know that 'an idol is nothing in the world,' and that 'there is no God but one.' For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth—as there are many 'gods' and many 'lords'— yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from him, and we exist for him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through him, and we exist through him.However, not everyone has this knowledge. Some have been so used to idolatry up until now that when they eat food sacrificed to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not bring us close to God. We are not worse off if we don't eat, and we are not better if we do eat.But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, won't his weak conscience be encouraged to eat food offered to idols? So the weak person, the brother or sister for whom Christ died, is ruined by your knowledge. Now when you sin like this against brothers and sisters and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother or sister to fall, I will never again eat meat, so that I won't cause my brother or sister to fall."
And from 1 Corinthians 10:14-22:
"Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, since all of us share the one bread. Consider the people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? What am I saying then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?"
In chapter 8, Paul appears to say that because God is the only true God with power, food being offered to idols really doesn't make a difference. However, the difference is more so in the appearance of indulging in that and causing someone who is completely opposed to food being offered to idols. Chapter 10 mentions this, but then also says that eating food dedicated to idols participates in demon worship.
So is it permissible to eat food offered to an unholy host, or do we need to avoid it altogether?
Here are the questions I answered:
Was it offered to idols? Yes.
Did I know? Yes.
Would it have become an obstacle to others' faith? Maybe if they knew the backstory. But if they just saw the water, probably not.
Would it have gone against my conscience? Absolutely.
Could I have still drunk it? Maybe, but why would I after knowing what all happened? Sinning against your conscience cultivates a desensitization to how you will follow God. If you ignore your conscience on one thing in a gray area, what will prevent you from sinning against something in another area that isn't gray but black or white?
Sometimes, we may feel as though some stories in the Bible feel too fantastical or contextual for us to relate to. But the Bible isn't something we can copy and paste ourselves into in every instance. Instead, we learn what the text meant for its original audience and then contextualize it without losing its original meaning. We understand the Bible as a “living and active Word” that still matters for us (Heb. 4:12). Even though I knew the water had no spiritual power or authority, my conscience prevented me from feeling good about drinking it.
Why would I trade glorifying the Living Water for Liquid Death?
This is a situation that many Christians will find themselves in because we live in the world. We will be faced with many of the same principled problems our ancestors in the faith encountered. Even though we may live in the West instead of Rome, Ethiopia, or Samaria, we are not in such novel times that the Bible provides no usefulness. The next time you feel like you are in the midst of a Bible story, you can understand that God does give guidance in it, even if it’s sparkling water instead of temple meats.