Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Over the past few weeks, one of the things God has impressed upon me as I am studying His Word is this.

You cannot separate loving others from loving God.

Repeatedly, I have thought about these verses.

Christ established by His answer that all of Scripture hangs these two things.

We are to love God and love others.

When a believer acts and speaks with hatred towards another believer, this verse plainly says they walk “in darkness.”

In other words, they have no understanding of Scripture.

However, the believer, who loves other believers and seeks to show that love, is a believer who abides in the light.

Light exposes what is in the darkness.

Light gives understanding.

Living a life of love towards God and others is living a life of light.

Note that God is love.

Everyone that says they love God must also love others.

Again, the Holy Spirit ties loving God together with loving others.

There is no escaping this fact.

A true believer loves God with all his heart, soul, and mind.

They are also those who love others even as they love themselves.

He who loves God is he who loves his brother also.

In our text this morning, we find the Holy Spirit zoning in on this principle of loving others, especially those of the household of faith.

Look back for a moment at verse 1.

Now drop down to verse 3.

Verse 1 says that charity (love) edifies.

The word “edify” means to build up.

It has the idea of enlarging or developing in stages.

Thus, love seeks to broaden others or, as we might say, develop others.

True Biblical love always seeks the welfare of others before ourselves.

Verse 3 goes on to tie the love of others to the love of God once again.

If a person loves God, they will love others seeking to help them grow spiritually.

As you recall, the issue before us in this chapter is things offered unto idols.

An issue expanded in verse 4.

Here it is expanded to “the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols.”

Now, as we have already noted, the Holy Spirit laid some groundwork for us before addressing the issue.

In verses 1-3, He pointed out our stumbling block.

Each of us struggles with an ego driven by what we know or think.

Thus, knowledge “puffeth up.”

We are to counter this stumbling block by our obedience to Scripture and loving others even as Christ has loved us.

Last week, we learned from verses 4 through 6 that the imagined gods of this world are nonentities.

There is only one God, Jehovah God.

There is only one Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now we come to verse 7 and our text for today.

Read with me verses 7-12.

1 Corinthians 8:7–12 (KJV 1900)

7 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.

8 But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.

9 But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.

10 For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;

11 And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?

12 But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

Verse 4 opens with some helpful insight.

Yes, we possess knowledge according to 1 Corinthians 8:1 “1 Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge...” We know that the imagined gods of this world are not real.

But, for some spiritually weaker brothers, there is not that knowledge - 1 Corinthians 8:7 “7 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.”

For that reason, we find the warning in verse 9 which says:

Scripture is clear that there are different levels of spiritual maturity.

It speaks of those who are “babes” in Christ.

We learned that fact when we were in 1 Corinthians 3.

It is these babes who are still spiritually weak.

They have not progressed spiritually enough for them to feast on the “meat” of God’s Word.

So the warning is for those who are more mature.

The spiritually mature brother is to watch out for the welfare of the spiritually weak.

We are to love them.

We not to take the spiritual knowledge we have and lord over them.

No, we are to help them grow.

In doing so, we must be careful that we do not place before them spiritual obstacles that will cause them to stumble.

That is the heart of the message in chapter 8.

We must be VIGILANT looking for potential spiritual barriers.

We should never cause a fellow believer to stumble.

Instead, we are to build them up to exemplify a true believer’s life.

To be vigilant for potential spiritual obstacles, we must do the following according to God’s Word.

Recognize Spiritual Weakness

Verse 7 reminds us that some are spiritually weaker than others.

Let’s put this in context.

Last week, I mentioned that the city of Corinth was deeply involved in idol worship.

Now, imagine for a moment about someone who has lived their entire life in this city.

From the moment they were born unto the moment they came to accept Christ as their Savior, they have eaten the meat sacrificed to false idols.

For them, it is just meat.

They have eaten it every day for a lifetime.

No one thought much about it.

It was a normal day-to-day living.

Now, they are saved.

They have accepted Christ as their Savior.

They are new “babes” in Christ.

And, without thought, they continue purchasing and eating the same meat as always.

They are so new in their Christian faith that they continue to eat the meat, still maintaining in their minds that these idols are real.

Mentally, he has not separated the two.

It is so ingrained from all the years of living that lifestyle that he cannot shake himself free from this conviction.

Thus, his conscience binds him mentally.

However, according to our text, the weaker brother also has a moral problem.

He believes in his heart the meat is tied to real idols, but he eats the meat anyway.

In doing so, the Holy Spirit says the weaker brother’s conscience is “defiled.”

In other words, he is injuring his conscience.

He does so not because of the meat.

He does so because he conscientiously does what he thinks is wrong, even though, in actual fact, it many not really be wrong at all.

The meat has nothing to do with morality.

I think you can see the dilemma here.

Thus, the Holy Spirit makes it very clear that the gods of this world are nothing.

Look again at verse 4.

Weak believers need God’s Word.

They need to understand how the chains of bondage from the old life are broken and have no hold on them any longer.

That is why the Holy Spirit encourages new babes to do the following.