1 Corinthians 8

1 Corinthians 8

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Be Sensitive to Conscience

8 Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. 2 And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.

4 Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

7 However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.

9 But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? 11 And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12 But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 1 Co 8:1–13.

• Transcript

  I don't online. Sometimes it takes a while. I don't know why. Give it just one more minute and hopefully it will sync up here and be ready to go. Wonderful. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions. This where every day you and I we get together. We have a little bit of coffee we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year 2022. We'll make it all the way from the book of Acts to the book of Philemon. So glad to be with you this morning. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is to come to your word. And we pray that now as we read your word that you would be working in us, care for us, Lord, we pray, in Jesus name, Amen. So we are going to go through first Corinthians chapter eight First Corinthians First Corinthians chapter eight now concerning things offered to idols, so this is a new section. Now concerning things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge, knowledge puffs, up, but love edifies if anyone thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing. Yet as he ought to know, but if anyone loves God, this one is known by him. Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world. And there is no God. No other God but one. For even if there are so called Gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods as as there are many gods and many lords, yet for us, there is one God, the Father of whom are all things. And we for him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live. However, there is not in every one that knowledge for some with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol and their conscience being weak. is defiled. But food does not condemn us to commend us to God. For neither if we eat or we better, nor if we do not eat or we the worse. But but were less somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you, who have knowledge eating in an idols temple, will not the conscious conscience of Him who is weak, be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols and because of your knowledge, shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ? Therefore if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble? Well, we need to ask ourselves a, what is this about? Be what's the best verse to summarize this and see, what are we called to do in response to this right so a, what's this about? The translation here? In the New King James is a little bit rough. Some more pair facts, the translations are sometimes helpful here. I actually think the Greek is more helpful than than the New King James here. What's this getting about? Right? People are saying in the church, how we we know that an idol is nothing we know that there's only one God we know that the suppose it gods and the suppose it lords, they're not real. And so, you know, I can go to an idle temple, and I can go and eat and it's no big deal. I can go and eat meat, sacrifice the idols and it's not a big deal. Now, we've seen this before in Romans chapter 14, and we're gonna see it even more in First Corinthians chapter 10. Actually, chapters eight, nine and 10 are actually joined together. So over the next few days, we'll be working through these together. But what Paul is getting us in the old world in Corinth, there was this reality that most people didn't eat meat all that much, except at the temple, because the temples acted like as one commentator says, butcher shops and banquet halls. If you were part of the trade guild, if you were part of a social club, you would go to the temple and that's where you would actually go and you would eat meat and you would have a banquet. And so people are saying, you know, I really want to still go and and participate in these things. But it's an idle simple, vitals aren't really anything. So I guess I'll go. And then what happens is there are people in the church, and they're watching you and you say you're a Christian. But you're going to the temple of Neptune. You're going you're going to Poseidon his temple and and you're you're eating the meat that was sacrificed you know that it was sacrificed to an idol. How can you go and do that and well, it's okay. You know, I know that idols nothing, but the weaker brothers consciences like there's something wrong here. And Paul is saying, in this scenario, the weaker brothers right, because of you're looking down your nose on him, you stop judging me, you know, weaker idols. Nothing. Yeah. Why don't you actually come and and eat with us and you'll see. Well, the problem is, is that Paul is going to really lean in on this chapter seven, or sorry, chapter 10. Is that the eating of food that is sacrificed to an idol in the temple? You know, it came from idol sacrifice, so don't join yourself together with demons right? And so he says, says, You got to watch out for the weaker brothers conscience. Now this is weaker, most likely by the judgement of the one who's eating the meat, right. And so, here, Paul gives a stern admonition to love. The point is, do we love our brothers and our sisters? Or is it out of a motivation? For what I want to do? This is hard. I'm pleased please don't hear this. As an easy thing that he was calling the Corinthian Christians to do. This means they were one eating less meat, which if you're somebody who likes to eat meat, this is the primary way where you would have eaten it to you're saying I love Jesus Christ, and I love these brothers more than even my business associates, or my friendships. And so I'm gonna say no to this because I love them more. Talking about a hard pill to swallow, talk about asking to be ridiculed. What's the best verse to kind of get to the idea of this? I think 1112 and 13 I know I'm cheating. You're only supposed to underline like one or two verses, I underlined three. And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died, but when you thus sin against the brethren, you wound their weak conscience you sin against Christ. Therefore a food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat less I make my brother stumble that really, verse 13 really gets at this last idea here of what we're called to do. If my food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat less I make my brother stumble. What's more important? Paul says, into the ends of the age, I'll never eat meat. If it means that I can love my brother, if it means that I could care for this person who God has placed in my in my life. By this they will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. So you know what? My brother over there who's got a weaker conscience because of him, I'm not going to eat meat. Now we talked about this you can go back and rewatch the video for Romans chapter 14, where we talked about how the the both people can become tyrants. The tyrant have the have the stronger conscience and the tyrant have the weaker conscience and the person with a weaker conscience could drag you into legalism and the people person with the stronger conscience could drag you into like a libertine idea of conscience. But the reality here is are you willing to sacrifice for your brother? My pastor in Beaver Falls Micah, he used to say I only wear a tie to preach, because I don't want to be an offense to you all. He said, he hates ties, he thinks they're like a leash. He doesn't care about them, but he loves the people in the church. And so you know, wear a tie. You take this principle, and you can see that anything not done a faith is sin. And so how do we care for other people's consciences? How do we make sure that we are we're preserving ourselves from the idolatry of the world and also preserving the weaker brothers conscience? In some churches, this looks like abstaining from alcohol, but not in the Galatian way where you're putting a stumbling block a legalistic thing in front of your brothers, but there are certain people that I know who are struggling with alcohol and I know that drinking alcoholism isn't but guess what? Getting drunk is a sin. And this person has struggled for a long time with with not being a drunk and so I don't drink around them. Why? Because I love my brother and my sister. There are things in which God has given us freedom to do. But that doesn't mean that we ought to do them. Christ died for that person. So I need to care for them. Need to love them. So the applications for this are myriad. And I don't want to leave each one of them out before you. But here it's meat sacrifice to idols. What does it look like in your life? Are there things that you need to restrain yourself from to show love to brother or sister Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much. For what a blessing it is to follow you to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Lord, we pray that you would please let us walk in love. You have loved us, Lord. We pray that we would love others and that the world would know that we are your disciples, please keep us from idols in Jesus's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai