Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals
Thursday August 27 2026
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2 Peter 3:18-but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
If a person is baptized into Christ believing that it is a sin to eat in a church building, does that mean that God has rejected their baptism?
Strange as it may sound, this is a question that I have been asked before. Some years back, I worked with a family who were absolutely convinced that it is a terrible sin to eat in a church building. Their reasoning proceeded from what the Apostle Paul wrote to our brothers and sisters at Corinth.
1 Corinthians 11:22-What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.
It was their belief that, in this passage, Paul was condemning Christians who ate and drank in a church building.
Of course, that wasn’t what Paul was doing here.
In the first century, the Christians often had a fellowship meal after their worship services together. Thus, they ate the Lord’s Supper in worship (1 Corinthians 10:16-17; Acts 20:7), and then they also partook of the “love feast” afterwards, inviting their non-Christian friends and neighbors to join them (cf. Jude 12). At Corinth, the Christians were mixing together the Lord’s Supper and the love feast, which was a sinful thing to do. Indeed, Paul is condemning Christians who turn an act of worship (the Lord’s Supper) into a common meal, and who then further compound that offense by neglecting the poor and needy in the congregation while serving food to the rich and powerful!
Paul wasn’t condemning eating in a church building.
When this man and his wife learned that, they were both relieved.
And they were also horrified.
You see, their belief was that a person who misunderstood anything at the time of their baptism was rejected by God.
As such, they had another question:
“Brother Mark, do we need to be rebaptized now?”
I told them “No.”
Why?
Let’s study.
First, knowledge of Scripture is something that we grow in as disciples of Christ. Peter made that clear (2 Peter 3:18), and so do several other passages of Scripture in the New Testament. Knowledge is not something that “we have” and then, that’s it. Instead, we are diligent to show ourselves approved unto God by rightly dividing His Word (2 Timothy 2:15). Furthermore, the Bible teaches that we will continue to learn throughout eternity itself (Ephesians 1:1-7)!
Second, part of maturing as Christians is acknowledging that there are some things that we may have misunderstood on our journey. Yet misunderstandings do not automatically somehow invalidate our baptism and salvation. In fact, most of the baptism passages in the New Testament are written to baptized believers who had misunderstood some very important facts-sometimes even about baptism itself-and are still acknowledged as saved Christians!
Think about it.
Nearly all of Paul’s Epistles are written to brethren who had either misunderstood or been deceived by those who advocated Judaism or Gnosticism. They had been misled, which sometimes resulted in the Christians living in lifestyles and practices that were contrary to God’s Word and needed to be repented of.
Despite their misunderstandings and sins, how did Paul address these brethren?
Romans 1:7-8-To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
1 Corinthians 1:2-To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
Galatians 1:2….the churches of Galatia
Ephesians 1:1…To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus:
Philippians 1:1….To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
Colossians 1:2-To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-4-We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, 3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father, 4 knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God.
Paul corrected misunderstandings among all of these brethren, and some of those were pretty serious. Nevertheless, their misunderstandings did not take away from their status as saved Christians who had been baptized into Christ.
Third, when we come to learn that we have misunderstood something, we patiently and carefully study it. If it turns out that we have misunderstood something-even something important-then we grow with that new knowledge and understanding.
Fourth, it is important to realize that a disagreement with a brother on a subject-even something important-means that either you or your brother are somehow lost. It may just mean that you have understand something differently, and that you are both sincere and still studying on said topic.
Case in point: eating in the church building.
Our brethren that I mentioned at the beginning of this article were no longer persuaded that eating in a church building would lead them to Hell, yet it remained their desire not to eat in that church house.
That was cool: they were following their conscience.
What impressed me, however, was that they did not try to force their newfound understanding on others. They did not go back to their brothers and sisters who believed in the “no eating in a church building” doctrine and tell them they were bound for Hell. These faithful followers of the Lord had learned that Christians of good conscience can sometimes disagree, and this does not mean they have to be disagreeable and condemn one another to perdition.
We need to strive to have that level of grace with each other as well.
Romans 15:1-2-We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.
May the Lord help each of us to always treat one another with grace and humility.
Guide us, Lord. Amen.