Now, in 1 Corinthians chapter
8, the apostle changes the subject a bit from what we were looking
at in chapter 7, the marriage of believers, or the ability
to not marry. And now, apparently, as we know
from chapter 7 that this church had sent a letter unto From our
studies in chapter 7 that the the church had sent a letter
to Paul asking about Certain things specific things
and this seems to be one of the his answers to something addressed
In that letter and so Paul in this chapter deals with it in
the subject of eating meat that has been offered unto an idol.
Apparently they asked him, is it okay to eat meat offered to
idols? Is it defiled? Does it implicate us in the idolatry
in any way? Is it supporting false religion
to do that? But Paul prefaces this subject
Very simple, specific subject. By these first three verses,
this is the principle upon which we're taught regarding specific
things. This is the principle upon which
we act as believers. In this chapter, is a beautiful,
masterful blend and portrayal of how that doctrine and practice
are inseparable in the believer. We believe certain things. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and what he did as is revealed in the scripture. James
said, show me that. Don't just tell me that. Show
me that. And all of scripture says that.
Our text tonight says that. We know verse one, we know, and
therefore, the rest of the chapter, most of it, we do. We have here
what we know, and exhortation to do accordingly. We behave according to who we
know, What he has taught us every word that proceeds from the mouth
of God So what is the principle here? Spoken of in these first
three verses upon which we act as believers love Love the greatest
of these is love greater than knowledge In what sense what what's the
comparison what do we what does he mean by that and Well, first
of all, he's not talking about what passes for love in this
world, and especially in the religion of this world. Touchy-feely,
huggy, you can't even get in the parking lot without getting
hugged by somebody that doesn't even know you. Not that I've
experienced that, but I've seen them do it. I try to avoid that. But I've seen them doing it.
I see them do it on the way here. It's not what passes for love
in the world, a fake show of love. The fruit of the spirit
of God is what we're talking about in the believer. The fruit
of the spirit is love. Love for God, love for his people. Contrary to the popular song,
learning to love yourself has nothing to do with love. It's
not the greatest love. It's not even love. It's sin.
Everybody loves themselves. The problem is if you love a
sinner, then you love sin. Unless it's another sinner for
which you long for God's saving grace because you've experienced
it yourself. Self-love is what we're born
with. That's what we need to be saved from. We loved ourselves,
that's why we defied God in the garden. Fruit of the Spirit of God. And
look at these three amazing verses. First we see in verse one that
love is necessary. Knowledge, that is, as these
believers did. These Corinthian believers were
impressive in their knowledge of scripture and doctrine. Paul
commends them at times for that. It's evident in the language
that they are, that they're a very intellectual group of people.
But notice that love is vital when it comes to knowledge. Knowledge,
having the correct doctrine, is not only useless, but it's
harmful without the love of God in the heart. It's not good,
it's bad, it's a negative. It'll puff you up, it's worse
than useless. Knowledge with love buildeth
up. That's the way that Paul expresses
this in this comparison so concisely. The word edify means to build
up. Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up. Love actually
is constructive. It does things and doesn't do
things. It's action. It's positive. knowledge without love Now we
understand that you can't love somebody you don't know there
has to be knowledge, but not knowledge without love That's
what he's talking about Knowledge with love edifice or build us
up and this is the truth That's so elegantly taught and beautifully
taught and thoroughly taught in first Corinthians 13 listen
to just verse 2 and though I have the gift of prophecy and understand
all mysteries and all knowledge. And though I have all faith so
that I could remove mountains and have not love, I'm nothing. I'm nothing. There must be knowledge
for there to be love, but there must be love for knowledge to
be anything but bad. Well, it's better to be smart
than not smart, no? Is it better to be puffed up? Not without love it's not better.
