Being Sensitive

1 Corinthians 8

Now, in chapter 8, the limits of our liberty. We know, as Christians, that we have liberty in Christ, but that liberty is conditioned upon certain things that the New Testament reveals to us, and that is just the area we’re going to be discussing not only in chapter 8, but also in chapter 9 and chapter 10, because all three chapters deal with the same theme.

(1976) ........ “To kind of set the picture a little bit, some of the great debates, believe it or not, in the Church in recent years - say in the last 25 years or 30 years, whatever - some of the biggest debates fall along these lines. Is it right to shop on Sunday. Some of you may remember the great arguments about that. Should Christian women wear makeup? Now, frankly, I don’t think that’s even a question in many cases, but in some it is. I’m not saying which cases; you know that. Can a Christian play golf on Sunday morning and score well? Is there anything wrong with rock music concerts or rock music? What about movies? What about dancing? Should a Christian have a beer, a bottle of wine, too much coffee?”

Those are questions that the Church has discussed and debated and wrangled over some time in the last 25 to 50 years, and some of them are current today. And the reason the Church spends so much time talking about that is because there is nothing in the Bible that speaks about that.

You say, “Well, there’s something in the Bible about shopping on Sunday or playing golf on Sunday. It says, ‘Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.’” The Sabbath is Saturday, the seventh day of the week. So, the Bible doesn’t say anything about the Lord’s Day as such.

Now, we do know that there are some things that are wrong. We don’t really have any problem with those, do we? The Bible says not to kill, steal, cheat, commit adultery, lie, and on and on. And you know what those things are. They’re very clear. The New Testament as long lists of the works of the flesh. In Corinthians and in Galatians we find exactly what we’re not to do.

There are lists in the Old and New Testament of good things to do, like loving your neighbor and helping people and giving your money and meeting people’s needs and doing right, and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, and taking care of your children, and loving your wife, and on and on and on. There are many things that are good.

But in the middle of those goods and bads, there are those things that the Bible never comments about that are in that gray area, where in every year, in every society, and in every culture, and in every environment, there has to be a decision made that may be only for that time and that place. How do we decide? How do we know what’s right and what’s wrong in that gray area?

Well, to begin with, remember this: we are free. As Christians, we are not under the laws. Is that right? So, any of those gray area ceremonial things, you know, they’re not necessarily the thing to do. There are many things, for example, that when the Church was founded, many Judaistic things that they needed to do anymore. They didn’t need to carry on certain ceremonies and certain feasts, and this, and this, and this.

But did you know, when the Council of Jerusalem met in Acts 15, they had a great big, long discussion? And they said, “Now, the Gentiles have been admitted into the Church. It’s a new day. The old ceremonies are done away with. Now, you go on out and have a great time with the Gentiles. But” – they said, let me add this – “tell them to refrain from things strangled – right? – and from blood and from certain things here, and certain things there.” Why? “Because there are many Jews in the community who would be” – what? – “offended,” and you have a principle there. Don’t you.

It isn’t as simple as whether it’s right or wrong; it boils down to who does it affect? And maybe there are some things that are all right in themselves, but if you do them, they’ll wound somebody who thinks they’re wrong.

2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

In our chapter 1 Corinthians 8:9 “But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.”

Is this in Excess?

Is this Useful/Expedient?

1 Corinthians 6:12 “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”

Does this emulate Christ?

1 John 2:6 “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”

Evangelism.....Will this help or hinder my testimony?

Colossians 4:5 “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.”

Edification.......Will this build me up?

1 Corinthians 10:23 “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.”

Exaltation......If I do it will it exalt the Lord?

1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

Example....... “If I do this, will it set the right pattern of righteousness for my weaker brother? Will it be an act of love toward him? Will it be done to show him what is right? To lead him in the right way?”

Romans 14:13 “Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.”

One preacher said of this being a loving example.....That is where Paul is headed with this....

“I remember, as a little kid growing up in Philadelphia, and they thought it was a sin to read to the funnies on Sunday. Well, that’s the only day that you have the funnies. And the funnies – to read the funnies on Monday is no fun. I mean, you know, because you worry about it a whole day, and you lose your interest. My dad said, “As long as we’re here, and as long as we’re in this home, we will not read the funnies on Sunday because that offends them, and they think less of our Christian testimony. So, we didn’t read the funnies. We all sat around the living room wishing we could read the funnies. But in respect to them, we didn’t do it.

