3. An Irresistible Community: 1 Corinthians
March 21, 2010
Selfless
There was a mother with two young children. She wanted to raise her kids well by teaching them to serve and to help others so one night she called them both into the kitchen after diner. She said to them: I need one of you to help me by taking out the trash. She held out a trash bag as the two boys argued over which of them would have to take out the trash. Hoping her oldest son would take initiative you looked at him and said: “Now Johnny what would Jesus do.” Johnny stopped arguing and began to think for a moment. Then he nodded and took the bag from his mother. Turning to his younger brother Johnny stuffed the bag in his hands and said: “Here, you can be Jesus today.” Selflessness doesn’t come easy. Have you ever noticed you don’t have to teach your kids the word “Mine.” Neither do you have teach your kids how to lie you have to teach them how to tell the truth but not how to lie. We don’t have to be taught how to do the wrong thing, sometimes we do have to be taught how to do the right thing. So how do we learn to be selfless?
The church is a community designed by God to be radically inclusive. When the church is alive it is magnetic and should be irresistible. The community that we have is one that people naturally long for. The church is a community built with support, encouragement, friendship, dedication, service, and love. The world offers substitutes but when the church is alive; when the church does what was designed to do, nothing in the world can compare to the quality of community that we offer. I have seen us become that community from time to time. I have gone to see someone from the church who was the hospital only to find four or five other church families were already there with them. I have seen families in need get prayer, and encouragement, and support. I have seen people taking food to other families to help them through hardship times. I’ll say at least some of the time, we get this right. There is something about that kind of community that makes it irresistible. To know there are people who care for you, who love you, and who will be there if you ever need for anything is very appealing. What confuses me then is why so many people are not drawn to the church. If we have what they need both spiritually and personally why don’t more people come? It reminds me of a little poem: to dwell above with the saints we love oh it will be the glory, but to dwell below with the saints we know now that is a different story. Why is it we long for the community of heaven and yet sometimes we neglect the community of the church. Could it be that the church we have is not as irresistible as it should be?
Look at 1 Corinthians 8:1. An irresistible community is unified, mature, alive, loving, and perhaps one of the most important: selfless. I love Ozark Christian College’s mission statement: not to be served but to serve. This is the true heart of selflessness. There are many people who come to church excepting the church, its leaders, and the congregation there to serve their needs. The worship should be the way they want it. The people should all lay out the red carpet for their arrival. While hospitality and relevance are important it is the attitude that is the problem. When we come to church because with expectations of what will be done for us we come with a selfish attitude. Without selflessness you do not have a true intimate community. What you have a group of people who are using each other for their own personal gain. It is not a community it is a manipulative self seeking social club. A church full of people who come to see what they can get out of it is not irresistible at all. Church like Christianity is not only about what you get but also what you give up. In order for the church to become the irresistible community God created her to be we must learn what it means to be a selfless community. So how do we learn to be selfless?
1Co 8:1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 1Co 8:2 The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. 1Co 8:3 But the man who loves God is known by God. 1Co 8:4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. 1Co 8:5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 1Co 8:6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. 1Co 8:7 But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 1Co 8:8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. 1Co 8:9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 1Co 8:10 For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? 1Co 8:11 So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 1Co 8:12 When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 1Co 8:13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
While these text specifically is address food, food is not the central topic. What this text is really addressing in our search to find how we can learn to be selfless by looking at what is expected of us as Christians.
There are certain controversial issues that every Christian generation must deal with. In Paul’s day one of the primary issues pertained to food. Here is the dilemma: the Jews were God’s chosen people in the Old Covenant. But now a New Covenant had come. There were plenty of honest well intentioned people who were just trying to figure out where the Jewish law ended and being a Christian began. Essentially there was a problem with the Jews who became Christians. Some of them felt that anyone who wanted to become a Christian must first become a Jew because Christianity built off a Jewish foundation. So they felt that all the Jewish laws and customs should be faithfully practiced by anyone who became a Christian.