You're better off a complete, in the literal medical sense
of the word, idiot. You're better off being an idiot
and at least being humble. Nothing so there must be knowledge
for there to be love. Of course, if I don't even know
who you are That's what we just talked about people that don't
even know you say we love you, you know Now, you know, you don't
even know what what the word means But knowledge without love is
bad so those who boast of their knowledge But they're mean-spirited
And they use their knowledge to degrade. You ever had somebody
use the scriptures against you like some kind of a whip? Like
a two-by-four to beat you over the head with? I wouldn't listen
to them for a second. Well, it's the word of God, not
in their mouth. Not interested. Not interested. Mean-spirited,
they use it to degrade, to discourage people. To denigrate others. They need this rebuke in verse
two. We do, because we're prone to that, aren't we? We're guilty
of that. But look at this rebuke in verse two. You think you know
something? You don't know anything. You
don't know anything like you ought to. I don't either. It's not the knowledge. Knowledge
doesn't save us. Not the kind of knowledge we're
talking about here. Knowledge of a person, now that's another
matter. We're gonna talk about that. But just knowing stuff,
even about that person, that's not salvation. It's not salvation. I think it was Spurgeon, I just
saw a quote recently where he said, you can know all the doctrines
of the Bible that there are to know and not one of them will
save you. That's the truth. You have to be saved by a person,
you have to know him, not just stuff about him. Idiots arguing with idiots is
just idiotic, isn't it? Idiots boasting themselves over
others is shameful and utterly forbidden by God. But consider the important doctrine
taught here. The principle we're given here
upon which to act is love. Love is what will get the job
done Concerning this matter you asked about Godly Fruit of the
Spirit Supernatural love It's not your knowledge that
saves you now understand that it says in John 17 3 And thank
God it does this is life eternal that they might know thee. I
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast seen.
Knowledge is salvation if you're talking about knowing somebody.
That's not what Paul's talking about here as being a detriment. Knowing Christ is not gonna puff
you up. Knowing Christ is gonna put you
in the dust. It's having head knowledge, book
knowledge, doctrinal knowledge, whatever men call it, Will indeed puff up unless God
gives you his love in your heart What will knowledge of Christ
the person of Christ cause not not haughtiness Those of us who
know him we know that the Lord knows how to bring you down and
And he does do that But look, what does the knowledge of the
person of Christ cause? Verse three, but if any man love
God, if any man love God, the Lord asked Peter, do you love
me? Do you love me? He didn't say
now, remind me of what you know. Remind me of what you remember of this doctrine
or that doctrine. Do you love me? Can't love him
without knowing doctrine is vital But the doctrine without the
love You can't love without the doctrine
But you can have the doctrine and not love That's why he asked
him what he did. Do you love me? Do you love me? If you think you know something
and that is your hope, that's not gonna cut it. But if you
love God, then you are saved. Why? Because that means that
he knows you. You see that there? But if any
man loved God, oh, I thought my knowledge of God was salvage.
No, it's his knowledge of me. His knowledge of me and what
evidence is there of that? I believe I love him. I love
him by his grace. I love him because He first loved
me that salvation him knowing you see how Paul turns it around
your knowledge is not your hope a Person is your hope and his
him knowing you and the evidence of that and the motivation of
For doing according to the word and not just hearing it is love. Faith worketh by love. That's so simple, isn't it? So
simple. Now, now that we understand where
our doctrinal knowledge rates in relation to the love of God
in the heart, let's consider this matter of how we should
act in these certain situations. Doctrine and practice. They're
inseparable. I believe, therefore I do. Faith
without works is dead faith because the living faith that God gives
works by love. So we see what we know and we
see the motive here for doing what we do. Now let's look at
the next three verses, verse four. As concerning therefore
the eating of those things that are, you see that word therefore?
