First Corinthians 10:27-33 Christian Freedom
1 Corinthians 10:27-33 · Mike Doyle · Mar 14, 2021
Letters to the Corinthians, No. 49
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926192271897

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

Last week, you remember, we talked about principles. We talked about the principles of Christian freedom. And so to sort of set all this up, I'm just going to quickly review the principles. Principle number one was from 1 Corinthians 6, 12, that all things are lawful for me, but all things are an expedient.

All things are lawful for me, but I wouldn't be brought under the power of any. So expediency And Paul says he would not be brought under any power of any kind other than the Lord Jesus with his life. Principle number two had to do with, therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I'll never eat meat again so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

So causing your brother to stumble, which we talked about, had to do with, we'll mention some more here in a minute, causing him, if he's a believer, to get off the path of spiritual growth. Principle number three was from Romans 14, it said, now accept the one who is weak in the faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. In other words, we can accept all believers whether they're well-informed or strong or not, but you don't do it in order to engage in a theological argument with them. You do it just to bring them along as brothers and walk beside them. So the principle here is really the principle of love.

The fourth one was, again from 1 Corinthians 10.23. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me, but they don't edify or they don't build up. So I take into consideration The freedom I have, and if I express that freedom, is it expedient or does it edify?

Principle number five was from 1 Corinthians 10.31, which is a verse we'll cover today.

We are to do all things to the glory of God. And the last one was 1 Corinthians 9. Paul was talking about that he has the rights to partake of income or anything like that that all the other apostles do. And he even more because of who he was. But he says, nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we bear all things that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. So hindrance to the gospel of Christ is a very important principle for the Apostle Paul.

Now, the Christian life cannot operate under the principle of all things are lawful. Just because we possess a liberty doesn't mean that we can exercise it. We've got a lot of other considerations to take in and have to do with the other person, with where they are, with what the circumstances surrounding what is going on. Every believer must exercise good judgment and use biblical principles for your judgment. The point is that just because you have the freedom to do all things that are lawful for you, we have to exercise judgment.

And it's interesting that under a law system, there was never this kind of freedom. Every single aspect of the Christian life was in the law system. Now, if it's not do this or don't do that. I mean, we don't have any trouble with a law that says don't steal.

That makes all sense in the world to us. But in terms of whether we should eat meat or not, we have the freedom to choose. But these principles are the things that we implement so that we can decide whether it's the right thing for us to do at the time. So there are three modifying principles. we just went through.

Profitable, in other words, is what I'm doing going to be profitable? Is it going to bring things together? Is it going to bring people together? Will it be to their benefit? The second one is, does it edify? Would it advance all those who are involved spiritually? And the last one is, it just can't master me. I can't exercise a freedom that actually isn't a freedom because it has a control over me.

So in chapter 10, Paul applies the same things to others. How do we know? He said in verse 23 to verse 33, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many so that they may be saved. The thought in the closing part of this chapter, which is down to verse 33, is that Christian liberty must not be used in a way that may be damaging to others. Paul had in mind just seeking the profit of others. Verse 24, which is the verse that we pick up after the ones that have to do with last week we talked about down to 23.

He says in conclusion, let no one seek his own and notice that on the slide I left it blank. Because a lot of your version says, do not let no one seek his own good. Well, the word good isn't there in the Greek, but each one his own, others' well-being. So I think what Paul really expects here is you kind of fill in the blank yourself. Let no one seek his own, but each one the others' well-being. Whatever I do with another believer should be for their well-being.

If you look at Romans 15.2, Romans 15.2 says, each of us is to please his neighbor for his good to his edification.

And Philippians 2.4 says, do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others.

I happened to be watching something the other day on the tube, and this person comes on and says, You know, Americans have this freedom and this opportunity to pursue their own interests. Well, I'm not so sure that's a biblical principle. The Corinthians, like Americans, that's how they viewed freedom. That's how we view it. We have an opportunity to pursue our own interests. Well, yes and no. You have the freedom to do it, but there are principles that modify the freedom.

Your own interest doesn't supersede as a believer, other believers' interests. And as an example, eating without asking questions. We're going to talk about that next. Verse 25 and 26 say, eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions.

Why? For conscience sake. For the earth is the Lord's and all that is contained therein. And that's from Psalm 24. So eating anything in relationship to one's own personal life. Now, what I wanted to do was to contrast something so we could see it, because sometimes you read down through the Word of God and you say, well, gee, how does that fit? If we back up to verse 20, which we talked about two weeks ago, it says, Paul says, no, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become sharers in demons. But then in verse 25, five verses later, he says, anything that is sold in the marketplace without asking questions for conscience sake. In other words, eat whatever you want. So in my mind, is there a contradiction here? Is there something going on? Is Paul contradicting himself? In one place, he says we can eat whatever we want.

