Love Limits our Liberties

3: Love Limits our Liberties

Before we jump into our passage for the evening, I would like to ask a few questions. I want you to see if you can answer the questions in your own head. Alright here we go.

Before e jump iMost of us know that as Christians

Should Christian’s listen to secular music?

Is it ok for Christians to watch movies with death and perverse language in it?

Are Christians allowed to dance?

Can Christians smoke?

When should a dating couple hold hands, kiss or even get engaged?

Is it right for a Christian to have a tattoo?

These are small the issues and questions we face in the world today. But the Bible does not speciafically say yes or no. These what some people refer to as grey areas or Christian Liberties. That will be our topic for the evening. We will be working through Christian lieberties and what should we do in the grey areas of life. Now I do want to say that these grey areas reach much further than should I listen to this song by Bruno Mars, it applies to many areas. From where we go to school, to where we live, a Christian liberty is anything that the Bible does not specificlly say you have to do this.

So lets open up our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 8 and work through this issue.

Because most of could say that the first thing we should do when we have a question or grey area come up is, ‘well what does Scripture say’ or ‘Lets pray about that’. Now those are two amazing things to do but let’s work through other things to think on or consider.

Naturally, we could see two sides come out here. We could see people going very Legalistic, who just want to make a set of rules and say you can’t do this and can’t do that. But there is a problem with that. You stop internalizing Scripture and make it a list of do’s and don’t’s. But the other side is just as dangerous and that is a libertarian view. This is someone who says, ‘well i am free in Christ so let’s live it up.’ Both of these are wrong so let’s see what scripture says.

In the book of 1 Corinthians 8 the apostle Paul is writing a letter to church in Corinth. Now the city of Corinth was one of the most worldly and Pagan society around. The city was the center of trade so that means that there were a lot f people there from different walks of life and religions. It was said that it was easier to find an idol in the city than another person. Now when Paul started a church there it grew but it had some problems and needed some correction. And here in chapter 8 Paul is addressing the topic of food worshipped to an idol.

I doubt whether any of us is too concerned about eating meat that has been offered to an idol; that doesn’t really seem a problem in our society. I’m not too sure we’d care if it were, and since it isn’t, it’s not even relevant to us. But that was a major problem in the church at Corinth. Almost all of the meat that was purchased and provided for people to eat had been offered to a God in one way or another. Some of it had been offered as a sacrifice, three parts: One would be burned to the God, one given to the priest, the third part taken home and eaten. And if you happened to be at someone’s house, you might be eating meat offered to an idol. The priest would take his third, go out the back of the temple and put it in a butcher shop. You might be buying meat offered to an idol. And they also believed that demons liked to get in people by getting on their food and going in that way as we said last time. And so everybody would dedicate the meat that they would butcher to a god so that no demon would get on it, and that would prevent that. So almost every bit of meat that the Corinthians would buy would be in some way or at some time dedicated to an idol, and so this became a problem. Having been saved out of paganism, having been saved out of idolatry, the new Christians wanted to avoid any contact with that old kind of life. They felt much too strongly tempted toward it and they wanted to run from it. It’s like an alcoholic who comes to Christ and the best way for him to deal with drink is to stay as far away as he can. Or like somebody who is a criminal who becomes a Christian staying as far away from old patterns and old friends and so forth as he can. His new life is so new that he must withdraw himself and turn away from that and have nothing to do with it.

Along with those people who wanted to stay farm from this idolatry there were some of the more mature Christians who said what does it matter if you eat food sacrificed to idols. And Paul responds here. Paul’s response i super important to us here as well as we look at the grey areas in life. he says that Love limits our liberties. Love limits our liberties. So let’s dive into this and see how love limits our liberties.

As we look through , we kinda see that Paul is responding to there reasons why it should be ok to eat food offered to idols. Let’s walk through Paul’s three responses.

Point 1: All things are made by God and used for his glory.

Look at verse 4

(NASB95)

4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one.

Honestly, this is one of the best theology statements I have ever seen. I say to the Corinthians, ‘yeah, you go, you got this.’ And Paul starts by saying the same. verse 5 and 6

(NASB95)

5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords,

6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

Yes there is one God and we exist for him and made for for him and made to glorify him. Amen amen. We could look at and see that all things are made by Jesus and held together by him and earlier in this letter Paul says in chapter 6 that we are here to glorify him.

But then Paul points something out and

Point 2 An association with an idol has a real affect.

(NASB95)

7 However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

Paul points the mature Christians in Corinth to think on others. The knowledge it talks about is directly referencing verse 4. Again where it says.

4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one.

The knowledge is that there is no such thing as an idol. When you look at an idol and some believe that there is a god that posses that idol, Paul is saying that no one is home. The other day I walked into a tailors and an Asian lady owns the place but when I walked in I saw here praying ad putting food at the feet a blue Buddha. And all I wanted t say is ‘lady there is no one home.’

It is true there is nothing behind these idols except lies and deception. And you know what the crazy thing is. Is that our God, he creates all and all these idols are created by him and they are used to show that there is nothing there and there is no God there.

