Knowledge Vs. Love Series

1 Corinthians

Knowledge vs. Love

1 Corinthians 8

March 16, 2003

INTRO:

A. Now in chapter 8 of 1 Corinthians, Paul turns to the second of the questions that the Corinthians had posed to him.

1. You’ll recall that I have told you that 1 & 2 Corinthians are two letters that Paul wrote the Christians in Corinth, Greece.

2. This letter was written in the year 55, (not 1955, just 55).

3. You may also recall that I have told you that these Corinthian believers had written a prior letter to Paul in which they had asked him several tough questions.

4. Last week we looked at the first area that they had asked about in chapter 7, which had to do with marriage.

5. This week we will look at the second area that they had questioned Paul about in chapter 8 that being about food sacrificed to idols.

6. This was a cultural issue of their day, but in relating his answer, Paul gave some principles for them to apply to this issue that are pertinent to us, for all times.

B. The issue that Paul responds to in chapter 8 has to do with food sacrificed to idols.

1. [Called to Be Saints, Robert Gromacki, Baker Book House, 1983, pp 101-102]

Robert Gromacki explains this cultural issue in this way, “When an idol worshiper offered an animal sacrifice to his god, part of the carcass was consumed by fire upon the altar, but the rest was used in different ways.

The priests often took some meat for their own personal needs.

Sometimes a worshiper would host a dinner in the temple area, feeding his guests with the sacrificial meat.

Or he would take some of the meat home for his family needs and for dinners to which he would invite his friends.

If the animal had been offered as a general public sacrifice, much of the meat would later be sold in the market (10:25).

In addition, many social functions, including community dinners, were held in the temple precincts apart from animal sacrifices.

The situation was problematic.

Could a Christian buy and eat sacrificial meat sold in the market?

Could he accept an invitation to a private dinner where such meat would be served?

Could he attend any function held within the pagan temple precincts?

The answers among the Corinthians, however, were mixed.

Some of the Corinthian believers said that they could do so without violating their Christian testimony, whereas others believed it was sin to do so.

Thus the church wrote to Paul about this problem.

The church wanted an unqualified Yes or No answer, but Paul replied with principles that must be applied to each specific situation.

In the area of morals (lying, stealing, adultery) there is a simple distinction between right and wrong.

This “meat” question, however, belongs to the area of Christian liberty.

The rightness or wrongness in eating such meat is not found in the meat itself or in the eating of it.

Both of these are morally neutral.

The question of sin is introduced by the motivation behind the eating and by the consequences produced by the eating.

Thus it was that Paul had to present the principles of grace that stood in marked contrast both to a firm legalism (“Do” or “Don’t) and to a selfish individualism (“Nobody can tell me what to do”).

2. Gromacki gives us a good introduction for the feel of this chapter.

a. And you can imagine some people legalistically demanding everyone to not eat the meat; that would be condoning idolatry.

b. You can also hear others insisting that since the idols weren’t really real gods, it didn’t matter whether they ate the meat or not.

c. You can also imagine still others saying, “I’ve got the freedom to do whatever I want, so keep your nose out of my business.”

d. So lets look at the first paragraph of chapter 8.

3. I will call this paragraph…

I. Puffed Up vs. Built Up

1 Corinthians 8:1-3 (NIV), Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But the man who loves God is known by God.

A. Paul says that everyone posses some knowledge.

1. But the question is, what does that knowledge do for us?

2. I have explained the origins of the word “sophomore” to you before.

3. The word “sophomore” is made up of two Greek words: sophos and moros.

4. Sophos means wise or wisdom.

5. Moros is the word from which we get moron, which means fool.

6. So with the word “sophomore” you get wise fool.

7. And that description seems to fit most college sophomores.