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1 Corinthians
8
[SLIDE – painting]
Imagine giving a
gift to a famous artist. Your own
little painting in a tatty frame.
The artist takes the gift, looks at the painting, smashes the
frame and takes out your piece of art.
You follow him into his studio where he places your little
painting onto a gigantic collage. And then you realise that your little frame
was rubbish and that your painting fits best onto his massive
canvas. That’s a bit like 1
Corinthians 8. 1 Corinthians 8 is
about Reframing the issue.
[SLIDE – reframing
the issue]
You see the
Corinthians had come to Paul with their little question. It’s there in
verse 1. The Corinthians had
written to Paul about food sacrificed to idols.
Basically the
question is this:
[SLIDE – kebab]
Can I eat this
chicken kebab?
The temples of the
ancient world were places of worship yes.
But they were also slaughterhouses. Because of the sacrifices, they were
butcher’s shops. They were
restaurants. And if you were going
to eat out, you were going to eat out in a temple. Look at v10 – it was a public
thing. People saw you going to the
temple, the way you or I might go out to a restaurant. It was extremely common.
The question is –
should a Christian really eat meat that had been used in a ritual
sacrifice to a false god? That’s
the question. Can I eat this
chicken kebab?
And there were two
sides to the debate – there were the strong and the weak. When Paul talks about the weak and the
strong he’s talking about their consciences.
It’s interesting in the bible – conscience is not this
natural moral compass that always points due north. Our consciences will tell us all sorts
of nonsense when we’re a non-Christian and even as a Christian our
consciences need to be strengthened.
Consciences change as the gospel goes to work on them.
Some in Corinth have
strong consciences, they eat the kebab and say yum, it doesn’t trouble
them at all. Some have weak
consciences and they cannot get over the fact that this meat was offered
to false gods and they refuse to eat.
It seems like the
strong have written to Paul and said ‘We know we’re right aren’t we Paul? We can eat the kebab can’t we
Paul? We strong ones, we’re right
about the kebab aren’t we?’
And while Paul
agrees that Christians are free to eat the kebab, he takes great delight
in smashing the frame in which this question is asked. And really he takes the next three
chapters to properly take this question out of it’s little frame and put
it in a big gospel frame.
By the way that’s
a really good tactic for all your questions. Because the questions and problems and
issues that we think are the real issues in life, mostly aren’t. Think about a burning question you have
right now. You’ve probably got a
very small frame around your question and you probably need to put your
question in the context of a big gospel canvas. And as you talk to friends about their
problems, you can help them massively when you take the question out of
its frame and put it on a big gospel canvas.
That’s what Paul
does here. And we’ll see the huge
gospel canvas in a second. First what
he does in verses 1-3 is he smashes their frame.
The strong at
Corinth had been saying ‘We know, what’s what. We have figured it out.’ Paul
demolishes their frame with three brilliant slogans.
Verse 1: You know what’s
what do you? Knowledge puffs
up. Love builds up.
Verse 2: You know what’s
what do you? 2The man who thinks
he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.
Verse 3: You know what’s what do you? It’s
the
man who loves God who is known
by God.
Corinthians love their rhetoric, I’m sure
this grabbed their attention.
Paul’s smashing their frame
First Paul the image of being puffed up.
It’s taken from the word for bellows.
[SLIDE – bellows]
It’s the idea of being blown up with
air. It’s a very painful image
really. Paul says ‘That’s
you!’ Big puffed up wind bags
saying ‘We know’, ‘We know’. That
kind of knowledge does not help anyone.
[SLIDE puffer fish]
Now Paul knows lots of stuff too. And Paul
is going to give us all sorts of knowledge – even in this chapter. That’s how he’s going to reframe our
questions by showing us a bigger picture.
But there is a way of using knowledge that cares nothing for the
other person. You use your
knowledge to big yourself up.
That’s a huge temptation for me. Why did I tell you that the word for
‘puffed up’ is taken from the greek word for bellows? Well on one level I thought it was a
helpful image, I wanted to build you up.
But on another level, I wanted to show I know some greek. Pfffp.
I also know some hebrew.
Pfffp. I also know some
things about Corinth you might not.
Pfffp. There’s a way of
using knowledge that’s just about bigging yourself up. Paul says, Love doesn’t prove itself. Love builds up the other person. You can reveal a thousand pieces of
knowledge to another person and they might all be godly true things, but
if it’s not building them up, it’s puffing you up.