Now that we understand that this is not just another tidbit of
knowledge, you know, that you need to put in the docket of
your brain and so you'll know even more stuff. We're talking
about the love of God now in our hearts. Concerning therefore the eating
of those things that are offered in sacrifice and idols. Here's
some more stuff that we know We know that an idol is nothing
in this world. We know that And that there is
none other God but one For though there be that are
called gods whether in heaven or in earth People talk about
God in heaven, they may be talking about somebody completely different
than you are when you talk about that. And in earth, false concepts
of God, those who are revered as being able to forgive sins, it's a false god, it's an idol.
as there be God's many and Lord's many, but to us, to us, to we
who know the one God of heaven and earth, there's just one God. This couldn't be simpler, could
it? The Father. There's one God and we're his
sons. Of whom are all things, and we
in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we
by him. We, by the grace of God, know
the solitary, single God of heaven and earth,
and we worship him. We know that idols are nothing,
and idol's not another God. Paul talked about another gospel,
which is not another, There are other gods. He said there are
many gods, but they're not other gods. They're not rivals to the
God of heaven and earth. They're called gods by this world.
That means nothing to us. That doesn't mean anything to
us. And so as Paul is going to elaborate on in a minute here,
that which is offered to idols is just meat. Nothing happened. It's not tainted in some way
by being used in idolatry as it pertains to the eating of
meat offered to idols, the doctrine of God is most relevant. He's saying we know who God is,
he's our father. We know who he is and that is
why the offering of that meat to an idol itself, it doesn't
mean anything, it doesn't change anything. The idol itself is
nothing. Those who offer the idols, they do so in ignorance, in defiance
of the true God, and that has nothing to do with us. Say they
offer a goat to their God. That goat was God's goat before
they offered it. Everything's of Him, you see
that? It's all of Him. It was God's
goat when they offered it, It's God's goat after they offered
it. And if I wanna have a goat taco later on that evening, it's
still God's goat. And he provided that for me.
God is God and he's our father. And all things are of him. Look at the clear doctrine taught
in verse six. But to us there is but one God,
the Father, of whom are all things, and so it idles nothing. And we in Him, and one Lord,
Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him, the one
God is our Father, and all things are of Him. That goat is his,
whatever it is they offer, we're his, all things are his. Look
at the next phrase, we in him. Being in God by his grace through
faith in his son, we can't be defiled. Salvation is being in
him, not doing things a certain way. We do things a certain way
if we do because we're in him. That's salvation. being in God
by his grace. Eating that meat can't do anything.
You remember our Lord told us, it's not what goeth in that defileth
the man, it's what cometh out. It's what comes out of the heart
that's our problem, not what we eat. Our hope is not in what we eat
or don't eat. Look at verse eight. But meat
commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat are we the
better, neither if we eat not are we the worse. Our hope is
in God our Father and our being in him. And look at the last
part of verse six. The Lord Jesus Christ made that
idol, the idolater that offered it, the sacrifice that was offered
to the idol by the idolater. It's of God, but it's by Christ. Christ, literally, the person
of Christ, God's son, created everything and Look us by him. We're accepted
by Christ by virtue of being in him in God through him of
God are we in Christ Jesus who is made into us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption and eating that meat from an
idol Has nothing to do with that Acceptable to God by Christ not
by religious conformance We buy him look at Colossians chapter
2 with me See if this scripture is familiar to you Colossians
chapter 2 verse 16 Colossians 2 16 Let no man therefore
judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day
or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days. None of that. What
do you eat or don't eat? Don't let anybody judge you on
the basis of those things, what you eat or don't eat. Why? Because
of Christ and his cross, verse 14 and 15. Let no man therefore, Verse 17,
which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your
reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding
into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by
his fleshly mind. There we go, puffed up, wow. The mind, because look what I
know. The Lord says he don't know anything
about it. You haven't seen that. That hasn't
been revealed to you. But they're puffed up. Well,
if I know my Bible, well, if pigs had wings, you don't. You don't know anything like
you ought to know. But people, they pop off about
it, don't they? We look at verse 20, wherefore,
if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why,
as though living in the world, are you subjects to ordinances,
touch not, taste not, handle not? That's not what the worship
of God is about. All of the Old Testament statutes, rituals, legal observances
pointed to Christ. Look at verse seven in our text.
