Transcription
[Music] The Lord be with you.
If you have a Bible, and I hope you or someone around you does, would you turn with me? We are going to be looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 8 this morning. And Lord willing, we will be working through the entire chapter, which is only 13 verses where I know we spent several weeks working through the previous chapter in in chapter 7.
But what we find Paul doing in this letter is he is addressing the Corinthians. That is, these are Christians that are in a church in the city of Corinth. And as many are aware, uh, Corinth is a city that has so many different people that are passing through it. And with so many different people coming in and out of the city, there's these different philosophies. There's these different um, schools of thought and different um, practices. And and what we see is that the city itself is starting to infiltrate the church, that its culture is starting to affect the way that the church functions.
And so because of that, what Paul has been doing is he's been writing to the Corinthians and addressing a number of issues that are going on in the church because with the city um impacting influencing them, we see that there's divisions going on. We see that they're competing with one another and that they're they're saying, "I'm more valuable than this Christian because I follow this individual." We also see that there's this ongoing issue of incest and and adultery that is rampant within the church. There's a man who is with his father's wife in the church and the church rather than dealing with the issue is boasting that we are an affirming and an accepting church that that we we even have this person who is very comfortable living in this specific sin. And so we see that being an issue. We see that there were lawsuits going on literally brothers and sisters probably sitting right next to each other in the church body and one of them is suing the other. So many different issues.
And so Paul is constantly addressing these and reminding them back about who they're or where their identity is found. And their identity is found in Jesus Christ in the gospel. And so he's wanting them to become a gospel culture rather than the culture of the city.
And then when we get to chapter 7, what he does now is he starts to address specific questions that the Corinthians have because they've actually been writing to him and they've actually been have an ongoing dialogue about some of these issues and some of their questions. And so in chapter 7, he even says, "Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me." And so what they start to do is they were asking questions about life, about calling, and really specifically about whether it was good to marry or to stay single and how does our sexual ethic relate to Christianity.
And so he's he spent a lot of time um nuancing the differences between the extremes that were going on in in in Corinth. Um, there's the aesthetic lifestyle where they were basically denying all um of these good things that come with marriage and they're saying that basically it's all kind of bad. And then you have the other extreme where they're saying embrace all things. All things are good. All things are lawful for me. And Paul basically uses that slogan to say, "Though all things are lawful, not all things are helpful. Not all things are good or wise. And some things can actually master and enslave you if you aren't careful."
And so he's been kind of giving them this context for marriage and singleness. And what he actually explains to them is that both of these are gifts from God. Both of these are gifts. You are gifted with marriage or you are gifted with singleness. And we as Christians ultimately shouldn't be overly concerned about whether we're married or single and if that makes us more valuable or less valuable in our societies because ultimately our identity once again is in Christ. These are gifts. He is the giver. And so he's once again pointing them back to Christ and finding contentment in him rather than the culture, rather than our circumstances.
And then as we walk in this calling, we are to have an eternal mindset and recognize that our ultimate aim in whatever lot in life you have, whatever your calling is, whether married, single, whether slave, whether free, whether Jew, rather, whether you're gentile, your aim is to please the Lord in everything. Every morning that you wake up, how may I please the Lord? How can I give him glory and honor?
Well, now he's moved to chap or chapter eight. He's going to address another issue. Now, but if you just think of the very last part of chapter 7 as our aim is to please the Lord. Think of it this way. Now, the way that we can please him is by taking care of one another. So, chapter 8 is going to address an issue of how we please the Lord by pleasing one another, taking care of one another.