What’s more
Verse 2: 2The man who thinks
he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.
Knowledge of God is a gift. It’s not something you figure out. If the Corinthians are boasting about
their knowledge they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Verse 3: You know what’s what do you? It’s
the
man who loves God who is known
by God.
The Corinthians had thought it’s the
knower who is loved. So they went
around trying to be knowledgeable.
Paul says it’s not the knower who is loved. It’s the lover who is known. And there’s all the difference in the
world. Don’t go after knowledge and
cleverness to get love. Love God
and you will be known by God.
So here’s Paul smashing the Cornithians’
frame.
What about us? Are we puffed up? Do we go around parading our
cleverness, our knowledgability?
Do we love God? Do we rest
in the fact that He knows us?
Well having smashed the frame of the
Corinthians, Paul then takes their question and places it in the midst of
a much bigger canvas. We’ll see
some of this canvas in this chapter, but he’ll keep on widening our horizons
over the next three chapters in order to answer this question.
For now we’ll see in verses 4-8 how Paul
gives the Corinthians two much bigger questions than what they had
brought him.
Who is God?
How do we draw near to Him?
4So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that
an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. 5For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or
on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many
"lords"), 6yet for us there
is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we
live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things
came and through whom we live.
7But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so
accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as
having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it
is defiled. 8But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if
we do not eat, and no better if we do.
Ok let’s think about that first question:
Who is God?
Paul says there’s one God and the idols
aint it.
But here’s where Paul shows us a much
bigger canvas. v6 Paul says you need to think about the trinity.
The Corinthians ask ‘Can I eat this
kebab?’ Paul says ‘Think about the
trinity.’ That’s why I love Paul.
Look at verse 6 again,
6yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all
things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus
Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
Ok let’s map this out. There is one God – the Father – FROM
Whom all things came and FOR Whom we live.
Everything comes from the Father and
everything’s destined to head back to Him.
And then there’s one LORD – Jesus Christ –
THROUGH Whom all things came and THROUGH Whom we live.
Now with the idol worship, no doubt people
were praising the idols for the gift of the chicken, and then they’d
sacrifice the chicken to the idol.
Supposedly the chicken had come from the idol and was offered back
to the idol. And of course all
religion works off the idea of mediators.
There is a high priestess or someone who can make the right
offering, and perhaps she calls on an intermediary deity and there’s all
sorts of ways you need to go THROUGH certain people to do the right
sacrifice. And Paul says –
Actually everything comes from God the Father and it’s all for God the
Father. And the only intermediary
you ever need is the LORD Jesus Christ.
Everything actually goes through Him.
It’s an astonishing verse – v6. Do you realise that all things,
planets, stars, mountains, oceans, you and me – we have all come into
existence through Jesus Christ.
Christ is like the great bubble ring of creation. God the Father has (as it were)
breathed His creative Spirit through Christ to make all things. And just as a bubble ring shapes and
defines the bubble. Jesus Christ
shapes and defines this universe.
Why is physical space in 3 dimensions: height, width, depth? Why not 8 dimensions? Jesus has shaped things that way. It fits His personality to have things
this way. Why do we have 5
senses? Why not 2? Why not
12? Jesus has shaped things that
way. This is the kind of creation that conforms to His image. All things come THROUGH Jesus. Is your Jesus this big?
Sometime we speak about Jesus being the
only way to God as though it’s a narrow thing. It’s not a narrow thing unless we’ve
got a narrow Jesus. But if you
understand just how big Jesus is you realise it’s not narrow – it’s the
only way things could be. It’s not
just that Jesus is the only way to God.
He’s the only way FROM God as well. Anything that anyone has ever had from
God has come through Jesus.
When we pray that our friends and family
come to Christ – we’re praying that they come to know the One who has
given them everything, who has shaped their whole lives, the One who
upholds the whole universe minute by minute. Is your Jesus this big?
Because look at v6 again. Isn’t it a crying shame to have come
through Jesus and yet not to live THROUGH Jesus? That’s the state of the
non-Christian. The non-Christian
has come from God the Father, through Jesus and their entire existence is
actually shaped by Jesus. Jesus is
their element if you like.