How be it? We know that, right? Idols are
nothing. The meat offered to an idol is
still just a piece of meat. That's all it is. How be it? There is not in every man that
knowledge. Not everybody knows that. For
some, with conscience of the idol, they're thinking, that
meat was offered to an idol. And their conscience being weak
is defiled. It bothers them. It sticks in
their craw that that meat was offered to an idol. But meat
commendeth us not to God. You see he's going, he's showing
both sides of this. Back and forth, but meat commendeth
us not to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, neither
if we eat not are we the worse. Notice that Paul, if Paul were
saying this from the perspective of the one with the weak conscience,
he would have put this the other way. You would think he would
say, neither if we eat not are we the better, neither if we
eat are we the worse. Think about this. You would think
he would say it that way. Why? Because that's what the
people think that he's talking about with a weak conscience.
They think if we eat not, that's probably better as far as being
holy, religious, conforming to the law. We don't want to have
anything to do with anything offered to others. But he says
it from his own perspective. He might think that if we eat, we're the better,
because we know better than to not eat. Does that make sense?
It's getting confusing. We know that there's no reason
not to eat, and so we eat. So he's putting it from his perspective.
Those with knowledge would think it's better to eat. It's foolish. It's weak. As Paul says it is. Think that we shouldn't eat that
So we're gonna have we're gonna enjoy it But he says it the other
way but saying we We that have knowledge. We're not better because
we eat Even though that indicates that
probably may be more mature believers Knowing that it's just a ribeye
or whatever it is, lamb. We eat, but that doesn't commend
us to God either. Neither circumcision availeth
anything, that is the religious observance of the law, nor uncircumcision. If somebody says, well, I don't
need to be circumcised, that has nothing to do with salvation.
Right, that doesn't help you with God either. It's Christ
and his precious blood. alone that commends us to God. It doesn't commend us if we eat
with a clear conscience. That doesn't commend us to God
anymore than not eating would commend the weaker brother to
God. That's not gonna help him either.
Now because we know what we know, here's what we do, verse nine.
But take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours become
a stumbling block to them that are weak. You see how, again,
knowledge without love and knowledge with love butt heads here, don't they?
They butt heads here. Knowledge without love says,
well, I know better than that, I'm gonna eat what I want. But
knowledge with love says, wait a minute. What about my brother? What about my brother? Take heed, lest by any means
this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that
are weak. For if any man see thee, thee
which has knowledge, that's what he's referring to us as, that
he's addressing here, Any that has knowledge, if he sees you
sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him
which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered
to idols? And through thy knowledge shall
the weak brother perish for whom Christ died? Now you might think
since we have doctrinal understanding of the truth of this situation,
we eat. Since we know that an owl is
nothing and it doesn't make any, it doesn't change the meat, it
doesn't make us partakers of their idolatry, we know better
than that, so we eat. But Paul is admonishing us here
that if we have that knowledge, we shouldn't eat. If it's gonna
offend one of our brothers in Christ, a weaker brother, Worries
about he's still bothered by that I could see how somebody
would be bothered by that But we have liberty in Christ anytime
You catch yourself saying I shouldn't do that because it's not right Your motivation had better be
Love for Christ and his people If you're saying I shouldn't
do that because it's not right, and so I'm not gonna go to heaven
when I die or whatever. Christ shall profit you nothing.
