1 Corinthians Freedom June 2022

We are about halfway through our series on 1 Corinthians, and I really hope that over the past few weeks you’ve seen how this particular book of the Bible has some good words of wisdom for us as the church.

We’ve seen how the apostle Paul is shepherding the first-century church of Corinth through some difficult times and situations, addressing everything from church unity to the centrality of Christ to the role of the Holy Spirit even into addressing, as we saw last week, very specific crises that had infiltrated their community.

And at every step along the way I think we’ve seen how these words offered by Paul have an element of timelessness. They may have been written almost two thousand years ago, but they still speak to us today.

But if you’ve read ahead, I think you can be forgiven for thinking we’re now entering a part of the letter that doesn’t have much to say to you and me in the 21st century.

Especially if you read from a New International Version translation of the Bible, which has a big heading at the start of Chapter 8: “Concerning Food Sacrificed to Idols.”

I don’t know about you, but in Dundee in 2022…I don’t tend to run into that all that much.

Be honest…when was the last time you went to a friend’s house for a meal, and when they placed the food before you they casually remarked… “And this particular roast we’ve dedicated to the goddess Athena. Bon Appetit?”

Doesn’t happen all that much.

But this brings us to an important guideline in reading the Bible: sometimes we come across teachings and stories that don’t really speak to our particular cultural circumstances.

This can happen a lot in the Old Testament, which I often tell my university students comes from a world so different from our own that sometimes it seems like an alien world out of a science fiction story.

But the reality is that even as circumstances change…people remain the same, don’t they?

And the fears and concerns and reactions and temptations that people experience are common no matter what situation or country or even century we’re dealing with.

So when we read these passages that seem to come from a different world, it’s good to look for the universal truths about humanity and the way God deals with us and shapes us in the midst of all kinds of times and circumstances.

We have to take kind of a 30,000 foot view of what’s happening and try to take in the bigger picture, rather than getting bogged down in the details.

Unless you’re like me and a total history nerd, in which case even the details are fascinating.

You and I may not live in a world like the Corinthians, with pagan temples and sacrifices to Greek and Roman gods happening all around us, but the larger principles and issues that Paul is drawing out of that situation are certainly worth exploring.

And he has a lot to say about it.

In fact, this particular section of 1 Corinthians goes on for 3 chapters in our modern Bibles. So like we did last week, we’re going to cover a lot of ground this morning.

This section begins with the words, “Now about words sacrificed to idols…” but it deals with so much more than just that one thing.

It has to do with our relationships, the way we interact with non-Christians or new Christians…it has to do with Christian leadership…it has to do with evangelism…temptation…Paul even brings in some teaching about the Lord’s Supper.

There’s a lot of stuff here.

But through it all there is a common thread. The thread of our Christian freedom.

The reason Paul is talking about food sacrificed to idols is that the Corinthians are worried about the fact that just about any meat, for example, that you ate in ancient Corinth had probably in some way, shape, or form been part of a pagan ritual.

Even the meat you’d pick up at the local butcher had very likely been part of a ceremony of dedication to a foreign god before it made its way to the shop.

So the Corinthians are understandably worried: can we eat this food? Is it endowed with some demonic power? Is it safe for us to eat?

And what if we go to a meal at a non-Christian friend’s house and they offer us food that had been part of a pagan ritual? Can we eat that in good conscience?

And Paul’s teaching in these 3 chapters is basically…sure, you have the freedom to eat anything you want.

As Christians we know these idols are false gods, they have no power over us. We’ve been set free from that kind of fear by the gospel of Jesus.

We have freedom.

But then Paul basically asks us a question that speaks to every generation of the church, even those of us centuries removed from sacrifices to ancient gods:

He says, “You have freedom,” but then he asks…“How will you exercise that freedom in Christ?”

Sure you can eat anything you want…but be careful, because what you eat and how you eat and who you eat with…it all sends a message.

How you live your lives sends a message.

If you want, Paul says, you can stride confidently into a pagan temple and sit down with the pagan priests and eat their pagan food…and you have nothing to be afraid of. Those pagan sacrifices mean nothing to you as a follower of Jesus.

But suppose, Paul says…suppose there’s another Christian who isn’t as mature in the faith as you are. Someone who was recently part of those pagan cults, who is now a follower of Jesus but doesn’t yet understand the freedom that they have.