Now, today that’s not that big of an issue. And I can remember the same thing. I can remember that if I went out in the backyard, when I was a little kid, to play catch on Sunday, man, I really got it. I was in big trouble. And nowadays, you know, we don’t have that same attitude toward those things. But that’s why I say there has to be a long-range, timeless, acultural principle or set of guidelines to determine behavior in a varying series of years and cultures. And one of the great ones is acts of love – exemplary acts of love toward my brother. So, I don’t do some things because of that.”

Verse 1...........Corinth is a part of the Greek culture. It’s a part of the Roman Empire. Now, Romans and Greeks worship many God’s. They were what we call polytheistic. That means multiple God’s. They were also polydemonistic. They believed in many evil spirits. They believed that the whole air was just full of spirits, and that way up somewhere, there were gods. And they had gods for every conceivable thing. The god of everything. You know? I mean just this, that, and the other thing. Never any end to them. They worshipped all kinds of gods and had consciousness of all kinds of evil spirits floating around.

He becomes saved, and out of this paganism he comes. And I mean it is the kind of paganism that is absolutely engulfing every facet of his life. He can’t do anything socially that doesn’t relate to a god. I mean if he went to a sporting event, there would be the god of that sport there interwoven into everything that went on. This was true in every aspect of life. So, the Christian is in the danger of constantly being exposed to that from which he has just been saved. See?

Now, for a brand new baby Christian, all of this stuff is very distasteful. And he comes bouncing out of that thing, and, boy, when somebody wants to offer him meat offered to idols, he says, “Forget it. That’s what the Lord saved me out of. I don’t want anything to do with it.” But, for a more mature Christian, he says, “Hey, what’s an idol? An idol isn’t anything. Right? So, what’s the dif? Eat it. Live it up. Who cares?”

It was something that would be very difficult........seems easy to us, we say what the Bible said and what Jesus done and we are not concerned with where the meat comes from....Hey, it’s cheap!

To those that come out of paganism, they had lived every moment of their lives in that way. Thinking that evil spirits would attach itself to meat and they to get their god to clean it and so on and so forth.

There are so many other things that was done in the sacrificing animals to idols.......so

So, Paul starts off by stating about their knowledge....

They were claiming to have matured so as to have all knowledge....

Paul was big on knowledge and it is important!

Romans 15:14 “And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.”

Even talked about his own virtues.....2 Corinthians 6:6 “By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,”

However, knowledge by itself....without anything else is puffed up, arrogant!

Love is what builds a brother or sister! Builds them up.

The next few verses Paul states that Love is proof of knowing God and Christ!

1 John 4:20–21 “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.”

You can’t say, “Well, we know everything, so off we go with our liberty.” No, no, no. If it’s true knowledge, it’ll issue in love. And knowledge will always think about love.

Verses 4-6......Paul is confirming their knowledge......There are no gods but One and that is the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ!

Everything exist by them and there are no other gods out there....it is not so!

The devil is referred to as the god of this world, but he is not truly god.

Isaiah 44:9-11.....

The idol worshipper builds the idol and then worships it

Essentially, God through Isaiah states that idolatry is like eating ashes, you get no nourishment, it is a deception, from which the sinner gets nothing but judgement.

Verse 7....Paul stops their boasting in their knowledge......... “Not everyone has this knowledge”

The consciences of the new believers were still accusing them strongly....

Imagine being attached to that for so long and coming to some realization of Isaiah 44.

The transition would be something!

Would you take a former alcoholic to an ABC store and tell him to suck it up?

A lifestyle given up and then you put them back into it, not good!

Verse 8.....Food is not the issue, it has no eternal value unto God......

Food does not bring us nearer to God!

Verse 9...........The liberty that they all took pride in was going to cause a weaker brother to stumble.

Verse 10-11.....” You’re the one with all the knowledge, you’re the Bible scholar. And here you are literally reclining at the table in the idol’s temple. You’re just flaked out there leisurely enjoying your meat. You’re having a feast. Maybe you’re at the wedding and they had the wedding in the temple. It’s a pagan temple, a pagan ceremony. You’re a Christian but you felt you should be there with your family, and you’re just reclining eating away. And here comes your weak brother, a brandnew Christian, saved out of paganism, hates everything about it.

