Doubtful Things
I CORINTHIANS 8:1-13
I. The Intellectual Principle
II. The Spiritual Principle
III. The Social Principle
A. Don’t Do Anything That Will Hinder Your Brother B. Don’t Do Anything That Will Hurt Your Brother
The Corinthian believers had written to the apostle Paul and in their letter they had asked him a series of questions, so what Paul is really doing here he’s answering his mail. In chapter 7 he has answered concerning questions relative to the matter of marriage; now in the eighth chapter he says, Now as touching things offered unto idols. Now probably not many of us in this building tonight are all uptight about meat offered to idols. Probably nobody came in here tonight wanting to decide whether or not you should eat meat that had been offered unto idols, but I want to assure you that the Corinthian believers were very much uptight about the matter and they were trying to make some decisions about it and there was division among the brethren. There were some Corinthians believers who said that would be perfectly all right to do, there were others who said, Oh, no, that would be sinful for a Christian to do.
Now to get a little background to help you understand let me just point out to you that when pagan people went into their temple sacrifices were placed on those pagan altars. Meat was used and some of the meat would be placed on the altar and there it would be consumed. Other portions of the meat would be reserved for the priests and they would use it in banquets that they would have in the temple. And then still other portions of that meat would be carried into the public marketplace and at a greatly reduced price people were able to buy that meat. So the question came, Is it right for a Christian to buy that meat or to participate in eating of that meat which had been laid on altars that have been sacrificing unto idols?
Now that’s not a big question for us today. Meat is not necessarily a problem; in fact at the price of meat today you normally have to buy it on the layaway plan so we don’t have a whole lot of problems about meat probably in our day. But it really touches on something that’s very, very important to us because it touches on the area of how we can decide about matters of right and wrong when there are no clear-cut commandments in the Bible. There are some things that are not given clear definite statements in the Bible as to the rightness or them or as to the wrongness of them. Now there are some things that the Bible does, there are some clear commands in the Bible. For instance the Bible makes it very clear that the believer is not to commit fornication. The Bible says this is the will of God concerning you, that you abstain from fornication. So we’re not talking about matters like that. For my mind we’re not talking about the matter of the use of alcoholic beverages. I don’t think that’s a matter that’s up for grabs either. I think the Bible makes it very, very clear about the danger and the prohibition of the use of alcoholic beverages. So there are some things in the Bible that are not up for debate. If God says it is wrong then it’s just wrong, and it doesn’t matter who says it’s right, if God says it is wrong it is wrong.
But there are other areas in life along the way about which there is not clear-cut guidance in the Bible and through the years believers have been divided about these things. For instance, is it right for a Christian to watch television or not? Well there’s some people who say it’s fine for a Christian to watch television. I know some folks who say absolutely not, a Christian should never watch television. And then there are Christians who are divided about the matter of makeup and some people say it’s fine for the ladies to wear makeup, others say, oh, no, Christians ought never to wear makeup. And then certain amusements; some Christians say it would be fine to go there, other Christians say, no, it would be absolutely wrong to go there. So there are some things about which the Bible does not give specific commands. Now what I want to do is to put this whole thought in the context of Christian liberty. Now the Bible says that when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ He sets you free. In John chapter 8, verse 32, Jesus said, And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free, shall make you free. And in Galatians chapter 5 and in verse 1 the Bible says, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free. So we have a glorious liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ, but believers have a tendency to go to one of two directions, one of two extremes in the matter of Christian liberty.