In Jewish society food laws were of the utmost importance. What you ate and who you ate with was a matter of purity. If you were to look at rabbinic tradition you might find that there are 341 case rulings or laws for the Pharisees to uphold. Of those rulings no less than 229 pertain to table fellowship. With Jews and Gentiles becoming Christian there was a divide in Christianity that was developing. The Gentiles ate foods that the Jews did not accept as clean. For a Jew to eat with a Gentile would mean they were sacrificing one of the primary things that set them apart from the world. It would be fair to say a Jew could not in good conscious eat with Gentiles. Yet when both of them were Christians there was a paradox to deal with. They are supposed to have fellowship.
So some of the Jews tried to resolve this problem by saying the Gentile Christians basically needed to become Jews before they could be Christians. These people were known as Judiazers because they were trying to make Christians into Jews. Many of the Jews who became Christians didn’t realize that they were no longer set apart by the law but by Christ Himself. They didn’t realize that Jesus blood made them clean, not following food rituals. So Paul proposes a simple solution: Jesus came to set us free from the law. So we now have liberty. So it is ok to eat whatever you want. While there may be nothing wrong with the food that you eat there is a wrong way to eat it. If your brother’s faith is hurt by your eating then your eating it is sinful because you have caused your brother to stumble. Jesus sacrifice sets us free and so as Christians we have the freedom to eat what we want. So what does Christian liberty have to do with becoming selfless?
I see a lot of people today exercising their ‘Christian liberty.’ Now Christian liberties are the Biblically grey areas. They are things not specifically noted in Scripture as being good or bad. I know of church and a number of people even within Christian leadership who promote using vulgar language for fun because they have the freedom to do so. Some of these people exercise their freedom in a way that can be destructive to the faith of those around them. Food is not really the controversial issue with us. However, the manner of principle remains just as valid today as it was to the Corinthians. We are to do nothing that could cause our brothers to stumble. Let me give you a modern example: drinking. One could argue that their Christian liberty allows them to drink. This is true the Bible never condemns drinking alcohol. However, the danger is that in drinking you may cause a brother who is not ok with drinking to stumble. If your drinking causes them to sin then you have sinned. Thus it is our responsibility to at least in the presence of weaker brothers abstain from expressing the Christian liberties that may cause our brothers to stumble.
Why do we have to sacrifice our Christian liberties? For the sake of those who are not as strong, or knowledgeable as we are. Why? Here is where we see what Christian liberty has to do with selflessness. Love. If you have no conscious problem drinking but you drink in front of another Christian who struggles with it then you have not acted in love. While drinking may not be a sin, if you do it in front of a brother who is weak and stumbles because of it, you have sinned. You have sinned against your brother and against Christ. You see a selfless community is one that does everything out of love. The very heart of Christianity is love: love for God and a love for your brothers. A selfless community is one that willingly lays down their rights for their brothers.
Honestly that makes it even more irresistible. You see when you don’t drink because you think it is a sin that is good but you’re just obeying. When you don’t drink even when you know it is ok and you want to but don’t for the sake of someone else: that is powerful because it is selfless. That is the element that the world can never truly duplicate. When we live as a community not seeking our own gratification but seeking what is best for the person sitting next to us we become a selfless community.
Our Christian liberties are not rights that we are to demand at whatever the cost, they are to be treated carefully so that those who may not understand or accept those liberties are not enticed to sin by seeing you do them. In all things we are to love. Love shows that we are known by God. Love shows that we are mature in our knowledge. Love shows that we are Christian. So whether it is eating of meat sacrificed to idols, alcohol, or the words that we use, or anything else let us live our lives in love. Remember just because you are able to do something does not mean that you should. Look at what Paul says in Romans 14:13
Ro 14:13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. Ro 14:14 As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. Ro 14:15 If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died.
Jesus set us free from the law. We do not live the Christian life because it maximizes our potential for fun and personal enjoyment. This life is not about the law or about our liberties it is about love. We must learn to love others enough to lay down our rights for their benefit. What we ought to seek is not what can I do, but what would love do? A selfless community is one where each person looks to the needs of others above their own. It is a group of people who are so focused on helping each other that they never stop to think about themselves. To become a selfless community we must become more like Jesus who even though He was God left heaven and came to earth to suffer and die because He was willing to make Himself a servant of the very people He created. When we learn to serve each other like Jesus we can become a selfless community that will be irresistible to the world.
