First Corinthians 10:23 All things are lawful, but not all are profitable
1 Corinthians 10:23 · Mike Doyle · Mar 7, 2021
Letters to the Corinthians, No. 48
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926192247998

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

So today, what Roger and I do is we look at the verses, like we look at chapter 10, and we divide it up and say, well, you're going to do these and these, and I'll do these, these, and these. So today I was originally scheduled to do 23 through 30, but I'm not going to do them because of this verse 23.

And verse 23 says, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable and all things are lawful, but not all things edify. And we've seen this verse just a little while ago, back in chapter six, where Paul said, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. And he said, all things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by any of them.

So that got me thinking about, well, what about the all thing? What are we talking about in terms of the way it's the structure? And I think what we're talking about is I, as a Christian, have a lot of liberty. I have a lot of freedom and I can, I'm to live under grace.

So if you look at Romans 6.14, it lays out the premise. It says sin won't have dominion over you or shall not have dominion over you. Why? Because you're not under law of any kind, you're under grace.

In other words, grace is the system we believers live under. And I don't think we spend enough time really talking about what grace is and what it isn't. So that's what we're gonna talk about a little bit this morning. The first and most important part about grace is that grace does not mean do whatever you want. Grace doesn't mean I get to do whatever pleases me under every circumstance. That's not what it means.

Because the word of God has certain demands and commands. I can't say, well, I live under grace, so I've decided I'm gonna steal. And I can't do that because God's word says don't steal. And so there are specific things within God's word that do's and don'ts that I'm supposed to, as a believer, some are positive, some are negative. The thing is, is that under grace though, there's this wide, wide spectrum of I get to make the decision about. You get to make the decision about.

We think, we kind of look all the time at commands that say don't do this and don't do this. I like the positive ones. I like to say to a legalist, well, doesn't the word of God say to rejoice always? How are you doing with that one? That's a command. Rejoice always. Well, I was kind of grumpy on Tuesday, you know.

So, and some people also think that living under grace is a very risky proposition. And Chester McCauley makes an interesting point. He said, there's no area where we as believers have greater freedom than outside the specific commands of God's word. We have freedom outside of those commands. However, you can't live your Christian life based only on specific commands because there aren't enough of them. if we're gonna live under grace?

Because there's lots of issues that come up with us that aren't specifically mentioned in the word. Is it right or is it wrong to eat meat offered to idols? We'll talk about, that's what we've been talking about in these verses. Under grace, we usually don't get specific commands and everything, but we need to know, like all of us, we're always looking, well, how am I supposed to operate?

We operate under a set of principles. God gives us principles to operate instead of laws. Now you remember the definition of a principle. A principle is something that operates the same way or functions the same way every single time. The best example of that is the principle of gravity. If I drop this thing or let go of it, which way is it gonna go up? Which way is it going to go down? You didn't get the question, did you? Where's it going? It's going down. Why? Principle of gravity.

So principles, once we get a handle on what the principles are, it helps us make decisions about how we should function as believers outside of the realm of specific command. The exercise of the principles rests on the believer's individual judgment. I have to think through a lot of things from scripture, and I can do something that you can't do, and maybe you can do something that I can't do, but our judgment has to be based on the word of God. It has to be based on that. So our doctrine, our behavior is only as good as our biblical doctrine is. It's better that we know the word, let me say it this way, the better we know the word, the better able we'll be our discernment and judgment. We really do need the word. And you'll notice in lots and lots of Christian environments today, the word of God has been shoved aside.

So if we're applying the principle, if we're gonna apply a principle and then it's left up to me, How do I apply it? Or maybe put it another way. What if applying the principles left up to the believer and the believer just decides, I'm not gonna apply it.

I don't wanna do it. What do I do in that system? I instinctively, without even thinking about it, try to put them under law. Well, you can't do this because the law says, bang. And so point B here, there's no area where we have greater freedom than outside the specific commands of the word. So we better learn the principles and we better learn what a principle is and how it operates.

Example, I'm standing in a window of a building, the building's on fire and the guy down below says jump. Well, I'm not gonna jump unless I think about it. Should I jump feet first? Head first? How far is it to the ground? Am I gonna get hurt if I jump? What's the landing zone like? So when I'm told jump, but I think about the principles, what's the principle? Well, how high am I? Somebody gonna catch me? You got a net down there? Where am I? So in every case, you kind of have to think through, well, what are the elements of my decision? So I thought we'd spend some time looking at these principles.

The first one we just talked about is in 1 Corinthians 6.12, all things in the area where Paul doesn't have specific commands are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Real simple thing.

