8:1 Now concerning1 food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.2
4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—6 yet 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.
7 However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating3 in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged,4 if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers5 and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
Footnotes
[1]8:1The expression Now concerning introduces a reply to a question in the Corinthians’ letter; see 7:1 [2]8:3Greek him [3]8:10Greek reclining at table [4]8:10Or fortified; Greek built up [5]8:12Or brothers and sisters
23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. 24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. 25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. 26 For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” 27 If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—29 I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
8:1 Now concerning1 food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.2
4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—6 yet 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.
7 However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating3 in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged,4 if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers5 and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
Footnotes
[1]8:1The expression Now concerning introduces a reply to a question in the Corinthians’ letter; see 7:1 [2]8:3Greek him [3]8:10Greek reclining at table [4]8:10Or fortified; Greek built up [5]8:12Or brothers and sisters
23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. 24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. 25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. 26 For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” 27 If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—29 I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:
If you would turn in your bibles to 1st Corinthians chapter 8. 1st Corinthians chapter 8. We have been in 1st Corinthians for a couple of months now, and we are gonna be picking up in chapter 8 tonight. We'll also be looking at a a part of chapter 10 as well. First Corinthians chapter 8, while you're making your way there, I'm gonna make my way to Deuteronomy chapter 6, if that's good with you.
Jeffrey Heine:
Deuteronomy chapter 6. I'm gonna be reading, a portion from chapter 6. It was called the Shema. It's called the Shema because of the the, the beginning is is hear, oh Israel, and that first word there, Shema, was a prayer that that was said regularly in the life of the Jewish believers as they followed Yahweh. And they would come to these words, and we're gonna see some of these words coming up in Paul's words to the Corinthians, and so that's why we are beginning here.
Jeffrey Heine:
So let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. Hear, o Israel, the lord our God, the lord is 1. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children.
Jeffrey Heine:
You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Jeffrey Heine:
Let's pray. Oh, Lord, we praise you, for in your grace you have given us your word to show us who you are, that we would know you, and also know who we are made to be in Christ. So we ask, Spirit, that you will lead us in this time. Lead us to truth, to clarity. Lead us to respond with all that we are.
Jeffrey Heine:
So speak, Lord. Your servants are listening. We pray these things in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. We all have questions, each one of us.
Jeffrey Heine:
In all of our lives, we have questions about what we're doing now and what we will do in the future, and much of life and the life's questions that we face have quick, easy answers. Where are we going to eat tonight? Olive Garden. We have these easy answers readily available to us. But then there there are some questions that are more complicated.
Jeffrey Heine:
We wish that we had easy, simple answers, and sometimes we act like we do. But the questions that weigh the heaviest on your hearts, the things that keep you up at night, those are often difficult and complex questions with difficult and complex answers. Is it okay to go to the wedding of a friend that you don't think should be getting married? Is it okay to date someone if you don't know if they are a believer or not? Is it okay to drink alcohol?
Jeffrey Heine:
Is it okay to spend money on luxury, and if so, how much? Is it okay to have these feelings for this person? Is it okay to stay silent about that issue at this time? We all have questions, and our culture values questions, but it does not always value answers, especially complicated ones. Life is complicated.
Jeffrey Heine:
And if life is complicated, then some of our answers will be too. The Corinthians have questions. The Corinthian church wrote a letter to Paul. That's actually why this letter, 1st Corinthians, is being written, is because Paul is responding to a letter that was sent to him. And as that letter made its way to Paul, he learned that there were all these other things going on in Corinth that weren't really included in the letter.
Jeffrey Heine:
Some things that, to be honest, should have been included in the letter, but they didn't wanna put it in there. You might identify with that a little bit. And so he is responding to first what he has heard, these stories that made their way. He's been going through these things. He's talked about division, sexual sin, going to the civil courts for wisdom, and then he starts to turn his attention to the things that they wrote about.
Jeffrey Heine:
And he first does that really in chapter 7, when they had asked some questions about marriage and singleness, and so he starts to deal directly with what they had been asking. And now he's going to respond to their next question that has to do with the issue of food sacrificed to idols. Now I know that this does seem culturally very distant from where we are today. I know that most of you have not encountered this problem or this question before. I know some of you on the mission field you have, but most of us have not and most of us will not face this issue.