Suppose they see you eating in the temple…think about how that might be a stumbling block to them.

Paul says that kind of behaviour can “wound their weak conscience.”

He even refers to it as sinning against them…and Christ.

And right there is the principle…the 30,000 foot view that we need…to find how these chapters in 1 Corinthians apply to us.

Paul is saying that one of the central, defining principles for us as followers of Jesus should always be…how does the way I’m living my life impact those around me?

Is there anything in my life that could be a stumbling block to others?

Because what Paul teaches here in these chapters is about living a life of radical sacrifice for the sake of other people.

He’s saying here, “Be willing to give up some of your own freedom if it’s the loving thing to do for someone else.”

Then in chapter 9 he basically says, “It’s what I’ve done.”

He spends a good chunk of chapter 9 laying out certain rights that he has as a true apostle of Christ, but then he says, “I’ll lay all these aside for the sake of the gospel.”

That’s the context for the passage we heard earlier.

Paul writes, “I am free as a follower of Christ. But I will live like a slave if it means that even one person will come to faith.”

“I have become all things to all people,” he writes, “so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”

That is radical self-sacrifice.

And it’s a completely different understanding of freedom than what the culture at large teaches.

The culture at large puts a huge emphasis on personal freedom.

We’ve heard a lot about it in the past couple years with lockdowns and mask mandates and vaccinations…the question of personal freedom has loomed large during the pandemic.

In the States right now it’s looming large in the issue of gun ownership, which is framed entirely as an issue of “personal freedom.”

All of these are important things to think about, but what distresses me is the way the Christian church has often approached them.

Because so often we sound no different from the culture at large.

Talking about “my freedoms, “our freedoms,” and “don’t infringe on my freedom.”

I think Paul would say, “STOP!”

Stop talking about YOUR freedoms. It’s not about YOUR freedoms.

The gospel, he would say, is about serving other people. It’s about laying down your life so that others might come to faith in Jesus.

And you sometimes need to be willing to lay your freedoms aside for the sake of someone else’s life…for the sake of someone else’s soul.

Now don’t get me wrong. This isn’t about becoming a pushover or allowing ourselves to just become doormats who never stand up for ourselves.

The Christian church is sometimes called to fight, to stand up for what it believes.

But even then, as at all times, it’s called act from a posture…of servanthood.

Being willing to lay down anything and everything that hinders our ability to live a life for God and for other people.

In our Old Testament passage we heard God call out to the nation of Israel, “Who will go? Who will I send into the world with my message?”

And the prophet Isaiah responds, “Here I am. Send me.”

If you read on in chapter 6 you know that Isaiah is not signing up for a cushy office job.

It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be painful. Both for Isaiah and the people to whom he is sent.

But Isaiah says, “Yes. No matter what it requires of me, I will go where you send me and preach the message you give me.”

Because it’s the work of God. And it’s important.

It’s more important than anything else.

That’s why Paul is willing to say, “I’ll do anything it takes to reach people with the gospel.”

[HUDSON TAYLOR 1853—"Let us in everything not sinful become Chinese, that we may by all means ‘save some.’”)

Hudson Taylor was living out Paul’s instructions here in 1 Corinthians 9 thru 11. He was willing to sacrifice his own freedoms and his own way of living in order to reach people with the love of Jesus.

Now you and I are probably not going to travel to a foreign culture to serve as missionaries (WAIT), but really…in a way…our own culture is just as much of a challenge, and we are missionaries in our own workplaces and neighbourhoods and personal relationships.

And the question to us is this: how can we best serve the people God has placed in our lives in such a way…that the love and message of Jesus is shown to them?

Because it’s the message of Jesus that’s really at the heart of this posture of servanthood.

Jesus, who when he was asked to sum up the entire teaching of the Bible, basically brought it down to four simple words:

Love God…love others.

Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbour as yourself.

Paul echoes those commands as he wraps up this section on Christian freedom. At the end of chapter 10 he writes:

“So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Don’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God. I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved.”

I don’t do just what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved.

Can you imagine what God could do with churches that embrace that mindset?

[TRANSITION TO PRAYER—POSTURE OF SERVANTHOOD]

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death –even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.