Puffed Up or Built Up
Text: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Now it’s been a little while since we’ve been in 1st Corinthians, and that’s because I wanted us to see what Habakkuk had to say about faith, and I felt that was important considering our worlds current situation… but this morning we’re going to go back to this letter from Paul to the Corinthians because all of Scripture, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, ties together and builds off of itself, and the books of 1st and 2nd Corinthians have so much that is helpful to the Church today. So let’s go to our text this morning and let’s pray that the Lord will speak to us through this study of His Word.
(READ TEXT 1 Cor. 8:1-13)
Now as I was reading through that you may have been thinking, “How in the world is this relevant to me at all? I don’t know a single person who offers up their meat to idols.” But this passage is talking about more than just that. It’s talking about our Christian liberty, and how far does that go? How far does our freedom in Christ go, especially in those areas where the Bible doesn’t really address something?
I bet, that if we took a poll of all the Christians in a 50 mile radius and asked them questions like, “Is it ok to go to the movies?” Or, “Is it ok to go to a dance and cut a little rug every once in a while?” Or what about this one, “Is it ok to listen to heavy metal music or rap music?” And here’s a great one, “Is it ok as a Christian to go eat food at a bar? Or play cards? Or for a woman to wear jeans?” “Should a Christian business owner have his business open on Sunday?” These are kind of the same vein of questions that Paul is dealing with here in our text. And if we did take a poll I think we’d get a variety of answers to those questions… for some folks they’d say yes to some of those and no to others… some might say yes to all of them with reservations, some might say no to all of them. And this may sound crazy… but sometimes those simple little things can cause serious arguments amongst Christians. They shouldn’t – but they do.
And the reason they do is because the Bible doesn’t speak explicitly about such things. It’s not like the clear commandments we read in the Scriptures… things like, “Do not commit murder.” “Do not steal”, “Do not commit adultery.” Or even the New Testament commands like, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel”, or the command to regularly partake in the Lord’s Supper which we’ll be doing after the service. We know we’re supposed to do those things – they are clearly commanded, but the Bible doesn’t say anything explicitly about going to the movies or going out dancing…
And so basically what we tend to see are three reactions to these kinds of things, and only one of those three is the correct one. The first kind of reaction is what we call legalism. And let me just tell you what legalism is – it’s a list of extra-Biblical rules – do this, don’t do this. It’s like what the Pharisees did… They added 600+ rules or laws to God’s Word and then equated those rules with God’s Word. And usually; legalism comes from a desire to want to be obedient and faithful to God, but then over time, it morphs into something else… and it’s not good. It becomes all outward… do this, don’t do that – over time it begins to weigh down, and eventually crush the believer under the list of rules, and it becomes the test for whether or not someone is faithful, or even a real believer. Legalism is bad, and that’s why we see Jesus condemn the Pharisees repeatedly in the Gospels.
Now on the other hand is the idea of Licentiousness. Now what is that?
Well in a nut shell, Licentiousness is lacking all restraint. In other words, people like this will say, “Hey, if it’s not explicitly forbidden in Scripture, it’s free game. Because I’m free in Christ.”
So here’s how the Apostle Paul address this dilemma… Look back at our text and look at verses 1, 2, and 3 again (READ).
So he begins this by saying, “We know that all of us possess knowledge…”. And what is that knowledge that the Corinthians have? Well in the context here it has to do with the knowledge that an idol is just a carved lump of wood, or clay, or gold… it’s an inanimate object… and it’s not actually some rival deity opposed to God. The belief might be rival to the Christian faith – YES that is true… but the idol itself is just a lump of something that has been carved or shaped to look like something else. It has no power in and of itself. It would be no different than if a person took a red brick and set it on their mantle and then said, “I’m offering this meal to that little red brick on my mantle.” And if we were to see someone do that we might say, “Man that’s really dumb. That brick has no power. That brick can’t provide for you, or help you in any way… it’s just a brick.” That’s the knowledge they have of these carved images.
