Imitating Christ

Good morning friends. As we do every week here at Shady Grove we are going to be looking at a text from the Christian Scriptures this morning, and we are continuing our study on the book of 1 Corinthians. So you can go ahead and take out your Bibles or your apps and start opening them up to . If you don’t own a Bible, we have blue paperback Bibles under your chair or in the seat in front of you that you can use. Those are actually our gift to you, so if you do not own a Bible please take that one home with you. We also have some out in the lobby that may be in better condition if you’d like to take one of those.

In our text this morning we are going see how Paul finishes an answer to an issue that was raised all the way back in chapter 8. In this section Paul is summarizing some points he has already made, introduces some new points, and gives us a final exhortation, so this text is a bit difficult to give a neat preaching outline. But if it’s helpful for you in your own mind, my points to tie this all together are the Closing Argument (23-30) and the Final Summons (31-11:1).

Our text this morning closes out the Apostle Paul’s 3 chapter answer, which began in 8:1, to the question of whether or not members of the Corinthian church could eat meat sacrificed to idols. As we finish out the answer to this question this morning, what we will see is that for Paul, it wasn’t really just about idol meat; it was about living a life that was pleasing and glorifying to God. Such a way of life can only happen when we have been transformed by the love of Christ. I pray that this text humbles us, as we consider what it has to say, as we consider Paul’s example, for what it means to truly humble ourselves for the good of others and for God’s glory. So let’s consider God’s Word together and then dig in. Please give it your careful attention as this is God’s word.

1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1 ESV

“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. 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.” 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. 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— I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? 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 try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

This text is closing out a section of the letter that began in Chapter 8:1. So I think it will actually be helpful for us to look at these verses in light of everything that has been said since 8:1. So two points, hopefully easy to remember: 1) It’s about more than idols (summary), 2) It’s about glorifying God.

It’s About More Than Idols

When I became a Christian just over 8 years ago, I immediately had a sense in which I knew everything about my life had changed. I knew deep down in my soul that my thoughts, my actions, my feelings, my life was not my own and that I now needed to live in submission to Christ. And while I knew that to be true, there were areas of my life where I didn’t quite understand what that was supposed to look like.

There were a few areas for me where this was especially true. The first was in my relationship to alcohol. Now, prior to my conversion, much of my social life and entertainment revolved around excessive drinking. It is the life that I, and many of my friends, enjoyed. What did that mean now for me as a Christian? Was I supposed to give up drinking altogether? Was I supposed to stop going out with my friends, potentially ruining those friendships? Could life resume as normal, in an effort to show my friends that Christianity wasn’t as weird as maybe they thought it was? I was confused, and I wanted an easy answer, but I found none.

Another area of my life was entertainment. I started hearing stories about people who supposedly converted to Christianity and burned all their Harry Potter books and Linkin Park CD’s, because that is what it means to be pure and unstained from the world. And while that never seemed quite right to me, I also came to see that the shows I was watching that were saturated with nudity and sex were not pleasing to a Holy God. Again, I was looking for easy answers, but I found none.

And of course, like most young men who are completely unable to figure women out, my new faith caused me to question how I related to women at all. Is dating appropriate, or am I supposed to kiss it goodbye? Do I need to commit to marrying a woman on the first date? Can I still hug my female friends or do I need to learn the art of the awkward Christian side hug?

Those of you who converted to Christianity as an adult likely had to wrestle through questions of your own. These experiences are common to every generation of the faith, in every century, in every place, all the way back to the early church.

The young converts in Corinth had questions of their own they were wrestling with as well. These folks were the hip, young, cool church. They drank their craft beer with thick-rimmed glasses, they were on the cutting edge of culture and society. And they struggled with living their life in submission to Christ while still being present in the world, and not pulling away from it.

And while they struggled with many similar things that we do today, such as alcohol and entertainment, there was one issue that on first glance may seem completely foreign to us today, and that is the issue of food, specifically meat, sacrificed to idols. That’s one of the issues that the Corinthian church originally wrote to Paul about, and to which he is now responding since chapter 8 verse 1:

1 Corinthians 8:1 ESV

Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.

