Dealing With Those Whose Faith is Weak McBIC // Sunday, July 23 (Introduce myself?) Over the past number of weeks we ve looked at all these different conflicts that the church at Corinth was having. From division within the church to matters of sexual purity to handling conflict the church of Corinth had it all think of an issue that a church might possibly have and this church probably had it. So we re gonna keep pluggin away at all these issues as we look at 1 Corinthians chapter 8 together. But before we do that, I want to tell you guys a little story to kind of set the stage. So the past two summers I was an intern for this youth ministry in this small little beach town called Ocean Grove in New Jersey. I was part of a team of interns that ran all sorts of programs for middle and high school students but our biggest focus was just relational ministry getting to know the kids putting ourselves in their world Which often times looked like hanging out on the beach, surfing, getting ice cream you know, just all the really hard stuff And on top of all those things we hosted kind of one big event each week; usually on Thursday evenings. One of those events that the kids really looked forward to was our talent show that we put on, where kids could perform really anything they wanted to for all their peers to see And, as you might imagine, a middle- and high school talent show, while very impressive, can be also be a little interesting. We had some choreographed dances We had some amazing singers We had some kids who maybe one day will be amazing singers Our team of interns may or may not have done an interpretive dance to the Circle of Life from The Lion King in which I played baby Simba who was hoisted up into the air3 And so just for logistical reasons, these events were ONLY for middle and high schoolers we weren t even allowed to let any younger kids in the building. But, because it was an exciting and fun night, some of these younger kids did the best they could to get in to see what was going. So that night I was kind of manning the door making sure everyone who came in was the right age and had a permission slip and all that kind of stuff. So the show started and I m standing in the back of the room trying to watch the show but then also trying to man the door so it s a little bit crazy Then this little guy named Zane kind of wanders up and is like kind of peeking his head through the doors trying to see. And he s begging and begging me, Please, let me come in, I just want to watch, I m not gonna do anything wrong You know how it goes.
So in the moment with all that s going on (watching the show manning the door).. I kind of look around and I m like, Ummm Okay Zane, you can come as far as THIS tile on the floor And just chose some random, arbitrary line on the floor without even thinking really. That s the rule. You can come to this point on the floor but no further. And so Zane spent the rest of the night trying to see the show from his little tile It was great for me in this kind of split-second decision I made a rule that made my life A LOT easier for the next couple of hours. I didn t have to worry abut dealing with Zane any more But that moment got me thinking about how when we enforce rules or set standards or establish expectations for other people often times I think our motivation is What will make my life easier? Right? What s the quickest way to solve this problem with this person? I think we all do that that s certainly what I did with Zane I just did what was best for me and easiest for me in that situation But as followers of Jesus I think we re supposed to embrace a different perspective than that. I think we re supposed to see life and how we interact with others through a different set of lenses. Ones that aren t necessarily about making our life better or easier but are about putting others needs before our own. Because it s not about us. And really I think that s what is at the heart of 1 Corinthians Chapter 8. So we re gonna jump into the passage and see what it s all about Food Sacrificed to Idols (NLT) 8 Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that we all have knowledge about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. 2 Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn t really know very much. 3 But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes. 4 So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. 5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. 6 But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live. 7 However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. 8 It s true that we can t win God s approval by what we eat. We don t lose anything if we don t eat it, and we don t gain anything if we do. 9 But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. 10 For if others see you with your superior knowledge eating in the temple of an idol, won t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? 11 So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed. 12 And when you sin against other
believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. 13 So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live for I don t want to cause another believer to stumble. Now if I m honest, the first time I read through this I was kinda like umm okay, probably not the first thing I would choose to preach on kinda confusing And so I think a little summary would be helpful so we re gonna watch a quick, minute and a half video that I think does a really good job of simplifying this (Video) Hopefully that helped a little bit but just to clarify Evidently there s this conflict which is not surprising for the Corinthian church, between 1) Jewish Christians, those who grew up following the Law of Moses and its teachings, and now believe Jesus to be the Messiah that the Old Testament talked about 2) Non-Jewish Christians (who we call Gentiles sometimes), those who grew up either worshipping some other gods or had no religion at all, but have since had an encounter with the Holy Spirit and now call Jesus, Lord And the issue is whether or not they can eat this meat that has been sacrificed to idols in these temples which to us, probably seems like a foreign concept because last time I checked we generally don t sacrifice animals and offer them to the gods anymore unless I ve been missing out on something But in that culture, these meals where animals were sacrificed were really common it was the thing to do to celebrate a special occasion. It would kind of be like us going out to a restaurant to celebrate a birthday or anniversary or something it was a deeply social event But this conflict arises when the Jewish Christians are on one side saying, Hey we can t eat that meat; it s been sacrificed to gods that we don t believe in and it s idolatrous to do so While the non-jewish Christians are on the other side saying, Look it s not that big of a deal it s just some meat you guys need to relax And so Paul responds to this conflict. And right from the start of this passage, Paul makes something clear about how he s going to answer their question I think the way Paul starts his response is really important He says, Now in regards to your question about food that s been offered to idols And then immediately kind of changes subjects into this statement about love and knowledge and the church He says, Knowledge makes us feel important but love strengthens the church In kind of changing the subject and making this statement, Paul s sending a message to the Corinthians that says, Look you re worried about this issue of meat but there s something much bigger and deeper to be concerned with here it s your attitude and how you re treating people that are different than you.
