Audio File: http://player.sermoncentral.com/c/bethanyumcpastor/audio/178053_15567.mp3
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1Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; 3but anyone who loves God is known by him. 4Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— 6yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. 7It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8“Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? 11So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. 12But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall. (NRSVA)
This week I read a common-sense statement by William Andrew Ward about the way we live together in our world: We can choose to throw stones, to stumble on them, to climb over them, or to build with them.[1] The first three choices (throwing, stumbling and climbing over) are choices of the flesh; the last (building) is the pull of God’s Spirit against the flesh. The choices in life for Christians are filled with a tension between our human desires and the pull of the Spirit of God. We struggle between flesh and spirit.
When it comes to that struggle, and how to deal with the uncomfortable choices (stones) we hardly ever really know why the stones are there. It’s like a father and his young son who were digging stones out of a small patch of land in preparation for a garden. After a half-hour of dirt and stubborn rocks the little guy asked, Dad, what made you bury these things, anyway? [2]
In this chapter, Paul gives us a great heads-up on how to take stumbling stones and make building blocks out of them.
The Problem in Corinth
Corinth was a huge “seaport city” located just across the bay from Athens; it was a bustling commercial success. It was also a very religion-filled place; there were enough idols being worshipped there to make your head spin. At Athens they even had an idol dedicated to “the unknown god” just in case they missed one.
It was a common practice to sacrifice animals in their pagan rituals; the meat would be brought to the pagan temple idols as an offering to their many gods. Afterwards it would be brought to the market and sold.
Some Christians had a problem with eating that meat. There was really nothing wrong with the meat – in fact it was the best, as the animals used for sacrifice had to be so – but the connection with having been sacrificed to pagan idols was just too much for some believers to accept. So the church asked Paul what he thought. Our text is his answer.
Paul’s Answer
The Apostle assured the believers that their liberty in Christ extended to lamb or pork chops…and any other food. Eating or not eating certain foods didn’t bring God closer or move Him farther away. Paul’s caution to them was to be sensitive to what their actions caused in other people. Most of the early church people were Jewish. As such they’d been raised on prohibitions – no pork or buzzard and snake! (Other than the pork ribs, those would’ve been easy for me!)
Idol meat reduced for bargain sale was a problem for some folks. They were uncomfortable eating something Mom and Dad had taught them was wrong. That was like today – imagine trying to sell an Ipod to an Amish person. Not an easy sell!
It has never been easy. Even God has had problems convincing the stubborn among us. Do you recall when he was trying to get through to the Apostle Peter about ending the dietary restrictions? God gave him a vision of a sheet floating down from heaven with all sorts of animals….Arise, Peter, kill and eat. Peter said, Lord, you can’t be serious…I have never done that, and I’m not about to start now! [3]
In 2009
Now, we don’t have this specific problem of idol-sacrificed meat in today’s culture; at least the amount of controversy is on a much smaller burner. But there are some folks who bristle at the thought of letting go of some things that were hallowed.
In 2009 we still have the “filthy five” (as I learned them at my mother’s knee) – Smokin’, Cussin’, Dancin’, Chewin’ and associatin’ with them that’s doin’! (Perhaps the chewin’ was cards or drinking, but it went something like that.)
Another example is the “Blue Laws” of the middle of the last century, which closed business establishments on Sundays. The prohibition against working and buying things on the Lord’s Day, are a direct reflection of an earlier commitment to the Sabbath laws of Moses.
There are all kinds of prohibitions; if you want to be accepted in Christian churches you have to know where the sacred cows graze! In 1977 Elizabeth and I moved to Florida. When we settled in the little village of Homosassa Springs we began to hunt for a church. One Sunday we attended a little Baptist church close to home. As we approached the front door there were two men standing there. We later found out their job was to make sure “none of them trouble-makin’ women’s-libbers came in the door wearing pants”.
A decade later I was serving a church in Gainesville, Florida. We held a sunrise service one Easter, and one of our members who was a photographer for the Gainesville Sun got a great shot of the early morning gathering. It made the front page in the late edition.
A few days later I got a letter that was “hot to the touch” with criticism. It seemed, according to the anonymous writer, we were in violation of at least a dozen rules of the Bible by worshipping outdoors, facing East and putting up a “graven image” of the cross. He was writing to correct me – called me a minister who was probably in danger of going to Hell if I ever did that again!
Now, most of us would shake our heads at that kind of limited view. Those are destructive attitudes, and when that passes for Christianity, we deserve the labels the world throws at us of being intolerant and ignorant.