Can I go to a football game? Can I go to the movies? Can I do, well, maybe you can and I can't, or maybe I can't and you can. So what do I do? I apply the principle. Is it expedient? Is it useful? Is it practical? And will it be for the better if I go to a Bronco game? Or not go to the Bronco game? I have to take those into consideration. I'm applying the principle. Or maybe even the second part of this verse, does this master me?

I've told this story a lot, because it's probably the only one I know, about going to a Young Life golf tournament when I was just a young believer, and it was a fundraiser. And so I got there a little early, like you do when you go out to the driving range and you kind of warm up, and the guy hitting balls next to me was on staff at Young Life.

And boy, he could really hit the ball. And I'd watch him and he'd hit it, and I'd hit it, and he'd hit it. So I said to him, I said, man, you really have a nice swing. You can really hit the ball. And he said to me, golf is my thing. And I said, I thought Jesus Christ was your thing. He said, well, he too. Golf mastered this guy.

He played four or five days a week, and that's all he cared about was to get better at golf. So I don't want anything else to master me. Why? Because I already have a master. Who is my master? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And nothing else should master me but him. There's a thousand examples to be honest I can give you about little things that sort of control our lives that we let them master us rather than the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the other part of this principle is that I have the right to sit down and apply these principles to myself but I don't have the right to apply them to you because that's your decision. You can't apply the principles to me. You may have a principle about football games, that you're not going because it just doesn't fit if you've thought through it, but you don't have the right to come to me and say, you can't go to games. Don't have that right. So the principle here is that if I apply them, one believer may have the freedom to do something and some other believer doesn't have the freedom to do something. It all depends on the application of the principles. So what if you run into a Christian who doesn't have any principles?

Problem. And I'm involved with their life. What am I going to do? Well, I'm tempted, first thing, to give them a set of rules under which we could get them squared away. Do this, do this, do this, and don't do this, and don't do this, and don't do this. But that would be kind of hypocritical. So what do I do? I let them be carnal. It's not my job.

Now, can I walk beside them? Can I spend time with them in God's word if they want to? I can do that, and I can show them what God has to say, but I can't tell them, you can't do that, if it's not a direct violation of God's word. They have to decide, okay? How about wearing a mask at church? How about wearing a mask into Walmart? Well, you have to decide about that. Walk into Walmart without a mask today and they'll decide for you.

You'll get scorned. Or something like lying. Well, I don't lie because it's against God's word specifically. All of that is covered under God's word. There's lots of this that, as we go on, we'll see, I think, that are applicable to what's going on in our society today. We talked about this this morning in Sunday school about this pastor in Canada who has been put in jail because he won't stop preaching in his church.

And so it looks like he's going to be there at least until May now. And all they said to him was, we want you to stop preaching, opening your church and preaching God's word. He said, I can't do that. I said, okay, we'll see you in a month. Just leave them in jail.

So since the exercise and use of principles rests on the believer's individual judgment, there's going to be tremendous difference in the individual Christian's judgment and discernment about certain things. So, and it's always something for a topic of discussion amongst believers. We talk about, well, can you do this or do that a lot?

Principle number two is 1 Corinthians 8.13.

Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. Now this brings up a couple of interesting points because What this word stumble means is that a person was progressing along in their Christian life, and I did something to cause them to stumble in their Christian walk. I enticed them to sin. The bottom line there is Macaulay's definition of a weak believer. I had to put it in there because it's really good. A weak believer is one who gets bent out of shape by what others do. I think that's terrific.

I get bent out of shape because of what you're doing. It sounds like part of our society today. Now, what I want to focus on here, though, is what's the difference between causing my brother to stumble or offending him or her? Offending means that I have gone against your legal sensitivity about something. I've offended you. And you know, in our society today, people come up and say, well, that offends me. So the whole world's gotta change because it offends me. Well, offending someone is not the same thing as stumbling. I can offend somebody and not know that I'm doing it.

It's a lot different than causing a believer, a weak believer or a young believer, to get off course because I exercised some freedom I have that caused them to stop growing. And obviously eating meat offered to idols is the example that Paul used. So you have a situation here that you know that you're influencing somebody by your behavior. If they're not a believer, I mean, I'm not saying that you go around and offend people willy-nilly, although I think lots of believers kind of do that, especially from a political standpoint.

If you're on the one side of the spectrum or the other, no matter what you say, it's going to offend them. No matter what they say, it's going to offend you. That doesn't mean that you make a practice of offending people as you can, How do I know that I'm being insensitive that might cause somebody to actually stumble?

