“Our Church” – Sacrificial – 1 Cor. 8

Let’s talk for a minute.  I want your feedback on something.  How would you define “freedom”?  What is freedom?  How do we know when we have it?  Is freedom the right to do anything or from anything?  Where does my freedom stop?  Is it where your freedom begins or can they overlap? Do I have the right to do anything I want regardless of the impact on somebody else?

For what things would you sacrifice your freedoms?  Every time you get on an airplane nowadays you sacrifice your freedom to take what you want on that airplane and you now have to get patted down or go through a scanner just to get on board.  That’s not fair, is it?  None of us did anything to deserve having our freedoms taken away and yet we give up those freedoms in the name of safety and security.

What other issues or occasions might make you give up your right to do something?  What about a mother who gives up her right to go to work because her child is sick?  That’s not fair to her, is it?  She didn’t do anything to deserve to not get a pay check for that day.  But she gladly does it for the sake of one she loves.  She makes the choice to sacrifice her freedom for the sake of somebody else.

The Apostle Paul writes about the importance of this in 1 Corinthians.  We are continuing our sermon series entitled, “Our Church” with a look at what 1 Corinthians says about what our church should look like and how we should act.  That Corinthian church was plenty messed up and Paul was all over the map instructing them about everything from unity, as we saw last week, to sexual immorality and marriage, lawsuits, gifts, and how to take the Lord’s Supper.

Now, each one of those instructions would take anywhere from one verse to one chapter but there is one issue that Paul needed three whole chapters to cover and it is an issue that, on the surface, you are going to think doesn’t apply to us at Christ Fellowship today.  Chapters 8, 9 and 10 are concerning meat sacrificed to idols.  Now, how many here today struggle with this horrible sin?  Probably none.

As we go through chapter 8 of 1 Corinthians you will see that Paul talks a lot about meat sacrificed to idols but I will tell you right now that this chapter is not about meat sacrificed to idols.  Paul also talks a lot about knowledge but this chapter is not about knowledge.  He talks about a strong and weak conscience but it’s not about that.  He talks about freedom but it’s not even about that.

In chapter 8 Paul exhorts the Corinthian church to sacrifice.  That’s what it is about.  In chapter 9, he gives an illustration of it in his own life and in chapter 10, Paul applies it to Israel’s history.  He spends more ink on this one subject than anything else and so we know that is must be of utmost importance for our church today so turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 8.  It’s a short chapter and we are going to read the whole thing keeping in mind that it is not really about meat being sacrificed to idols.

As you turn there, you might be interested to know something about the people that Paul was writing to here.  Corinth was a busy town in Greece and was at a crossroads where people from all over the world would pass through and so they were being influenced by every kind of thinking and religion.  All kinds of people were bringing their goods and talents to sell and with it they brought their philosophies and their world views and so the Corinthians considered themselves to be well-educated and very worldly and knowledgeable – and they were right.

There was a large group of what we call “sophists” there.  To be a sophist meant you had great knowledge and you were clever in how you used it whether it was in philosophy, music, art, or even athletics. It’s the word in which we get the word “sophisticated”. They were well-rounded in their education and were pretty proud of it, as you can imagine.  So, that explains, maybe, why Paul starts out as he does.  Let’s read 1 Corinthians 8.

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. ² Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. ³ But whoever loves God is known by God.

Let’s stop right there for a second.  Notice how many times Paul uses the word “know” or “knowledge” in those three verses.  That Greek word is “gnosis” and Paul acknowledges the fact that these Corinthians were very knowledgeable.  They “knew”.  An agnostic person is unsure if there is a God but gnostics – they know and because these people knew – and they knew they knew, if you know what I mean – they were puffed up about it.

Have you ever known anybody that was puffed up because of how much they knew?  I used to work with a guy who was pretty smart but he could not ever say the words, “I don’t know.”  He would make it up if he didn’t know.  I asked him something one time that I knew there was no way he could know and he just acted like he didn’t hear me.  He would not admit to not knowing something.  That’s who Paul is writing to here and that’s surely not us today, is it?

