What If I Stumble?

INTRODUCTION

Good morning and welcome to First Christian Church. I am Pastor Shane, and I am so excited that you are here with us on this beautiful Sunday to worship our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I am glad we can gather together and continue our series in 1 Corinthians. Please turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 8 today.

If you grew up in the church in the 90s, there was a very popular Christian group named DC Talk. You probably know some of the members of the group, TobyMac and Michael Tait, from their success after this group as well. But way back in 1995, 30 years ago, they released a song titled, “What if I Stumble?”

The focus of the song was from the perspective of successful Christian musicians, and they were essentially asking, What would happen if the crowds that follow us saw us stumble in sin and fall. It is a great song, maybe I am biased because I like DC Talk, and I love the chorus, which says:

What if I stumble

What if I fall?

What if I lose my step

And I make fools of us all?

Will the love continue

When my walk becomes a crawl?

What if I stumble

And what if I fall?

What a great question to ask! What if I stumble? What if I cause another to stumble? What should I do to ensure I am not causing a brother or sister to stumble? These are great questions to think about and great questions for us to discuss as believers.

This morning, we are going to look at what Paul tells us in chapter 8 about being a stumbling block, and how we should handle difficult topics. Would you join me in prayer this morning?

PRAY

Knowledge vs. Love

Now concerning 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.

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.

1 Corinthians 8:1–6.

Paul is tackling another tough subject here in chapter 8. A few weeks ago, we talked about the way that meat would be sacrificed to false gods and idols in Corinth. This sacrifice would only use a portion of an animal, and then the meat would be sold for private use. They didn’t always go to the butcher to get a steak for dinner. We talked about how the early church leaders came together in Acts 15 at the Jerusalem council and set word out that the church should refrain from eating meat that had been sacrificed to animals.

It seems that some people from the church in Corinth were possibly still getting meat in this fashion. Paul is answering questions that have been written to him, and it would seem that the church is possibly asking about this again. This time, though, they have come with the argument that an idol has no real existence, and there is only one true God (vs. 4). They are coming to Paul saying, “why does it matter if we eat this meat, we know that there is not a real god they are sacrificing to?” We believe in the one true God and Jesus, his son, so who cares if we take something that is sacrificed to something that isn’t there?

The church is coming to Paul with an argument based on knowledge. And knowledge is a good thing. But Paul tells them that knowledge will puff up, while love will build up. So, yes, they know that this sacrifice is to a pretend god, but does that knowledge help to lead the church in love? Because knowledge will puff up, but love will build up the church. Acting in love will do more for the health of the church than just lording over people with knowledge ever will.

It seems that on the surface, Paul is calling us to deny or be anti-knowledge. And this is not the argument that he is making to the church. The church is not to be anti-knowledge, but we are to be well-balanced in love and knowledge.

It is a delicate balance, too much knowledge will take away any empathy you have, and result in you being driven by simply following the rules. Too much love and you will see people and churches start to lack in recognizing, identifying, and calling out sin and sinful behavior. We must have a balance of it, and we cannot neglect either. One of my favorite theologians of the modern era said it this way:

As the ankle bone is connected to the knee bone, so there is a marvelous circuitry fashioned by God that flashes back and forth from head to heart. The more we know him the more we can love him. The more we love him, the more we seek to know him. To be central in our hearts, he must be foremost in our minds.

Knowledge of God is important because the other end of the spectrum, the lack of knowledge, leads us so quickly into false teaching. Here we have the example of the church holding on to the knowledge they had, and were not seeing the stumbling block it could be for their fellow believers.

What is important to see is that, to an extent, the people are not wrong. Those idols and temples are places to worship false gods. There is no Zeus, Athena, Saturn, or any other god who was patiently waiting for their sacrifice. They were just marble, metal, and wood that had been built by human hands. This knowledge, though, did not permit them to do something that could cause a fellow brother or sister to stumble.

I would even wager with you that some of these false gods that have come to power in the time of Paul, and even some things today, are demonic in nature. We have talked about the altar to the pagan god Molech, where children would be sacrificed. While the idol itself is nothing more than metal or wood, the action is demonic in nature. Just as a statue of George Washington is not George Washington, but when we start to treat that statue as if it were George Washington, we enter into false teaching.

What Do I Do With My Knowledge?

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.

