Love Edifies 1 Corinthians 8

Love Edifies 1 Corinthians 8 The big issue that brought about this matter in Paul s letter to the Corinthians is not much of an issue today, meat offered to idols, who cares about that? But it was a big deal in Paul s day. Sacrificing to the god s was part and parcel of life back then. In the public sacrifices some of the meat was burned, some given to the priests who served in the idol temples, some went to the town magistrates and officials and the rest was sold in the market at a reduced price. The problem with that was that the people back then believed that the gods could harm them if they weren t sufficiently appeased with the worshipper s offerings. They superstitiously believed that the god s could send an evil spirit into the meat offered to idols which was later sold at the markets, taken home and consumed. This evil spirit would then enter and possess the person who ate this meat. You can imagine that someone recently converted from paganism to Christianity might have real problems buying and eating this meat no matter how cheap it was. On the other hand the mature Christian who wasn t superstitious would think nothing of it. The whole thing was further complicated by the factions which lived in the Corinthian church. The Peter party would have most likely consisted of Jewish converts who wanted to implement the decision made at the council in Jerusalem (Acts 15:20) that the Gentile Christians not offend their Jewish counterparts and abstain from things contaminated by idols and abstain from eating meat not killed in the right way. Then there were those of the other faction. The Paul party most likely who thought that having such scruples about meat was completely unnecessary and that for outsiders to see them making a fuss about meat would be a poor witness and add just one more divisive issue into the church. So Paul found himself in dilemma. His letter was to strengthen and encourage the whole church and help everyone who called on the name of Jesus in Corinth to grow spiritually. So how would he settle the matter and what can we learn from his method in our own church and for our relationships with each other. Well Paul under inspiration of the Holy Spirit calls for freedom. Two kinds of freedom in fact. 1. The freedom we have in Christ. In verse 4 Paul wrote Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world and there is no God but one. He is reasserting the fact that there is only one God and that idol god s are mere figments of men s imaginations. In Isaiah 44 we read about the futility of idol worship. A man takes a tree cuts it down uses half for fuel the rest he fashions into an idol usually in the form of a man and then he falls down and worships this carved piece of wood. (paraphrased) 1

It seems ridiculous but there is more to it than that. There is a very sinister element to it. In the song Moses sang just before the Lord took him home Moses warned about the dangers of idolatry. In Deuteronomy 32:15 we read, Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. You are grown fat and sleek. Then he forsook God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation. They made him jealous with strange Gods. With abominations they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, to god s they have not known So while the so-called god s of pagan worship are not god s at all but merely man-made objects of worship, behind these idols are demonic spiritual forces. In 1 Corinthians 10:20 Paul wrote this: Is an idol anything? No but I say that the things which Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. Well these demons are not the same as the heathen idols their worshippers think them to be. To be involved in any kind of idolatry is to be wide open to Satan s influence whose motive is to destroy true faith by turning people away from Christ. We know that idolatry is not just an ancient phenomenon. Whoever does not worship God is guilty of idolatry. The first commandment teaches us that idolatry is having or inventing something that one trusts alongside or instead of the God of the Bible. That idol could be another person even a spouse. It could be an ideology such as atheism or materialism. It could be that someone places his trust in money, the scientists or the state rather than God. This is really what today s idolatry looks like and behind such idolatry is the influence of demons according to 1 Corinthians 10:20. So while idols are often figments of men s imaginations Paul was also aware of a very dark side to such idol worship. The remedy he says is to be found in worshipping the one true God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. All things exists through him. In him we live and move and have our being. He is the one who brings all things and creatures into being. And Jesus Christ is the bridge to God. He is the go-between. We can only come to the Father through the Son. It is through Jesus Christ that we can worship the one true God. Only Jesus makes us acceptable to God. What s more, by faith in Jesus we are free; free from condemnation under the law; free from Satan s accusations; free from the guilt of sin. No longer in slavery to immorality and sin that idol worship invariably promotes, but redeemed from that and free to serve the living God. And free from legalism. Look at verse 8. But food will not commend us to God we are neither the worse if we do not eat or the better if we do eat. For some to insist that all Christians abstain from eating food offered to idols would be going too far according to Paul. No doubt the rigorists would have liked that but for Paul that would have been a contradiction of the freedom we do have in Christ who once said (its recorded in Mark 7: 15) It is not what goes into a man that defiles him but what comes out of a man. Jesus said that to the Pharisees because they were putting tradition such as their own food laws over and above the commandments of God. Similarly in the Galatian church some were insisting on circumcision as necessary for salvation. Again Paul s response was It is for freedom that Christ has set us free therefore keep standing firm and don t be subject again to a yoke of slavery. 2

