Sermon Tone Analysis

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.