And what's the criteria? What's the thing that would keep me being careful about this? It's the fact that I live under grace. And I do not want anybody else who lives under grace who Christ died for to ever be in a position where they would not progress in their Christian life.

If you look at 1 Corinthians 8, 7, there's a few verses here. However, not all men have this knowledge, but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if they were sacrificed to idols, and their conscious being weak is defiled. But food won't commend us to God. We are neither the worse if we do not eat or the better if we do eat. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

I think if we would think about that in our behavior patterns, Well, let me put it this way. It's such a great principle that if it was an active principle in our society, we wouldn't have all these problems that we're having, because people would not be so self-absorbed. They would be thinking about their behavior, how it affects somebody else. But today, it's all about me.

That's the way, you know, well, gee, the world we live in, it's always been like that. For if someone sees you, who have knowledge and dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined, the brother of whose sake Christ died." That's the issue. Christ died for them too. And so, by seeming against the brethren, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

So when you start talking about, in this context, idols, it was really pretty simple because Macaulay talks about the Pavlov dog principle. When you were a member of the temple before you got saved, when you went up there, you had lunch with meat offered to idols. And after that, you visited one of the temple prostitutes. So where did Pabla's dog fit in your mind? Meat offered to idols, sex. Meat offered to idols, sex.

So what happens? If this person sees me eating there, having lunch there, and it doesn't bother me, but I know it bothers him because I know what happens in his brain, he may sin because of my freedom. Should I be aware of that if I can be? I don't think it's inappropriate to ask people, is my behavior gonna be a problem with you? I don't think that's a problem at all.

We should ask believers that more. So what do we do about a weak believer? Let's say we decide that, well, I'm in an environment of weak believers. By the way, every class I've ever taught that we had a discussion between weak and strong believers, everybody in the class thought they were the strong ones. And them other guys were the weak ones.

So, but it has to do with verse eight, but food will not commend you to God, neither if you eat it not or the worse, if you don't eat it. If you do eat it, you're better. If you don't eat it, you're worse. The issue is, does my behavior cause him to sin or to go back to a behavior pattern that he was involved in before because I was careless? So that leads us to principle number three. What should I do in light of this? Romans 14, one through three, I think is the best answer.

Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats, and if you're a vegan, don't be embarrassed. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted both of them.

So the point is, if we really love believers, we want God's best for them. That's what we want. And this principle is love. We want them to grow. We want believers to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. We want them to grow into the fullness of the liberty and the freedom that they have as believers.

And notice in this verse, this problem is not resolved by giving a bunch of laws to adhere to. It's left to the individual to determine what to do. and the principle is love, what should I do in terms of I love these people and I don't want to be ever in a position that my exercising my liberty would cause them to fall in any sense? So if I'm exercising liberty and another believer is not, do I have the right to go to them and talk to them about it? No, I don't. If I see someone exercising a liberty and you're not, do you have the right to approach them? No, you don't. No, you don't. To put it simply, mind your own business. Because we want the best for them.

I can remember one time, Miles Stanford, what was I? I was teaching, early on I was teaching the men's Bible study, and this was back in the 80s when I first started. And at that point, I'm a believer a few years, and every once in a while, every once in a while, some Marine Corps language would come out of my mouth. You know what I mean.

So Miles took me aside, and he talked to me about it very gently. And the gist of the conversation was, well, other people can talk like that, but you can't, because you're teaching God's word, and you can't talk like that. And I instantly understood, and I said, okay, I agree. And then about 30 seconds later, he said to me, did I get by with that? I said, what do you mean?

He said, I didn't cause you to stumble, did I? See how important it was to him? He had to correct me, but he did it in such a way that he didn't want me to stumble about it. He wanted it to be right. And he had the authority to tell me. He really did, because it was his Bible study that I took over. And so he was You know, he felt like his job was always to feed believers and protect them. He was protecting his sheep from me. So what if a believer comes up to you and says, you know, you exercising your liberty offends me.

Am I obligated to give it up? What do you think? I think I just said the word offend. I didn't say stumble. Your exercise of your liberty offends me. My answer is, no, you don't. No, you don't. Because they don't have the right to come and tell you what to do and not do. That's between you and the Lord. And if you're walking by faith and with these principles in play, now you may say to them, you may think in your own mind, I'm not going to do that anymore.