 ⁴ So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” ⁵ For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), ⁶ yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

As Paul here confirms that there is only one God, he starts to answer the question they had about eating food sacrificed to idols.  Again, this seems like an issue that absolutely does not concern us.  We know that anything that we put above the one, true God becomes an idol to us but Paul is talking about those man-made, hand-carved idols with faces and bodies that were meant to look like certain Greek gods.  There were places in Greece that you could find somebody worshipping every kind of false god imaginable at any one time and when they did they would usually sacrifice some kind of animal to that idol.

But not all of the animal was usually sacrificed.  Most of the time it was only a small, symbolic part and the rest would either go to the priest or to the person making the sacrifice so there was a lot of meat left over and it was often sold in the meat market.  Why not?  It’s better than wasting it.  The problem was that many of the people that Paul was writing to had come out of that kind of lifestyle and were now Christians and they had a hard time understanding how somebody could buy that meat at the market and eat it when it had been sacrificed to an idol.

So, Paul is telling them that it’s okay to eat that meat because there is nothing about an idol that is real and it’s not food that makes us close to God but look at what he says in verses 7 and 8.

 ⁷ But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. ⁸ But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

Now, let me ask you a question.  How would you have answered the Corinthians about this issue?  If they wrote to you and you gave them just your opinion, what would you say?  I think I would have said that those people are wrong and they’re stupid so they need to be quiet and y’all enjoy your freedom.  Phooey on them.  That’s probably one of many reasons God didn’t use me to write any of the Bible.  Look at how Paul wisely answers in the following verses.

 ⁹ Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰ For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? ¹¹ So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. ¹² When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³ Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

It goes back to verse 1.  Remember how Paul said that knowledge puffs up but love builds up?  This is what he was talking about.  These immature Christians with weak consciences should know better.  It shouldn’t bother them.  BUT IT DOES!  It bothers them to the point that it is hurting their walk with the Lord and so Paul tells the mature Corinthians that they need to sacrifice their freedoms and their rights for the sake of these baby Christians.

We would all like to think that we are strong enough and mature enough to not be like those that Paul is talking about.  We know what the Bible says and so many things are black and white or even red and white and those that are immature need to get over it and just learn the truth.  The problem is that it’s not always that simple.  Not everything is black and white.

Most of you know that Ben is not only a talented worship leader but he has actually re-written quite a few songs that were originally rock songs and he changed the words and made them praise and worship songs.  They sang them a lot at Unchained and they use them a lot in the prisons.  Those prisoners know those old rock songs and can relate to that kind of music and it really gets their attention but Ben has changed the words, though, and made them into something that gives God glory.

Who could possibly have a problem with that?  Me.  Only me.  The problem for me is that a lot of those songs take me back in my mind to a time when I was not living for the Lord and I was rocking out to those songs as I did things that I now regret and bring back bad memories.  So, when I told that to Ben he said, “Fine.  We will never do them here at Christ Fellowship.”  And we haven’t.

Do you know how much I appreciate that?  That’s not fair to Ben.  He wrote those songs and there is nothing wrong with them and Ben knows that.  He could have said that I just need to grow up and quit being immature and come to the same knowledge he and everybody else has about those songs.  It shouldn’t bother me.  But it does.

Knowledge puffs up but love builds up and that is what Ben showed.  He showed me love to build me up and I will never forget that.  He sacrificed his right and his freedom for my sake.  Now, let me ask you the same question I asked earlier.  For what things would you sacrifice your freedoms? 