Because in chapter 8, what Paul addresses is an issue and you can actually even see this in in verse one where it says, "Now concerning the things offered to idols." Now, what's going on here is that Paul has been asked about certain Christians in Corenth that are eating these meats that have been sacrificed to idols in some of the pagan temples there in the city. And there are some Christians who were thinking, "Well, it's fine. We know that idols are nothing. That idols are not really gods, that they're just man-made statues, carved images, and that they literally can fall down and then the people have to pick them back up just to put them up. These are not real gods. And so, some of them are saying, 'I can eat it.'" And in fact, some of the argument may have been it's even prudent because in the temple there were these meats that were being or these animals that would be sacrificed and then the meat in the temple would actually be cheaper or less expensive than the meat that would be in the marketplaces. Those would be hiked up. But this would kind of be like a, you know, a secondhand meat. And so some Christians were thinking we can get it cheaper here. And so why not? We know that we know there's one true God. We know Jesus is Lord. And so yeah, we're going to just be wise and we're going to save some money here.
But there were some others that were being scandalized. Now, some think this may be because they were Jewish. I think it's actually more likely that these were Gentiles who were in pagan roots and worshiping some of these idols in the past. And now what they're doing is they're they've come out of it and they know what that lifestyle was like, but they're seeing these Christians now going to these temples and eating this meat sacrificed to idols or they see that they're going to a house of some pagans and they are offering that same meat that was at the temple. And so they are scandalized and they're thinking you guys are basically worshiping those idols by doing that. And so you have two groups where one's saying, "Hey, we're free to do this." And the other one's thinking you guys might be committing idolatry. And then some of them because they've been invited with them whenever they go to these houses or maybe they they're like, "Hey, I'm at this temple. Are you going to come with me?" Then they end up going and now they actually are wounding their own conscience. They're defiling their conscience because they think that now what they're doing is disobeying Christ as they're doing it. And so that's what Paul starts to address in this chapter.
Now, I know as we're thinking about meat sacrificed to idols, you're like, "What does that have to do with American Christians where we can get our food, you know, you can get Walmart to deliver your food or or whatever we can do today. You can get food sources all all different types of places. You might even grow your own food in maybe in one of your gardens, right?" But what I think we find here is though it might seem a little, you know, out there in in application, I think it actually really speaks to the root of what we are called to do as Christians. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. And I think what this passage talks about is how we are to do that second piece. How we are to love our neighbor or more even specifically how we are to be our brothers and our sisters keepers. We must care for our brothers and sisters and we must make sure that we are taking care of their needs and putting their needs above our own preferences at time and specifically how we then as Christians are to act in a world that is immersed in paganism.
Now, of course, we might not have the temples as as often or as as prevalent in in our community, but we still know that there's paganism all around. It's just takes a slightly different face to it. Just puts on a little bit of makeup for the new, you know, paganism of the day, but basically, it's the same spirit all throughout um throughout history. And so I think that's what Paul is addressing here is he's showing us how to be our brothers and our sisters keepers and to live in a world that is immersed with paganism.
And so in verses 1 to 3 I think what Paul specifically does is he reminds us that love and knowledge must go together. In verse one once again he says, "Now concerning things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies." Now, what Paul, I think, is doing here, and some of your Bibles might even put um after the colon, if you have a colon in yours, on the punctuation there, like some quotation marks, maybe. Some of your Bibles might even have that. What Paul is most likely doing here is quoting another slogan that the Corinthians have been saying because earlier, remember, he said, "All things are lawful for me." He was actually using their slogan, all things are lawful. And then he would qualify it, but not all things are helpful. Well, it seems here that many of the Corinthians were saying, "We know that we all have knowledge." So, once again, kind of boasting in their their intelligence, the fact that they have all of this wisdom of the world, these different philosophies, and what they're saying is we all know, once again, going back to we know that our God is the one true God, and everybody in our church should know that already. And so we don't need to be caring about what some other Christians say about us going and and partaking of this um this certain food item.
