Knowledge that Matters

Introducing the Passage:

1001 Illustrations that Connect Illustration 228: The Poison in Everyday Things

The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the deadliest appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable and almost incurable.

The section that we are walking into deals with apparent questions about whether believers can eat meat at the idol’s temple that is sacrificed to that an idol (). In this culture, it was a practice that was woven throughout the entire culture. It was a way to fellowship with others. It was woven into their politics. It was part of the fabric of life. Better, the question coming from these believers was “Why can’t we eat the meat that is sacrificed to idols at the temple?”

For a believer to reject an unbeliever’s invitation to such and occasion could be perceived as a personal rejection. This could cause an offense. The temples in Corinth provided private banqueting rooms that could be rented out. They would be rented out for receptions and occasions similar to what we would celebrate today.

It is very difficult to find a relevant application in a simple fashion today. When someone, in that time, partook of the meat sacrificed to the idols, they were partaking in the worship of that false god.

There are cultural idols, such as military power, technological progress, and economic prosperity. The idols of traditional societies include family, hard work, duty, and moral virtue, while those of Western cultures are individual freedom, self-discovery, personal affluence, and fulfillment. All these good things can and do take on disproportionate size and power within a society. They promise us safety, peace, and happiness if only we base our lives on them.

We should make a distinction between and this passage...

Keller, Timothy (2009-10-20). Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters . Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

APPLICATION: You must not only see these as a potential threat to you, but you must understand that your selfish knowledge can cause you to be inconsiderate of someone else in the same culture and thereby lead to their destruction rather than their construction.

(1) Pride and love are contrasted

Interpretation:

(a) What is the mark of true Christian love? (v. 1) a self-denying edification [The Mark of True Christian Love] - This is a Caution for Know-it-Alls (v. 1)

(i) “Now as...” - & 8:1 The Corinthians had written to Paul about this issue. It would seem that this question existed. The importance of this needs to be considered in a cultural context. Culturally, social status was increased by going to these banquetings.

(ii) “things offered to idols” - See The believer in Christ is not free to be an idolator (syncretism, subtle polytheism)

(iii) “knowledge” - -

All Christians possess knowledge, but not all Christians know as they are meant to know. - Garland

Best explanation:

Garland, David E. (2003-11-01). 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Kindle Locations 8611-8612). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Paul is probably affirming that all Christians have some knowledge that they share in common, especially the knowledge that the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the one true God. In the following argument, however, Paul refers to a kind of knowledge that was not shared by all Christians, a knowledge that separated Christians who possessed it from Christians who did not (cf. vv. 7, 10–11). That knowledge seems to have been what they incorrectly considered a logical implication of biblical monotheism, namely, that idols and idolatry carried no meaning or significance whatsoever.

Ciampa, R. E., & Rosner, B. S. (2010). The First Letter to the Corinthians (pp. 374–375). Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

(iv) “puffeth up” - - to have an exaggerated self-conception

The verb “to puff up” occurs also in 4: 6, 18, 19; 5: 2; 13: 4 (cf. ) and always has a negative connotation. What puffs up ruptures community and makes for a flimsy basis on which to build anything. [Garland, David E. (2003-11-01). 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Kindle Locations 8618-8619). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. ]

(v) “charity edifieth” -

Love will be further developed in , but its’ usage here is to point out that knowledge that puffs up is destructive, but love is constructive. What is charity edifying? It is edifying the faith of others?

Principle:

The Lord does care about how what we know causes us to live towards other believers.

Illustration:

A unique group of experts — those who see the impact of heroin on the community as first responders or treatment providers — shared Friday some of their frustrations and growing concerns about the area’s heroin epidemic.

Heroin is costing taxpayers in communities throughout Butler County millions of dollars annually. From police, fire and EMS response to court costs and even, in some cases, burials for those who die, communities say their budgets are feeling the impact of heroin.

“Just don’t think that this is just in the inner cities,” Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said Friday during a forum about heroin in West Chester Twp. “This has shifted out into the county. It is out everywhere.”

More than 40 percent of the 453 cases handled by the Butler County Coroner’s Office last year were overdose related, and 80 percent of last year’s 192 overdoses were heroin/fentanyl-related overdose deaths, according to Butler County Coroner Dr. Lisa Mannix.