Jeffrey Heine:
And especially after 2 weeks in our Corinthian study on sexuality and on marriage and singleness, I know that this sermon is unlikely to get a lot of traction on Facebook. I know that it's probably not gonna be liked and shared as much, but I'm gonna be okay, I think. Most people aren't looking for a small group to talk about food sacrificed to idols. Most people, aren't looking for a book, and no one has written, I kissed offering sacrifices to idols goodbye. It doesn't exist.
Jeffrey Heine:
Yet, have at it. But what Paul does here, how he argues and instructs and cares for the Corinthians is incredibly important for how you follow Jesus today. Paul uses this situation to teach a really critical lesson, a lesson that's vital for each one of us to learn. And here's why. Because if you learn this lesson today, if if we listen together to what the scriptures have to say, if we can internalize the principles that are being worked through in chapters 8 and 10, then I believe that you will leave here not only with a better understanding and a clarity about who God is and what He wants for us, but also the wisdom to follow Jesus day in, day out, a better wisdom in walking with Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:
I believe it's that critical. So imagine with me the problem that warranted this letter being sent to the apostle Paul. These, Corinthian Christians, as as we studied just a few paragraphs back, they had been thieves, greedy, drunkards, adulterers, sexually immoral, idolaters, and they had turned from living into all of these passions and desires. They have turned from these things to Jesus. They have repented.
Jeffrey Heine:
That's what that turn is called. They've repented and they've turned to Jesus to hope in him, and he has reconciled them to their God. Not only that, he has reconciled them to one another as brothers and sisters, and some were mature and some were not. Some were strong, and some were weak. They were working through what we would call this worldly baggage.
Jeffrey Heine:
There is tremendous diversity in this community of the mature, and in Paul's words, the immature. They came from all different walks and backgrounds. In short, it was a messy community, peoples whose lives were like shipwrecks, people who had done terrible things, lied, cheated, murdered. They had hurt many people. They were living these busted and broken up lives, and they still had to bear out the consequences of these sins.
Jeffrey Heine:
Yes, they were reconciled to God. Yes, they were forgiven, but they were a mess. Does that sound familiar? In all of that mess, there was a problem that had come up regarding what they could eat. I know that it might seem like a simple or silly thing, but the elders in Corinth, the elders, the leaders of this church, they could not agree on whether these Christians could eat meat sacrificed to idols.
Jeffrey Heine:
They couldn't come to this consensus, or at least they couldn't carry out what their instruction was with that community. And here's here's part of why. The Jewish Christians, the people that had been raised in the Jewish tradition who are now following Jesus, they had been taught that they could not touch meat that had been sacrificed to idols. You don't need need to get anywhere near that kind of a thing because it's sinful. It's wrong.
Jeffrey Heine:
There are laws prohibiting that. And then you have these pagans, these formerly pagan Christians, Christians who had grown up in that pagan culture, and they had made those sacrifices. They had made those sacrifices to those pagan idols, and when they did it, they meant it. They believed that they were worshiping these idols at that time, and so for both the Jewish Christians and the formerly pagan Christians, it was difficult for them to reconcile that that they could eat this meat now. I was so bound up in these experiences and and these questions, and so it was hard for them.
Jeffrey Heine:
Another bit of 1st century cultural context, at that time, regularly at a at a gathering, at a dinner party, food would be sacrificed to an idol. That just would have been a a part of their social activity. Not only that, the meat that's sold in the markets. Butchers would have sacrificed some of the animal to a pagan idol, or some of the pagan leaders would have had some extra meat around that had been brought in for the sacrifices, and they would take the extra, sell it in the marketplace, and pocket the money, but that would mean that the market was full of meat that had been sacrificed to an idol, and they wouldn't know it one way or the other. It would be like if I said our potluck tonight, everything's good.
Jeffrey Heine:
2 of the dishes have been sacrificed to an idol. Now they haven't. I don't think. I don't know. I didn't make it.
Jeffrey Heine:
Hopefully not. But, yeah, it's your guess is as good as mine. And that's how it was to eat in that culture. You don't know what's what what the history of that meat is. It's it's not that easy to find that out.
Jeffrey Heine:
Meat sacrificed to idols, it was everywhere. Sometimes you knew it. Sometimes you didn't. And this caused a big question for the Christians in Corinth. And the answer from the mature Christians went like this.
