1 Corinthians 8:1-6 “The Taste of Love”
I. Intro
Paul now moves to the second of the seven questions the Corinthian Church wanted answered, and this question will take three chapters to answer. The gist of their question had to do with eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols, but the root of their question went much deeper. There are, in Scripture, definite commands and practices that the Bible speaks about authoritatively, certain things that as Christians we have no doubt how God feels about our participating in them. We are not to steal, murder, backbite, covet, or commit adultery; these things are plainly laid out for us, and the Bible clearly calls such things as these sinful. But what about the “gray” areas where the behavior is not mentioned or prohibited? Furthermore, some gray areas come about as society changes, or the culture in which they are practiced is different than ours. How are we Christians to navigate through the maze of living in a world that is clearly not ours? Let me put it the way we are most familiar with today, “Can I be a Christian and ______?” There is an ever-growing list of things that we can place in that blank over the years. Some are no longer an issue as society has changed, but far more things have replaced them. I’m sure that none of you here today struggled with the issue of where your Tri-tip steak came from that you are going to throw on the Barbee after Church. But many of you have questions concerning areas like:
- Can a Christian smoke?
- Can they have alcohol as long as they don’t get drunk?
- Can Christians go to the movies or watch TV, and what shows can they see?
- Can Christians listen to certain types of music?
Since those things aren’t mentioned, what should govern our lives concerning them? That is what Paul is going to address in the next three chapters, as he gives four guidelines for Christian living:
- Chapter 8: Truth must be balanced by love
- Chapter 9: Rights must be balanced by reward
- Chapter 10:1-22: Opportunity must be balanced by servitude
- Chapter 10:23-33: Freedom must be balanced by responsibility
II. Vs. 1-3 A Big Heart, Not a Big Head
Vs. 1a Paul lets his readers know that he is now moving on to a new question, “Things offered to idols.” To understand the question the Corinthians were asking, we need to first understand the situation they now found themselves in as believers. The “things offered” to the idol was food and primarily meat as an act of worship by a temple priest. Though the Jews practiced animal sacrifice, it was for atonement for sins, as we are told in Hebrews 9:10, “according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” That was far different than how the Greeks and the Romans practiced it. They worshiped many gods. They had a god for every circumstance and every need. They also believed that evil spirits filled the air. This is where offering meat to a particular god came into the picture. Since evil spirits were always trying to invade humans, the easiest way in which they did so was to attach themselves to food before it was eaten. So sacrificing had two purposes as far as Greeks and Romans were concerned:
- It gained favor with the particular god from which you needed it
- It cleansed the meat from demonic contamination
The animal to be sacrificed was divided into three parts:
- The first part was burned on the altar as a sacrifice
- The second part was taken by the temple priest as payment for his services
- The last part was kept by the person offering the animal
The problem for these Corinthian believers lay with the second part that was given to the temple priest. So many offerings came in that he could not possibly eat all the meat. So they had a temple butcher shop where the meat was sold at a much-reduced price than they could get anywhere else. Not only was it cheaper, but as far as the Greeks and the Romans were concerned, it was better because it had been cleansed of all the evil spirits. Thus, it was often the meat that was served at feasts and weddings. Now the Christian who had come out of that background of paganism saw the meat as something associated with idol worship and evil spirits.
I know this all sounds strange to us, but it was causing a real problem in the Church, as there were some believers who would rather starve to death than eat a burger that had come from the temple butcher shop, while others were always after a great bargain and realized that there is no other god than the God of the Bible and demons don’t come into you from meat that you eat. Jesus spoke of this in Mark 7:18-20: “Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods? And He said, “What comes out of a man that defiles a man.” Paul’s going to address the specifics of this in chapter 10, and we will see just what he has to say about this whole controversy, but for now he offers some general guidelines.
Vs. 1b-3 It might surprise you to realize which one of these two groups Paul felt was in the right doctrinally. In verses 7-9, Paul says that those who had a problem with eating meat that came from the idol butcher shop were the “weak” brothers and sisters, as they were the uninformed ones. Yet with that said, Paul does not endorse the practice of eating meat. Instead, he suggests that there is something greater than doctrine that ought to govern our practice; it is love. Simply put, it’s a rather simple matter to be right on an issue, as that just requires knowledge. But it is a far different matter altogether to do what is right on a matter, as this requires a right heart. Both groups were apparently using logic as a basis to win the argument. You could just hear the arguments over this issue going back and forth. “You’re just ignorant, there is no other God than the one true God and demons don’t come into you from meat, so please pass the A-1.” “I’m ignorant, you’re ignorant; why would you want anything to do with that which is associated with worshiping idols and appeasing demons?” So how does Paul answer these two sides? Well, he addresses what both sides used to convince the other that they were right on the issue: knowledge. There are four things he wants them to know about knowledge:
- Vs. 1b Universal: “We know that we all have knowledge.” No matter which side these believers were on, both had knowledge. Very seldom is a person’s position based upon ignorance. Most of the time, we believe what we believe because we have felt certain that we were on the side of truth and logic. “Where a person stands on a position depends upon where they sit,” I always say. These two opposing positions were both Christians and both made valid arguments. Yet doing what is right is not always a matter of knowledge or the lack of it. It is very possible to sit down with someone who is just as passionate as you are on an issue and win the argument but not convince the person with whom you are arguing. Pastor Chuck said something years ago that has stuck in my heart, “If what you say is truth, let me see the fruit of it in your life; then you won’t have to convince me I need it, I’ll ask you for it!” Most of the time, we unintentionally invalidate what we are trying to convince others of because of how they see it portrayed during our argument!
