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.
8. I’ve got a story that I’ve told before, but I want to tell again, because it fits here and because “I like it.”
9. It’s about a college freshman, but he was clearly a wise fool too.
10. [That’s the Only Problem]
The young man had finished his first semester in college, and was spending the weekend at home.
Somewhat bored with the old place, he was regaling his father with the wonders of his campus and the enlightened people there.
After getting up a head of steam and warming up to his subject he said, “Why, Dad, in our chemistry lab at college we have made an acid that will dissolve any known substance.”
The father turned and looked at him and slowly said, “That’s mighty fine. What do they keep it in, son?”
11. Paul says, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”
12. Everyone posses knowledge, but what does knowledge do without love?
B. Puffed up or built up?
1. Do you want to be puffed up of built up?
2. Something that is puffed up is clearly not going to be beneficial for anything for any extended time.
3. Of all the down sides that you could think of about being puffed up, I think that the temporariness of it is the most important.
4. Something that is puffed up will not stand the test of time.
5. Where as something that is built up will last for a much longer period of time.
6. And when it comes to your own life, do you want your character to be puffed up, or built up?
7. If a person’s character is puffed up, they will appear to be something for a while, but soon they’ll be deflated.
8. When a person is puffed up they think they know something, yet they do not know as they ought.
9. But if your character is built up, you are really what you appear to be.
10. So clearly if you want to be built up, your personality must be more about love than knowledge.
II. gods vs. God
1 Corinthians 8:4-6 (NIV), 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. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), 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.
A. Now Paul turns to their question.
1. Verses 1-3 were an introduction to how he was going to answer their question.
2. The answer to their question about eating food sacrificed to idols has more to do with love, than it has to do with what’s right and what’s wrong.
3. The answer to their question has more to do with love than knowledge.
B. In verses 4-6, Paul addresses the knowledge side of their question.
1. In verse 4, Paul says Christians should know that idols are nothing but a piece of wood or stone.
a. There is only one true God.
b. Wood and rocks could never be God; created things could never be the Creator.
d. “We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one.”
2. But then in verse 5, Paul turns around and says that there are “indeed…many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’.
a. Paul appears to contradict himself in verses 4 & 5, but he really does not.
b. Paul says that there really is but one God.
c. However, anything that takes priority over God in a persons life is what Paul is calling a ‘god’ or ‘lord.”
d. If we allow any person, such as a spouse, a child, a boss, or anyone else to supersede the one true God as first priority in our life, then that person has become our god.
e. If we allow anything (doesn’t have to be a wooden idol)-anything such as a car, a boat, a computer, a job, or anything else to replace God as most important in our life, then that thing has become our idol.
f. And when you allow someone or something to be a higher priority in your life than the one true God, God calls that adultery.
g. God uses the metaphor of marriage and adultery, because we understand it.
h. If we are married but allow another person to be first in our life we are in trouble.
i. And when a person allows something or someone else to come between God and us we have turned to another and God calls this adultery.
j. Exodus 20:4-6, “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
k. But remember that even though people may be silly enough to turn to other gods or lords, that will not change the reality now or on judgment day that there really is only one God!
C. “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.”
1. Yes, there are people who choose not to believe in the one true God and they turn to their own mute gods and lords.
2. But we have the knowledge that there is only one God.
a. And if we looked only at the knowledge side of their question, then the answer is clearly eat anything you want.
b. Since we know the truth that meat sacrificed to idols is only sacrificed to a piece of stone or wood and not really to a real god, then they ought to be able to go ahead and eat it.
c. It had been cooked just like anyone else would have cooked it.
d. Eating the meat would not make the idol that it was sacrificed to, real.
e. So if it were only a matter of knowledge, then this is really a pretty simple question; but that isn’t all there is to it…let’s continue…
III. Weak vs. Strong
1 Corinthians 8:7-8 (NIV), 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. 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.
A. Now Paul draws another contrast between weak and strong consciences.
1. Paul is talking about young believers, or people who aren’t believers at all, who would watch these Christians eat meat sacrificed to idols.
