First Corinthians 8 :9-13 What the strong believer must remember
1 Corinthians 8:9-13 · Mike Doyle · Jan 10, 2021
Letters to the Corinthians, No. 40
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261921302870

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So today we're going to continue on, actually we're going to finish up chapter 8 today. And chapter eight's been about, there was a problem in Corinth. The Corinthians came out of an idolatrous situation. They had an idol temple. And if you read the history, it's a pretty awful situation, awful, all kinds of immorality.

But part of that was the fact that they would sacrifice meat to the idols, and that meat, If a person became a believer and he left that... left that religion, so to speak, he may still have memories of eating meat sacrificed to idols. And he didn't want to do that. That reminded him of all the things that he came out of. And I was kind of thinking about that. Many times you'll come across people that have come out of situations and became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they don't want to go back there. They don't want to remember all those things about their previous life. And that was a Corinthian. So Paul spends all of chapter eight talking about that subject.

And in talking about that, he talks about, you know, to counteract the fact of these idols, there are a multitude of idols, that the true God is only one in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So that's what we've been covering that last couple weeks. So today we're going to kind of finish it up.

And another concept that we talked about a little bit last week about the strong believer and the weak believer. And this is not so much about being, you know, working out at the gym. It's more about understanding the truth of scripture. And the strong believer is not to be proud or boastful about his understanding, but he's to be understanding of what's called the weaker brother and to try to help him along, guide him along. So today we're going to talk about what the strong believer is to remember. So I like this outline from Macaulay. So the first three parts kind of focus on verse 7 of chapter 8. I'm just going to read that here.

It says, but not, actually, in the literal translation, this is, but there is no God but one, knowledge that is not in all men. All the believers did not understand that. Now certain ones of them, by reason of their long association with idols until the present, eat things that have been previously sacrificed to the idols as an idol sacrifice, and their conscience being weak or polluted. So if they did have to go back to that situation, they felt guilty, and they felt, I'm going back to what I came out of when I came to know Christ.

So this part we're gonna talk about today It's going to talk about what the weak believer is to remember. And we're going to cover that in verse 8 again. We're going to look about the strong believer, what he's to remember. And that's going to take us through 8 to 13, those verses. And they're going to talk about the what and the who of their exercise in their liberty. Then finally, kind of a consideration of their knowledge. So this is a review from last week.

But food will not commend us to God, neither are we worse off if we do eat it, nor better off if we eat it. And this is the knowledge that the weak believer or any believer needs to understand. Food is not going to commend us to God. So let's just kind of go through it. Food will not commend us to God. Command is this word to, it's like to present. It's like I'm not gonna be presented to God in a better light if I don't eat meat or if I do eat meat. It'll make no difference. And the details of this are both cases. The we do not eat case is the first case. We won't be worse off if we do not eat. We won't fall short.

And that word is used in a very familiar verse in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We won't fall short of anything in respect to God if we don't eat meat. This meat sacrificed to idols.

So the Amplified Bible brings it across, neither do we come short or become any worse if we do not eat it, the meat. And on the other side of the coin, nor are we better off if we do eat. We're not gonna gain any, quote, brownie points, any additional merit with God by eating this meat. And better is this word for superior, preeminent. Eating food, an amplified eating food offered to idols gives us no advantage. And a couple of quotations by Macaulay. Food has nothing whatsoever to do with our standing before God. Whether we eat, it is neither here nor there from that standpoint.

The truth of verse 8 should help a weak believer become strong. It is not an immediate cure. for a weak believer's conscience, however. And I was kind of thinking about this, you know, at different times, maybe you've had this situation where you've tried to help a person, and you'll quote a verse, and maybe you'll quote it again, and you'll say, don't you get it? Don't you get it? If you're talking about it, if he has a problem, you're free from sin. Christ has paid the penalty. And you'll tell him that and tell him that. And you'll find that just repeating it over and over and over again doesn't do it. He just doesn't get through. You know, I can remember some frustrating situations where I just, I repeat it over and it just didn't do it.

It takes time. That's what Paul's saying. You just don't repeat this verse, but food will not come in us to God. If you spent the last 20 years sacrificing this meat to idols, it's not gonna make you any better, but it doesn't just come overnight. It takes time. And some people seem to, apparently in Corinth, some were able to handle it better than others. So he's addressing the believers that had a problem with this.