- Vs. 1c Limitations: “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.” Knowledge has an internal flaw, and that is the effect it has upon those who possess it. Knowledge has a tendency to inflate the person who possesses it. The more we know, the more we start to think that we are better than the person who doesn’t know what we know. I can still remember playing with my friends and saying those hurtful words, “I know something you don’t know!” Christians are not immune to this problem with pride and thinking ourselves superior to our fellow Christians. Many a time, I’m afraid that we come off as uncaring in our truth. In fact, I typed the word “fundamentalist” in the Webster dictionary thesaurus and the synonym came out “bitter-ender” which is a word that describes a person as “harsh and marked by cynicism, rancor and intensely unpleasant to be around.” Ouch! It is not knowledge that is the problem; rather, it is our failure to allow that knowledge to change us. It has well been said, “Knowledge is the accumulation of facts, while wisdom is the application of facts!” No wonder Solomon wrote, “Get wisdom.” Knowledge “inflates”; love on the other hand “builds.” The truth that we have gained through the word of God by the Spirit of God will either cause us to grow or just swell!
- Vs. 2 Change: “And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.” Someone once wrote that, “Knowledge is the process of passing from the state of unconscious ignorance to the state of conscious ignorance.” Ignorance doesn’t know that it doesn’t know, whereas knowledge knows that it does not know! The truth about knowledge is that we are on a constant learning curve and what we are certain about today, we will most likely be questioning tomorrow. By the way, this is what I love about Christianity. We can continue to question what we believe. I have grown more in love with the Lord and His word simply because I have always continued to investigate what I believe and why I believe it. My friend, Tom, has a saying that I like, “If you can’t question what you believe, question why you believe it!” The longer I live life, the more I realize I have so much more to learn. So yes, we may have knowledge in a certain area, but the truth is, at best, that knowledge is still yet incomplete.
- Vs. 3 Test: “But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.” Our knowledge must be put to the test, and the truest test for what we know is seen in a deepening love for God and the things of God. There is yet another truth in this verse as it relates to all born-again believers and that is based upon our mutual love for God by which we have a relationship with Him. Our inability to get along with those who differ in non-salvation issues is silly. You see, the truth of the matter was both groups (those that ate meat and those that didn’t) had a love for God and, in some way, it was this love for God that motivated their individual stance on the issue. So why make it an issue? We here at Calvary Chapel are not opposed to denominations, only the divisions that they cause that separate fellowship from the body of Christ.
III. Vs. 4-6 Idle Truth
Vs. 4-6 Having established the limitations on knowledge, Paul now agrees doctrinally with the arguments of those who ate the meat from the idol butcher shop. This is the same argument Paul dealt with in chapter 6:12 which dealt with the balance between “liberty, license, and legalism.” Remember, he said, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” Those same principles apply here to this issue as well, and legalism is never the answer to those who use their liberty as a license for sin. So before Paul can speak on balancing truth with love, he must first establish what the truth is. The truth is stated quite powerfully in these three verses:
- Vs. 4 “We know that an idol is nothing in the world.” This was no doubt something that those who had the freedom to eat meat from the idol butcher shop were saying and Paul agrees. The image is nothing more than the figment of man’s imagination or the impersonation of a demonic being. Moses warned the nation of Israel before they entered the land of promise that those that inhabited the land worshiped “gods that were nothing more than the work of men’s hands, wood and stone,” (Deut. 4:28). Isaiah rebuked the Jews and their idol worship in 44:15-17 saying; “He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. He burns half of it in the fire. With this half, he eats meat; He roasts a roast and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says Ah! I am warm; I have seen the fire. And the rest of it he makes into a god, His carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, Prays to it and says Deliver me, for you are my god!” God made the tree or stone that formed the idol, so we need not be concerned about eating meat that was dedicated towards it, as it means nothing. Paul is agreeing with them theologically.
- Vs. 4b “And that there is no other God but one.” There is only one true God that can bear the title of God, and it does not matter what others worship. We know that what they worship is not God. Those that were eating meat from the idol butcher shop were not doing so to worship the phony deity. They were just after a bargain. They didn’t believe that the meat was free from demonic possession; that is not why they bought it. They bought it because of the price. So again, Paul agrees with their doctrinal reasons concerning eating meat offered to idols.
- Vs. 5-6 There may be many things man will try to worship which he calls a god, but there is only one creator and only one way He has made Himself known and that is through His Son Jesus. All things are through Jesus, and it is because of Him that we live.
So Paul has established the truth. Next week, we will see him speak to those who have liberty on implementing their liberty with the guide of love and not the guide of truth. He will not disregard truth. Instead, he will apply the truth in love. Even though you and I are not struggling with where our meat has come from, the principles regarding exercising our liberty around those who don’t share our freedom will apply.
I’ll leave you with a story: When I first moved here, after about a week, a pastor from another Church called me to share that one of his elders was really upset at him because he ran into him leaving the grocery store with a case of beer. The fellow was really upset and was making a real fuss at his Church, and he wanted to know if I was a “Teetotaler.” Coming from my unchristian background, I had never been labeled that before. His point was that he felt that he had the liberty to have a beer, even if it was at the expense of the weaker brother and, if the fellow didn’t like it, well he could come to Calvary Chapel where the Pastor drinks “tee.” The only thing in this fellow’s eyes was his liberty, not love for the brother that was offended by his action. More on this next week as we take up Paul’s recommendation on liberty, truth, and love.