2. Paul says that those who don’t understand what he just said have weak consciences.
3. Those who do understand the truths that Paul taught have strong consciences.
B. The people that Paul says have the strong consciences are the ones who are right.
1. We shouldn’t forget the knowledge that we have.
2. It is very important that we remember that there is only one true God.
3. But in verse 8 Paul says the food doesn’t bring us closer to or farther from God.
4. The food we eat shouldn’t affect our relationship to God.
5. On the knowledge side, the ones who know there is only one God are right.
C. But Paul is also saying that love should be concerned about those who have weak consciences.
1. Paul says they are the ones with the strong consciences.
2. But Paul is also beginning to say that the love side of the question demands that the ones with the strong consciences be considerate of the ones with the weak consciences.
3. You see love is more important than just being right.
4. So let’s look at Paul’s conclusions on this subject…
IV. Knowledge vs. Love
1 Corinthians 8:9-13 (NIV), Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 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? 11 So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 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.
A. Paul told the Corinthians that the knowledge side of the question was that eating meat sacrificed to idols was OK.
1. But now he says that they should consider the love side of the question.
2. They should be concerned about what others would think if they saw Christians eating meat that is sacrificed to idols.
3. There is clearly the possibility that others might think that if Christians eat meat sacrificed to idols then idolatry worship must be OK.
4. That is clearly a conclusion that someone might draw, isn’t it?
5. “So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.”
6. “When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.”
7. So, you see it is possible to eat meat sacrificed to idols and sin.
8. Are there freedoms that you are exercising that might destroy someone else?
B. So Paul’s conclusion here is: “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.”
1. I say that that is his conclusion to this subject, but it is actually only the conclusion of this chapter.
2. You see, the next chapter is really based upon everything Paul said in this chapter.
C. But what Paul is saying in this chapter is that love is the only thing more important than being right.
1. There is something more important that being right.
2. I’m not saying to forget the truth.
3. Paul made it very clear that we should remember that there is only one God.
4. We don’t sacrifice the truth for the sake of love.
5. We can never do that; they must go hand in hand.
6. Over in chapter 13 Paul says, “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” (v 2)
7. You see what Paul is saying is that knowledge without love is useless!
D. Paul says when it is knowledge vs. love, love must win.
1. Knowledge must be tempered with love for God and others.
2. We must consider what others will see when they watch us.
3. Remember, that it was Cain who said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
4. What kind of person was Cain? He was a murderer, he was a sinner.
5. And in asking the question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain showed a lack of concern for his brother; Christians should be concerned about others.
6. Christians don’t ask whether they should look out for others.
7. Our job as Christians is NOT to convince everybody that we’re right!
8. Our job as Christians is to LOVE everybody!
9. Our job is not to debate people into the kingdom of God!
10. Our job is to LOVE people into the kingdom of God!
11. People will not know that we are Christians because of how intelligent we appear.
12. They will know that we are Christians by our love.
13. We are not here to argue and debate with people and try to convince them how stupid they are and how intelligent we are!
14. We are here to LOVE them!
Conclusion:
A. We must remember that Jesus commanded, “Love your neighbor as yourself”
B. And I must also mention that Paul also wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:3-5, “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”
1. Paul is telling Timothy that love is more important than winning an argument.
2. Love is more important that debating the truth of something.
3. Love is more important than knowledge.
4. You see a person could know and understand everything there is to know about the
5. Bible, but if there is no love it is useless! (repeat)
6. We must be more concerned about the eternity of souls than we are about just being right or winning an argument about something that doesn’t really even matter.
C. Are you more concerned about being right than loving?
1. Do you have an attitude that says, “I’m going to do whatever I want to do because I know I’m right?”
2. And in doing so, destroy another?
3. Are you more concerned about exercising your rights, than about the souls and eternities of others?
4. Love is more important than being right.
5. We cannot ignore the truth, but it must tempered with love.
6. What attitudes of just being right do you need to repent of?
7. Are there things in your life that might cause someone with a weak conscience to stumble or maybe even wind up in hell?
8. Are you exercising a freedom that could be a stumbling block to the weak?
D. Pray
E. #429 “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love”
