Food for Thought
Practical Church (1 Corinthians) • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewPaul discusses food sacrificed to idols
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Announcements
Good morning. Welcome to Southern Hills Baptist Church. Thank you for joining us today.
If you are a first-time guest with us, you will find a Connection Card in the pew rack in front of you. We would appreciate it if you would fill that out and place it in the offering plate. That gives us a record of your visit and allows us the opportunity of reaching out to you this week to answer any questions that you might have.
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See bulletin for Calendar Updates
If you are a guest with us, know that this is our weekly Family Worship service. Our children will remain with us for the entire service. We do have a nursery available for children under 4 just down the hall if you would like to use it.
Please stand as I read our Call to Worship.
Call To Worship
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Let us come before the God who takes away our guilt and atones for our sin by the blood of the Lamb.
Opening Hymn
Scripture & Prayer: Pastor Atreju
Song #1
Missions Minute: MISSION PARTNER
Today is Pentecost Sunday. Originally celebrated in the Old Testament as the Feast of Weeks, it marked 7 weeks after Passover and the end of barley harvest and beginning of the wheat harvest. It was one of three major festivals each year which required a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Jews would come to celebrate and to bring their tithes and offerings to the temple.
For Christians, Pentecost (the word meaning “50 days” after Passover) was the day that the Holy Spirit came after Jesus’ ascension into heaven. For 10 days or so, the disciples had been in hiding awaiting The Helper that Jesus would send. And on Pentecost, with Jews gathered from all over the Roman Empire, He came.
Acts 2 tells us that the Spirit descended on the disciples of Jesus and that they went into the squares speaking in every known language, so that each man and woman and child heard the good news of Jesus in their own native tongue. This was the beginning of the church. 3,000 were added to their number that day as the nations began to submit to the authority of King Jesus.
You say, “Pastor, that is great. But what does that have to do with missions?”
This historical day of Pentecost was the day that the church began the work of reclaiming all nations for Jesus. He told the disciples that they would “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””
And that is what they did. The church grew because of the testimony of the disciples. They went and proclaimed the good news of Jesus as King in the power of the Holy Spirit. And this call continues for the church today.
We must go in the power of the Spirit and make disciples, baptizing and teaching them the Word, even to the ends of the earth.
As we celebrate the anniversary of the coming of the Holy Spirit, I commission you—this morning—to do the same.
Offering & Prayer
Song #2 (Way Maker)
Lord’s Supper
Please be seated.
(beat)
We just spoke of the Feast of Weeks, which was celebrated in the Spring. In the Fall each year, Jews celebrated another festival called the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Booths. Again, they would travel to Jerusalem to celebrate the ripening of fruit crops and to give their tithes and offerings at the temple.
Every year, Jesus’ family would have traveled to Jerusalem for this festival and camped in tents to remind them of the Hebrew’s 40 years in the wilderness. But as we will see in John 7, Jesus was busy this year with His ministry In Galilee. This “Miracle Worker” was doing His Father’s work and it was not yet time for Him to travel into the mouth of the lions.
We’re going to continue our reading about Jesus from the book of John. Today we will begin chapter 7:
After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” After saying this, he remained in Galilee.
At this time, I am going to have our ushers come forward. If you are a follower of Jesus, in that you have accepted Him as Savior, bowed to Him as King, and been baptized in obedience to His commandment, we invite you to participate with us. In just a moment, we will pass the plates. Please take a piece of bread and a cup and hold it until we take together.
Pass
Instruction from Jesus: Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Prayer of Blessing on bread and cup
Song #3
Pastoral Prayer
World -
Country-
State-
City-
SHBC-
Introduction
If you have your bibles this morning, please turn with me to the book of 1 Corinthians.
We have made it to chapter 8, which marks the halfway point of the book of 1 Corinthians. So far, we have seen Paul writing to both encourage and instruct a church in disarray.
They have moved beyond their love for Jesus their Savior and have chosen to love teachers, their spiritual gifts, and most of all—themselves.
And Paul has been calling them back to the basic understanding of the gospel and of foundational truth. He has been asking this dysfunctional church family to submit themselves to the Scriptures and to King Jesus alone. This call was designed to sober them from their drunkenness and division and bring them back into the unity of the body.
Ultimately, the letter serves as practical advice to an ancient church full of ancient problems. And yet, it remains practical for us today—for our modern churches have all of the same fundamental issues. Selfishness and sin corrupt those church members who refuse to put it to death on a daily basis.
Over the last few chapters, Paul has been calling the believers to purity and giving advice to those church members who are married, single, and widowed.
This week, Paul turns his attention to food and idolatry.