That is the question which has been driving everything that Paul has been saying and that we have been covering for the last several sermons.

Now, I want us to take a step back and get a view of the whole forest for a second. These 12 or so verses really come to life when we understand them as part of the whole. And what I want you to see is how our text this morning really parallels everything that Paul has said up to this point, beginning in chapter 8.

You know what hit me this last week? Many of you, much more alert than me, have probably already thought this. But this question came to my mind: “Why didn’t Paul just give the clear, easy answer here?” The answer seems so obvious. Question: Paul, can we eat meat sacrificed to idols and false gods? Answer: No. Next question.

Right? I mean, isn’t one of the main lessons of the Old Testament, don’t mess with idols? Don’t get near it, don’t be around it, don’t think about it, don’t mess with idolatry and false worship. On top of that, the Jerusalem council in , when the apostles and pastors of the churches met to decide what special instructions to give to the new non-Jewish believers, this was one of the issues they ruled on! When the early church struggled with instructions to give to new converts here’s what they said:

Acts 15:28–29 ESV

For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

And this ruling, and the subsequent letters sent to the churches, happened long before 1 Corinthians. So why didn’t Paul just remind the Corinthian church of what had already been decided? Because he knew that life is too complicated for a simple list we can check off. “here’s what to do when” doesn’t work. But when we begin to see how the grace of God can transform our hearts, then no matter what kind of situation we find ourselves in, we might know how to live, love and obey like Jesus. What we’re seeing in Paul is a real gentleness and an ability to even adapt his language and tone to the questions of these young Christians.

You see idol meat was one of the hot-button issues in Corinth. It was ground zero for much of the conflict between Jewish and Gentile believers. And that is because this issue dramatized three much larger concerns: the problem of boundaries between the church and the culture, the strained relationships between different social groups in the community, and the relationship between knowledge and love as the foundation of the Christian life.

The situation was complicated by two facts. First, it was an accepted social practice to have meals in a temple or some place associated with idol worship. Secondly, most if not all meat sold in the marketplace had been previously sacrificed to some kind of idol. So if you take notice of our text this morning in light of the previous 3 chapters, there are really two separate questions: Can we partake in idol feasts in a temple, and can we eat meat bought in the marketplace if it has been previously sacrificed to an idol?

And the way Paul goes about answering these questions is by using this opportunity to teach the Corinthian church about far more than idol meat. He shows us how to live a life of grace in a way that honors Jesus and draws more people to him. So Paul begins in Chapter 8 , “I’ll tell you what you need to know. Technically idols don’t really exist, so yeah, in one sense you’re free to eat whatever you want. But please do not use this knowledge in a way that could harm another believer, in a way that could harm their conscience, because knowledge is nothing without love. If you aren’t using this knowledge to love others well, then this is no good to you, because you’ll be harming someone else and sinning against Christ.”

In the beginning of Chapter 9 Paul uses his own life as an example. Although he was both a pastor and an apostle who was entitled to compensation from the church in Corinth, he took no money from them because he didn’t want anyone to be able to accuse him of just being in it for the money like all the philosophers of his day. He modeled for them in his own life an example, a life that had been transformed by grace. He had rights, he lays down his rights for the good of others in the church.

And then, coming into Chapter 10, Paul’s argument makes another turn. For, he argues, that we should abstain from participating in idol feasts not only because it might be a temptation to “weaker” believers, not only because we should be willing to sacrifice our rights for others, but also because it puts ourselves in spiritual peril. Don’t even entertain the thought of participating in false worship or temple feasts. You will be lured away from the faith in ways you can’t even imagine.

Let’s pause to press this in for a moment.