There are some believers who go in the direction of legalism and so they confine the liberty of a believer and they make Christianity a series of do’s and don’ts, and they put restrictions on believers and they make life a misery, because for the child of God they’re still under law, and for the child of God there are such restrictions that all of the joy and all of the excitement of life is taken out. That is the extreme of legalism. Well the opposite extreme is the extreme of liberalism. In other words, those who say, Well I’m free in Jesus Christ, I can do as I please; it doesn’t matter, I can just do anything I want to now that Jesus has set me free. Let me read you a verse of scripture, I’ll not ask you to turn but you might want to jot it down. In First Peter chapter 2, verse 16, it’s talking about believers and it’s talking about us being free in Jesus, but it says in verse 16, As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God. In other words there are some believers who allow the concept of Christian liberty to cause them to say anything is right for them to do and they not only lead themselves into sin but they lead other believers into sin also. So in the area of Christian liberty keep in mind that there has to be something there between the two extremes. That’s what we’re going to talk about .
Now the Bible does not give specific commandments on a lot of things; there would be no way in the world that one book would be able to contain all of the specific guidelines about matters that come along the way. And if you had a book like that it would have to be revised in every age. The Bible is not a Boy Scout manual that has a series of rules in it, but the Bible is a book which gives us principles which help us to make decisions on the basis of those principles. For instance the Bible nowhere says, Thou shalt not go to the movies; the Bible nowhere says, Thou shalt not wear makeup; the Bible nowhere says, Thou shalt not watch television; these kinds of things, these kinds of statements are not addressed in the Word of God. But there are some principles which are found in this eighth chapter which, when applied, can help you as an individual believer decide matters of right and wrong. So I want to share those principles with you out of these verses.
First of all there is what I like to call the intellectual principle and you’ll find that in the first four verses, the intellectual principle. You’ll notice it says here in verse 1, Paul says, we know that we all have knowledge, and he’s setting forth the intellectual principle. By the way, the word “knowledge” and know, some form of the word “knowledge” occurs about eleven times in this chapter, so he emphasizes the fact that the believer has knowledge. Now obviously that doesn’t mean that a Christian has all knowledge. I mean if you’re saved that doesn’t mean then that you become instantly an expert in Algebra. You young folks here taking Algebra, just because you know Jesus as your Savior doesn’t mean you don’t have to study your Algebra book. You still have to study it because we don’t have all knowledge about Algebra. And it doesn’t mean that you can just have access to all kinds of information. I heard about a guy one time who had broken his arm and it had been in a cast for several weeks and he went back to the doctor and the doctor took his arm out of the cast and he said, “Oh, man, that’s good, it’s good to have that arm out of the cast,” he said, “Doc, can I play the piano now?” And the doctor said, “Oh sure, sure.” He said, “Wonderful !I've always wanted to be able to play the piano.”
Well, just being a Christian and the fact that the Bible says you have knowledge, and we all have knowledge, doesn’t mean you know everything there is to know about everything. Back in the first chapter of I Corinthians and in the fifth verse I think we get what he’s really trying to say. Back in chapter 1 and in verse 5 the Bible says in that fifth verse that in everything you are enriched by Him in all utterance and in all knowledge. Now what that’s saying is is that as a child of God you have access to knowledge, Jesus Christ is knowledge. The Bible says He is our knowledge. We have access to knowledge because we have access to Jesus Christ. So when we need to know we go to the Word of God. So there is the intellectual principle.
Now he is talking here about this whole matter of an idol and what an idol is. Well, is there any knowledge in the Bible that will help us about the matter of an idol? Well look at what he says down in verse 4. He says in verse 4, As concerning those things that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we know (all right now, he’s going to tell you what we know about an idol), we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. Now what he’s simply saying is, though there be idols in the world there’s really nothing to them, they are non-entities, they are non-existent, they are made out of wood, they are made out of silver, they are made out of stone, but the Bible says there is nothing to an idol whatsoever, there is only one God, the Lord God, Jehovah God, who has revealed himself in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we know that. You say, How do we know it? Well we just found it out, the Bible told us. See? And the Bible says that there is nothing to an idol. And people who go in there and worship idols in pagan temples, they’re worshipping nothing really, there is nothing there, and they can pray an eternity to those idols and they’ll never ever get an answered prayer from those idols. Now that’s the knowledge that we have.