Rather, we must develop the kind of view of our freedom in Christ that Paul offers…to build-up, not tear-down.
How can you be a builder?
Paul’s main help for us is found two chapters down the road:
“All things are lawful,” but not all things are beneficial.
“All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. 1 Cor 10:23
For the Christian it is never a matter of rights, or even right and wrong – our behavior is held to the higher standard of concern for fellow citizens of the human race; we are held to the law of love.
Notice Paul’s building of a syllogism, where one thought takes you to the next higher thought:
• Love is superior to knowledge (see 1 Corinthians 13)
• When I choose Love it brings me liberty in Christ
• That liberty requires some responsibility on my part
• If I’m not careful I can destroy another’s faith with that liberty
• If you do that it is sin against God.
Now, that is Paul’s thinking as he answers the question about the simple issue of meat sacrificed to idols. But he answers it with a life principle of “love your neighbor”. He tells us to be careful to be a builder. Paul urges us to make definite choices about building up our neighbor!
1. View everyone as God’s creation
Presbyterian biblical scholar/ minister/author Carl Howie tells about an incident that took place in a New York subway. It was winter, and an especially cold and bitter night. Very few people were on the subway at that hour. At each station, the train would screech to a halt, open its doors, allowing a few people to come and go. At one station, a peculiar woman got on. Her clothes were ragged and dirty. She was either extremely tired or extremely drunk. As the train lurched forward, she stumbled and fell into a seat and went fast asleep. Through the screeching and swaying of the train, she slept, her hands nestled inside two tattered worn-out gloves. It was hard to see how those gloves, full of holes, would help at all. How could she go anywhere in that bitter cold without freezing her hands? Few people in the train could take their eyes off this homeless person, asleep on the subway, her gloved hands without gloves.
Then a strange thing happened. A young Puerto Rican boy got up to get off the train as it slowed to a stop. He could have gone out the exit closest to him, but he went by the sleeping woman instead. He paused by her for a few moments, removed his gloves, laid them on her lap, and got off the train. [4]
It is easy to judge everyone – there are enough faults to go around. Choosing to see everyone as a child of God, created in His image will help me look past the homelessness, age, beauty, intelligence, opinions, the differences between myself and others. Seeing children of God, I can be more compassionate, more responsive to needs and less responsive to my judgmental prejudices.
So, when it comes to living life as a builder of people instead of one who rolls stumbling stones in people’s pathway, my first choice is to change the way I see my neighbor; my first choice is to see him as God sees him…human, broken and in need of a friend.
My second choice is to…
2. Consider others in all I do
This is simply an echo of the second great commandment, to love my neighbor as I love myself.
We live in an incredibly selfish world. Even if you lay aside the judging and anger we see in the world today, the self-serving “me-ism” that remains is impossible to reconcile with Christian teaching.
Unfortunately, we see it in churches as well as generally in society. Today there is a mindset that places the church in a kind of business setting and the people as consumers. You know what consumers do – they shop at the place where they can get the most services and goods for the least amount of money and with the greatest ease.
Friends, when it comes to selecting a church in which you will serve, “me-ism” is not consistent with the Christianity of the Scriptures; this is not consistent with Christ.
It is the philosophy of Wal-Mart…but it is not the Bride of Christ!
Jesus prayed in the garden, not my will, but Yours. He meant that.
At that moment Jesus had the power to change everything. He could have defeated every force on earth against Him. But He chose to consider our needs above His own. He died so that our reconciliation with the Father could be accomplished. And that is what my choices ought to look like day by day…not me, Father…my brother who is in need.
Conclusion
To make the kinds of choices we’ve talked about here, seeing everyone through God’s eyes and choosing to think of them before our own needs and desires, means entering the war between the flesh and the spirit; it is a war!
How do you do that? How do you overcome the natural tendency to judge people and to be selfish instead of gracious? Paul told the Galatian believers how to see that come about in their lives:
16Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Galatians 5:16-18
There’s the key – being led by the Spirit of God. How do you do that? It’s not easy, but God is willing if you’ll commit to it, and commit to spending time with Him as a surrendered believer.
It’s our choice…building blocks or stumbling blocks! What do you want to be?
Christian, look at your brother through God’s eyes so you’ll move heaven and earth to build him up; don’t make him stumble!
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ENDNOTES
1] HomileticsOnline.com
2] Adapted from Michael Luke, About Life, Love and Liberty, on SermonCentral.com
3] Acts 10:11-15
4] HomileticsOnline.com