[TITLE SLIDE]
So as we discuss all of chapter 8 today, I felt that a pun was in order. For as we discuss the meat of animals and the idols that stand behind them, I will offer you some modern day “food for thought.”
Look with me, starting in verse 1:
[MAIN PASSAGE SLIDE x5]
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” 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. (/)
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.
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. We are 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 is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
In the ancient world, it was common for people—just as we do—to go and buy meat at their local market. However, unlike those of us in the West, the meat sold at the markets in the Ancient Near East was commonly coming out of pagan temples.
There, pagan priests had sacrificed an animal to a pagan god before sending it off to the market to gain a profit for the temple. And while this wasn’t a concern for Jews and Christians in Jerusalem, it certainly was for the rest of the Roman Empire.
Paul is writing to a church in one of the larger Roman cities, with over half a million people in the area. There is evidence of at least two-dozen pagan temples in Corinth at the time the Paul is writing, and so the chance that the meat in the Corinthian markets came from one of these temples is extremely high. And it seems that some of the believers in the church at this time are concerned about this.
And while we don’t typically need to worry about this as we go to the grocery store, there is plenty for us to learn here in this passage.
So, as we dig in this morning, we will find that Paul is using a rhetorical argument to get his point across to them. He will start by acknowledging their comment in their letter to him, before he goes on to correct their thinking.
[POINT 1 SLIDE]
Knowledge v. Love (vv 1-3)
He begins this by comparing and contrasting two ideas in verses 1 through 3: that of knowledge and love. Jump back with me to verse 1:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” 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.
Paul starts off chapter 8 in the same way that he started chapter 7–by saying “Now concerning.” It is clear then, just as it was in chapter 7, that he is responding to something they said in their letter to him. In this case, food offered to idols.
Many interpreters believe that Paul is quoting their letter by saying that “all of us possess knowledge,” or “we all have knowledge.” It appears here—and throughout the letter—that some of the Corinthians are misusing their knowledge to do whatever they want and that it is contributing to the division in the church.
Paul responds to their quote by warning them that “knowledge puffs up.” What does he mean by this? This word translates “puffs” is the Greek word physioo. It is a verb describing an inflating ego or growing arrogance within a person. It is in a present and active tense.
That is to say that at the moment one begins to glory in their own knowledge, their arrogance expands. We use an idiom to describe this same thing, saying that someone is “getting a big head.”
Paul is the only person in the New Testament to use this verb. And out of his 7 uses of the word, 6 of them are in this letter. That should tell us what kind of people that Paul is correcting for causing division in Corinth. They are a people full of pride and arrogance.
3 days ago, Clark County in Nevada held a Commission Meeting, where they allowed the invocation to be given by a member of The Satanic Temple. He closed his unholy prayer with these words, “Hail Satan! The archetype of the bringer of knowledge, and hail thyself.”
From the very beginning, this enemy of God has offered knowledge to humankind, but delivered only death. These worshippers of Satan ultimately worship themselves. They are woefully unrepentant, just as their forefather Cain was. Paul speaks of these types of people to the Roman church in chapter 1 of his letter:
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.
Such knowledge draws one’s heart away from God and toward His creation: mainly to the self. And Paul responds in two ways to these men who “possess knowledge.”
In verse 2, Paul challenges this idea directly. He says that “if anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to.” The literal translation in Greek here is something like, “if someone thinks they understand, they have not yet understood what they should.”
Paul’s point here is that the knowledge that they are boasting in is prideful human wisdom. Using that knowledge as an excuse to fulfill their selfish desires reveals that they still have much to learn from the Holy Spirit.
Instead of inflating their egos through human knowledge, they should instead consider their knowledge as foolishness. For as Paul wrote in chapter 1, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”
They should consider such knowledge as nothing and turn to the wisdom of God.
They should stop looking inward and instead look outward. It is not knowledge—after all—that strengthens the body, but love. He says that“Love builds up.”
By way of comparison then, Paul presents knowledge and love as opposites. If knowledge puffs up one’s ego, then love deflates it. And if love builds up another person, then knowledge tears them down.
Love is at the heart of Godly wisdom, because—as the bible says—God is love. John says that “whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
We spoke about abiding in God last week. It is only the person who abides in God who regularly has access to Godly wisdom through the abiding Holy Spirit. And as the Spirit fills them and shapes them into the image of Christ, they cannot be helped but be filled with His love. It pours out of them.
Do you want to know how well you are abiding in Christ? Look to your ego.
Do you still find evidence of arrogance in your life? Or has your pride been sufficiently killed off? Pride is like a weed that grows in the field, stealing nutrients from the good plant. It needs to be put to death.