Paul continues with his thought going not all of this knowledge and because of living for so long in this idol filled, Pagan society that they are still accustomed to these idols that even now as Christians they eat the food as if it was being sacrficed to idols. When they are near these idols it has a real affect. As some of you know I used to drink a lot as a kid. I quit when I was 18 and I got saved, but the reality is that for a while I ffelt like I was in sin if I was even near a bar. Idols have a real affect on person even after you are saved. We can’t just tell some one, ‘look it fine, just eat it it.’ Everyone’s conscience is different and is sensitive in different ways.

But Paul is saying that we need to remember the weaker brother or sister and there conscience.

Paul goes on to say,

point 3. Foood has no actual effect on righteousness.

let’s read verse 8

(NASB95)

8 But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.

Paul affirms the Corinthians saying your right, what we eat does not change our standing with God. Food doesn’t bring us neared to God. God could care less what you eat. Now that doesn’t mean – God does care if you’re gluttonous, and God cares if you’re over-indulgent and God cares if you are wasteful and all that. But God doesn’t care if you have broccoli, cauliflower, hotdogs, hamburgers, pizza or whatever. God doesn’t care. There aren’t any religious rules. All the spiritual people aren’t vegetarians, that’s the idea. It doesn’t matter to God what you eat in terms of you know whether you like gravy or not, you know that isn’t the issue. There are no dietary laws within Christianity. Other than using your head, you don’t want to eat something that’s going to hurt you and you don’t want to overindulge yourself and you don’t want to live to eat. But God doesn’t care what the food might be. Those laws have all been set aside, right? , Peter saw the vision. God says, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat, no more dietary laws.” Jesus said it in when he said, “It’s not what goes into a man that defiles him. It’s what comes out of a man.” God provided all of it so eat. God doesn’t care what we eat. Well God doesn’t specifically, but God does care about his other children, and they care what we eat. Verse 9

It does noot matter

(NASB95)

9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become, WHAT , a stumbling block to the weak.

You may have the liberty to eat or go to a bar or smoke but Paul is saying be careful because your liberties an cause others to stumble.

Now A stumbling block is an occasion to fall into sin, something that makes somebody fall into sin. You’re going to make a brother fall into sin. You’re going to set an example, he’ll follow it, it’ll go against his conscience, he’ll feel guilty, he’ll feel bitter, it’ll push him deeper into legalism and so forth and so forth. And it’ll get him in a situation that he can’t handle. Maybe he shouldn’t be in that idol temple and maybe God doesn’t want him there because he’s not as strong as you. You can go there and just eat the meat. If he goes there, he’s going to get caught up in the evilness, the debauchery and orgies that go along with the eating. And that’s the reason God has given him a closed conscience to keep him out of the area he’s not ready to go into yet. So don’t force on him what God is not forcing on him by his conscience.

Now if your friend sees you going to the temple an eating and you force them to do the same you defile violate the work of the Holy Spirit through their conscience. And look at 10 and 11

(NASB95)

10 For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?

11 For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died.

So there comes your weak brother, a brand-new Christian, saved out of paganism, hates everything about it. He sees you and says. “Hey, look over there, there’s Jimmy and he’s eating, see? Look he’s stuffing all that food in. Oh, that looks good. He can do it. I guess I can do it too.” And he goes against his conscience.

But at this point in time, you’re going to bring him down. You’re going to crush him. You’re going to smash him down. You’re going to force him into sin. Here he comes. He says, “Hey, he’s doing it.” And he does it and he doesn’t get that meat in his mouth and swallowed down until he begins to feel guilty. “Hey, what am I doing at this here? I just got saved out of this. I can’t take it. This is tempting.” And all of a sudden guilt, and he begins to resent you for setting the pattern. And he can’t resist the full temptation of the pagan thing that he’s seeing around him, and he falls further away from his liberty. And you haven’t helped him at all. You’ve just pushed him into sin, and he begins to resent God. “Why’d you allow this to happen to me?” And all these things that come out of the fact that he’s violating conscience.

And by doing this verse 12 tells us that we did not just sin against our brother but sinned against Christ.

So what do we do? When we get to these grey areas, what do we do?

Well what we do is love. Love limits our liberties. Our love should say, ‘for His good I will not do this.’

Verse 13

(NASB95)

13 Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

That is the answer we need to let love cover our decisions.

Here are four quick applications when we get to these grey areas in life.

We have already said this one but Love is framework.

When we are not sure let love for others be your first thought. Let your love for people outshine your love for food or movies or whatever it is.

Next: Look out for the weaker brother or sister in Christ. We need to realize that there are weaker and younger Christians looking up to us and we need to keep them in mind we make decisions. how does this thing I want to do affect them?

Next: Don’t hurt your witness. As Christians we are outsiders to this world and we look different. That is good thing. But if we keep holding so tightly to certain liberties it may become hard to distinguish us from the world. So let your love for the lost limit your liberties.

Lastly: Do not let others stumble because of your liberties. Just because you can do something does not mean we should. People are way more important than some liberty that we may have. And honestly it is a sin to cause a brother or sister to stumble.

So lets take these grey areas and challenge them to scripture, pray o them but also let love form your answer. Let love for others push us to limit what we do so that we may see more people come to know Christ or become like Christ.