When To Put The Cup Down Series

When to Put the Cup Down

1st Corinthians Series

CCCAG 10-5-2025

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 8:1–13

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Introduction — The Mug on My Shelf

Years ago, I was working on a medical team for a Renaissance Fair when one of the vendors had a severe medical emergency.

We sprinted out to her tent- it was a glass blower who made very intricate and stylized gothic bowls, glasses, and figurines.

By God’s grace, I was able to save her life.

A few weeks later, she showed up in the medical tent with a gift — a handblown cylinder glass cup with intricate carvings etched all over it. It had raised vines, a couple of gargoyle faces, and some flames on it.

This was something that in 1995 she would have sold for over $100, so it was an incredible gift, and right up my alley as I love the middle ages, it’s art, and it’s talk of knighthood and chivalry.

In fact at our church, we had a ministry focused around knighthood and chivalry to teach teenage young men how to be men of honor.

I brought it to church that Sunday to show that group what one of the chalices of that time might look like.

Now, I was a very new Christian at the time. I thought this glass was a beautiful example of renaissance art.

But when I showed it to some of the people at church, a woman there recoiled saying, “That’s filled with witchcraft symbols! You should smash it immediately!”

She had been into Wicca prior to becoming a Christian, so for her- it was practically the cup of Satan itself.

For me, it was just a reminder of saving a life.

I had no ping of conscience about it at all, but to her it was spiritually dangerous, and I was asked by an elder in the church to go and put it in the car and not to bring it back into the church just to keep the peace.

And right there, you have the same problem Paul was addressing in Corinth. It wasn’t about the glass, or the meat, or idols. The issue was what it meant to people’s consciences.

That’s what we are going to be exploring today. We’ve hinted at this throughout our 1st Corinthians study, but today will go into more depth about this issue- Christian liberty versus individual convictions.

Let’s read about in in chapter 8

1 Corinthians 8

8 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by him.

4 About eating food sacrificed to idols, then, we know that “an idol is nothing 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 there are many “gods” and many “lords”—6 yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from him, and we exist for him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through him, and we exist through him.

7 However, not everyone has this knowledge. Some have been so used to idolatry up until now that when they eat food sacrificed to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not bring us close to God. We are not worse off if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat. 9 But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak.

10 For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, won’t his weak conscience be encouraged to eat food offered to idols? 11 So the weak person, the brother or sister for whom Christ died, is ruined, by your knowledge. 12 Now when you sin like this against brothers and sisters and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food causes my brother or sister to fall, I will never again eat meat, so that I won’t cause my brother or sister to fall.

Prayer

Background-

In the city of Corinth — as in many Gentile cities — there was a thriving industry built around supplying animals to pagan temples for worship. Most of those rituals involved burnt offerings, but they weren’t reducing the sacrifices to ashes. They were, in effect, barbecuing the meat.

Afterward, that meat was sold to vendors, who resold it in the marketplace for profit. It was a lucrative business — but it created a major controversy in the first-century church.

Most Gentile believers in Corinth had come to Christ directly out of idol worship. They knew exactly where that meat came from, and they asked: “How can I eat something that was sacrificed to a pagan god while I worship Christ?”