Jeffrey Heine:
Idols don't exist. So that's number 1. Idols don't exist. They are nothing. Meat sacrificed to idols is meat sacrificed to nothing.
Jeffrey Heine:
And meat sacrificed to nothing is fine to eat. See how that unfolds nicely? And so that's what the mature Christians were saying, and it makes sense. It's a practical theological argument. They have this real question, and they have solid, mature theological thinking to go with it, and they have their answer.
Jeffrey Heine:
And and it seems like this would be an easy one for Paul to handle because logic is on the side of the mature Christians. It holds up. It makes sense. He is also, I mean, he has clearly taught them when he was among them that, you know, they are free to eat. And so they're looking to him.
Jeffrey Heine:
Can you give us that speech again? Could you give us that teaching about how all these foods are now brought down for us, and we are free to eat them? Could you do that sermon again, Paul? Well, Paul says it's not that easy. In fact, it's kind of complicated.
Jeffrey Heine:
Let's look and see how Paul responds. First Corinthians chapter 8 verse 1. Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that, quote, all of us possess knowledge. This, quote, knowledge puffs up. But love builds up.
Jeffrey Heine:
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. Let's pause there. After acknowledging the problem at hand, food sacrificed to idols, Paul says, I know that all of us possess knowledge. He's doing, I'm guessing as he's dictating this, he he did this.
Jeffrey Heine:
He's doing he's doing the air quotes. So what does that mean? The quotes there, he's quoting their letter back to them. Alright. So you know you're about to have a tough conversation when you start getting quoted back to you.
Jeffrey Heine:
Right? You know that's gonna be a hard one. And so that's what's happening here. He's gonna do it a couple of times. He's gonna use their own words to construct this response to their problem, and he does this in a very graceful way, especially for someone who criticized kind of earlier the benefits of rhetoric.
Jeffrey Heine:
He's gonna he's gonna use high level rhetoric, to to instruct and to lead them to a place of understanding. He's gonna show the Corinthians how right they are and how limited just being right can be. In a scene toward the beginning of the 1997 film, Goodwill Hunting, the main character, Will, is in a Harvard bar with his friend, Chucky, and neither of them go to Harvard. And a graduate student comes over while Chuckie is, is talking to some women and trying to pretend like he does go to Harvard. And the grad student comes in and realizes this guy does not go to Harvard, and he starts making fun of him.
Jeffrey Heine:
He goes into this long monologue of, really kind of trying to prove Chucky's ignorance about economics. And as he's just making Chuckie look like a fool, Will, who is a genius, steps in to defend his friend. And he says this. Of course, that's your contention. You're a 1st year grad student, and you've just finished some Marxian historian, Pete Garrison, probably.
Jeffrey Heine:
And so naturally, that's what you would believe until next month when you get to James Lemon and get convinced that Virginia and Pennsylvania were strongly entrepreneurial and capitalist back in 17/40, and that'll last until sometime in your 2nd year, and then you'll be in here regurgitating Gordon Wood about the pre revolutionary utopia, about the capital forming effects of military globalization. Will swiftly takes down this grad student. It's a beautiful moment. Will shuts him down. This puffed up grad student that just has all of this knowledge, and he just wants to put it all on display and make Chucky look like an idiot, and Will just takes him out with more knowledge.
Jeffrey Heine:
But he does it in a way that reminds us of the elusive goal of enough knowledge, because there's always gonna be that book you haven't read yet. There's always gonna be that podcast or that documentary or or that lecture that you just haven't heard. There's gonna be that topic that you haven't studied yet. There's so much that we don't know. There's always gonna be more that we don't know.
Jeffrey Heine:
I remember sitting in the library, poring over a book, trying to understand what that page and paragraph and sentence meant. And I looked up in my despair, and I just saw books, rows and rows of books that I would never read, things that I would never know. And even if I spent all of my time, and I did the math, because this is what you do when you're in a library, I started doing the math. How many books could I read if I read, if I was reading just hereon? I did 8 hours a day, and I toled it up and I saw, okay, I could get down this aisle and this aisle.
Jeffrey Heine:
That would be my life, and if I read all that, then there, I wouldn't make it through that next row, or that next row, or that next row, or that next floor, or that next floor, or that next floor. There's so much that I would never know. There's so much that you don't know, and there's so much more that you don't know that you don't know. Think about that for a minute. There's so much we don't know, but the little bits that we do know, Paul starts to warn us that the little things that we do know, our sinfulness tries to puff that knowledge up, to make us feel big, to make us feel important and significant, that we know something.