And in another place, I don't want you to become shares with the demons. Well, the issue was pretty simple. If you're in the temple and they're having a feast and they're offering food to an idol and you're at the feast, he doesn't want you to be involved in that kind of thing. If you go to the temple marketplace and buy the food, you're free to eat it because it isn't part of the sacrifice or the demon sacrifice that Paul doesn't want you to be involved in. So it all comes down to whether you're in the temple or not. Whether you're in the marketplace that's next to the temple, because the priests couldn't eat all the food, so they would sell it.

And then he says, here's the reason. For the earth is the Lord's and all it contains. So what he's saying, don't ask questions about the history of the meat for conscience sake. And his advice is justified here. For here is why you can do it. The source of the meat is fine. It's good. But it was used for a perverted purpose. The meat is both pure and perverted at the same time. The distinction made is that the source of the meat is pure even though it's being used in a perverted manner.

So now, verse 27, relationships in our social life. He says, if one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience sake. In other words, if an unbeliever invites you over for dinner and in this circumstance, you're free to go. Believers can hang out with unbelievers socially on any kind of in any kind of setting. This freedom may have been really, really hard for a Jewish Christian. We're studying on Wednesday night the book of Hebrews and I can imagine these Jews with all of the rules, especially the dietary rules coming out of Judaism to Christianity and some Gentile believer invites them over for dinner and serves them maybe pork. They would have a tough time with that.

But Paul says don't inquire. Don't inquire. Not inquiring will preclude the possibility of unnecessary guilt arising in the mind of a scrupulous believer. So you can go if you want to, but don't ask questions. The freedom may be hard for you depending on what your background is. that informs you.

Let's say you're at an unbeliever's house and someone says to you, well, you do know that this meat was sacrificed to idols. Verse 28 says, but if anyone says to you, this meat is sacrificed to idols, Paul very succinctly says, don't eat it. Why? For the sake of the one who informed you and for conscience sake. a believer, it could be someone who just found out about it, who is a believer and tells you, did you know that this meat was offered to sacrifice, and sacrificed to an idol.

Did he do the right thing by telling you? No, he shouldn't have told you, it's none of his business. Because the meat in and of itself is fine. Again, back to the principle, you don't ask questions about where it came from. But even under these circumstances, if a Christian said to you, you know, that meat was offered to idols and you recognize, well, he shouldn't have told me that, still Paul says, don't eat it.

And I could just imagine what it'd be like in the middle of your fourth bite. Someone says, don't eat, you know, that steak you're eating was sacrificed. The rest of that meat was sacrificed to idols and you put your fork down and so far as they're concerned, you're not going to eat any more of it, it would be kind of maybe embarrassing to your host. But if it's true that that was the case, it would put you in a difficult situation. But Paul's instructions are don't eat it because you don't want to harm his conscience.

What if the person that told you that was your non-believing host? Well, I find it interesting about this thought because the non-believer of his kindness and respect for your scruples invited you to dinner. And like most people, they want to make sure that they serve you something that you like. And I don't think that they would go to the problem or to the point where they would serve you something they know that you couldn't eat.

But I think, at least in the pagan, back when Paul was writing this, I think a lot of times pagans associated Christian dietary habits with the Jews because they just assumed that Christians would pick up Jewish dietary habits and restrictions. And I got that from reading some of the things that Constable had to say about this.

So if anybody says to you the meat is sacrifice, even if that person's conscience is weak, it should be respected and considered. Paul brings into the principle of Christian liberty, but alongside that the principle of surrendering your liberty if it would be good for another. This is a situation where not eating the meat is probably a benefit to the conscience of the person who said something to you. How would you apply the principle today? One might have a liberty in one's own conscience. It might tend to be damaging to others. We know that. So we surrender our liberty for the good of others.

There's a principle here. The divine principles are established and they may come in in a way that we might not think of. We might find ourselves in a situation where all of a sudden We're confronted with a principle and we need to make a decision about it. And in this case, Paul says, don't eat the meat.

It's a beautiful Christian grace that cares for the good of others so that we may be, so they may be edified and saved. I think it actually shows something when confronted with a situation like this. We make a decision not to eat it and we do it. for the benefit of the person who said something. It's not my own gain that's in view, but it's the spiritual gain of others.

And then Paul says in verse 29a, and I've split verse 29 into a and b, a says, I mean not your own conscience. In other words, you're not going to do this because of your own conscience. Paul advocates for not violating the pagan's understanding of what Christians should or should not do rather than instructing them about Christian freedom at the table.