Following Jesus means much more than keeping a list of do’s and dont’s. It’s not less than that, but it is much more. Following Jesus, imitating Jesus, means that we are governed in all things by his love and his faithfulness to us. Why didn’t Paul just give the easy answer here? Because life isn’t easy, and a simple list of do’s and don’ts aren’t enough to get us through the realities of life. I was recently reading a historian who said that the Bible is about to go extinct, it’s no longer useful, because it doesn’t deal with all the new advancements in technology and science of the 21st century. But that view is extremely naive. It fails to take into account what the Bible really is. You notice in these chapters that they aren’t really just about idol meat, are they? No, Paul’s greater point is that we be governed by a rule of love and grace that seeks the good of others above our own, that sacrifices our own comforts so that others might come to saving trust in Jesus Christ. This kind of guiding rule can only be obeyed when we ourselves have seen how deep Christ’s love truly goes.

the Scriptures are an inexhaustible treasure of transforming power, wisdom, and guidance. Why didn’t Paul just give the easy answer here? Because life isn’t easy, and a simple list of do’s and don’ts aren’t enough to get us through the realities of life. I was recently reading a historian who said that the Bible is about to go extinct, it’s no longer useful, because it doesn’t deal with all the new advancements in technology and science of the 21st century. But that view is extremely naive. It fails to take into account what the Bible really is. You notice in these chapters that they aren’t really just about idol meat, are they? No, Paul’s greater point is that we be governed by a rule of love that seeks the good of others above our own, that sacrifices our own comforts so that others might know Christ. That rule has the depth to be applied to our lives in a way that can completely transform us, much more than a simple list of do’s and don’ts could ever do.

How do you view what it means to follow Jesus? Do you think of it as simply a list of commands to follow? Perhaps suggestions for being a nicer, kinder, and moral person? Friends, if that is all following Christ is to you, then may I suggest that is a very shallow and incomplete view of what it means to follow Jesus. When I was in college, I went to see a Pink Floyd cover band. They played all the greatest hits, but I would’ve been a fool to think that was the real thing. Have you wrestled with the real Jesus? Because following Christ is not about life alteration, it’s about life transformation. It’s not a surface-level experience, it is a life where our affections, emotions, thoughts and actions are completely changed by the power of God working in us.

Have you been transformed by the love of Christ? How great must his love be! That though each of us in this room have lived a life of sin through our greed, selfishness, indulgence, pride, anger, and hatred, Christ nevertheless came into this world, showing us what real love looks like in his life and in his death, showing us what it means to have victory over sin in his resurrection, and now freely offering himself to each of us in this room who recognize how desperate we really are. He offers his mercy and his grace to every person who calls upon his name, to every person who wants to be made new. He came into the world not so moral and righteous do-gooders could be made even gooder, but so that sinners could be made right with their God and know how deeply loved they are by him.

But if you genuinely want to see your whole life transformed, if you really want to see God make you new, if you want to leave your sin, bitterness, cynicism, addictions, guilt and shame behind, then I have just the thing for you. The words in this book, spoken by God, through human writers under the direction of the Holy Spirit have the power to make you

It’s About Glorifying God

There were a few areas for me where this was especially true. The first was in my relationship to alcohol. Now, prior to my conversion, much of my social life and entertainment came from binge drinking at parties or clubs in DC. It is the life that I, and many of my friends, enjoyed. What did that mean now for me as a Christian? Was I supposed to give up drinking altogether? Was I supposed to stop going out with my friends, potentially ruining those friendships? Could life resume as normal, in an effort to show my friends that Christianity wasn’t as weird as maybe they thought it was? I was confused, and I wanted an easy answer, but I found none.

Those of you who converted to Christianity as an adult likely had to wrestle through similar experiences. These experiences are common to every generation of the faith, in every century, in every place, all the way back to the early church. It might not always be in the areas of alcohol, entertainment and dating, but the questions we have to work through are largely the same.

These were the kinds of questions that the young converts in Corinth were wrestling with as well. They were the hip, young, cool church. They drank their craft beer with thick-rimmed glasses, they were on the cutting edge of culture and society. And they struggled with living their life in submission to Christ while still being present in the world, and not pulling away from it.

1 Corinthians 8:1 ESV

Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.

That is the question which has been driving everything that Paul has been saying and that we have been covering for the last several sermons.