You say, Okay, that just simply means then that if there is no idol it really doesn’t matter then whether you eat something that’s been sacrificed to idols or not. Well wait a minute, we’re not quite there yet. What I’m just simply pointing out now is is that in the Bible we are given certain scriptural information, the Bible teaches us certain things. By the way, that’s why it is so important for us as Christians to have a daily time to read the Bible and pray. I wouldn’t think of beginning my day without getting in the Bible. It would be unimaginable to try to start off living a day without spending a little time in the Word of God. The Christian ought to so absorb himself in the truths and in the knowledge of the Word of God that his mind will be steeped in it, that his emotions will be stirred by it, and that his will will be surrendered to it. And then when you come to daily decisions about right and wrong, if you’ve got that reservoir of God’s truth, if you have saturated yourself in the principles of the Bible and then you have to decide about a matter of right and wrong the Holy Spirit will bring that knowledge to you and will apply those spiritual principles to that particular decision. So he said, Now we know we have all knowledge, we have access to spiritual truth.
Well that still doesn’t settle the matter because you don’t answer every question on a matter of pure logic, it goes beyond logic. In fact Paul now puts two very important guidelines which are to control knowledge. One of those guidelines is humility. Do you know what he says here in verse 1? He says in verse 1 knowledge puffs up but love edifies. In other words knowledge has a tendency to cause people to be all puffed up. You know, some Christians grow, other Christians swell. You know what I’m talking about? I mean there are some folks who feel like just because they’ve learned a little Bible they really get to thinking they know it all. But the fact of the matter is, folks, a little learning is a dangerous thing. Did you know that? The most dangerous thing in the world is for somebody who knows just enough about a subject to think he knows all there is to know about a subject. By the way, I want you to know there are no Phd’s in the Word of God. There are no Doctor’s Degrees when it comes to understanding the truths of the Bible. We are all just in the kindergarten, we are all just getting the hem of the garment, there is so much we don’t know about the Bible. You take a young Christian and put a Bible in his hand and one of two things will happen: he’ll either get a burning heart or he’ll get a big head; one of those two will happen. Knowledge puffs up.
Now look at verse 2. He said, if any man thinks he knows anything he doesn’t know anything yet as he ought to know. In other words if you think you’ve arrived, friend, you’re not even near where you need to be. In fact I’m going to be honest with you really, the more you study the Bible and the further along you go in studying the scriptures the more you’ll be aware of how little you do know. I’ve been studying the Bible since I was a 16-year old boy, I mean I’ve been studying it intently, and I don’t stand before you as any Bible authority tonight. Now there was a time I thought I knew a whole lot more than I do tonight. Now if you really wanted to talk to me and get some real good answers you should have talked to me when I was about 17. I’m telling you, boy, I was a Bible scholar, I was an authority. But the further along you go the more aware of how much there is out there in God’s great ocean of truth and how little there is we know. You see, when we bring our minds to this wonderful fathomless ocean of God’s truth it’s like bringing a little teacup to an ocean out there somewhere and our little teacups can just take a little bit in. So always control your knowledge by humility on the one side.
But on the other side, always control what you know with love. He says knowledge puffs up but love builds up, that’s what the word “edifies” means. You see, we operate on the basis of love. Knowledge without love can be a terrible tool for people to use. Have you ever had this experience or have you ever seen this? You’re in a college classroom somewhere and here is a professor who is rather arrogant and he is rather proud of what he knows and some student in the class asks a question for information. Have you ever seen a professor in that setting just take somebody and just cut them down to nothing? I mean just embarrass them, just make them look like they’re fools, and just take what they do know and just like a club just beat them down in the ground. Oh, listen, friends, knowledge without love is a terrible tool. But knowledge with love is a wonderful tool that can be used to build people up. So, you see, you don’t decide matters of right and wrong strictly on the basis of what you know about a matter. Paul said there’s no such thing as an idol, there’s no such thing as an idol where that meat is being placed on an altar. But Paul says, now wait a minute though, keep in mind that there are some folks who’re watching you, that you have responsibility of love, that you are to love other believers. So always keep in mind the intellectual principle.