So let's go, so here's the verses for today. And notice the prepositions. I highlighted them in blue. So let's just start at verse nine. But take care that this liberty of yours, talking to the strong believer, does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. That's a weak believer. For if someone sees you, Highlighted in blue. And the you here, the strong believer, has something, right?

He has an understanding of that previous earth. That meat is not gonna commend you to God. He understands that. He believes that. He trusts in that. But here's the case. For as someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat the things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge, the strong believer, he who is weak is ruined, and the brother for whom Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience, when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again so that I will not cause my brother to stumble."

Pretty heavy-duty words, pretty strong admonition. You know, we have liberty. He talks about liberty, and we're going to see that a lot more in Corinthians. But our liberty needs to be tempered with our relationship to our brother. And he talks, he makes some very strong statements here about what happens when we hurt or offend our brother or ruin our brother. What does that mean? So we're gonna go through each of these verses and kind of sort that out. Okay. Alright, so here's kind of a little overview of where we're going.

How are we to use our knowledge from scripture when dealing with a brother with a weak conscience? So first of all, last week I borrowed a definition from Macaulay. I'm going to use the same one from last week. A weak conscience is a conscience that has great difficulty in isolating the past.

That's just what I was kind of talking about. It can't put aside, it can't put away those memories of all those years going through all those rituals over and over and over again. It can't put that away. It can't say, well, I don't need that anymore. There's still lingering doubts.

Have you heard some person says, well, I'll hedge my bets. I like what you say, Roger, but I'm going to believe something else. So I'm going to believe both things just in case you might be wrong or the other guy is wrong. I'm going to hedge my bets.

Well, you know what's interesting is when you become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're putting all your eggs in one basket. Not recommended by the stockbrokers, but it's of immense value in knowing our Savior. We put all our hope and faith in Him.

And that's the problem that the Corinthians had. They still had these lingering doubts about their previous life. So verse eight again gave us a view of meat sacrifice to idols and was what the believer should, and what he should do about it. He should, it's not of any value to God. 9 to 13 gives us a strong warning what we're to understand as a person who has knowledge and their actions in eating meat sacrificed to idols, which may cause their brother to stumble. So let's start here. We'll start into verse 9.

But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. but take care, or but beware less, interlinear. It's the idea to take heed, and it's a command. It's in the present tense, so we're continually to take heed, to remember, to beware. Beware of what? And I'm just gonna use this word some more. It's another usage of it. It was in 1 Corinthians 10, 12.

Therefore, let him who thinks he stand take heed, or beware that he does not fall. The believer, this is a good point. I didn't think about this until Macaulay pointed it out. The believer is not forbidden to use his liberty. But Paul says, for that would be wrong. He's rather exhorted to be careful about the exercise of his liberty. Paul's concerned about, every believer has liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ, but how does that liberty affect your brother?

Okay, so now, a good way to look at this verse here is to look at the subject, verb, and the subject complement in this case. So the subject here of this verse is this liberty of yours, and the complete verb is does not somehow become to the weak, a stumbling block is a subject complement. So we're gonna look at each part of that. So basically the idea here, if you just take the subject verb and subject complement, liberty becomes a stumbling block.

So here's a good thing, our liberty in Christ is a good thing, but it becomes a stumbling block is what this verse is saying. It's becoming a stumbling block to the weak. liberty of yours, liberty here is the authority or right, and actually it's used in, it's actually much stronger than you might, liberty sounds good, I have liberty, but this is even stronger, I have authority or right.

And we see that in John 1 12, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name. So the wonderful fact as a believer in the Lord Jesus, we have the right or authority to be his child. It's a wonderful thing. So that's a good usage of this liberty. Paul's gonna point out how it can be hurtful here in a second. To have the right or authority to act, liberty is the knowledge that food will not commend us to God from the context. That's a liberty we have. So we have liberty that I can eat whatever I want.

But who's watching you? Who's seeing you? Haven't we often thought about this? Who's looking at you? Many times we will not do something as a believer in Christ, we will not do something if we think it will hurt my brother or sister. Maybe we have certain liberties we do and we say, well, no. brother or sister has a problem with it, I'm just not going to do that. And that's where Paul's coming from here. Does not somehow become to the weak. Become is this idea, ginomai, come into a new state of being. So what's interesting is this liberty comes into this new state of being a negative thing. It hinders the weak believer. So let me just give you a verse that kind of speaks to that.