Let me start with something that hit me this week as I was studying these 3 chapters from a higher view and just trying to meditate on what is happening here. Many of you, much more alert than me, have probably already thought this. But this question came to my mind: “Why didn’t Paul just give the clear, easy answer here?” The answer seems to obvious. Question: Paul, can we eat meat sacrificed to idols? Answer: No. Next question.

Right? I mean, isn’t one of the main lessons of the Old Testament, don’t mess with idols? Don’t get near it, don’t be around it, don’t think about it, don’t mess with idolatry and false worship. On top of that, the Jerusalem council in , when they met to decide what special instructions to give to Gentile believers, this was one of the issues they ruled on! When the early church struggled with instructions to give to new, non-Jewish believers, here’s what they said:

Acts 15:28–29 ESV

And this ruling, and the subsequent letters sent to the churches, happened long before 1 Corinthians. So why didn’t Paul just remind the Corinthian church of what had already been decided?

Idol meat was one of the hot-button issues in Corinth. It was what all the so-called discernment bloggers were yelling about on the street corners. It was ground zero for a lot of the strife between Jewish and Gentile believers. And that is because this issue dramatized three much larger concerns: the problem of boundaries between the church and the culture, the strained relationships between different social groups in the community, and the relationship between knowledge and love as the foundation of the Christian life.

The situation was complicated by two facts. First, it was an accepted social practice to have meals in a temple or some place associated with idol worship. Secondly, most if not all meat sold in the marketplace had been previously sacrificed to some kind of idol. So if you’ve been paying attention to the issues Paul has been addressing over these 3 chapters, there are really two separate questions: Can we partake in idol feasts, and can we eat meat bought in the marketplace if it has been previously sacrificed?

And how has he addressed these questions so far? Well, he begins in Chapter 8 by saying, essentially, “I’ll tell you what you need to know. Yeah, technically idols don’t really exist, so yeah, in one sense you’re free to eat whatever you want. But don’t you dare use this knowledge to burden the conscience of another believer, because knowledge is nothing without love. If you aren’t using this knowledge to love others well, then this is no good to you.”

In the beginning of Chapter 9 Paul uses his own life as an example of this principle. Although he was both a pastor and an apostle who was entitled to compensation from his churches, he took no money from them because he didn’t want anyone to be able to accuse him of just being in it for the money like all the philosophers of his day. He modeled for them, in his own life an example, that although he has rights, he lays down his rights for the good of others in the church.

And not just for those in the church but also for all kinds of people outside the church as well. As he continues toward the end of chapter 9, we should be willing to sacrifice our preferences, our opinions, our rights, to the point that we endeavor to take on the burdens and needs of all kinds of people, so that they might hear the gospel and be won to Jesus Christ. Of course, the greater lesson here is that as Christian’s we have all kinds of rights, but we ought to be free and willing to give up those rights for the good of others and the advancement of the gospel.

All of that, and we could go on and on, from one simply question: what about idol feasts? But wait, there’s more! Because it isn’t about the idols and the idol feasts, its about glorifying God.

In Paul’s closing argument now he deals with another situation that allows him to apply this rule of love again. What about when we go to someone’s house, and we know the food has been previously sacrificed? That’s the issue we know Paul is dealing now with because of what he says in verse 25. And now, in regards to this second question, his answer in 12 verses really summarizes the exact same things he has been saying in the previous 3 chapters.

In verse 23, Paul quotes a popular philosophical saying, which he quoted once before in 6:12

1 Corinthians 6:12 ESV

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.

Notice the difference here though. Paul turns the phrase in verse 23 in order to expand upon what he has already said. All things are lawful for me, but not all things build up. He continues that each person should not seek his own good, but his neighbors good first and foremost. That’s the rule of love that we’ve seen running through these chapters.

So while everything on earth belongs to the Lord and everything may be safe for you to use or consume, while you’re entitled to your views and opinions, beware of acting or behaving in such a way that is harmful, rude, or offensive. Above all else, love and seek the good of your neighbor.