You know what I mean by saying Jesus is
our element? Goldfish have an
element. Water. Take them out of their element they’re
pretty unhappy. If you’re a human
being – Jesus is your element. You
have come through Him. If you’re
not living through Him – if you’re not coming to Him for your life, your
joy, your satisfaction – you’re like a goldfish flipping around out of
your element. Jesus can give you
peace. Jesus alone can give you
peace.
But what does this mean for the kebab
question? It means that if you’re
willing to call that idol stuff nonsense.
If you see that Jesus towers above all the other so called lords
and gods. If you renounce the
worship that’s tied up with all of that and recognize that actually all
things are from the Father and come through Christ, then you can receive
this chicken as a gift from God.
It’s not demon meat. It’s a
gift from Jesus and as 1 Corinthians 10 will say later, you can eat it to
the glory of God.
So having answered the question ‘Who is
God?’ Paul then addresses the question, “How do we approach God?” And here is some stunning
teaching: v8,
8But food does not
bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if
we do.
How do you get near to God? Paul says it doesn’t matter what you
eat. Now perhaps we miss the
significance of this. Religions
LOVE to make rules about foods.
Even in a society like today’s where we’ve basically given
organised religion the heave ho, we can’t help but prioritise FOOD. Today your DIET is almost like the ten
commandments. Our newspapers carry
sections called ‘Body, mind and spirit’ and articles on God and faith are
right next to detox diets. They’re
almost one and the same thing.
Next time you’re in a book shop I’ll guarantee if you’re able to
find a book on God you won’t be far at all from the food section. We have this huge sense don’t we that
‘You are what you eat’? People
become religiously zealous about certain foods, people gain massive
self-righteous justification from being vegetarian or vegan or whatever. All the religions in the world play on
this – certain foods bring you closer to God, certain foods are
forbidden. And Paul says ‘It
doesn’t matter. Eat the most
forbidden food in the world and you’re no further from God. Eat the most sacred food in the world
and you’re no closer to God.’
How can Paul say this? Let me briefly explain to you a little
doctrine called ‘union with Christ.’
Look back a page to chapter 6 verse 15:
“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ Himself.” Or look at chapter 6 verse 17: But he who unites himself with the Lord
is one with Him in spirit.”
Or look onto chapter 7, verse 39 – Paul
advises that “A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies she is free to
marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord.”
Paul could have said “he must be a
Christian.” That’s what ‘belonging
to the Lord is’ – it’s being a Christian.
But Paul is expressing how deep our relationship to Christ is. We are united to Him. Our bodies are members of Christ. We belong to Him. I could have gone to
scores of other examples just in this letter alone. Paul uses the phrase “in Christ” over
150 times. If you believe in
Jesus, your relationship to Jesus is that you are IN Him. And you cannot get closer than IN.
So where do we appear in this
diagram? Here – IN Jesus THROUGH
Whom we live – THROUGH Whom we are offered to the Father. How do I approach God?
I’m already there. Unimprovably.
Now do you see why Paul is able to say v8:
“Food doesn’t bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat and
no better if we do.” It’s the
great news of the gospel. If we are IN Jesus THAT is our status before
God.
And so none of our good diets get us to
God. But also – and this is what
Paul will go on to say - none of our ‘knowing the right answer’ gets us
to God either. Being strong
doesn’t make you closer to God.
You see Paul affirms that yes we are free
to eat the kebab. The strong were technically
correct – you have the right to eat.
But, v9:
9Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does
not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this
knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what
has been sacrificed to idols? 11So this weak
brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound
their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin,
I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
Luther once said “God does not need your good works – your
neighbour does.” When we
understand where we are IN Christ, already loved and accepted by God we
realise: God doesn’t need our good works, but our neighbour does. Now that we’re free in Christ, we can
stop taking our spiritual temperature all the time and actually look out
for the needs of others. And as
soon as Paul says that they’re free to eat, Paul immediately calls on
them to forgo their rights for the sake of the weak. In v13 he says ‘Go vegan forever if
necessary.’
Because here’s what’s happening to the weak Christians.
[SLIDE – arrow to idols]
They can’t get the pagan rituals out of their head as they see the
meat at the temple. And while-ever
this is the case, that meat IS defiled for them. That’s the shocking thing Paul says in
v7. He goes out of his way to say
‘we’re free to eat’ and then he says ‘if you don’t understand that you’re
free and THEN you eat, then the food IS off-limits.’
