Eating with your eyes wide open

Lily Cathcart July 06, 2026 4 1

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1 Corinthians 10: 14-33 (NIV-UK)

14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.

18 Consider the people of Israel: do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

23 ‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say – but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’– but not everything is constructive. 24 No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.

25 Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for, ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.’

27 If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, ‘This has been offered in sacrifice,’ then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. 29 I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience? 30 If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?

31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God – 33 even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

For the last couple of years my daughter and I have been growing potatoes and carrots in the garden. We grow them in pots and sacks and it’s by no means a huge amount but I wanted her to know where food comes from; to know that somebody has to plant it, and water it, and pick it.

I feel like it’s harder and harder to know where my food comes from, it’s streamlined, packaged and glossed over in more ways than I even realise. Presented by people earning money, behind enormous corporations, that are bigger than I can imagine.

The longer I think about it the more I am certain that there are real people somewhere in each of these food chains who are being abused, underpaid, overworked and that the corporations don’t want me to know about it. Are these the things my food has been sacrificed to? After reading our verses today from 1 Corinthians 10 I wonder… can I eat from the pain of others and still eat at the Lord’s table?

There are foods whose origins I can trace, open and honest, smaller businesses, families, local sellers. I buy from them when I can. I know I am simply a cog in the machine of commerce but I plan on being a noisy cog until such a time as the machine and the corporations starts changing.

Prayer:

God whose heart is for all the earth, help us to find an honest way forward in this world of big names and small people.

Give each one of your people — no matter how big or small — a burning heart for fairness in our food. 

Give us a way to find the truth, root out the demons in the machine and set our spirits free to eat with you again.

Amen