The 1st century church in Corinth had questions for Paul related to whether it was all right to eat meat sacrificed to idols or not. Today we might ask whether it is all right to get a tattoo, listen to secular music, drink alcohol, or send our children to a public school. The apostle Paul gives us principles by which we may discern God’s will in whether we ought to engage in these “gray” issues.

Teaching Notes:

Loving Others More Than Your Liberty

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

As we move into Ch.8, Paul is introducing a new section in the letter (“Now concerning things sacrificed to idols”) which will continue through Ch.10. Paul states the Principle in Ch.8. He illustrates in Ch.9. And he applies it in Ch.10.

8:1 Things sacrificed to idols: we may have a hard time relating to this particular situation, but it was a common problem in the ancient world. Greeks and Romans were polythesists and polydemonists. They would offer food to their gods as an offering of worship in the pagan temples. They believed that demons were constantly trying to invade people and the way they went about doing that was to attach themselves to food. They also believed that if you offered your food to a god it was cleansed from demons and safe to eat. So, offering food to an idol served 2 purposes: 1) it secured the favor of the god; and 2) it cleansed the food from demons. The food offered in sacrifice was divided into 3 parts. 1 part was burned on the altar, another part was given to the priests as payment; and the 3^rd part was given to the worshipper. The priests couldn’t possibly eat all of their portions, so they sold the remainder in the local meat market. This meat was highly valued because it had been cleansed of demons, and so was used in feasts and to serve guests. Sooner or later all believers would be faced with whether they should eat this meat sacrificed to an idol or not. Many social occasions were held in pagan temples and idol food was frequently served. If a relative was getting married or a friend was holding a banquet the believer either had to make excuses for not attending or eat the idol food. Many believers had recently come out of this pagan lifestyle in which they offered meat to idols. Now that they had come to believe in Jesus Christ, and knew of God’s hatred for idolatry, their consciences were smitten with guilt if they ate this food offered to idols.

We know that we all have knowledge: Evidently Paul is responding to things that a group of believers in Corinth had written to him. These believers were those that felt free to eat meat sacrificed to idols. They told Paul that they knew there was only 1 true God, and that there was no real god behind all of these idols (8:4-6)

Knowledge makes arrogant: Paul pinpointed the real problem in the church. Those that were strong enough to eat meat sacrificed to idols because of their greater knowledge had assumed an air of superiority over those that didn’t have the same freedom. They had become arrogant. Literally this sentence reads, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”

But love edifies: Love may puff you up, but love builds others up. Here Paul puts his finger on the real issue – LOVE. The believers with more knowledge who exercised their right to eat meat sacrificed to idols needed to remember that the use of their liberty needed to be regulated by love for their brethren.

8:2 If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know: The more enamored we become with our own knowledge, the more it just proves how ignorant we are. Truly, the more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know! Instead of being proud of their knowledge, they ought to have been loving their brothers and sisters selflessly.

8:3 but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him: Here “known by Him” doesn’t mean that God has an awareness of you, or knows certain facts about you. God has that knowledge of every person who has ever lived. Here, the phrase means that God has a loving, intimate, saving, covenantal relationship with you. To those that will be damned Jesus will say, “I never knew you.” He never knew them in this saving sense. Well, how can someone know if God knows Him in this intimate, saving sense? Answer: He loves God. We love God because He first loved us. No one ever really loves the true God, unless God has saved him. Now, most people on the streets will tell you that they love God. But the truth is, that they hate him. They love a god of their own imagination (a god who doesn’t judge or condemn, who loves and forgives all, who is only merciful and kind). However, if you start describing to them the God of the Bible, ( a God of absolute sovereignty, a god of justice and wrath, a god who does all things for His own glory) they will recoil in horror from Him. The point is that if your love for God is the evidence that you have been brought into a saving relationship with God, then that love for God should be manifest in your love for everyone else that is also in a saving relationship with God, particularly your brethren who have scruples about not eating meat sacrificed to idols.

8:7 However not all men have this knowledge: Paul is turning from the “strong” brethren to the “weak” brethren. Our conscience is regulated by our knowledge. There were some brothers who did not understand that it didn’t matter if you ate food sacrificed to an idol, because an idol was nothing. When these people ate food sacrificed to an idol their conscience was defiled. They felt horrible because they felt that in some sense they had committed idolatry.

8:8 But food will not commend us to God: these “strong” brothers ought not gloat over the fact that they can eat certain foods which others can’t. Their eating doesn’t commend them to God over those that can’t eat. Those that do not eat are not any worse than you in the eyes of God. Repent of your arrogance!

8:9 But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak: This is the Paul’s main point in this chapter. Take care! Watch out! Don’t let it happen! You have liberty to eat this meat, but don’t let your liberty cause your weak brother to stumble. You don’t want to cause his conscience to be defiled and feel separated from God.

8:10 For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idols’ temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? Paul’s point here is that our example can have a profound effect on others. We may not even realize it, but we our example may have caused another brother to do something they weren’t convinced was right. Afterwards, they feel guilty and dirty and ashamed, and their fellowship with God is damaged. We need to remember how powerful a person’s example can be!

8:11 he who is weak, is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died: Jesus died for this brother, but you aren’t willing to even give up one of your liberties for him. How tragic! How selfish! How unlike your Lord! “Ruined” doesn’t mean that you have someone caused this person to lose their salvation. It has the meaning of “to come to sin.” Your example has led him down a path where he ended up violating what he believed was right.

8:12 you sin against Christ: Do you see how serious an issue this is?! If we really believed that by engaging in our liberty to the detriment of another believer we were actually sinning against Christ, we would restrain our liberties much more.

8:13 Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, that I might not cause my brother to stumble: This is Paul’s final concluding statement regarding the matter. It is what he has been leading up to since verse 1. If we love our brother we will be willing to give up our “rights” and “liberties” when they may wound them.

Life Application:

1. We need to steer a course between Legalism and License: Both these are extremes. Legalism sees every act as either Black or White. The legalist lives by a set of man-made rules rather than by the Word. To them, everything is either right or wrong, good or bad, whether or not the Bible mentions it. They come up with long lists of do’s and don’ts. The legalist’s view of righteousness is doing the things on the good list, and refraining from things on the bad list, regardless of the heart motivation for doing or refraining. License goes in the opposite direction. It says “I am free in Christ. All things are lawful for me. Therefore I will do whatever I want.” The proper balance, I believe, is to live by the Word through the Spirit. But what do we do when the Word of God doesn’t address that issue? That brings us to our next point.

2. We need to Make Wise Decisions Concerning “Gray” Issues: There are many things in life which are not Black or White. The Bible does identify some areas as black (adultery, homosexuality, stealing, lying, idolatry, murder). The Bible also identifies some areas as white (purity, faith, love, righteousness, compassion, mercy). When the Bible commands something we must obey. When the Bible forbids something we must abstain. But there are a whole host of things which are neither such as listening to secular music, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, wearing tattoos, watching TV, watching movies, embracing a political affiliation, choice of education for your children, wearing makeup, playing cards, and dancing, to name a few. The Bible doesn’t forbid these activities. Should we engage in them? Here are some questions to ask that will help us make a decision:

A. Will this wound my conscience? (Rom.14:23)

B. Will this master me? (1Cor.6:12)

C. Will this be unprofitable for me or others? (1Cor.6:12)

D. Will this wound my brother’s conscience? (1Cor.8:11)

E. Am I unable to do this to the glory of God? (1Cor.10:31)

If you can truthfully answer “No” to all of these questions, and you would like to do this thing, then go ahead and do it with thankfulness to God, glorifying Him.

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