In Romans 14, 13, therefore, let us not judge one another, but rather determine this, not to put a stumbling, not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. So we're not to do that. And what's interesting is in the context, in the structure here of this word, Stumbling block identifies liberty. So our liberty becomes not a positive thing, like in some cases it becomes a negative thing. And that's just by the structure of the sentence. So we don't want our liberty to become a stumbling block to our brother is the bottom line here. Okay, verse 10.

For if someone sees you who have knowledge, so this is like a scenario, here's like a case. So someone sees you, haven't you ever thought about this, what if, you know, what if so and so sees us if we're out here doing something, you know, and it's not necessarily bad, but it's just, well I didn't know that you danced, Roger, I didn't know that you, you know, played cards, I don't know, whatever it might be. You know, you don't want to do, you don't want to, You don't want another brother to, you don't want to get them off track, so to speak. And that's part of this. So for someone sees you who has knowledge, so this is a strong believer. Supposing that his weak brother sees him. You as a strong believer have the accurate knowledge.

Dining in the idol's temple. Remember I mentioned before, it seems to me when I read that it didn't have to be directly in the temple. It could be on the periphery. There are these places where they would gather for meetings and eat. And that's what is believed to be this place where they might be seen. dining in an idol's temple. If you're dining in an idol's temple, it's assumed that you're eating meat sacrificed to idols.

That's what they served. That was a menu. So if you were there, you probably were doing that. Also, it seems to say that was a problem. The vicinity of the idol's temple was a problem place. Not necessarily. Some people you'll read say, well, it was buying it in the marketplace and taking it home. Well, from the text, it seems like it's more in an idol's temple or adjacent to that.

Okay, so here's the fun part. So how do we apply this today? And this is, I said, Vonnie, give me some ideas. She gave me a bunch of different ideas. You know, it's hard because this is a case where in Paul, in Corinth, you had people coming out of a religion, a false religion, worshiping idols to believing in Christ. So they're coming out of untruth Well, the examples that we have typically are we're believers and we're doing something that might offend my brother, so it's not exactly a match for match. So let me read you one that wasn't exactly a match. This came from Ironside, Henry Ironside, Harry Ironside, and it's about this Muslim gentleman who became a believer, and his name actually is Muhammad Ali. I guess a lot of Muhammad Ali's in the Muslim world.

Anyway, he went to a conference in the States, in Detroit, and he was offered food, and they offered him pork. Well, and they said, well, you're at liberty, Mr. Alley. You're at liberty to eat this pork. And he says, yeah, I know I'm at liberty. But let me tell you about my situation. So here it is. He says, I'm at liberty, my dear young lady, to eat it, eat the pork. But I'm also at liberty not to eat it. You know that I was brought up in a strict Muslim house. My old father, nearly 80 years old, is still a Muslim.

Every three years, I go back to India to render an account for the business, which my father is the head of. Each time I visit, it goes as follows. I always, when I get to the house, Friends will be sitting around inside and my father will come to the door the sermon will announce that I'm there my father will say this Mohammed Mohammed Ali, that's his name Have you have you? I'm gonna read this right.

Mohammed, have those infidels taught you to eat that filthy hog meat? That's what his father will say to him. So, interesting, so here's what he says. This is telling this young lady, this Christian young lady, he says, he says, Mohammed Ali says, no, father, I will say no. Pork has never passed my lips.

Then I can go into my father's house and have opportunity to preach Christ to them. If I took your sandwiches, I could not preach Christ to my father the next time I go to my home. So here he limited his liberty. He said, then he could honestly say, Father, I have not eaten that filthy hog meat. And that was his father's, but he'd go tell him about Christ. If he didn't do that, then I assume he would not be allowed in the house. So here's a case that was closer to what, I'll give you one more since we're talking. This is from J. Verne McGee. This is a little more, you know, Before J. Verne McGee was a believer, let me give an illustration.

There was a time when I loved to dance. In fact, I was chairman of the dance committee of an organization before I accepted Christ. After starting studying for the ministry, I gave up dancing. Then some time passed, and it says, in college, the president of the ministerial student body, they basically, this is rather long, rather than reading the whole thing, they ask him, well, we've heard that before you were a believer, that you were into dancing. Would you like to lead us and help us out in dance?

And he said, no, I'm just not gonna go there. It's just not, basically, it's not, it would be a bad testimony for me to do that at that time period. And of course, J. Vermeer's life period is like, you know, from the 30s through the 60s, probably, 80s maybe, I'm sorry, 80s, okay, anyway. So dancing was a bigger deal. So he limited his freedom. He limited his freedom not to do that.