One of the greatest lines I ever heard was Tom Mallinson came up to me one day. I just loved this guy. He said, Mike. I've been really offended by something you've done and I'm working up forgiveness." Oh, it just struck me in my heart. Tom is working up forgiveness for me because I did something that offended him.

I said, what did I do? And I forget what it is now. One, I wasn't aware that I did it. And number two, when I explained it, it wasn't a big deal anymore. And he said, oh, OK. Well, I don't have to work on that anymore. And off he went. The point was, I didn't know. And he approached me about working up forgiveness. What a way to say it. I'm working up forgiveness for you because you've done something.

Well, if you're operating, and you're doing something that you're free to do within the Christian life, your critics, because of your freedom, don't have the right to criticize your freedom. Again, that doesn't mean that you can go around being an idiot all the time. But we exercise the principles ourselves as best we understand them, and we don't worry about others. Because if we love them, we're paying attention anyway.

Verse three says, let not him that eats despise him, or look down at your nose at the one who eats not. But then it says, let not him that eats not judge him. Let me do that again. Let him that doesn't eat not judge him who eats, for God has received both. So I'm not to look down, if I'm the stronger believer, I don't look down my nose at you. If I'm the weak believer, I don't look up at you and start judging you. Because God has received both of us. And it's up to God to deal with that issue.

In liberty, the area is just simple. As the commercial says, stay in your lane, bro. Stay in your own box. I'm not to criticize others about liberty behavior they have and other believers about me. Now, add the next principle. Oops, I went part too far. Principle number four is the verse that we were looking at today. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient And all things are lawful, but now all things edify or build up. So in a lot of Christianity, the grace principles are usually replaced by the rule book.

Can't do this, can't do that. You gotta do this, you gotta do that. So what's the goal in the Christian life? What are we here to do? We're to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. We're to be conformed to his very image. If I understand that my behavior either inhibits my growing or your growing, it doesn't edify. It does not edify and I'm gonna walk away from it. The second part of that is I realize that my body and your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. So I should take care of my body and I should take care to how it functions and what it does. And in my case, I take care of my body so I can teach the word.

I've told, this is another repeated story, but early on in my Christian life, I went to a suburban church where Jack and Winnie went. And the pastor there, This was a mega church, kinda. The pastor there had a hobby, and his hobby was buying and reconditioning these German cars called Borgwards. They were an ugly little car. And I began to notice that there got to be more and more Borgwards parked in the lot.

And that became the symbol of spirituality in that church, whether you had a Borgward or not. And if you look around in organizations, especially Christian ones, they will be something that is not, that there isn't freedom about, but demonstrate spirituality. It can be the way things are said, language, the way people dress. It'd be something that is an outward sign of spirituality, borg wards.

I remember thinking, gee, I'm missing it somehow here. I don't have a borg ward, you know. So if my job in my Christian life is to become like Christ, will a borg ward enhance that advancement? No, it wouldn't be expedient at all. Would it edify me or anybody else? No, it would actually make me proud. And so to become Christ-like is beholding the glory of the Lord in his word. and beholding the glory of the Lord and his word not only teaches me, but it teaches me not only the facts, but the principles and how the facts are implemented.

So principle number five is 1 Corinthians 10.31, whether therefore we eat or drink or whatever we do, why do we do it? We do it for the glory of God. And so let's say, I go work out every day. At some point, I have to ask myself, why am I doing this? And I guess maybe that's the way my mind works. I always ask people, why are you doing what you're doing? What's your motive? Is my motive in working out so that people can say, man, you look great? Or is it to keep my body fit so the Spirit of God can use it?

I used to think, well, those apostles never had to worry about this because they had to walk everywhere. They couldn't take a plane or a bus. Maybe they could ride on a boat. But they did a lot of walking. 10,000 steps a day to them was just in the first couple hours of the morning.

So in order to keep my body fit for the Holy Spirit, which is right, I do everything for the glory of God. Or I may say, well, I'm doing this because I really like the way people praise me. Or do I keep my body fit so the Holy Spirit can use it? The area of liberty under grace, it's an individual decision that I have. I can answer for me, but I can't answer for you. Any activity that we can do under these principles based on scripture, then we're at liberty to do them. But usually the question in this area comes up, and what do we do?

We try to set a bunch of laws in place to control the behavior. Really, the biggest motivator, I think, in every Christian's life is the issue of grace itself. Nothing motivates like grace. When we come to realize what Christ has done and what God has put in place for us, and the fact that we live in this overwhelming arena of unlimited blessing, that motivates us to be responsive and to apply the principles.

