FASTING = SELF-LIMITATION, ABSTINENCE, OBEDIENCE, SELFLESSNESS = FAITH & WORKS

January 11, 2008

#17

FrAthanasios wrote:

drevyev wrote:

Another thing is that Paul writes that one should fast in case eating meat would scandalize a brother. This is for priests and laymen. Not fasting would show a lack of love. Priests have the position of perhaps being able to scandalize people more easily. In this case, they have to be especially careful that they do not use their freedom to scandalize others. Priests are more bound to fast because they have the greatest ability to hurt their weaker brother.

Excellent point, but we should also be careful because that perspective might tend toward us vs them etc which is also not appropriate. I agree with the premise though.

I think that Paul is specifically working against an us-vs-them mentality. If everyone followed his paradigm, you couldn\'t tell who was the weaker brother. The weaker brother would fast because he needed to, while the stronger brother would fast so as not to scandalize the weaker brother. The latter would not be doing so because he was superior--God forbid. He would simply be carrying out the commandment to serve the brethren.

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