And if you’re strong and you encourage a weak Christian against
their conscience then you’re destroying them. You’re tearing them apart. Stop it.
So do you see, the real issue is not ‘Is it right to eat the
kebab?’ For some the answer is
yes, for others no. The real issue
is not ‘Is it right to eat the kebab?’
The bottom line is the gospel.
Are you living in line with the truth of who you are in
Jesus?
If you have a weak conscience, then eating meat will really be
associated with those idols and you’ll be compromised. It would then be wrong for you to eat
the meat.
If you have a strong conscience, well you just don’t draw that line
in your head. You’re not
compromising your identity in Jesus at all. Fine you can eat. But that
doesn’t mean you should eat.
Because if you lead a weak Christian to eat, you’re tearing them
apart. Stop it. You should rather go vegan than tear
apart a weak Christian like this.
So what about us. For
instance, if you had a Muslim convert for dinner – would you immediately
serve up roast pork, slap them on the back saying ‘Tuck in and praise
Jesus.’ I hope you’d be a bit more
sensitive to their conscience.
They might have no problems at all with that, but you’d need to be
very sure before you encourage them to do something which might offend
their conscience.
Or what about alcohol.
Alcohol is a gift from God, this morning we sang about our future
hope where rivers of wine will flow – that’s a biblical truth. Jesus’ first miracle was to produce 180
gallons of fine wine. But on the
other hand drunkenness is a sin.
There’s a line that some Christians draw in their head between
alcohol and sinning and while-ever they draw that line we should not
encourage them to drink. And in
all likelihood that will mean us not drinking. Go teetotal for life if it helps a weak
Christian.
Or what about clubbing? What
about tattoos? What about body
piercings? What about the kind of
movies you invite others to? What
about single men sharing houses with single women? What about whether clergy should wear
robes or not? What about – there
are a hundred issues. And probably
you’ll be strong on one issue and weak on another. But these are all questions on which
Christians have different opinions.
And ideally we would all sit down calmly and sensibly with bibles
open and we’d strengthen our weak consciences and bring them into line
with the freedom of the gospel.
But that’s not Paul’s emphasis here. Paul’s emphasis is on the strong giving
up their rights for the weak.
There are people around us who can’t help associating certain
activities with actual sin. And if
they do make that association and you’ve encouraged them into it – you
are tearing them apart.
I was at a meeting for local clergy on the day after St Patrick’s
day. We were on a coffee break and
I offered to pour this other minister a coffee and he said: ‘Well, I’d
better not, I’ve given up coffee for lent.’
‘Oh,’ I said, ‘Tea then?’
‘You know I promised myself a coffee for St Patrick’s day
though... but i had it
yesterday. But it wasn’t very
good. So you’d better make it half
a cup.’
I was just standing there with the coffee jug, mouth open. He said ‘That probably sounds
ridiculous to you, doesn’t it.’ I
have to admit, it did. And you know what I did. I poured him a cup. I didn’t even think about it to be
honest. I thought his scruples
were a little silly so I helped him break them anyway. What should I have done – I should have
had tea with him.
Let me say a couple of things in closing.
The first is: Many of us do the things that the ‘stong’ do – but we
have no gospel reason for it. We
drink, not because we have a theology of drink. We drink cos we always have done and we
quite like it. That’s not
strength. That’s laziness. Being strong is about having a gospel
conviction about your freedom in Christ.
Second, when Christ died, He didn;t have your freedom to eat kebabs
in mind. He wasn’t thinking about
your freedom to drink or go to clubs or indulging any other number of
Christian freedoms. Christ died
for people. Verse 11 – Christ died
for the weaker brother. Love
them. Love them more than your
freedoms – Christ does.
Third, the right answer for the wrong reason is still wrong. These Corinthians got it right. But it was precisely this puffed up
desire to vindicate themselves that was all wrong. Too often we are interested in getting
the right answer to our issues, more than loving God and loving those
around us. (Be right and persist)
Finally, the bottom line is the gospel. Do we know our position in Christ? Are we enjoying it? Are we living out of it? Are we encouraging others in it? Christ died to bring us near to
God. Food won’t bring us
near. Being right won’t bring us
near. But He HAS loved and adopted
us. The more we know this love, the more we will gladly sacrifice for
others.
Let’s pray....
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