For pride and love cannot work together. Love is not prideful at all. In fact, as Paul will tell us when we get to chapter 13, “love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.”
As Yoda would say it, “knowledge leads to the dark side. But love, humble it is.”
Love is rooted in humility. This is the example that Jesus gave us. He had access to the mind of God through the Holy Spirit and communed more fully with the Father in His humanity than we ever will. But He didn’t use his mind to humiliate others and lift Himself up. He didn’t try to leverage His knowledge for His own benefit.
Instead He humbled himself to the role of a servant. He came to show us God’s love in action. His entire focus was on reconnecting human imagers with the image-maker in heaven. He was rebuilding the relationship that was broken by bringing people into proper alignment with the Father.
And He exemplified the Fathers love by the power of the Spirit because He was constantly abiding in that relationship. He took on the heart of God because of His deep communion with God. And the result of that communion was love.
Look with me to verse 3: “But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.”
This is an interesting statement. Notice that Paul doesn’t say that the one who loves God knows God, rather the one who loves God is known by God…
What does it mean to be known by God?
(Beat)
The word “know” here is the generic word in Greek for know or understand. In fact, this comes from the same root word that Paul has just used twice in verse 2. But his use of it here is passive unlike the other two uses. In verse 3, it speaks of something that happens to a person by God.
It speaks of God’s active role in the life of His children. It points to His intimacy with them. The All-Knowing Creator God doesn’t just know everything about His children, He knows them intimately. He has communed with them, just as a Good Father does with His children.
But for those running away from God, He may know everything abut you, but you have never had intimacy with Him. In this sense, you cannot truly know God and He does not truly know you.
To say that God knows those who love Him is to say that He knows His children. It is familial language. Nahum 1:7 says that God “knows those who take refuge in Him.” And Paul tells Timothy in his second letter that “the Lord knows those who are his.”
In John chapter 10, Jesus says that He has taken on this authority from the Father. He is “the Good Shepherd” and He knows His own sheep. Jesus loves the sheep and proves it to them by caring for them, guiding them, and protecting them. They—in return—love and trust Him. And it is through this relationship that He has come to know them.
For it is family that truly knows one another. Family sees each other at their best and at their worst. And because God created us and wanted us to be part of His family—He shares His love with us. And we image Him well when we share that love with others—especially our brothers and sisters in Christ.
For we were once slaves to sin. But because of His great love, God has called us and adopted us into His family. Look with me at what Paul says to the church in Galatia:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE x4]
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. (/) But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (/) So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. (/) But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
Paul rebukes the Galatians for abandoning the family of God. He said that God had adopted them into His family, giving them an inheritance of glory alongside King Jesus, but many were turning back to sin.
Paul cannot conceive how one who has had intimacy with God could turn back to the elementary principles of the world. Just as many of the Hebrews did in Sinai—wishing that they were back in Egypt—it seems that the Galatians miss the familiarity of their sin. Instead of enjoying their new freedom, they want to once again be “enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.”
[POINT 2 SLIDE]
gods v. God (vv 4-6)
The Corinthians agreed with Paul. They had been freed from their enslavement to the Greek and Roman gods and now believed in only one Most High God. And it seems that in their letter to Paul, they have shrugged off fellowship with those sacrificing to idols.
Those church members writing the letter don’t seem to concerned about such fellowship. They continue to commune with their former pagan associates in public halls and trade guilds, and possibly even in their former pagan temples—all because they know there is only one God.
Paul is going to correct their thinking throughout the rest of chapter 8. But first, just as he did in verse 1, he will acknowledge some agreement with their statement. Look with me at verse 4:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
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.”
He agrees that an idol has no real existence and that there is only one God. But for us to rightly understand what he means, we must study the context of both the letter and of the bible as a whole.
It is clear that from the time of Abraham, the Hebrews believed that there was only one God. God Himself told them and instructed His people in the law not to “turn to idols” or to “make idols.”
The Israelites came into constant contact with pagan nations all around them and they saw these idols made from wood and stone and silver and gold. These idols were tangible objects made by human hands to represent their pagan gods.
In fact, they believed that part of the spirit of their god would come and reside in the idol itself. In that way, the idol not only represented their god, but held real power of that god.
In his first letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul commends the Thessalonians for turning “from idols to serve the living and true God.”
So here, in verse 4, he acknowledges to the Corinthians that “an idol has no real existence,” but what does he mean by that? Does he mean that these so-called pagan gods that these idols represent are not real?
No. That is not what he means to say at all.
He is pointing out that an idol is not animated in the likeness of the pagan god that it is designed for. But there is real power behind these idols.
Paul elaborates in chapter 10:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.
