To Trick-or-Treat, or Not to Trick-or-Treat?
To Trick-or-Treat, or Not to Trick-or-Treat?
To trick-or-treat, or not to trick-or-treat? For Christians, that is the question each year as October 31 rolls around…
I think it’s in our nature, as humans, to just want a black-and-white rule. “Do this,” or “don’t do this.” And there are plenty of things about which Scripture gives us clear directions — specific things that, as Christians, we’re told we should or shouldn’t do.
But not every best practice in Christianity is a blanket rule, and unfortunately, there is no eleventh commandment that covers trick-or-treating. (Though, the way some Christians talk about Halloween, you’d almost think there must be.)
For every Bible verse someone can quote that demonstrates why Christians shouldn’t celebrate Halloween, someone else could find a different Bible verse that shows why we should.
So answering the question, “Is it okay for Christians to celebrate Halloween?” isn’t a matter of simply asking, “What does the Bible say about it?”
Both perspectives can be found in the Bible. And if your mind’s already made up about Halloween, and you go looking for Bible verses to support your stance, you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for. But you’ll probably also miss the heart of the text; and that matters as much, if not more.
The Bible may not address Halloween directly, but there is a passage in 1 Corinthians that talks about an issue that I think is similar enough that, from it, we might be able to glean some understanding as to whether or not it’s okay for us, as Christians in today’s culture, to participate in Halloween festivities…
To eat meat, or not to eat meat?
Christians in the Apostle Paul’s day had controversial issues of their own. Namely, the Christians in Corinth were at odds over whether or not it was okay for Jesus’ followers to buy and eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Some said it was fine. Others were aghast that their fellow Christians would ever do something like that!
It was such a controversial issue within the church in Corinth that a lengthy chunk of Paul’s first letter to their church was spent addressing the matter. This is what Paul had to say:
1 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
2 But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know.
3 But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him.
4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
5 For though there are things that are called “gods”, whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many “gods” and many “lords”;
6 yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.
7 However, that knowledge isn’t in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
8 But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don’t eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better.
9 But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak.
10 For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol’s temple, won’t his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols?
11 And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died.
12 Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
13 Therefore if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble.
- 1 Corinthians 8 (WEB)
My initial take-away reading this passage was that, if it’s controversial, it’s better to just abstain. And I think that’s how a lot of people interpret this passage. (I also think it’s how a lot of Christians deal with Halloween.)
But then I read it again… and again…
And the more I read this passage, the more clearly I saw what Paul was really getting at. The context of the passage mattered, and that was the part I’d been missing. Who Paul was talking to mattered — where they lived, and what their culture believed.
It was less about the issue — eating meat sacrificed to idols — and more about the people, and how it would affect them personally.
Because Corinth was an idol-centric community. Before there were Christ-followers in Corinth, there were idol-worshipers. And so, while some of the Christians in Corinth fully understood that the gods they’d turned away from to follow Jesus weren’t real, others hadn’t quite figured it out yet.
So while some of the Corinthian Christian felt completely fine buying meat that had been sacrificed to false gods — because it was good meat, and maybe they got it for a better price — other new (or potential) converts were misunderstanding their behavior, and believing that they were worshiping both the true God of Christianity and the false gods of their people.
And because of these misunderstandings, some of these newer Christians (or as Paul referred to them, “weaker Christians”) who’d observed their fellow Christians “worshiping false gods” (even though that wasn’t what they were actually doing) were falling back into their old patterns of sinful behavior by genuinely worshiping their old gods.
The purchasing of meat sacrificed to idols by Christians who saw the meat for all it really was — meat — was unintentionally causing some of their fellow Christians (the ones who didn’t understand yet) to think that worshiping other gods was okay. And the Christians causing this confusion didn’t care, because they had the right to eat whatever they wanted to eat.
And that was the problem. That was their sin — not caring about others.
So how does this apply to you and me, and to the question of our day: Is it okay for a Christian to celebrate Halloween?
To trick-or-treat, or not to trick-or-treat?
What was true for the Corinthians in Paul’s day is still true for you and me as well: That our context matters. Our culture matters. The people in each of our spheres of influence — their understanding, and their level of vulnerability — matter.