And but what Paul then does is he he uses their slogan and then he says, "Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies." And what I think Paul is doing here is he is reminding them that though knowledge is not a bad thing. He says that knowledge, and I think what he actually means here specifically is not anti-knowledge, but but knowledge alone puffs up. If you have a lot of knowledge, but you don't have a heart for people or for God, all it does is it just expands you. You know, have you ever been like um it's it's like whenever you um you just keep eating and keep eating and keep eating, but you never actually like work it out or apply it. You just stay sitting and eating, right? You're not going to work off the things that you're eating. It's kind of like that. you just get bigger and you get more and more puffed up. But but knowledge builds up or love and knowledge build up. And so what we see here and he actually uses the word edify which which literally means to build, right? Or to strengthen to encourage. And so what he's doing here is he's saying that if you just have knowledge but you don't work it out in love, you're going to get puffed up. But if you do both, if you have good knowledge and you work it out in love, you will actually build something great and beautiful. And so he's kind of wanting us to see that you can't just have one without the other. Knowledge and love, they must go together.
And I know many of us have heard some quotes like this before, but you've probably, you know, the thought process of the more you know, the more you realize you don't. I know that for me as I've had the opportunity to study the scriptures and to just to be more aware of all of the different worldviews and different denominational lenses and different perspectives even as I work through a book like this that I am just so aware of how many things I do not know. And so really as we gain more knowledge it really shouldn't puff us up. If anything it should make you feel smaller. the more knowledge I have, the more I'm just like, even whenever I preach that, I'm like, I didn't say it as well. Maybe they didn't catch it, but I know that I miss so many things on on nuancing or giving that that clarity because I've heard someone do it way better than me, right? And so, I know that that knowledge actually it shows you how much you don't know rather than saying, "I have all of this knowledge." But the Corinthians were boasting in their knowledge.
Once again, likewise, there's this beautiful quote that I've heard that says, "Truth without love is brutality. Love without truth is hypocrisy." And I think that's a perfect way to think about love and truth. Because if you just give someone the blunt truth, but there's no love, there's no compassion, you are going to destroy that person. Imagine if that's how God treated us. If all he did was tell you the truth, but he didn't show you any gentleness, any grace, we would all be obliterated if he just started to list every single thing that's wrong with us, every single thing we have ever done because he would have the right to do that. And he knows everything, even the things we don't always recognize that we have done wrong or that we how we have fallen short. He does know. But imagine if he did that with no gentleness, no grace, no mercy. But he gives us, of course, we know both. He speaks the truth in love to us.
But on the flip side, if you just want to love someone, say, "I just I just love them. I I just want to be kind or really it's more nice to them, that niceness in our culture, but you won't ever speak truth." That's hypocrisy. Because you can't truly love someone if you don't tell them the truth. You will gently guide them to destruction. And so once again, we see both of these pillars being essential. And in fact, I think about the greatest commandment, Mark 12:30, where Jesus is saying the greatest commandment. One of the things he says is that you shall love the Lord your God with all your mind. You notice that? So we have love, but we also love with our minds. So once again, Paul is not contradicting Jesus here. We see that both of these things must come together. We actually must utilize our minds, utilize the knowledge that we receive to give God glory and to love and serve others.
Because here's the thing, as we actively practice this, we know that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. I'm sure many people have heard that quotation before as well because I could have all the right answers for you, but if you don't trust me and if you don't think that I love you or respect you or if I haven't gotten to really hear your story, even if I have all of the answers, all of the knowledge, you're not going to take the time to listen. So, just from a practical standpoint, if you just want to be efficient and productive, you have to take time with people. And sometimes it's not always about just giving the answer. Sometimes it's about being present with the person. And so we really need to have both of these things as we seek to relate to one another.
And so really I think Paul is showing us how head knowledge must always move to heart knowledge. And it's really interesting the play on words that he uses in verses 2 to three because he says, "And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him." See how he uses love for God and being known by him. He's using that love and know kind of tension and connection. And see how they they really are tightly woven here. He's saying that though you might have true or rather you might have knowledge, he's saying that true knowledge will result in a true knowledge of God. And so if your knowledge isn't ultimately leading you to a knowledge and an understanding and encounter of God, then there's a problem with your knowledge.