So while this can seem like a confusing and complicated passage talking about meat and temples and idols-- at the end of the day, I think Paul is teaching the church what it means to interact with and live in community with those who are different than us; who are at a different point in their faith journey. And THAT is something we can relate to whether we sacrifice meat to idols or not we re all part of a community with other believers and no one is at the same point in their faith journey we re all different and we all need to learn what it means to live with those who are different. So we re gonna look at just a few points that I think Paul makes in addressing the Corinthian church. Three things we need to keep in mind when dealing with those whose faith is weak The first one I want to explain by referencing a movie I just recently watched Moana. Who s seen Moana? There s this little girl Moana and from a really young age she has this super strong passion to go sailing out on the sea She s always trying to find a way onto these boats and sail off in to the distance That s really her motivation in life, to go sailing BUT her dad, Chief Tui is having none of it. He s adamantly opposed to Moana getting on those boats and sailing and in fact, he gets kind of nasty about it at certain points and scolds Moana for wanting to go sailing. Now as those from the outside, it seems like Moana s dad is being really harsh and strict and unnecessarily protective. Like all this little girl wants in life is to go sailing and her dad won t let her... Seems kind of mean and cruel, right? But that brings us to our first point EVERYONE HAS A STORY The movie comes to this scene where Moana is really frustrated and mad at her dad for not letting her sail. And Moana s mom sits her down and it goes to this flashback of Chief Tui as a young man and he and his best friend board this boat and start sailing and the seas get rough and this storm comes and it shows them get in this terrible ship wreck. And Moana a mom says, His best friend begged to be on that boat He couldn t save him. He s hoping he can save you. See when we understand that Chief Tui has a story that he is the way he is for a reason how he acts makes a lot more sense. We understand why he s so tough on Moana because of what he s been through. And Paul makes the same exact case in this passage in verse 6 he makes this really powerful statement about there being only One God who created all things. And that s who we serve. But the very next verse he says, HOWEVER not all believers know this. Some are ACCUSTOMED to thinking of idols as being real I love how Paul uses the word accustomed here See, the non-jewish Christians would have grown up going to these big parties all the time they didn t see eating this idol meat as a big deal that s just what people did that s what they were accustomed to that was their story.
But for others that wasn t the case others were accustomed to seeing it as wrong and sinful. That was their story. And so Paul is addressing these Gentile Christians saying Look, we both that when you eat that meat you re not worshipping other Gods BUT you need to think about the story of others not everyone has this understanding and so for you to ignore someone else s story for the sake of doing whatever you want might cause someone else to sin. And for us the same is true. I think too often we forget that people have a story and say Wow that person needs to get their life together like are they even a Christian? Maybe we say or think things like That parent has a terrible relationship with their children what s wrong with them?? But what we don t know about their story is that they were abused as a child and are still learning what it means to be a parent. Maybe we say, Ugh, that person posts kind of inappropriate pictures on Facebook or Instagram But what we don t know about their story is that they aren t shown any love or attention by anyone and so that s their outlet to find it. So you see, everyone has a story. Does that mean we excuse sinful behavior? No. But for those whose faith might seem week, we can t forget that everyone is the way they are for a reason everyone came from somewhere everyone has a story. Second thing to keep in mind LOVE LIMITS FREEDOM Now I don t have any children of my own but I think this principle is probably applied A LOT by those of you who are parents if you re a parent in the room and like ice cream, raise your hand And how many of you have ever been tempted to eat some ice cream before dinner, before you re supposed to or maybe even FOR dinner??? Now, you re grown adults and can do what you want. If you want to eat ice cream for dinner, more power to you you can do that you re allowed to you have freedom to do so treat yourself, ya know. BUT if you had children in the house with you I m guessing you probably didn t exercise that freedom very often, right? You had freedom to eat that ice cream but you still chose not to Why? Probably because you LOVE your children and were trying to teach them valuable life lessons. You LOVE them and so you show some selfcontrol that s exactly what it means for LOVE TO LIMIT FREEDOM. And Paul is saying we need to do the same thing when we re interacting with those who are at a different point in their faith journey. The Non-Jewish Christians knew they had freedom to eat that meat and Paul realizes that But says, Look, if you truly love those whose faith is weak you ll let your love limit your freedom Maybe for us this means Changing our habits when we re around people whose faith is different than ours Steering our conversations in a different direction Engaging in different activities
Whatever the case may be the point is this: that as followers of Jesus we proclaim that the needs of others are more important than our own. The Kingdom of God is upside down in that it s not about promoting ourselves and what we want to make us feel good it s about meeting the needs of others In Philippians 2 we hear the same thing: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Love for others limits our freedom. And as Western, especially American, Christians we don t like to hear that we don t like anyone impeding on our freedom we don t like not being able to do whatever we want because that s uncomfortable But love in the Kingdom isn t comfortable. It s really hard actually. It means making sacrifices and giving up what s comfortable and easy and enjoyable for the sake of others. Love limits freedom. And the last thing to keep in mind is this: Sometimes, we need to do the math differently. Now I got this phrase from one of my favorite books called Love Does by Bob Goff and rather than me just paraphrase it, I thought it d be cool to actually read the story for you guys So I ve asked Joe Vigliano to read this story called Corner Store Economics. Now, are shiny pennies worth two? No. We know that and the storekeeper knew that. But because he chose to do the math differently to give up the way he s always done things by giving that up he forever marked this little boy s life. And God challenges us in the same way, saying Look, I know you ve always done things a certain way but I m asking you to give those things up to embrace a different perspective Will we be people who do the math differently? Who give up the way we ve always done things who let go of our pride and say this person is more important to me than my comfort. Because it s not about us. Let s worship together / Go in peace.