That's how important it is. You that would keep the law,
don't you hear the law. If it's gonna offend somebody,
don't eat it. Because it's indifferent either
way. It doesn't matter if you eat or don't eat, but it does
matter if you don't care that it's offensive to somebody. Apparently,
these idolatrous temples, since they had all these animals after
they offered them, they cut their throats and divided them up,
whatever they did, I don't know, probably some kind of copy of
what God had ordained in the Old Testament, some form of that. And so they have all this meat,
and so it looks like they opened restaurants, doesn't it sound
like that? Adjacent to the temple itself. It sounds like something that
people would do, doesn't it? Let's benefit from this, you
know, let's profit from it. Because he speaks of eating right
there at the temple of an idol. But Paul says here, to eat there
is a risk. It's risking a weaker brother
seeing you and being offended. And so the suggestion here, the
admonition here is to not do that. Don't go and publicly eat
meat offered unto idols because there is the danger of offending
a weaker brother. Now, Paul is not saying here,
when he says, shall he perish for whom Christ has died, he's
not saying that the weaker brother is gonna go to hell if he eats
the meat offered to idols. That's not what he's saying.
What he means by perish is defined by the context. He's talking
about they'll be caused to stumble. Their conscience will be defiled
and wounded, verse 12. They will have a needless guilt
over it. That's their conscience being
defiled. It's sin to them. If they think
it's sin, then to them, it's sin. And so they're going to
be confused about it. They're going to be conflicted
about it. It doesn't mean they're going to perish. If Christ died
for them, how are they going to perish? Even if it is sin
to them, they believe it's a sin. They're not acting according
to faith. And whatsoever is not of faith
is sin, Romans chapter 14. That's something you should read.
I was gonna read that whole chapter tonight, but read that in conjunction
with this. If you still have questions in
your mind, it helps. Now we're given something to
remember and consider here. Whenever we might become a stumbling
block to another believer in any way, a discouragement to
them, maybe we condemn them, we get a little self-righteous.
Anybody ever been guilty of that? Or we get crossways with somebody
needlessly. Paul says, remember this, Christ
died for us. Kind of changes everything doesn't
it that should change our attitude toward one another completely God has loved them with an everlasting
love And with loving kindness has
drawn them to himself Unbelievers are direly warned against offending
one of Christ's little ones And I don't want to be guilty of
that either And here's another important reminder with regard
to this, verse 12. But when you sin so against the
brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. All sin ultimately is against
God. And this is no exception. I know
now that this is a warning. This is a warning. And it's a
warning that we should heed. Don't let us catch ourselves
Judging a brother, well, if they, and that'd be so easy to do,
wouldn't it? I could see, I could name you people that would probably
think somebody's going to hell because they wouldn't eat meat
offered unto an adult. And I don't know their hearts,
but I know their words. And it's so easy for, if there's
knowledge without love, for people to say, well, if he knew Christ,
he wouldn't have a problem eating that, He'd know that an idol
is nothing. Read Romans 14. We're all gonna stand or fall
to our own master, and it ain't you. It ain't me either. So I know this is a warning when
you sow sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience,
you sin against Christ. And may we heed that warning.
But can we also be comforted by this? To know that we are
the apple of the eye of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. If you wrong them, you've wronged
me. It's hard not to be Encouraged
by that and comforted by that. I don't want to be guilty of
it But to know that he loves us that much And what does love look like
in those first three verses we saw the principle that Governs
all of this is love What does love look like? Wherefore if
meat make my brother to offend I will eat no flesh while the
world stand At whatever cost to me I don't
want to be a stumbling block to a brother in Christ Love is defined by what it does
and what it don't do It still is It still is, lest I make my
brother to offend. You know, being right can be
wrong. Isn't that clear from this? Well, I'm gonna eat what I want.
It's nothing. It's not tainted, it's just meat. An unbeliever can't change that.
He can't make it not something that God has provided By his
foolishness You're right But if you have that attitude you're
wrong Be careful about it don't deliberately Don't deliberately Do that which even might be offensive
I Knowing stuff will make you a
know-it-all But knowing Christ will make
you love him And his sheep and you loving him verse 3 means
that he knows you That's the cause of all of this
that's why we are what we are and we act like we act because
I The Lord said, whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his son. The love of God. May we, by his grace, bear that
fruit in our actions, our thoughts, our words, in all things to his
glory. Amen.