Let’s look at how he applies this rule in two situations. Everything on earth belongs to the Lord, verse 26 quoting , so in one sense, everything is safe for you. So if you’re in the privacy of your own home, or even if you’re in someone else’s home, and it doesn’t harm someone else’s conscience for you to eat that meat or drink that drink or have that sensitive conversation, then by all means, do it.

Here is a way that the Christian community ought to completely stand out in our world today. Most people assume that the bonds of community and solidarity ought to be formed on the basis of what we have in common. But in our culture, with the rise of technology and biased news media, we are becoming increasingly polarized and outraged at each other. So now we have created a fast-food version of community; we don’t bond so much anymore based on what we have in common, but we bond together based on who or what we hate. We may not have a lot in common, but at least we can complain about the same people or institutions together.

But you see neither view of community is very healthy. The first view sounds nice, but it ends up being very exclusive. If you’re not like us, go somewhere else, we like who we are, we like what we have in common, and we don’t want that to change. The second view sounds horrible because it is horrible, and yet it is probably more common in practice than the first view is today. Such hatred and outrage makes us cynical, negative, hopeless, with a bleak outlook toward the future.

But don’t flaunt your freedoms publicly if it could harm the faith and conscience of other Christians. This person who Paul uses as an example in verse 28 is someone who has a weak conscience and doesn’t think meat that had been previously offered to an idol should be eaten. Ok, so apply the rule of love then. What should you do? Don’t eat it. Withhold from exercising your right and freedom to eat.

But the Christian community neither bonds on our interests or personalities have in common, nor do we bond against our hatred for those who aren’t like us. Our bond and unity comes from the love with which we have been loved by Christ. When that kind of love transforms a group of people, then we ought not to be exclusive and distant, but open and inviting. Nor should we be cold and cynical, but warm and hopeful.

Because it is more important that we seek to build up someone else, to seek the good of our neighbor, than it is to exercise our own freedoms or rights. That’s what Paul wants us to use our knowledge for. And that means we’re going to need to be willing to follow Jesus into some pretty uncomfortable situations. We’re going to need to be willing to follow Jesus and spend time with people who aren’t like us, much like Matthew following Jesus to dine with some uncomfortable people.

Of course there are two extremes that we need to avoid here. Some Christian communities are so care free that they are in danger of sliding into a kind of worldly indulgence. We celebrate everything the culture celebrates, and participate in everything the culture does. Paul warns us against that very clearly earlier in Chapter 10. Keep watch over your soul. But the other extreme that we are in danger of is having a cramped, fearful posture, consumed with cynicism and skepticism about God’s creation and so we draw inward in order to fear contamination. And under this extreme, we are fearful about even engaging with the culture or using the culture’s language because we think we’re going to slide into indulgence like the first group.

Under which extreme do you tend to fall? It’s not too difficult to know this about ourselves. Do you agree with most of what you see and hear in our culture? Are you troubled when you see a friend fall into sin? Have you given up any cultural goods in order to follow Jesus? If not, then you’re probably in danger of being in the first group.

But if you find yourself with a constant negative posture toward our culture, if you’re always looking at current events and reading the news with a posture of critique and criticism, if you assume the worst in others and jump to the worst possible conclusions

I once served in a church where

Now here is where it gets really interesting for us. Verse 31. What a great verse. One that many of us probably know by heart…

We love that around here. We champion it. Whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. But what I’ve noticed tends to happen in many of our churches is that we use this verse and this phrase in a limited way. So often we make it all about personal piety and personal holiness; make sure you’re praying enough, reading your Bible, having your quiet time, going to church and all of that.

And these things are good and great and essential ways for us to glorify God with our lives and so by no means do we want to minimize knowing God with our minds or seeking God in our personal disciplines. But let us not miss what is right in front of us in this passage! When Paul says whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God, what is he referring to? A life that is expressed in love and mercy. Building up others, verse 23, seeking the good of your neighbor above yourself, verse 24, protecting the conscience of others, verse 29, giving no offense to others, verse 32, seeking the advantage of others, verse 33. Its using our freedom, our liberty, our new life in Christ, for the sake of others above our own. This too gives glory to God.