Jeffrey Heine:
And the word there for puffed up in other places in the New Testament is translated arrogant. Arrogant. It's gonna come up in that beautiful wedding text of 1st Corinthians 13 when it says love is not arrogant. Paul says that knowledge can make you feel big or seem big to others, but on its own, knowledge is never enough. It's not sturdy.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's puffed up. Knowledge, even here, where Paul is talking about knowledge of God, can be dangerous. It can make us arrogant. And Paul says that this issue of liberty, your freedom in Jesus, knowledge of your rights and your liberties can actually be dangerous. It can harm other people.
Jeffrey Heine:
Knowledge of God is a good and vital grace. It's something that we should pray for. We should pour over the scriptures and pray for revelation. It should be sought after, but realize that your flesh wants to take that knowledge and make you arrogant. When God wants to take that knowledge and make you humble, That knowledge can puff us up.
Jeffrey Heine:
We can become arrogant. Knowledge is not worth much if you have not love. Sound familiar? That's because Paul is beginning an argument here, an argument that's going to extend throughout the rest of the chapters and and really find a culmination in chapter 13. And this teaching is not unique to the Corinthians, but it might be most fervently expressed in this letter, and it's this, this belief, the necessity and supremacy of the love of God.
Jeffrey Heine:
Love, that is the love of Christ in us is powerful. It can do things. It can accomplish things. It can achieve things. The love of God and the people of God is able to do things that are otherwise unimaginable.
Jeffrey Heine:
And as we talked about in chapter 6 just a few weeks ago, because of the love of God, enemies can reconcile. Strangers can be made family. People can lay down deceit and greed and pride and desires. They can do these things because love can do these things. Paul's argument that he will utilize from here on starts with this belief.
Jeffrey Heine:
In short, it's this, love does. Love is causative. It causes things to happen. The love of God, not just some vague notion of love, not some vague cultural love, but the love of God does things in us, through us. And Paul says love builds up.
Jeffrey Heine:
It strengthens the weak. It fortifies. It establishes. Mere knowledge does not strengthen the weak, but love does. The argument Paul will begin here is that the love of God affects how we even think about our rights, our freedoms in Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:
Look again at verse 1. Towards the end, it says, this knowledge puffs 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. The virtue that was prized most in this culture was knowledge.
Jeffrey Heine:
The worth of a person was how much they knew, and now Paul wants to replace that with the love of God in us, that that would be the highest virtue, that it would be loving God, first and foremost, loving him. And and so Paul wants to tell them of the limits of their highest virtue knowledge and the infinite possibilities of God's love. Knowledge puffs up. It makes things arrogant, but love builds up. And here, Paul picks up the Corinthians' understanding of that Deuteronomy passage that we began with.
Jeffrey Heine:
You see, he's not trying to just match their knowledge with knowledge, like what happens with will in the bar. No. He he's wanting to direct them to that that which has the real power, that real transformative power, and that is that divine love. And those words, he goes to these words that they would know so well. Here, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is 1.
Jeffrey Heine:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Jesus picks up these words when he has asked what the greatest commandment is. In Matthew, he says, was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That means all that you are. That you would love God with all of you.
Jeffrey Heine:
And the second is like it, that you would love your neighbor as yourself, in that you would fulfill all of those commandments. All of the law and the prophets hang on those two things, loving the Lord your God and loving your neighbor, and Paul is going to utilize that. He's gonna move that to transform the way that they think about their rights and how to respond to something that might seem silly to us now, food sacrifice to idols. In verse 3, you might have picked up, he says, if anyone loves God, he is known by God. And so a quick aside here, the knowledge that matters, I I can't stay in the library for all the days of my life and read all these books.
Jeffrey Heine:
I will not know everything. In fact, I will know very little in the grand scheme of things. However, I can be known. I can't know everything. I can work hard and try to get as many degrees as possible and keep up with all the books and all the podcasts and all the conversations, and I can try to do all the things, but I can't know everything, but I can be known by the living God.
Jeffrey Heine:
And that, Paul says, that is the knowing that matters. Look with me at verse 4. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no god but one. For although there may be so called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, Yet 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. So do you see what he's hap what he's doing there?