The pagan gods are false gods, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t real. They are created beings masquerading themselves as gods. Paul calls them demons.
The pagan nations serve these lesser supernatural beings because they have disobeyed God and have been deceived by these beings into giving them worship. Let me elaborate from the biblical story:
In Genesis 11, we are told the story of the Tower of Babel. The humans descended from Noah disobeyed God—refusing to spread out and fill the earth. Instead of bringing glory to Yahweh God, they tried to make their own name great. God punished their disobedience by giving them discipline.
He disinherited the people and spread them out over all the earth, mixing up their languages and setting borders for each nation. And it appears that when God did this, part of the discipline of the nations was that they were no longer able to have access to Him. Instead, He appointed some of His supernatural imagers—what we know as angels—to rule justly over these nations.
Then, he called out one man from those nations—Abram—to make a new people, through whom He would bless and restore all other nations.
But these angels—God’s supernatural stewards over the nations—began to desire worship for themselves, so they instructed the people to set up idols and to begin to offer them worship. They twisted the goodness of God’s design for their own benefit. Instead of stewarding the people well, they turned them away from God.
Back to our text, Paul agrees with the Corinthians that an idol is nothing, but he wants to remind them that there is real spiritual power at work behind the idol.
He also reminded the church at Ephesus of this reality:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
In this tangible world of things seen and heard and touched, it is easy for us to forget that there is a real spiritual reality playing out behind the veil. These cosmic powers desire to distract us from obedience to the Most High God.
Church, there are spiritual rulers and powers that want to keep you separated from God forever. And you need to know that they will use every tool that they have to accomplish that. We are embroiled in a spiritual war for souls.
And it is only the church—imbued by the power of the Holy Spirit—who fights against Satan and his servants—both supernatural and human.
All others are willing accomplices.
Paul continues in verse 5:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
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.
Paul continues his agreement with those who wrote to him, saying that even though there are many gods and lords, they both know that there is only one true God—Yahweh the Father—and one true Lord—Jesus His Son. For it is from Father and Son that all things have been created and all things hold together.
But what of these competing “gods” and “lords?”
We have explored the reality of these so-called gods: that they were spiritual imagers of the Most High, created for the purpose of being part of His supernatural family and to image Him well in helping to manage all that He created.
Paul does not deny the existence of these pagan gods, but He is clear that they are created beings who have no power and authority that does not come from the Most High God. Paul details this in his speech to the Athenians in Acts 17. There he finds an altar to an unknown god, and he proclaims Yahweh to them—not denigrating the Greek and Roman gods, but claiming that there is One who reigns so much higher than they—One who created all things.
Unlike their gods, the Most High God does not need to be propped up and served by human hands. In fact, we see God’s Almighty power over these pagan gods throughout the Old Testament. In Exodus, He is proven more powerful than the Egyptian gods. In 1 Samuel, He is proven more powerful than Dagon of the Philistines. In 1 Kings, He is proven as more powerful than Ba’al at Mt. Carmel. And that is not to speak of His power over Chemosh, Molech, Asherah, and others.
So, it is clear who these many competing gods are. But who are these competing lords?
The word lord in Greek is kurios. It simply means master. Some individuals in the churches under Paul’s influence were indentured servants, who worked under a master. For others in the Roman Empire, the local magistrate stood in as their master. And for free Roman Citizens, Caesar himself was their lord.
And while each of these offices should be respected by the Christian because their authority to rule comes from God, none of them are worthy of worship.
The Roman Emperors, especially, became known for their belief of divine appointment. They called themselves the son of god and many of the later Caesars even demanded worship from their citizens.
These are the lords that Paul is speaking of. Caesar may call himself lord and savior, son of god, and even the king of kings, but only Jesus can rightfully hold those titles. For one day, every knee shall bow to Him—including Caesar’s.
And Paul knows that there are other kings and emperors outside of Rome who also are inflated by their great knowledge and power. So, his point to the Corinthians is that there are many gods and lords compete for their attention and worship, but there is only One who is worthy.
“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.”
Paul agrees with their statement, offering this clarification: that we must acknowledge the real and unseen war that rages for the affection of humankind.
[POINT 3 SLIDE]
Weak v. Strong (vv 7-13)
And with that foundational understanding, he now offers them some practical advice to the church. Look with me to verse 7:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
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. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
Paul says that even though we know that there is only one God, and that the power behind these idols are demons masquerading as lesser gods, that they may—by partaking in eating this meat—be hurting those within the church whose consciences are weak.
And by those who have weak consciences, he means those that are immature in faith, whether they are new believers or simply sensitive to certain issues.
