A Clarification

I said something in my last post about Paul saying in the Bible that he would not even eat meat again if it caused someone to stumble.  I want to talk about that for a moment.  The context in which Paul said this was the place Corinth.  Paul was writing to believers in Corinth.  The problem was that many of the christians were buying meat at discounted prices that had been sacrificed to idols.  Undoubtably many people thought the value of the meat diminished or something.  But many of the christians had come out of a religion that sacrificed things to idols and therefore thought it was wrong to buy the meat.  So you had one group of christians that thought it was wrong to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols and another that thought it was ok.  If you would like to read about it, check out the book of 1 corinthians.  Anyway, Paul states that there is indeed nothing wrong with eating any kind of meat, but he said that the ones that thought it was ok to buy and eat the meat that had been sacrificed to idols should lay aside their right to do this for the sake of their brothers and sisters in Christ.  You see, even though there was nothing wrong with the act itself, if it caused someone else to stumble in their walk with Christ then the loving thing to do was give up the right.  The key ingredient is true love that holds a precious soul as more important than any right I have.  This is not to say that I should live my life as a mere people pleaser.  This is not that type of attitude.  A people-pleaser has as their god people, this attitude has as its God Christ.  

So how does this apply to smoking a cigar, drinking a beer, or buying on bag of chewing tobacco every four months.  The attitude of doing whatever possible to promote Christ being glorified in others has to be here too.  The fact is, here in the south especially many people think that all uses of tobacco and alcohol are sins.  I do not agree.  So here I am with a similar problem as that of the early church in Corinth.  So what should I do?  I think that I should lay aside what I think is ok, (and I truly do think that some of these things are ok) in order to not put an unnecessary stumbling block in people's way that may hinder their relationship with Christ.  I felt like I needed to elaborate a little more to make myself clear.  

Ryan