Is this kind of love really possible? Is it really possible to please everyone in everything? To seek the advantage of everyone else above our own? No, no its not. Because to live in a way that pleases one group of people is to live in a way that displeases another group of people. No, I suppose the only way for us to accommodate ourselves to the standards of different cultural, socio-economic groups of people is if we agree just to not live together. Living and serving with people who are decades apart from us in age is just too difficult. People today are so angry at each other that it really just makes me too uncomfortable to engage with someone different than me. Besides, our society is governed by the rule of individualism, not a rule of love. Why not just go along with it? Nevermind that we are incredibly lonely and there is little sense of community and solidarity, at least I am in control.

So no, maybe its just for the best that we keep to ourselves and people like us. Maybe thats just the best we can do.

Unless...

Unless there was a group of people, it wouldn’t need to be a very large group, maybe just a few hundred people, who came together not because of what they had in common but because how deeply they knew they had been loved. They would have to be a group of people who knew that despite their differences, they had experienced an amazing kind of love, a love that has to come from outside of themselves, self-love won’t do. This love would have to come from one and the same person, such that this people might be wild enough to call each other family. The difficulty would be that they would have to realize that as mean, cruel, selfish, and irritable as they are, that someone else actually loved them enough to do anything for them, even if it meant dying for them. This would be humbling to be sure, after all, who among us really wants to admit all of our faults, to admit that we don’t have it all together, to admit the secret thoughts of our hearts?

It’s a crazy idea I know. But it just might be crazy enough to work. After all, such a group of people, having been so loved, just might be moved to love others in a way that would make the watching world’s jaw drop.

And perhaps this is exactly Paul’s point. For when he closes this section by exhorting his audience to “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ,” he is reminding us of exactly this kind of astounding love that Christ has shown to us. For just as we have seen Paul abandon his rights, preferences, habits, language, and freedoms for others, he points us to Christ. The eternal Son of God who, though he was equal with the Father did not count equality a thing to be grasped but instead humbled himself to the dust, seeking our advantage above his own, by taking on all of the pain and the hurt for our sin, so that we could be made right with God.

This is Us example...

When we see or hear stories like that, each of us instantly recognizes this as an act of amazing love. And deep down, we all know we want to be recipients of such love. But I think the difficulty for most of us is not admitting that we want to be loved, it is seeing ourselves as someone who is deserving of such love. Deep down we know, I’ve done nothing to deserve that kind of love, in fact quite the opposite. I’m not a lovable person at all. I’m a burden. I’ve done great harm. I’m nothing special.

And this is exactly what makes the love of God in Jesus Christ so incredible. We don’t deserve it. We’ve caused great harm to ourselves and others. Like the younger brother, we’ve disqualified ourselves from being loved. And yet, Christ still says, I must go after them. I love them too much to let them go. I must bring them home.

This table set before us is a reminder of how deep Christ’s love for us truly goes. The bread broken is a reminder of his real body that was broken for our sake. The cup that we drink is a reminder of the real blood that was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. This meal is set at a table of love, and the invitation is open for all those who have trusted Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and so desire now to glorify God with their lives. As the bread and the cup come to you please take, eat, and be reminded of Jesus’ present love for you.

If you’re here this morning and you have not yet turned to Christ in faith for the forgiveness of your sins, we’re really glad that you’re here this morning. This is a great place for you to be, to ask questions about Jesus, and to feel the expressions of a community who is seeking to love others the way they themselves have been loved by Christ. But we would ask you not to take the bread and the cup as it comes to you this morning. That isn’t because we are trying to be exclusive in any way, but its because without faith, this is just a piece of cracker and a small cup of juice. Instead, we would ask you to consider this Jesus, who traveled an infinitely great distance to show you his love and to bring you home. Not because you deserved it, but because his love is infinitely great. He offers himself freely to you, if you will receive it.