In fact, those who are reading the the Bible plan right now, we're in Proverbs. Proverbs 1:7 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." Now, some people are going to say that's wisdom because there are verses that say beginning of wisdom as well. But in verse seven of chapter one, it says the be the fear of the Lord. That is a reverential relationship, a love, a desire, a a a a holy understanding of God of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So it's how we cultivate true knowledge is is our relationship and how we relate and love and know the Lord. But then what it goes on and says that but if anyone loves God, this one is known by him. So if you are demonstrating your knowledge and loving the Lord with your mind, then that is actually evidence that you are known by him and that knowledge that God has for us is also a loving knowledge. And so you see once again it's really interesting. So if you love God with your knowledge, then you can have confidence that he knows you personally.
So he is showing us what I think 1 John 4:1 19-21 is saying. "We love him because he first loved us. If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him that he who loves God must love his brother also." So we see how tightly connected the first and the second commandment are to applying our knowledge through love. And that is evidence that God knows us and loved us first. And so we see how love and knowledge must clearly go together.
And so he sets up the stage for us then and how we practically apply this when it comes to the issue of these rights that they were claiming to have in the church. Which leads to verses 4 to 9. And I think what Paul starts to clearly develop for us is that love limits our liberty.
See, Paul is not afraid to discuss and explain that we as Christians really do have freedom in Christ. You really do have real rights, real freedoms in Christ. And sometimes we as Christians can be uncomfortable with having so much freedom. And if you were a Jewish Christian at the day, it would have been even harder because they were so tightly bound to 613 laws, commandments. And now he's saying that all things are clean to eat. He's saying don't have scruples over holy days, whether Sabbaths or different things like that. He starts to open and give you more and more freedom. And I once again I think sometimes we don't always appreciate the freedom that we have in Christ. But I know that there are some that are more uncomfortable with freedom about being allowed actually to eat certain things, drink certain things. Maybe you might not like it, but you also don't like other people to do it. Or it could be once again certain holidays. I know there's some debate on how are we to engage with like certain holidays like Halloween or certain things like that. Um, we we can think about um places that you may go like I don't think you should go there because there are people that are doing X Y and Z over there. So many different ways that we can see this practically play out in our own lives. Even entertainment. I wouldn't watch this or you shouldn't watch that or oh, I'm not going to have that streaming service anymore because that person or that owner did this. You've probably heard conversations like that.
But here's the thing, the Bible is clear. We really do have liberty. We have freedom. Once again, liberty is not a license to sin. And we've teased that out very specifically, and we'll talk even a little bit more about that. And so there are still guard rails even as we're talking about these areas. I mean obviously we need to be clear on that. But we do really have freedom and we are to praise God and rejoice in Christ for our liberty in Jesus Christ. Liberty in Christ does not mean you can't do anything. That's not liberty. We truly are free in Jesus and we can enjoy our freedoms.
But there is a very important caveat here and that's what Paul is driving at. The good of others should always govern what we do with our freedom. Every you are free. But the way that you exercise true freedom is through love. You consider the good of others. And that is then how you exercise your freedom. And we actually see Paul says this in Galatians 5:13. "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." I think that just just perfectly summarizes his point is that we really have liberty, but it's not an opportunity for the flesh, for sin, for selfish ambition or desire. And likewise, the way that we exercise it perfectly is through love and serving one another. we take other people in account when we make our decisions because the Corinthians what they were saying is they were justifying they were justifying that they have rights they have privileges and I think it's really interesting too because I know that we as Americans we like our rights right we are really passionate about our rights and I'm not by any means opposed to the rights that we have I'm very thankful for the rights that we have here but you know we're about to celebrate the the the fourth of July coming up and we're going to be thinking about independence. We're going to be thinking about rights and freedom, right? But the thing is what they were doing is they were saying I can do it and so I'm going to rather than should I do it. There is a big difference between can and should. And we would be better and wise to discern the difference. There are things that you can do in Christ but probably should not do for the love of others given the specific context because I'm I know many of us are aware of this but culture what we live in what they were living in is the result of many individuals exercising their personal rights. The culture that we live in is a result of all of the individual choices we make. So we think well it's my personal rights. My personal decisions. It doesn't matter if they don't like it because it's it's my right, right? Tough for them. But the thing is, if if that's how we all start to relate and live and think about our rights and other people's preferences and rights, then you start to get a very chaotic culture where people don't serve one another, don't care for one another, aren't gentle with one another, aren't prioritizing both love and truth. And so what we see is that that our culture is going to be shaped by the way that we respond to this message. And so I think we need to have that important conversation with ourselves that we need to do what we should do rather than what we can do.