I know sometimes we would have a tendency to say, well, let me explain to you what kind of freedom I have. And we go into what amounts to an explanation of why it's okay for us rather than just stop. And you don't need to explain why you stopped other than the fact that, well, if it bothers you, I'm not going to do it. I picked up out of some other stuff I was studying, maybe a more contemporary analysis of this.

The present-day analogy may be imagine if someone with strong principles on the total absentation of alcohol were the guests of friends who did not share these principles. He would be well advised not to inquire too carefully about the ingredients of some especially palatable sauce or trifle that the guest was preparing, but if someone said to him pointedly, there's alcohol in this, you know, he might feel that he was being put on the spot and could reasonably ask to be excused from having any of it. If that's what your scruples say, don't drink it. And I wouldn't do it if you were sitting next to me and I felt like I had the freedom and I knew that you didn't, I would stop.

So advocating, abstaining for the sake of the moral conscience is what's going on here. Christians should or should not do a thing rather by instructing a Christian's freedom at the table. In other words, abstaining for the sake of a pagan's moral conscience. Would I do that? Yes, I should. Whether it's meat, whether it's alcohol, whatever the issue is. I find it really interesting how much time Paul spends on this very issue.

Verse 29b, the second half of the verse says, but the other man's, but the other man's. In other words, we're talking about the other man's conscience. For why is my freedom judged by another's conscience. So what this question does is it brings in the whole thought of verse 26 and 27, and then 28 and 29a are some of the, is kind of a parenthesis of an illustration.

But the point is, maybe we could reinstate Paul's thought this way, quote, why should another person's scruples determine my liberty? The answer is pretty simple. They should because his spiritual welfare is more important than our Christian freedom. And I know sometimes that that's a big pill to swallow. I think we've gone through that a lot in our society in the last year with things like wearing a mask six feet apart, all that kind of thing. And, you know, for the benefit of others is why we do what we do. So verse 30. If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?

So what you find out is that Paul would rather forego eating in the middle of a meal than to allow his freedom to be condemned by another, even if he's condemned unjustly and unfairly, as would be the case here. This carries the message to the weaker brother. that he is slandering a fellow Christian by his actions. Paul nevertheless discounts this and acts, I think, in a Christian manner. I would say, of course, the key, of course, is that sacrificial meat was only off limits for Paul when it offended the moral conscience of a pagan he was with.

And that doesn't happen all the time. It depends on the individual person. The blessing offered at one's meal predicated on God's prior ownership of all things means that no fellow Christian may condemn another on this question. Don't ask, just let it go. So the believer can give thanks to God for whatever he or she eats, but he should limit his own liberty out of the consideration for what other people think is proper.

I think that's a very important point. We don't need to alter our own convictions here for the sake of others, even though they speak evil of us, as the Corinthians did of Paul. But we should be willing to change our behavior for the sake of unbelievers or weak believers. So our convictions can remain the same, but we can't change our behavior for the benefit of unbelievers.

Verse 31, whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, you do all to the glory of God. God's own glory is the ultimate foundation of everything that Paul does. Colossians 3.17 says, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Detail would be adjusted so that we would not cause offense or we would not cause someone to stumble However back in verse 27 where we said however so that we do not if oh, I'm sorry Matthew 17 27 it's really interesting time some tax collectors came down to Jesus and and the disciples and There was an issue about, well, we're not from here, we shouldn't have to pay the tax. Now listen to what the Lord Jesus says.

However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook and take the first fish that comes up. And when you open its mouth, you'll find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and me. These people had no claim on the Lord Jesus or the disciples, yet he worked a miracle so that the Jews who wanted to collect the shekel wouldn't be offended. I find that really interesting that he would do that. John Darby said one time that persons do not take offense if you approach them with a moderate degree of consideration and kindness. That is, it is well to leave the sledgehammer behind when you go into an unbeliever's house. I really like that.

So what is God's own glory? What is it? Consideration for the conscience of others, of other people, and the promotion of their well-being. The crucial aim of all conduct is to glorify God. The glory of God is to be the believer's objective in every single thing he I think you have to depend on the Spirit of God to tell you, to show you, whatever circumstance you find yourself in, does this glorify God? The contents with the observance of distinctions between foods and the satisfaction of one's personal preference and insistence on one's own rights. You know, if there's ever an issue, I have the freedom to put my own rights aside for the benefit of others. Verse 32.

