Rich enjoys teaching the middle...
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Rich enjoys teaching the middle-school-age Sunday school class each Sunday. The students are able to identify with Rich who is not that much older than they are. At an age when most youth began to lose interest in church, Rich's students can hardly wait for Sunday school. Many parents have asked Rich what he does to keep their children so interested. "Whatever it is," they would tell him, "keep doing it." One Sunday evening a month Rich holds an activity for his class.
In the Sunday school class Rich covers subjects that are relevant to his students, including peer pressure, cheating on tests, as well as boy and girlfriend issues in addition to their Bible lessons. The students are attentive and take the subject matter to heart.
One day after school Derek went to Rich's apartment and discovered that Rich was with his girlfriend in what was obviously a compromised position. Derek confronted Rich telling him that what he was doing was wrong, that's what he had taught the class. Rich tried to explain that what he and his girlfriend were doing was all right since they were adults. Derek did not understand, if that type of behavior was wrong for youth then why was it all right for adults? The high esteem that he held Rich in disappeared. Derek would expose Rich to his friends. It felt as if Rich had let his students down.
Paul cautions believers to be very careful that what they do does not negatively affect people new to the faith. The specific issue involved eating meat that was once offered to pagan idols. Since the believers no longer believed in idols they felt they were doing nothing wrong eating such meat. For new believers who watched as the members eat meat offered to idols might cause them to stumble in their faith walk. Paul adamantly wrote, "If food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall." If what we do causes another person to fall from faith we should stop the practice immediately.
In the Sunday school class Rich covers subjects that are relevant to his students, including peer pressure, cheating on tests, as well as boy and girlfriend issues in addition to their Bible lessons. The students are attentive and take the subject matter to heart.
One day after school Derek went to Rich's apartment and discovered that Rich was with his girlfriend in what was obviously a compromised position. Derek confronted Rich telling him that what he was doing was wrong, that's what he had taught the class. Rich tried to explain that what he and his girlfriend were doing was all right since they were adults. Derek did not understand, if that type of behavior was wrong for youth then why was it all right for adults? The high esteem that he held Rich in disappeared. Derek would expose Rich to his friends. It felt as if Rich had let his students down.
Paul cautions believers to be very careful that what they do does not negatively affect people new to the faith. The specific issue involved eating meat that was once offered to pagan idols. Since the believers no longer believed in idols they felt they were doing nothing wrong eating such meat. For new believers who watched as the members eat meat offered to idols might cause them to stumble in their faith walk. Paul adamantly wrote, "If food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall." If what we do causes another person to fall from faith we should stop the practice immediately.