And so love then informs how we are to engage with our culture. And I've used the three Rs before as a way to practically think of how are we to engage with these controversial things in culture or maybe not even necessarily controversial but things in culture like because we know paganism is rampant. There are a lot of non-Christian people and things out in our world. How do we as the church approach these things in love? Well, you can either receive, reject, or redeem. There are some things in culture that are going to be completely fine. Like I would say if you wanted to go out and have lunch later at a restaurant, I think that that is perfectly fine. I don't think you are in sin for going to eat with your church family after the service. There are some things that you just have to reject. Anything that goes against God's word. Anything that is sinful, you must reject. But then there are other things that you can redeem. things that might have flaws in them, some things that might have some um some weird or or sticky origins to them, but might have some general truth to them that you can kind of cut off the dead and the the wicked parts and just cling to what is good, what is true. And this takes a little bit more nuancing. And this is where some Christians can differ a little bit more on on how it may work. But I would say that there are certain things and and some people aren't even familiar with this, but even like pulpits, they come from pagan sources, but I think that they can be used for God's glory. See, this is redeemed. In fact, many hymns that many of us love come from bar tunes. Now, some of us would not ever get get caught dead in a bar, but many of the hymns we love come from bars in the past. See, it's redeemed. We can utilize things. So, the the question is, can it be redeemed? And if it cannot be redeemed, that's when you know you have to reject it.
But there's one fourth R that I haven't talked about that I'm that I'm really wanting to lead into for this final thing on this point is that there's also respect. So you can receive things, you can reject things, you can redeem things, or you can also consider respect when looking and thinking about engaging certain things. And that is resp uh respect for our brothers and our sisters in Christ.
See, love defers to the consciousness um consciences of the weak. In Romans 14:21-23, Paul is saying something very similar. He says, "It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak." Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats because he does not eat from faith. For whatever is not from faith is sin." So now what he's saying is that that you have to be careful with what you approve of and that you could be careful because you might cause your brother to stumble. And that's what exactly what Paul says in first Corinthians. You could be a stumbling block to your brother or your sister who is weak in conscience. And it's important that Christians are developing their conscience because Paul says here that if you do anything apart from faith, that means if you're doing something, they're like, "I'm not sure if I should be doing this." He says that in itself is sin. Even though the act itself might not be sinful, if you're doing it apart from faith, against your conscience, that is a sin. And so what Paul is doing here is he's saying that we need to make sure that we are building up our brothers and sisters in their consciences because some of them have weaker consciences. Some of these people came out of witchcraft. Some of these people came out of paganism. And so if they see you or if they're in that that surrounding, they feel like they're just going right back to that world. And that's why there's some people I wouldn't encourage you, you know, that maybe um that that have dealt with alcoholism or something like that. There's certain surroundings that you probably should never go to ever again. And you have to be really mindful of who you are surrounding yourself with or what places you are are going to. And so likewise, we have to build our consciences because our conscience though our conscience is not the law of God, it is our internal court that testifies to us whether we are living out God's law or not. So that internal court as a Christian, it's important that you build that up and start to learn to be able to trust that God gave you a conscience for a reason. The Bible talks so much about having a conscience and making sure that you protect it, that it wouldn't be seared or defiled or wounded or weakened. And so we if we have brothers or sisters who are new in the faith and they're still kind of struggling with something here, you need to defer to them because you want them to be able to trust that because they need to know I got to trust my conscience of what is right and what is wrong as I'm trying to discern the spirit's wisdom and the word of God. I have to be able to trust that. And so now that doesn't mean that you don't continue to guide them and teach them. And and that's actually what Paul is doing here as well is saying there really are these freedoms. You have to stretch yourself. But if you're not there yet, don't go. Don't partake. And if you're a Christian that's that that is strong in faith here, don't put that pressure on your brother. Don't put them in a situation where they are uncomfortable. And so we must be careful not to become a stumbling block for others.