But then there’s a second principle you have to use and apply when you’re deciding about matters of right or wrong, whether I should or shouldn’t do this, or whether this is right for me or whether this is wrong for me, and it’s what I call the spiritual principle. The spiritual principle. Now look at verse 5, he says, For though there be that are called gods (See, he didn’t say they were he said they’re just called gods.), whether in heaven or in earth. And then in verse 6 he says, But to us there is but one God. All right, that’s spiritual reality, he’s already touched on that. Now because that’s true he now says in verse 8, But meat commendeth us not to God. In other words he’s saying just a piece of meat is neither here nor there. He said neither if we eat it are we any better. In other words you’re not more spiritual, he said, because you would eat that meat. And he says neither if we eat it not are we worse off. He said you’re not going to be less spiritual if you do eat that meat. What he’s basically saying is is that the meat in and of itself is neither moral nor immoral it is amoral, and there are some things like that.
But look at verse 7. He says, Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. Now there are two kinds of believers in these areas. Romans chapter 14 talks about those who are strong in the faith and those who are weak in the faith. And, you see, when it comes to matters of right and wrong you’ve got to keep in mind the background of an individual. I remember back in the earlier years when rock and roll music first came on the scene. Some of us are old enough to remember when rock first hit America and when Elvis Presley became big and when the Beatles became big, and then next came Jefferson Airplane and the Rolling Stones and the whole bit, and some of us remember that. And during those years in the days of the Jesus Movement (by the way, those were interesting days; I want to tell you they were interesting days) I saw a lot of people saved, I saw a lot of young people come to Jesus Christ during those days. And I saw a number of young men come to Christ who were converted out of rock and roll bands, they were converted out of that life. And we went through a period of time in churches where some churches, in order to reach young people, used some of the things that were current in the hippie society in order to reach them. But, you know, one of the things I noticed was that those who had been led to Christ out of that world had real problems when you brought that world into their church. I mean it created real problems for them, it bothered them, they were bugged by it, because, you see, they had come out of that world to the Lord Jesus Christ and then all of a sudden churches were taking that world they had come out of and they were bringing it right into their church and it disturbed some folks. And I can remember some of these old boys that I led to Christ who had been playing in rock and roll bands and they would go somewhere and there would be a rock and roll band at church and it would shake them up real bad.
You see, that’s what he’s talking about in verse 7. He says there’s not in every man that knowledge: some with conscience of the idol. You see, in those days here’s a guy who had been living in that pagan temple, he had been totally wrapped up in that pagan temple, I mean he had been hooked on the demonic forces that were in operation in that pagan temple, and he came to Christ and he was gloriously and marvelously liberated and set free. And then for that kind of man to see another Christian going into that temple to attend a banquet and to eat that meat that had been offered to an idol was really a disturbing thing to him. The spiritual principle. Keep in mind, you may be spiritually mature and there may be some things that you can do that are perfectly all right for you to do, but that doesn’t settle the matter. It’s not a matter of whether you’re spiritually mature enough to be able to do these kinds of things, there are other factors that come into play in these matters of right and wrong.
So that brings me now to the third principle. See, I’ve talked about the intellectual problem, we know; I’ve talked about the spiritual problem, there are some who are strong in their conscience; but then third, I want to talk to you about the social principle because, you see, a Christian does not live his life in isolation. We live in this Christian faith as a family, we belong to one another, we have an effect on one another. In fact the Bible says when one weeps we all weep, and when one rejoices we all rejoice, we’re in this family of God together. So, you see, you just can’t do your own thing, you have an impact on other people, you just can’t do things and forget what other people think. Did you know every one of you sitting right here tonight who know Jesus as your Savior, you have a sphere of influence. Did you know that? Maybe it’s some folks you led to the Lord. There’s some of you folks here and you’ve got all kinds of spiritual children scattered over this church. In fact some of you are not only spiritual parents you’re spiritual grandparents and you’ve got a lot of people that you’ve led to the Lord. Now you can’t just do any old way, these folks are looking at you. Listen, they think you’re the best Christian they know, you’ve got to be very careful how you behave, you’ve got to watch what you say, you’ve got to be careful the things that you do. We’re all in this bundle of life together. The Bible says no man lives to himself and no man dies to himself, you have an influence.