I'm making a judgment about this, and I'm making a judgment about that. Why am I making a judgment? Because I live under grace, And that's why I'm deciding to do this or that. Why I'm deciding not to do this or not to do that. And that brings up another point.

Am I allowed to make a whole bunch of mistakes in my spiritual growth? Absolutely. If I don't make the mistakes, I'm not gonna grow. How am I gonna learn? The issue is not how astute I am religiously, but how teachable am I, which is more important, a lot more important than the rigidity of astuteness. If I'm teachable, I'll learn the truth. I'll learn what God's goal is for my life. What you find out, I think, is the most difficult believers to teach are the well-established denominational believers.

We all run into that a lot. All right, principle number six. If others partake of this right over you, do we not have it more? Nevertheless, we do not use our right, but we bear the responsibility We bear all things, and here's the principle, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. There's a principle. What am I doing? The principle is that I would not cause any hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

So let's take a look at the verse 24 moving on quickly. Do they measure up to the principles? The first one is, let no one seek his own good. That's verse 24, and we'll go through these verses next week as they fit into the context. But I thought it'd be good to see if these next few verses actually fit under some of these principles. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.

Does this fit under the principle? Well, it clearly fits under two, three, and four. I don't want to cause my brother to stumble. The principle of love, I accept one who is weak in the faith and do all things out of fire build up. So let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor. Boy, what a verse that is.

Next one, eat anything that's sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience sake. Principle five, six, and even one. If I'm doing everything for the glory of God, I'm free to eat whatever. Principle number six, I don't want to cause a hindrance to the gospel, so I'm okay to do it. Principle number one, I do all things in the area where Paul doesn't have specific commands. All things are lawful for me, so I can do this without any question at all. How about for the earth is the Lord's and all that it contains. Principle number one, all things. All things belong to him. So all of his things are lawful for me.

Principle number five, do I do everything for the glory of God? Sure. Verse 27, if one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, Eat anything that's set before you without asking questions for conscience sake. Fit under the principles? Sure, fits under the first one. Everything's lawful for me, I can go. If I'm invited to a Jewish Seder, can I go there? Sure I can. Principle number five, everything I do is for the glory of God.

But if anyone says to you, this is meat sacrificed to idols, Don't eat it. For what purpose? For the sake of one who has informed you and for conscience sake. Under principle number two, therefore food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

Principle number five, again, I'm doing everything for the glory of God. And number six, I won't do anything that may cause a hindrance to the spread of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I'm free to go under this, in this case, and eat meat offered to idols until somebody says.

What happens when that person says something? They have a problem with it. You don't, they do. So what do you do? If you apply the principle, I don't want to cause him to stumble. I may just be offending him, but I don't want him to stumble, so I'm not going to eat meat anymore. I mean not your own conscience, but the other man's, for why is my freedom judged by another's conscience? Principle two, I don't want him to stumble. Principle three, now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. In other words, I don't accept a believer who's weaker than me, in this case, his conscience is seared because I'm eating meat offered to idols. I don't bring him in and say, okay, I'm not gonna eat meat, but we're gonna have a talk about this. And what am I going to do? Well, I'm going to jump all over him about his opinion and his weakness. Nope. Nope.

He's weak in the faith. I can, I can water. I can plant, I can water, but it's God who gives the increase. Principle number six says that we may not cause a hindrance to the gospel. Obviously it was an offense to someone else. I don't want to violate their conscience because it really means something to them. Oops.

So in just finishing up, what I discovered is that I have a lot of freedom, but it's amazing. If my focus is on the Lord Jesus, and maybe this will, I'll close up with this, maybe this will put it in perspective. As a growing believer, I become really interested in the Lord Jesus Christ. He becomes more and more valuable to me because I learn through his word not only what he's already done for me, but what he continues to do. I live under this grace. So what happens when you have a human being in your life that just is like that with you, that loves you? Well, you start getting interested in what they're interested in. Right? So think about it.

What's the Lord Jesus Christ interested in? What's his focus? The focus is the body of Christ. So as I grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, guess what? My value system will begin to go off of me and off of being a better Christian and go on to what Christ is interested in. And if he's interested in everyone, all other believers, and that's where my interest will go. So I think that that's what the mature believer really comes to understand, that there's nothing that I wouldn't sacrifice for you because there isn't anything that Christ wouldn't sacrifice for you.

Let's close. Father, how we thank you. We thank you of your grace that we live under. We thank you so much for that you provide every provision necessary for us to demonstrate the wonderfulness of the gospel of the glory of the Lord Jesus. And we pray in his precious name. Amen.