One of the concepts that was talked about in this chapter is being one with Christ in death so that you can be resurrected. I would like to expand on the concept of being one with Christ (or being Christlike) and also the concept of taking up your cross and dying every day (ultimately part of being Christlike).
To be Christlike is to conform in every manner to the ways of the Lord, but this can be a very interesting topic in the depth of society. There are very clear cut scenarios where one option would be Christlike and the other would not, but there are many areas where the decision is harder to make. One scenario I have in mind is this: you are a vegetarian, and you have new neighbors. Your neighbors invite you over for dinner (they are not Christians), and it turns out that this neighbor works for a steak distributor of the highest caliber. You show up to dinner and he has slaved all day to prepare the nicest stake you would ever have seen in your entire life without spending hundreds of dollars on one dinner. What do you do? Do you eat the steak? Do you politely decline?
This would be a very difficult scenario indeed, but let me tell you why you should, in fact, attempt to eat this steak.
You should eat the steak because we are called to be all things for all people (as long as they are morally right). If you wish to witness to the poor, become poor. If you wish to witness to a runner, become a runner...
The main reason why your vegetarian diet does not matter in the least is the comparison to the salvation of another. We are not told to be vegetarians in order to secure our salvation, so going back on that is not nearly as important as someone else's salvation. Also, as our professor said in class, if we are truly taking up our cross daily and dying with Christ, we are already dead. How can we be concerned about what we are eating if we are dead?
As C.S. Lewis said, die before death, or else it's too late (paraphrasing).
In Christ,
Ben
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