I remember as a kid playing cards with my sisters and the doorbell would ring and my mother would hurriedly tell us to put the cards away because we didn’t want whoever was at the door to think we were gambling.  Seriously?  I’m 5.  This isn’t 5-Card Stud we have going over here.  It’s not like I’m on my plastic Mattel phone with my bookie asking him what kind of odds he would give me that my sister tells me to “go fish” on this next hand.  Anybody should know that we aren’t gambling.  But what if they didn’t?  What if the person at the door had a gambling problem and saw that the preacher’s kids were playing cards and it made him want to and he didn’t play “Go Fish”?

Does that sound ridiculous?  Then you have never dealt with addiction.  You have never been the person who has struggled with something for years and just the thought of it or the sight of somebody doing something similar will set you off.  It’s not right.  They shouldn’t be that way.  But some people are.

My friend Troy Pittman won’t mind me telling you this about him.  He just got his 31-year chip from AA for being sober that long.  Thank you, Lord!  But he was telling me just the other day that for the first few years, it was a struggle every single day.  Every single day he had to deal with cravings for alcohol and every single day he would find a friend to help him or he would get some ice cream or he would do whatever it took to overcome those cravings. 

He said more than once he would be driving down the road and he would have to pull into a service station and lock himself in the bathroom and get on his knees and pray that God would deliver him one more time and he did that for years.  Now, what kind of person would I be to invite Troy over to my house for dinner and drink a beer or a glass of wine in front of him?  I would be a free person.  I have the right to do that.  I know that.  But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.

Now, don’t come up to me afterward and tell me that I should have brought out all the other reasons why people shouldn’t drink alcohol or that I should have included some other topic.  This sermon is not about the dangers of alcohol or why you shouldn’t listen to Ben’s rock music or eat ice cream.  It’s about sacrificing your freedom for the sake of somebody else.

How many of you grew up in a Southern Baptist church?  If you did, you know there is a long list of things we all knew we shouldn’t do but we never really talked about them.  We just knew you didn’t do them.  We knew that drinking and smoking were sins and a good Christian didn’t dance or gamble or go swimming with the opposite sex.  It just wasn’t done.

But Paul is not talking about any of that.  I read a story about a Muslim man who had recently converted to Christianity and he was at a church function of some kind and for lunch they were served sandwiches.  When it came to the Muslim convert, he asked what kind they had and was told that all they had left was BBQ pork.  He quietly declined and went about his business.

A young girl saw him and said, “Surely you know that it’s okay to eat pork now.  God doesn’t forbid it.  It’s not a sin.”  But he explained that he still saw his family in the Middle East ever so often and he knew that the next time he saw them, his father would ask him if the infidels had had persuaded him to eat pork and he wanted to be able to say no.  He knew he would never be invited back home to see his family if they knew he had eaten pork and he knew he would have no way to ever share with them the Good News if that happened.

That’s not fair.  It’s a dumb old sandwich.  He had the knowledge that just eating something didn’t defile him.  Even Jesus said so in Mark 7:15 where He said, “Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them."

As a mature believer it is your job to encourage and teach the less mature person but you have to allow the Holy Spirit to work in their lives in His own perfect timing.  In the meantime, as Paul says in verse 13, we should never do anything to cause him to fall.

I believe this would be easier for us to embrace if, first, we did as Paul said in the first verse and do it out of love for that person so we could build them up, but also, look at what he says in verse 12.  “When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.”  You not only cause them to sin but you also sin and Paul emphasizes that by saying it is a sin against Christ Himself.

Our freedom ends at sin.  Period.  As disciples of Jesus our goal in life is to make other disciples.  That is the main reason for our church being here and for us being here but we can’t do that if we, by our example, lead someone else into sin.  What is God speaking to you about today?  I’m not asking you what have you always done or what did your parents do or what do you think is right or wrong.

Now is the time to go before God and God alone and ask Him what needs to change in your life.  Maybe it’s nothing or maybe it is something that you don’t think is any big deal but God, through His Holy Spirit is leading you to give up that freedom that you have to do something.  If He is leading you in that then you can rest assured that He will give you the strength to do it.