If you live in Salem, Massachusetts, for example, which today boasts one of the largest Wiccan populations in the United States, there’s a strong likelihood that some of your neighbors identify as practicing witches. For this reason, there’s probably a lot more room for your participation in Halloween festivities to be misunderstood…
And if the people in your community will likely misunderstand your participation in Halloween festivities as alignment with pagan or Wiccan beliefs, and your friends, family, or neighbors might be led by your example (misunderstood or not) to practice witchcraft or to participate in pagan rituals — then based on 1 Corinthians 8, you should abstain.
The majority of us, however, probably live in communities where, when people talk about witches, they’re generally referring to fantastic magical characters from stories like Harry Potter or The Wizard of Oz. And in these communities, the likelihood that we’ll inadvertently lead our friends, family, or neighbors into witchcraft or paganism by dressing up in costumes, carving pumpkins, or handing out candy to children is relatively low…
So for most of us — unless we have a personal conviction from God (and I’ll speak more to that in a moment) — based on 1 Corinthians 8, we’re probably okay celebrating Halloween in the commercial sense of the holiday. Because we understand that there is no other god than the one true God, and that nothing is really holy except what God calls holy.
Just as meat sacrificed to idols was still just meat, in truth…
Halloween is nothing more than a date on a calendar;
pumpkins with faces carved into them are nothing more than a fun activity;
costumes are just costumes;
and candy is just candy.
Personal convictions from God
I did say I would address this later, so let me do so here…
The Holy Spirit doesn’t convict all of us uniformly. There is such a thing as a personal conviction from God.
(This is not to be confused with our own personal convictions, by the way. A conviction is simply something about which someone is convinced, and the Holy Spirit is not the source of all human convictions. Some convictions are just plain old us convictions. But we’ll talk about that more another day.)
In my personal walk with God, there are some things that He might ask me not to do — things that He might not ask of everyone else.
The same goes for you, if you are a follower of Jesus. Some things that God might ask you to do (or not to do) are just for you.
And this isn’t because He wants or needs you or me to pass on His “instructions” to the rest of His people. It’s because each of us has a personal relationship with Him, and within those personal relationships, there are personal asks — things God requires of just us.
So if you have a personal conviction from God that you should abstain from celebrating Halloween, then you should abstain, regardless of your context or culture or sphere of influence.
Love over law
We like having rules, because they make it easier for us to keep track of how well we’re doing (or how poorly everyone else is doing).
But Jesus said there are two things that matter most. The first is how much we love God, and the second is how well we love other people. He said that, when we focus on accomplishing these two things, all those other things you and I should be doing will get done automatically (Matthew 22:34-40).
So rather than asking if it’s okay for Christians to celebrate Halloween, maybe you and I should ask ourselves this question instead: Will celebrating Halloween bring me closer to the people God’s placed in my life without leading them (or me) further away from God?
The answer to this question will be unique to each of us, depending on our context, culture, sphere of influence, and personal convictions from God. But if we ask God to give us wisdom and guidance, I believe He will lead each of us down the right path — the best path — the most loving path.
Let me leave you with one final thought:
If most others Christians in your community or your circle are going to be out trick-or-treating this Halloween, don’t get confused and think you’re somehow more faithful or more righteous than everyone else if you choose to stay home with your porch light turned off.
But if your choice — be it trick-or-treating, or not trick-or-treating — is based on doing whatever allows you to love the people God has placed in your life best, then however you choose to spend October 31 will be the most faithful, righteous choice you can make.
For those of you who read to the end, here (below) is a little Halloween treat just for you! This is a photo of my older sister, Mandy, and me, circa 1993. (Weren’t we adorable?)
This was the last time my family celebrated Halloween during my childhood, after which, most everyone in our then-church community began judging everyone else for celebrating “Satan’s holiday.” So we stopped going trick-or-treating, if for no other reason, because stopping was easier than being judged by other Christians.
But the candy was good. The costumes were better. And that Halloween night, as a family, we had the time of our lives! (And none of us turned into devil-worshipers, nor did we accidentally convince anyone else to join a cult, just to be clear.)
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