He sees you and he says to himself – look, the conscience of him who is weak will be emboldened. In other words, all of a sudden his conscience is going to get real bold. “Hey, look over there, there’s Mac and he’s eating, see? Look, he’s lying on there, oh he’s stuffing it in. Oh, that looks good. He can do it. This is a nice occasion, I can do it.” And he goes against his conscience. What happens? He is emboldened to eat the things offered to idols, verse 10.

Now watch 11: “And through your knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died?” The word perish doesn’t mean die and go to hell, incidentally. It translates ruin; you’re going to ruin him. And ruin isn’t even a good English word because it has such a finality to it. But at this point in time, you’re going to bring him down. You’re going to crush him. You’re going to smash him down. You’re going to force him into sin. Here he comes. He says, “Hey, he’s doing it.” And he does it and he doesn’t get that meat in his mouth and swallowed down until he begins to feel guilty.”

Now listen, conscience is God's doorkeeper to keep us out of the areas we don’t belong in yet. As we mature, conscience gradually opens more and more doors and we can go in without stumbling, without falling, without being defiled. It’s like a little baby comes into your house and first of all you become the conscience of the baby and you say, “This is how much room you’ve got, kid. You can’t go out of it.” The kid can walk through the house, just can’t touch anything.

And the same thing is true spiritually. God takes a spiritual baby and confines that baby by conscience. And little by little as maturity comes, God begins to expand what conscience will allow as instruction and growth takes place. If you run ahead of God and force things, you’re only going to make the person more legalistic. You’re going to crush the person, and you’re going to push them backwards. Don’t force people against conscience.

This is one of the highest motivating factors for not ruining a weaker brother: “You say, “Man, I’m supposed to govern my life about how it affects somebody else?”

Yeah. You say, “Why?” I’ll tell you why, verse 11. What a zapper this is. “Through your knowledge shall the weaker brother be ruined,” – listen – “for whom” – what? – “Christ died.” How would you treat somebody? How would you treat somebody that Jesus died to save? How should you treat them?”

A preacher told this: “Always remember the story my dad used to tell about a guy who fell off a seven tory building and a man caught him, saved his life. And it killed the man who caught him, just telescoped his body. And the father of the man who caught the falling man spent the rest of his life giving money and everything that the man that he caught needed. And he said the reason he did it was simply because if that man meant enough for his son to give his life to save him, then he felt he ought to honor his son’s love by giving that man everything that he could. “

Now that’s the mentality that we have to have toward a Christian. Listen, you may not agree with his view of life. You may not agree with what he does or doesn’t do, but he is one for whom Christ paid a penalty on the cross, for whom he shed his blood, and you ought to treat him as such.

There is a beautiful dignity, beloved, in every Christian. And I am thrilled, I am thrilled to limit my liberty by love for the brother. If Jesus loved him, I want to love him, right? If Jesus gave his life for him and died for him, at least I could live conscious of him.

Verse 12.....“When you sin so against the brother, when you disregard him and just go ahead and do what you want, just anything that’s on your mind and you wound his conscience, you sin,” – what? – “against Christ.” What a statement. Why? Because that believer is one with Jesus Christ. And when you do something to ruin him, you have sinned against Christ.

Jesus said, “Listen, it’s better for somebody to hang a millstone around his neck and be drowned in the sea than it is to harm or offend one of these little ones that belong to me.” In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus said this: “In as much as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have,” – what? – “done it unto me.”

Be careful, beloved, not to beat up your brother. That’s what the word there means, tuptō, wound, not to strike him, because in so doing you sin against Christ. “Beloved, let us love one another,” – how? – “by limiting our liberty for the sake of each other.”

Verse 13.....The power of the love of Christ and the “knowledge” of verses 12-13, will bring us to the decision to not cause our brother to stumble!

What’s the principle, beloved, in deciding whether to do something or not do it? The principle is love, how will it affect my weaker brother. Not, “Well I don’t care. He’s weak. He doesn’t understand. He’s got his own problems.”

No, no. Christ died for him. You sin against him, you sin against Christ.

Would to God we had that kind of love in the church so that we weren’t scandalizing our weaker brothers but rather holding them up and building them up.

No Christian has the right to indulge in anything that offends another Christian, for that’s an offense against Christ.