Paul speaks of something similar in Romans chapter 14:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
Paul’s concern is that the strong in faith will look down on those weaker, and that the weak will despise the stronger. It is a concern of division in the church. And this is the same reason that the Apostles in Jerusalem wrote to the Gentile churches in Acts 15, instructing them to “abstain from the things polluted by idols.”
The reason for this was not legalistic. The old food laws had been abolished. The strong may be able to partake with clear conscience and a heart aligned with God, but there may still be an issue if it causes church division.
Jews following Jesus in the church will want to dissociate themselves from this person. And the weak may be bitter and divided because of the actions of the strong. Paul continues his advice:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
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.
Paul acknowledges their right to use their freedom that they have in Christ, but he warns them to be careful, because their actions may become a “stumbling block to the weak.”
The idea here is that we should be careful how we use our Christian freedom because our actions may influence another in a way that pushes them further away from Christ.
Let’s take drinking for an example. Drinking alcohol, in an of itself, is not a sin. Drunkenness- yes. Underage drinking which violates the good laws of man—yes. But to have an alcoholic drink does not violate God’s moral law.
However, if you have a brother in the church who is a recovering alcoholic, are you helping him by drinking in front of him? Are you helping him if he drives by and sees your car at the corner bar?
Will he not be encouraged to think that he can control his liquor? Will he not be encouraged to think it is okay to hang out in a place that is constant temptation to him?
You have used your Christian freedom without violating conscience, and yet you may have violated your brother’s conscience. Without meaning to, you may have set him on a road that takes him further from Christ.
(Beat)
Or maybe you encounter a neighbor who knows you are a Christian and has a cultural expectation that Christians should not drink. Will he not think of you as a hypocrite? Will explaining your Christian freedom bring him closer to Christ when you have already violated his moral expectation?
And we can say that same for other uses of our Christian freedom. We must take this seriously, for our actions have consequences—many of them unintended. Paul continues in verse 12:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
Now Paul takes this even further. He says, “church member, if you violate the conscience of your brother, you are sinning against your Lord and Master, King Jesus.”
And then, he offers his own example, which he will go on to explain to us in chapter 9: “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.”
Paul would rather give up meat forever than to potentially hinder someone’s relationship with Christ.
Now, that is a hard one for me—giving up meat. I’d probably be trying to sneak bacon into a closet…
But how am I helping my brother when he smells a it on my breath or sees brisket in my teeth?…
(Beat)
Church, this is the call to put the self to death. Are you willing to give up some of your Christian freedoms for the sake of your weaker brother and sister? Are you willing to walk away from knowledge and build them up in love?
You will not catch me in town at a bar having an alcoholic drink—not because it is wrong, but because I don’t want my actions to be a hindrance to the gospel.
How can I win and disciple my neighbors if I have violated their conscience or expectation?
[PREVIEW SLIDE]
Application
We are going to be digging into this topic of Christian freedom over the next few weeks. Go home and read chapter 9 ahead of next week.
And I want you to ask yourself this question: How can I better care for the souls of those around me?
(Beat)
How do the things that you do and watch and say affect the hearts of those around you?
Will you seek to demonstrate love to others and build them up through service and encouragement?
Will you steward their hearts well?
Will your actions draw them closer to Jesus or push them further away?
(beat)
Back in the garden, God was trying to slowly shape the hearts of Adam and Eve, teaching them patiently how to image Him well by exercising dominion in love. But the serpent offered them a shortcut. “You can have all of the knowledge and power now with none of the responsibility…”
Out in the desert, he offered Jesus the same thing—a shortcut to the throne of this world. But Jesus answered differently than Adam did. He took the slow road of responsibility, putting His own desires to death for the sake of mankind. He was the true imager of God, the One who showed us how to exercise our dominion in love.
And He sacrificed Himself so that we could be reunited in relationship with God. He broke our chains to sin and gave us freedom.
For those of us saved by His grace, the only question we have to answer is “how will we use that freedom?”
We will follow in His example and put our desires to death for the sake of others?
Or will we abuse our Christian freedom to satisfy what remains or our wicked hearts?
Invitation
If you are here this morning and you have not yet chosen to follow Jesus, today is the day. The world offers you this so-called knowledge. Satan—as its false god and lord—offers you a shortcut. He says that you can have all of the pleasures of the world with none of the work. And yet, you will find that there are severe consequences that come from following the enemies of God.
Jesus offers you a better way. Yes, the work is slow and difficult. But only He can offer you love. Only He can offer you blessing and security and unearned grace. Come to Him and walk with us as we follow the One who died so that we might have life.
CLOSE IN PRAYER
CLOSING HYMN
CONGREGATIONAL BLESSING