But there's one very important caveat once again for this is this is not talking about moralistic people who have strong preferences. Because there are some people who do not struggle with possibly leaving the faith or compromising in sin, but they don't like what you are doing in your liberty. And so they are very adamant about telling you. That does not mean that you have to just submit to them every single time. Because you know what happens? You have the tyranny of those brothers and sisters in your church because then every single time someone comes in and says, "I don't like that the women are wearing these clothing or these items." Well, we don't want to hurt their their their conviction. So, every single woman now has to listen to that guy and and wear what he says. Or this person says, "I don't like any of this um these singers that you have on the stage. I think that they all need to be on the ground level. It makes me uncomfortable." Okay. Well, everyone's got to get on the ground level. I think that you know what the sermon is sinful if it goes past 20 minutes. Well, now sermon has to be 20 m. You know, fill in the blank of any preference, any conviction. And they can be really extreme. They can be more more um simple. But the point is this is not about you just are a moralistic um person that has strong preferences about something we just have to cater to every single because you could never have worship. You could never have church. This is about those we are trying to protect that may fall into sin or that may give up the faith. That is the concern here. Not moralistic people.
And this leads to the final thing. The reason that we must be willing to limit our li liberties in love is because love became a slave so you could be free. Love is a person. The reason that we really do have freedom is because one person sacrificed his freedom. He did not cling to his rights. He did not cling to his freedom and say, "Well, I have heaven. I can do whatever I want. I am Lord of Lords. I reign supreme. You all, you're stuck in your stuff. Tough luck." That's not our Lord. That's not love. We know that Christ laid down his rights for us. love became a slave.
In Philippians 2:6-8 it says, "Who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." See, Jesus relinquished his rights to heaven, to his majesty. He became a slave. He washed feet. He suffered. And he died because he loves you. Because he loves this world. And so if we want to follow in his footsteps, if we want to have his love shape our lives and shape our love, his love and sacrifice should show us how we are to love and sacrifice. do not be clinging to these secondary issues, these these secondary things that that cause division in the church, but rather say, "How can I love and serve and sacrifice for my brothers and sisters so that we can cultivate unity and holiness in our communities?" That's the goal. Because once again, Christ gave it all. Are we really going to cling to sacrificed meats? Are we really going to risk someone that Jesus died for? He died for these individuals. Would we ever want to risk causing them to stumble? He came all the way from heaven for us. We can sacrifice. We can limit our liberties at times that we wouldn't even have if he did not give up his liberty. So Christ laid down everything for us. Let us lay down our rights for others.
Let us pray. Father, we love you. We thank you so much for this time to gather in your house. And Lord, I pray that we would take this message to heart and recognize how clearly relevant this is for us. That there are so many things that we have different preferences, convictions on. Lord, I pray that we would be careful to protect our consciences, that we would guide them and inform them by your word and by your spirit, but also Lord, that as we gain knowledge, we would not do it at the sacrifice of love. That we would keep love and truth tightly to our lives. And Lord, that we would utilize our love to limit our freedom, our liberties at times for others, for their best interest. that we would defer to them because you deferred to us because Christ willingly gave himself for us, became a slave so we could truly be free. So let us walk in freedom and love. Lord, we love you. We give you praise in Jesus name. Amen.
Would you all please stand for our final invitation song? The altar is open. If you'd like to pray with one of