Jeffrey Heine:
He's taking these, what they understand from the Shema that there is only one God. There's only one God, and that on that, to say that these idols are not gods, that these idols are not lords, he says, you're right. You're right. These idols are not gods, because we know that there is one God. And he wants to push them and make sure that they understand that when they confess those words of the Shema, that there is only one God, he is one, that that includes the sun.
Jeffrey Heine:
See, as they're building out this understanding of the triune God, the trinity, father, son, and holy spirit. And so he's he's unfolding this in front of them that they would know that, okay, we are all right. We are right. These these idols aren't gods. They they are nothing, and food sacrificed to nothing.
Jeffrey Heine:
Okay. So so he's he's affirming the way that they have been processing through this. But notice what happens here at verse 7. However, not all possess this knowledge, but some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled. Food will not commend us to God.
Jeffrey Heine:
We're no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged if his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died, thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it's weak. You sin against Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:
Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. So what's he saying? He's saying, you're right. These idols don't exist, and you have a right to to eat whatever you want whenever you want. You are free to do that, but be careful.
Jeffrey Heine:
Be careful. Watch out. Because when when you don't when you don't care for your brothers and sisters around you who are weak, when you don't care about them, you're sinning against Christ. Let me remind you who they are, Paul says. Let me remind you.
Jeffrey Heine:
This brother is a person for whom Christ died. It's a little side question. When you're arguing with a brother or sister, a Christian, when you're in some some tense kind of back and forth with a Christian, when you're frustrated and you're arguing about something, do you see them as a brother or a sister for whom Christ died? Is that first on your mind, Or is it about arguing and winning? Is it about what they said that was wrong, and how they're getting it all wrong, and how you're frustrated with them?
Jeffrey Heine:
Because I would say that that what Paul is leading us to is that we are actually supposed to look at the people around us and remember always that these are brothers and sisters for whom Christ died. And so when we put a stumbling block out there for them, when we trip them up, those who are weak, we are sinning against Christ. That's what he says. You see, clinging to your rights can hurt people. All this should matter to the mature Christians.
Jeffrey Heine:
They need to remember who this weaker brother, who this weaker sister is as one for whom Christ died. And when you sin against this person by clinging on to your rights, you sin against Jesus. And ever since Saul met Jesus, Paul has been captured and transformed by the love of Jesus, because Paul loves God. Paul loves his neighbor. He will give up any right that he might have to serve the people that Jesus died for.
Jeffrey Heine:
That is love at work. Do you see that? That's love in action. That's love doing something. Because remember who Paul is, Saul.
Jeffrey Heine:
He wasn't super great with the brothers and sisters of Christ before his conversion. What he did was lead the charge in seeing the brothers and sisters executed and imprisoned. He is the one that while they're stoning Stephen, he holds the coats. He's the coat check boy while everyone else is throwing rocks at a Christian until he dies. That's the one who is saying these things.
Jeffrey Heine:
He's been transformed by love, and the love of God in him is at work. The love of God in him does something. And so when he looks at these brothers and sisters, he sees the people that Jesus died for, and that matters to him. He picks up this issue in chapter 10. So look with me in chapter 10/23.
Jeffrey Heine:
We're gonna look at 9 in the coming weeks, but we're gonna move on where he keeps this. He brings this thread back up in chapter 10 about idols. Chapter 10 verse 23. He says, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up.
Jeffrey Heine:
Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. See, Paul agrees that all things are lawful. That's something that he would have taught. That's something that he cares about. He it's something he believes is true.
Jeffrey Heine:
That piece of meat sacrificed to an idol is no different than the meat next to it there in the marketplace, because the victory of Jesus has broken the power of these things, and so they are free. But Paul says that they have a responsibility, a responsibility to God because he will talk about how when they are intentionally doing things for these idols, that demons are involved in this. And so he warns them, be be careful what you do. Show that reverence to the Lord. You need to love God.
Jeffrey Heine:
And he says you need to look out for your brothers and sisters, the believers, the weak among you. You need to love your brothers and sisters. Then he says, you need to love and look out for the people that don't believe your neighbor. You need to be looking out for them too. Because in short, your rights matter less than your call to love God and love your neighbor.