1 Corinthians 8:7–8.

In our balancing of knowledge and love, we have to make sure that we understand, not all have come to the same conclusion that we have on all subjects. Just as we shared about theological triage a few weeks ago, this passage is teaching about how to handle morally neutral discussions. By this, we mean that they are third tier; we can come to different conclusions on things and still be at the same church. But since we have come to different conclusions, and because we know the Bible is not speaking specifically to these things, we cannot hold our opinion as Gospel. Especially in matters where there may be a brother who has a weaker conscience.

In today’s terms, this would be like if I held the position that believers are allowed to drink alcohol, but not to excess or drunkenness, and I had a brother in church who was in recovery from alcohol abuse. He has spent most of his life battling this addiction, but recently met Jesus and has been sober now for 90 days. He knows, for his conscience, that alcohol is not good for him, even to be in situations that would cause him to be tempted to break sobriety. But, I think we have the freedom to, and so I tell him I want to meet with him at a local brewery for a drink and to get to know him.

Now, while I feel the freedom to do this, the brother that I have invited out with me may not feel that way, and in fact, this would be a place and situation that would risk his newfound sobriety. Who is in the right? While I have the knowledge that gives me liberty, that is not what the love for my brother in Christ should cause me to do.

Just as Paul says that we are not worse off or better off if we eat the food, the same is said for us today. We don’t gain or lose anything in the situation, but we put a brother at risk of losing everything when we are not careful with our knowledge and use it in light of the love we should have for others.

What About My Liberty?

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 eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, 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 brothers 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.

1 Corinthians 8:9–13.

Paul says it right there in verse 9, “take care that you do not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” Paul even goes further to explain that when we do this, and defile the conscience of a believer, we are sinning against him and Christ. We need to do what we can, with the knowledge we have, to make sure that we are not causing a brother or sister in Christ to sin.

What does this look like to us in our context today? We don’t have a temple to a false god in town where people like to go eat. What are the things that I have to be on guard against?

We have to be careful that we do not take the freedom we have, and the knowledge of scripture we have and turn opinion into fact. In the church, we can do this with worship style, version of the Bible, or with the phrase “well, we’ve always…” These things are normally big corporate church problems, though. What about more intimate personal relationships?\

One Bible teacher gave some principles for how we handle our Christian liberty:

We should not flaunt it.

We should not only associate with believers who hold to our opinion

We do not exist only to please ourselves

Our freedom and liberty in Christ do not mean we get to flaunt this to weaker believers, associate with only those like us, or do things only to make me feel good. We have freedom, but that freedom cannot and should not outweigh the love we have for our fellow believers. We must also be careful, though, that we do not fall under the enslavement of another's conscience. We do not want to swing the pendulum to the other side and suddenly become slaves to that. Like I have said, it is a delicate balance.

Paul ends this section by making the very bold statement, “If food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat.” I do not want to do anything that will cause them to stumble. I want to do my best not to be a stumbling block for the brother beside me. I do not want to be the one who opens the door for sin in the life of anyone around me. Our freedom is one of the beautiful benefits of our relationship with Jesus, but it is also a reminder of the responsibility we have.

What If I Stumble?

But what if I stumble? What if I fall into a sin? Or what if I happen to open the door to sin for a brother in Christ? While freedom is beautiful, the love, grace, and mercy of Jesus are even more beautiful!

In our lives, we will make mistakes. We will sin. We are not perfect on this side of heaven! And guess what? God is more than aware of that! We will stumble at times, but that does not negate the work of God in our lives. When we stumble, the worst thing we can do is run from God. We cannot do that.

God is our Father, and maybe you had a bad relationship with your parents and the idea of running to your parent when you messed up sounds like the absolute worst thing you could do. I understand that. But can I tell you something? If you are a follower of Jesus, God is not waiting to come down and crush you when you sin. He waits with open arms to see you seek that forgiveness, dust yourself off, and get back on your feet.

Maybe you are listening to this today, and you are like the prodigal son in Luke 15. Jesus tells us a parable of a son who insists on getting his inheritance early. His father gives it to him, and the son squanders it away. He ends up feeding pigs during a famine and thinks that his father treats his servants better than this, and returns home to be a servant. Luke’s account says that while the son was still a long way off, the father sees him, feels compassion for him, runs to him, embraces him, and welcomes him home, not as a servant but as his son.

God is waiting for you to return. He is not waiting to crush you, but waiting to welcome you home with forgiveness. The price of your sin has been paid by Jesus, so come home. Come to Christ. The bible tells us that we need to repent and believe, that is, that Jesus is our savior.