Okay, there's a couple of examples. There are probably other ones. Then, you know, you can think of a lot in yourself. You can think about things you might or may or may not do, but the bottom line is not offending your brother, not causing him to stumble in his Christian life.

So the last half of this verse, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat the things sacrificed to idols? So there's this translation of that. Therefore, the weak brother may violate his conscience. The weak conscience focuses around his former life, before he was a believer. The weak brother does not want to do anything that might remind him of his former life. So that's a struggle the weak believer has. So how is a strong believer going to help that? Or how can he hurt that?

That's what the rest of these verses are about. For through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. So this is a pretty strong statement. So let's just look at the words. For indeed, the brother who is weak, his conscience seems to be ruling his life.

And we're told here, we're told it's a brother for whose Christ died. the brother for whose sake Christ died, or an account of whom Christ died. So that's a pretty, so the point is, before God, there's no difference between the weak believer and the strong believer. We're all one in Christ. We all come to Christ the same way.

But how we conduct our lives is different, could be different, is different in this case. A good point here to look at is that word ruined, the idea is not extinction, But it's loss. Loss of well-being is kind of the idea. He's lost in terms of well-being. He can't reach the goal. Merriman kind of says he's deprived of the goal.

Through your knowledge the knowledge that we saw in verse 8 Food will not commend us to God. We are neither worse if we do eat it or if we do not eat it If we do eat it, so the point here is that that you affect your brother you you can slow his spiritual growth By doing that Okay, and so by sinning against your brother. I and wounding their conscience, when it is weak, you sin against Christ." Another strong statement here. So basically, and when you sin against your brother in this way, by not being careful about using your liberty.

So here's a verse, I was going through this message here and I said, Vonnie, do you remember, I can't think of this verse, and it's this verse in James 4.17. Therefore, to the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin." I think that verse is really applicable here. If you know that your brother will be offended by that, but you say, well, I got the liberty. I can do it. This verse says, you know, it's sin.

And I've always, that always has been a good verse to remember in my Christian life. That, therefore, to the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. Ironside says, we have the liberty to refrain from doing these things if they will trouble other people. And then remember from verse one about love being intelligent? Love is to edify and build up. Knowledge puffs up.

And if you beat a person over the head, so to speak, with knowledge, that's not gonna help him in his struggle in the Christian life. And the last part of the verse, and wounding, and wounding their conscience when he is weak. Wounding is the idea to strike against, to offend, And here's a verse that kind of speaks to that.

In Romans 4.20, 14.20, do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. This is more speaking to the fact of clean and unclean food, but I think that last part, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. So in your freedom to eat whatever you want, you can give offense.

You sin against Christ. So it seems like what he's saying here, sinning against Christ is sinning, I'm sorry, sinning against your brother is sinning against Christ. You thwart the cause of Christ by sinning against your brother. Okay, therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. So the fact is that food makes my brother stumble. That's the first part of what he's saying. The food is a meat sacrifice to idols here. The problem is one of the believer's conscience. I will never eat meat again so that will not cause my brother to stumble.

And this verse really spoke to it. It's a little bit of what I talked about earlier, but this is really pretty neat here. And we're gonna cover this in a couple weeks here. All things are permissible, but not all things are profitable or expedient. All things are permissible, but not all things promote growth in Christian character. Let no person seek his own good, but that of the other person. Okay.

And then to close here, this is a passage from Constable. So the first part is, at issue is the nature of the community, the Christian community. It's a community where those with a correct theology can ignore others who have an aversion to eating idle, consecrated food. What must prevail is not the principle of superior knowledge, but the realization that those who lack knowledge are those for whom Christ died. Edification takes precedence over freedom.

The other person's advantage takes precedence over one's own. So just a really interesting section, some really practical things about this. I don't think we can draw an absolute rule about this. We do have freedom in Christ and we are to exercise that, but we're to do it in love, in relationship to our brother, to help our brother along. So I think that's what Paul's trying to get across here.

All right, so let's close in prayer, and we'll have some music, and we're going to pass out the bread and the wine then, and then Mike will come up and do the Lord's table. Dear Father, we thank you for our time today, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have, Father. We thank you for your word, which is very practical and gets right down to where we are, Lord. You desire that we be careful about our brothers and sisters in the Lord, and we honor you, and we look out for our brothers and sisters. We ask this in Christ's name, amen.