So that s the first thing when it comes to matters that do not arise out of the moral law, inconsequential matters, what you eat and drink, we do have great freedom in Christ, however and this leads me to the second thing: 2. Sometimes we need to restrict our freedom for the sake of Christ and a weaker brother and sister. So there were two groups at Corinth, the legalist who built fences within fences and said do not eat under any circumstances, and the others who said we know better we have the freedom to eat or drink. Paul s answer to both was knowledge puffs up love builds up. There were some who knew more than others in the Corinthian church. Some who understood the doctrine of God the doctrine of Christ and salvation more fully. Others had less of an understanding of these things as Paul states in verse 7 saying However not all men have this knowledge but some being accustomed to the idol until now eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled. So the stronger Christians had greater knowledge. Now what? Well an important point Paul makes here in this chapter is that knowledge on its own has certain limitations. Look at verse 2 If anyone supposes that he knows anything he has not known as he ought to know. So how can he know what he ought to know? What is that necessary ingredient which gives true knowledge? The answer is given in verse three. But if anyone loves God he is known by Him. The foundation of true knowledge is to be known by and to love God. Well how can we recognise someone who is known by God and who loves God? It s when we see the virtues given by God working in a person s life including love, grace, humility, truth and obedience but especially love. Listen to what Paul wrote further on in 1 Corinthians 13 on this subject. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mystery and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love I am nothing. Knowledge is a great thing to have. This year we commemorate 500 th anniversary of the reformation. In 1529 Martin Luther wrote his larger and shorter catechisms to teach people the basics of Christianity. In 1536 John Calvin wrote his institutes of the Christians religion Calvin also wrote commentaries on nearly all the books of the Bible. The Heidelberg Catechism and Belgic confession were written in the 1560s and the Westminster confession and long with the larger and Shorter Catechism in the 1640 s. For 500 years since the Reformation these catechism and confession have faithfully provided students of the Bible a sound knowledge of the Christians faith. But if this knowledge is just an intellectual exercise and a cause for pride and arrogance then it is not going to build others up. Knowledge is a good thing but unless it is accompanied with love it can be divisive, or in the case of those with tender consciences (as we see here in 1 Corinthians 8) a stumbling block to their faith according to verse 13. On the other hand where there is knowledge combined with love for God and one s neighbour then one would take the tender conscience into consideration. Here in 1 Cor. 8 with respect to meat offered to idols, the mature Christian who knew his theology thought 3

nothing of it and since the meat was sold cheaply at the market saw it as an opportunity to provide meat for his family which might not be possible at normal prices. But he knew that there were those in the church who were recent converts and had a problem with this meat offered to idols. They refused to touch it in case it contained evil spirits. Paul s advice to the stronger brother was don t become a stumbling block to the person with a tender conscience. Don t invite him into your home to eat that meat and wound his conscience. You may be in the right when it comes to the theological principle, there is but one God. You may have the freedom to eat meat yourself but if it causes your brother to stumble then its better as Paul says never to eat meat again In Christ we are free. We have all things in Him. But for the sake of Christ we are called to restrict our freedoms in order to help a brother or sister. That is after all the way of Christ. It says in Philippians 2, about Christ, that though He existed in the form of God he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Instead he emptied himself taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death Paul wrote in verse 5 of that chapter; Have the same attitude. Could anything you do according to the freedom you have in Christ cause a problem of conscience for a brother or a sister? Could it cause them to stumble? What about in the home? Do any of your habits in the home cause a problem of conscience for your home? The movies you watch? How you eat or drink? The music you listen to? Well Christ denied himself to the point of death for all of us whether we are strong or weak in our consciences. We are called to have that same self-denying attitude towards a weaker brother or sister for the sake of Christ. To refuse to do that would be to sin against Christ. Why? Because Christ died for both the strong and the weak. Both the strong and the weak are part of the body of Christ. The weak man in this discussion about food offered to idols may well be the man who is more legalistic. He may be the type who tends to cut out anything that is doubtful in case it might harm his relationship with God. Well Paul would certainly want that person to grow into a stronger, less legalistic man, hence his teaching in verse 6 and verse 8. This also has implications for the witness of Christians. If the Corinthians church was to make inroads into the rampant paganism that lived in the city of Corinth then they needed to be less sensitive rather than more sensitive over doubtful things. Similarly if we want to come across well to our friends and neighbours and have the best opportunity to share the good news about Jesus Christ with them then we don t want to come across as judgmental or overly scrupulous about minor matters. We want to come across as those who are committed to build up the life of the Christian community as a whole. The way to do that is to combine knowledge with love. Love builds up. At times such love will require that the stronger Christian to voluntarily restrict his freedom for the sake of the weaker brother. 4

Again, this is what Christ did for us. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Our love falls short of the standard God has set for us in his word. But Christ denied himself and loved us to the end so that we might be reconciled to God and each other and that we might also learn how to love. In conclusion some points to consider, Paul wrote love edifies so If in love I consider how my fellow Christian will respond to my knowledge, then I am building up the body of Christ. If I ask myself, will my brother or sister son or daughter be brought closer to Christ through what I do or say? then that s love which edifies And as a church, are other Christians strengthened in their faith and glad to have met us because our knowledge is accompanied with love? We have a wonderful freedom in Christ but at times it s the loving thing to do to restrict our freedom for the sake of a brother and sister in Christ. Amen 5