In 2015, firefighters, paramedics and other first responders administered naloxone 19,782 times in Ohio.

Jones is not a fan of naloxone, or Narcan, being used to help revive addicts, he said, because deputies are not armed with it. Nor is he a supporter of any levy that puts money toward prevention programs.

Officials in Middletown, the Butler County community that saw the highest number of deaths from heroin cut with fentanyl (52) last year, estimates as much as 90 percent of public safety services are connected to fighting the drug.

It is sad how there are ripple affects - others are impacted in a negative manner.

Application:

The test of whether you know the wisdom of the cross as you ought to know is seen in whether that knowledge causes you to build up others in the body of Christ.

(i) We see this in salvation history - Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

(ii) Husbands, how has what you know strengthened the faith of your wife in Jesus Christ?

(iii) Singles, would you consider that what you know is a selfish, self-preserving knowledge or has it been used to strengthen a believer’s faith in devotion to Christ?

(iv) Ladies, has it ever occured to you that the activities are not for you to be entertained but for you to strengthen the faith of other sisters in Christ?

(v) College students, has it ever occurred to you that the knowledge you received in one year of college was for the purpose of strengthening the faith of other believers at your home church?

“If any man...” - This is a Contrast for the Know-It-Alls (v. 2 - 3)

(b) What is true about the Christian who gloats in Christian liberty? (v. 2) he really does not know Christ as he ought to know Christ [The Man who Gloats in Christian Liberty]

The believer in Christ should

(c) What is true that should keep the Christian humble? (v. 3) that God knows him [The Marvel that leads to the Christian’s Lowliness] -

The believer in Christ must be perpetually humbled by the knowledge that really matters. This knowledge leads the believer to single devotion.

Quote:

What makes a person a Christian is not so much your knowing God but His knowing of you. “To know” in the Bible means more than intellectual awareness. To know someone is to enter into a personal relationship with him or her. So then, Paul says, it’s not so much your regard and love for God, but rather His regard and love of you, that really makes you a Christian. Paul says in that anyone who loves God does so because God knows them. [Keller, Timothy (2013-02-10). Galatians For You (God's Word For You) (p. 94). The Good Book Company. Kindle Edition.]

Keller, Timothy (2013-02-10). Galatians For You (God's Word For You) (p. 94). The Good Book Company. Kindle Edition.

Why would Paul give this contrast in this chapter on idolatry and food sacrificed to idols? It is because when we are not secure or assured that God loves us, we go about to make idols to try to find acceptance. It is such an important theological truth that in Paul not only is NOT concerned about what they think about him, but Paul is not concerned about what he thinks about himself.

SLIDE:

Keller - “The great and central basis of Christian assurance is not how much our hearts are set on God, but how unshakably His heart is set on us. And if we begin to grasp that we are ‘known by God’, we won’t seek to bolster our self-image or standing before Him through our works. We won’t worship any idol - we will love Him, the One who knows us.”

SLIDE:

There is, certainly, great cause for humility in the thought that he sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow humans do not see (and am I glad!), and that he sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose. We cannot work these thoughts out here, but merely to mention them is enough to show how much it means to know not merely that we know God, but that he knows us.

Packer, J. I. (2011-09-26). Knowing God (pp. 45-46). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

Principle:

The fact that we are known of God should humble us, assure us, and lead us to devoted worship of the Lord.

Illustration:

Application:

(i) Studying the scriptures should not only be a time to get to know God but a time where we are reminded that we are known of God.

(ii) Being known of God is only possible by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

(iii) Being known of God should lead us to identify and root out any rival gods.

We think that idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life....A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.

Keller, Timothy (2009-10-20). Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters . Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Keller, Timothy (2009-10-20). Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters . Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

What do you fear the most?

What, if you lost it, would make life not worth living?

Concluding thought:

What we know should lead to constructive rather than destructive living towards others.

That we are known should cause us to be devoted in worship to the one true God. The expression of this worship should be evident in the body of believers.

(2) Pagan and Christian worship is contrasted

(3) Proper Christian liberty is clarified