Give no offense to either Jews, to Greeks who are Gentiles, and to the Church of God. Give no offense means don't put any obstacle in the path of any person. Interesting. Strong's Talking Dictionary says, not leading, don't put a situation in front of somebody that would lead to sin. Not lead them into sin. Don't offend them in any way. Give no offense means no obstacle in the path of a person, whether he be Jew or Gentile. So they might come to faith in Christ. Or don't put any obstacle in the front of a believer. you can't, you won't hinder their growth. It is not just a matter of hurting somebody's feelings. It's interesting to note that Paul's division of men in the three classes, one of which is uniquely the church, if consideration of the believer or unbeliever alike will lead to the glory of God.

Vern Peerman wrote a paper talking about people groups and that kind of thing some years ago and I took some information out of it here. Some scripture tells us about people both as individuals and as all humanity together from the beginning of scripture to the last page. We see the historical development and the enduring identity of three primary people groups in this sequence. The first are Gentiles. as an ethnic distinction. I find this very interesting in light of all the distinctions we're supposed to be making in our society today.

Well, there are Gentiles, and Gentiles start in Genesis chapter 1 and they go on through the entire Bible. And then the next one is the people of Israel, and that's an ethnic distinction. It starts in Genesis chapter 12 and it goes on until the body of Christ comes along the church. And it's a body created by God from Gentiles and Israel.

And it's a new and spiritual creation, not ultimately ethnic distinction here. What I find interesting is that on the earth, there are three distinct people groups. There's Jews, Gentiles, and the church. And we could always say that they were either Jew or Gentile, but the church really can't be distinguished as an ethnic distinction because the church is a heavenly organism. And it's made up of persons who come out of Gentiledom or come out of Judaism.

But we were talking about this in Sunday school, about the baptism of the Spirit being placed into Christ. There's such a dramatic recreation change to those who come to Christ that they do become a separate group. but they're a heavenly group and not an earthly one. So it's a little difficult to actually give them some sort of ethnic distinction because there are plenty of verses that talk about that those that are in Christ don't have any... there's no Jew or Gentile, bond or free, barbarian, Scythian, but all are one in Christ. So our distinction as believers is totally different.

But notice what Paul says. don't offend any Jews or Gentiles or the Church of God. So I find it interesting that we can easily distinguish between Israel and the Church. And the distinction really is the basis for what we call dispensational or stewardship thinking.

But on the earth today, there are really only two groups of people. You know who they are? saved or unsaved. That's really the only two distinctions there are. I don't care what the society says in terms of, well, you're this, you're that, you're Northern European, Southern European, you're from Colorado, it doesn't matter. The only distinction today, I think, is you're either lost or you're saved. So, last verse.

Paul says, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved. One of the things I took out of this is that when Paul speaks of pleasing men, he doesn't mean that he's a man pleaser. It means that their interests are considered before his own, and the overriding interest of others is their salvation.

If you want to take a look at a verse where Paul says this in Galatians 1.10, he says, For am I seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant to Christ. I find that really interesting. He doesn't want to allow his own attitudes or his activities in any area to create a barrier between himself and those he sought to help spiritually. He's always trying to please men for the purpose of saving them.

And saved here is not the kind of save that we would use in 1 Corinthians 15 salvation. It's in the context probably includes Christians and means saved in the widest sense of delivered from anything that keeps anyone from advancing spiritually. So in summary of chapter 10 and everything we've been talking about, Christian freedom is not given to us We keep that in mind that would make all the difference in how we look at stuff.

Paul recommended that his readers follow his example of exercising and limiting their Christian liberty of glorifying God and giving no offense as well as in other areas of their lives. If you take a look at all of chapter 8, 9, and 10, and includes chapter 11, verse 1, They all deal with the subject of Christian relationships to foods, sacrifice to idols, and they also deal with, in that sense, freedom that you have and the limitations that are put on your freedoms. If something is not sinful, it is permissible for the believer, but it may be wise to avoid it for the sake of the spiritual welfare of somebody else. Paul forbade going to pagan temples for cultic meals. However, he permitted the eating of in the marketplace meat under normal circumstance. The Christians should be willing to limit his or her exercise of his or her Christian liberty because of the love of others.

And I think that that in everything that we do and everybody that we were around, I don't think we would have a problem in relationships with anybody. We just, as human beings sometimes, just think that we have the freedom to exercise our rights in all circumstances. And I think these verses through chapter 10 and going back into 9 and 8, Tell us that we don't. We have the freedom. We have incredible freedom. But we also have the freedom to not exercise our rights for the love of others. So let's close.

Dear Father, how we thank you. We thank you so much for the fact that we do belong to you. That we are resident permanently within your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have freedoms there that are indescribable. But we also have the freedom to limit. the freedoms that you've given us for the benefit of others, just like your son did. And we thank you, Father, for the grace that we live under. And we pray in your son's precious name. Amen.