That’s why as a pastor there are just certain things I don’t do. Not that I necessarily believe they’re wrong but I just don’t do them. I went to a town one time and I know this is going to sound out of date to you folks but in another day it was a different matter, but I went to a particular town and I always enjoyed bowling, I mean I really did like to bowl, and I was pretty good. I remember one time I had gone to the hospital to visit and I said I think I’ll just drop by (this was another city by the way, you’ll understand in a minute), but I said I think I’ll just drop by and bowl a game today. I didn’t have time to bowl but one game, that’s all I had time for. So I went in this place, I bowled, I bowled 200. That’s pretty good, for any of you folks who’re bowlers, that’s pretty good. I couldn’t play but one game so I just took my score up there and kind of discussed it. I said, “Huh, if I can’t beat that I just quit.” And I paid and walked out. I always did like to bowl, I enjoyed bowling. But I went to a town one time where the folks around that town and in the church where I was a pastor, that was a no-no, you didn’t bowl. Now I’m going to be honest with you, if you differ with me tonight just pray for me, maybe I’m worldly, I never saw anything wrong with bowling, I never did. Maybe I’m worldly but I didn’t, I enjoyed it. I really did. But, boy, they didn’t think it was right to bowl. Oh, listen, that was about the worst thing a fellow could do. “I saw so-and-so bowling up there.”
Well you know what? This preacher didn’t bowl in that town. I never did think it was wrong and when I moved on somewhere else I went back to my bowling, but as long as I was in that town I didn’t bowl. You say, Well my goodness, Preacher, you let other people direct your life? No, I’m just simply saying to you I’ve got an influence as a pastor. I must not allow my liberty in Jesus Christ to be a cause to stumble on the part of somebody else. See? I’m responsible, I’m accountable, there’s a social principle that comes. You see, I must never do anything in my life, number one, that will hinder my brother. Look at verse 9: Take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak. And the word “stumblingblock” means to throw a rock in front of a person to cause them to fall. I must never do anything that would cause my brother to stumble. You see down in verse 10, he says, if a man sees you you’ve got knowledge, you know that the meat’s neither here nor there, and he sees you go into that temple and eat, he said, shall not the conscience of him that is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols? In other words your influence may cause that weak brother to sin. See? I’m just not to do anything that will hinder my brother.
And then I’m not to do anything not only that will hinder my brother, I’m not to do anything that will hurt my brother. Look at verse 11: And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? I’m not to hurt my brother, I’m not to do anything that would hurt him. Look at verse 12: But when you sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. You see, these are people Jesus died for, and I sin against my Lord when I sin against some brother Christian. Don’t ever be a part of leading a Christian into something that might cause him to sin. It used to be in meat packing companies they had what they called a Judas goat and the Judas goat was the goat that led the rest of the goats to the slaughter. And that old Judas goat would just guide all the rest of them right on in there to the slaughter. Don’t you be a Judas-goat Christian, don’t you brag about your liberty in the Lord Jesus and flaunt your liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ to the point that you wound the conscience of some other brother and lead them into sin.
Now here it’s all wrapped up right here, it’s all wrapped up in verse 13. He says, Wherefore, if meat makes my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world stands, lest I make my brother to offend. What he’s basically saying is I can do without it, I don’t have to have that, I don’t have to do that, and if I’m going to be a hindrance to some Christian by something I’m doing that I don’t see anything wrong with necessarily, I can just leave it off, because I want to be a blessing I don’t want to be a burden, I want to be a help, I don’t want to be a hindrance to any other believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.