But then Paul says, “But knowledge can also puff you up.” In other words, because you have a certain knowledge about something, you might fall into the trap of thinking that you’re an expert on something, or that you are superior to someone who maybe doesn’t have that knowledge. You might look at yourself and say, “Oh, I’m so enlightened, and all these poor masses are still in the dark.”
So knowledge can puff you up, but love builds up. “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.” So these Corinthians, they had knowledge, and it wasn’t that they were incorrect. An idol is nothing… but they weren’t using their knowledge to build others up in love… they were in danger of becoming egotistical and self-righteous.
So you and I… we can be theologically accurate, we can be doctrinally sound; we can cross all our “T’s” and dot all our “I’s” and still fall into error if we aren’t balancing that knowledge and using that knowledge with love. WE CAN BE RIGHT, BUT IN A WRONG WAY!
Now make sure you understand here, Paul is not minimizing knowledge or doctrine.
The Apostle Paul is probably the most theologically astute, doctrinally sound Christian that ever lived. But he’s saying here that if that’s all you’ve got, and you lack love… you’ll be puffed up.
Now look at verse 3 again… (READ).
So basically Paul is saying to them, “Listen guys, you should be less concerned about WHAT you know, and more concerned about WHO you know… and if He knows you.”
And that’s really what Paul is driving home here. You can know a lot of things… you can quote the Bible all day long… well guess what – so can the devil. He can quote Scripture, but it’s out of context and it’s twisted around… and you know what else? He also has an issue with pride. But Paul is saying, true knowledge comes from knowing God, and loving God, and being known and loved BY God.
He comes back to this thought later on in chapter 13, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing…”.
And yes, there is the other side of the coin here… Love without truth, and love without knowledge, that’s bad too. That causes all sorts of problems and people who are in that camp tend to drift off into all kinds of theological errors and shipwreck their faith…
But you know what? Sometimes those who get off into those theological errors tend to do that because those with the knowledge tend to be so aloof and arrogant.
So Paul says, “Yes, idols are nothing… and food won’t commend you to God… and you know that… (LOOK AT VERSE 7), ‘However not all possess this knowledge…”.
Church – as long as people are being saved… as long as people are being rescued out of the kingdom of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of Light, there are going to be Christians with differing levels of knowledge.
Now I do want to touch on this real quick, because later on in 1 Corinthians 10:20, where Paul is warning these Corinthians to flee idolatry, he warns them that if they are worshiping at idols, they are actually worshiping demons… so the idol itself is nothing, but the worship behind it might be demonic. So the idol is nothing, and the meat offered up to the idol won’t condemn you, but if you feel in some way that you paying homage to the demon behind all of that by eating the meat – don’t do it. Because your conscience will condemn you.
Now is that relevant to us today? Well… it’s the same advice I give to people on Halloween.
It’s the same advice I give in order to answer all of those questions we talked about at the beginning of our sermon… can you go to the movies? Can you take a drink of alcohol? Can you smoke a cigar? Can you listen to secular music? Can you go dancing? Yes, you’re free in Christ. But not to the point of sin. So I’ve told you all before that I like Classic Rock n’ Roll music. But at the same time, I’m not going to listen to music that is loaded up with foul language, and that degrades women, or celebrates wickedness, so that means that some rock songs are out, and some country songs are out, and a whole lot of rap music is out. I just have no desire to hear that stuff… not that I’m sinning if I do, I just don’t want to hear it.
So we’re free in Christ – but not free to sin… and it would be a sin to cause one of my brothers and sisters in Christ to stumble in their walk with the Lord.
So ultimately; it comes down to this. Are you considering your weaker brother and sister in Christ? Does the knowledge I have, build others up, or does it puff me up? So yes, it’s relevant… and it’s relevant to what we’re about to do in partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Later on when Paul gives his instructions for Communion, he says if we do this without discerning the Body… without considering our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are eating and drinking judgement upon ourselves.
So brethren, let us love one another. And let that love be guided by knowledge, and truth. Love without truth is hypocrisy, and truth without love is brutality.
CLOSING
PARTAKING OF THE LORDS SUPPER