Jeffrey Heine:
And clinging on to your rights shows that you love yourself. And laying down your rights so as that you loved your God and your neighbor. And so he he gives further instruction. Finally, some specifics. If you're wired for specifics and all that, here, we're finally gonna get to some.
Jeffrey Heine:
In verse 25, he says, Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Then he says in verse 27, If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. Alright. Some more specifics. Okay?
Jeffrey Heine:
Now verse 28. But if someone says to you, this has been offered in sacrifice, then don't eat it. For the sake of the one who informed you and for the sake of conscience. Verse 31, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I tries to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
Jeffrey Heine:
So summary of the instructions. If it isn't brought up, whether or not it's been sacrificed to an idol, if it's not brought up, don't bring it up and eat freely. If it is brought up, don't eat the food for the good of the others. And I know I said we get specifics, but it still seems pretty complicated, doesn't it? And that's because of this.
Jeffrey Heine:
Love, love will have to do work for the Corinthians every time they eat and every time they go to the grocery. They're gonna have to be looking out for the needs of others everywhere they go. Every time they go to eat, every time they're invited to a dinner party, they have to have this reconciled conversation. Maybe even, you know, the car ride over, they're saying, okay, if they don't say anything, what do we do? If they don't say anything, we eat.
Jeffrey Heine:
And we're not gonna bring it up. We're not gonna offend them. Okay. Alright, so we got that. And then after a little bit of silence, but if they bring it up if they bring it up, we're gonna have to say something.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's gonna get awkward, but we're doing that because we love them, right? Yes, we're doing it because we love them. You see how it's not just a simple answer that we just yes or no, yes or no, yes or no. And I tell you, after studying this for some time and coming back to it, I say, Paul, it would be great to just have a yes or no. Life isn't always like that.
Jeffrey Heine:
Right? Life isn't always like that. But the amazing thing is we are called into this relationship with God. That's the difference. We're not called into a rule book with God.
Jeffrey Heine:
We're called into a relationship with God, which means that we have to pray about what we're gonna do, and then listen to what he has to say, and then we have to do that thing. It's a relationship, an ongoing intimate relationship where we struggle, and we say, I don't know what to do, and we trust him, and we seek him, and we we listen for the Spirit to lead us through the scriptures and the, you know, what's clearly commanded by Jesus. And and and then we we listen to the community around us, the church community that that comes in and and tells us, instructs us, and loves us, and cares for us, and we search the scriptures, and we we talk them out, and we pray with one another, and we ask that God would guide us in the actual decisions we have in front of us, the actual life we have to lead. And this is so much harder as a Christian, and let me tell you why. I think it's harder to navigate these things, this complicated life, because we don't get to just think about ourselves.
Jeffrey Heine:
If we just thought about ourselves, then we would just think about our rights and what we can and can't do, and we would think about our own conscience and what we are strong enough to do, or maybe we're weak and we don't need to do, if we could just think about ourselves and say, everyone else can just deal with it, this would be a lot easier, wouldn't it? And hear this. That is what our culture is telling us. You will find someone to cosign a you do you lifestyle every day of the week. My flesh pulls in this direction to say, no, just take care of yourself.
Jeffrey Heine:
Life is hard enough as it is. You just take care of the things that you take care of, and everyone else can deal with it. But Jesus calls us to more. Jesus calls us to so much more. In short, he calls us to himself where we walk with him.
Jeffrey Heine:
We follow him. We pray, and we listen, and we strive to obey and to walk in obedience to him. See, having that willingness to lay down our right, that's essential as a believer. It's essential in following Jesus, and it's possible because of Jesus. Hear that.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's possible to lay down your rights because of Jesus, and here's why. Because that's what he did for you. He laid down his rights to come and rescue you. There might not be a better place for us to hear about that than from Philippians chapter 2, and we'll close with this. Having this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, meaning this is possible for us to think like this, to have this mind because of Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, held onto, clung to.
Jeffrey Heine:
But he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Paul is calling the Corinthians to this love of God because Jesus gave up his rights in heaven to die on the cross so you would be saved. That is our hope, and that is the love that transforms us from the inside out. So let's go to our king in prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:
God, help us to love in relation to other Christians, our brothers and sisters so that they may be saved. Lord, hold that in front of us tonight that we might believe it and see it in our lives tomorrow. Pray this in the name of Christ. Amen.