While reading Revelation this morning, I was struck by something…when the churches are being called to correct something, they are all called to correct their ACTIONS, not their heart or beliefs, and if they don’t correct their actions, they will have their lampstands removed etc. This seems to fly in the face of grace through faith and I would love to have it explained.
And even more specifically the “eating meats sacrificed to idols”. Peter was told not to call unclean what the Lord had called clean, and was told to “kill and eat”. Paul seems to say in 1Cor 8 that eating meat from idols is no big deal. Is there anything equivalent to meat sacrificed to idols in the US that we should avoid?
If you read carefully, you’ll see that everything the Lord warned them about had to do with religious works or pagan practices they added to their worship instead of relying on faith alone. He warned them to overcome the human tendency to add works to faith, because if they didn’t it would destroy them.
The two passages you cited tell us that the phrase about eating meat sacrificed to idols is symbolic. It actually refers to paying homage to false gods. The most frequent modern equivalent is taking credit for our own successes, when what we’ve really done is use abilities God gave us to take advantage of opportunities He provided. (Deut 8:18 & Romans 8:28)
For more detail on who the overcomers of Rev. 2-3 are and what they do, click here.