Love Builds Up
The More Excellent Way, Part 13 — 1 Corinthians 8
Stonebrook Sunday AM, 4/26/26, Matt Heerema
Please turn with me to 1 Corinthians, chapter 8.
The Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth is a series of responses to a report he hears about how the church is doing (which is not well!), as well as ongoing correspondence he’s been having with them about issues of faith and life in which they’ve gotten way off track.
In the first several chapters, he shows them that they have gotten off track by developing factions among themselves over who had the better teacher. Some followed Paul, some Apollos, some Peter. They were dividing into ideological camps.
In chapter 5, they had gotten off track by letting immorality run rampant in the church with no correction. In chapter 6, they had gotten off track by taking each other to court over trivial matters, they had gotten off track in falling into a hedonist mindset. In chapter 7, they had pendulum swung into a much more religious feeling, but still off track asceticism error. Today’s passage will show them getting off track in the way they were applying their theology.
Paul is shepherding them back from all the ways they’ve gotten off the path, and today’s passage finally names the path the Christians of Corinth, and we today, are to walk on. The path of love.
To get into where today’s passage is coming from, imagine a brand new restaurant in town. It's become super popular. It has amazing food. The prices are always good. You can always get a good table. The vibes are immaculate. It's a fun place to be. And you have a job interview there. It’s a job you’ve really been wanting, and it seems that the only hope you have of getting it is to meet in this restaurant.
There's just one catch. There's a giant golden statue of a false god in the middle of the restaurant. That's the whole theme. And it's not just a theme as in The Rainforest Café. They're serious. Every time they brought out your meal, they also make a comment about the statue-god, and how gracious the statue-god is to provide the food for us.
Here's the thing, you're a Christian, and you know that this statue is of a god that doesn't actually exist. You know that the most high God, the triune God, the creator God of the universe, God the father of the son and the Holy Spirit, are the ones that actually created the food you're about to eat and, and also the waiters and waitresses that are serving it,
and also the chefs that prepared it. You are under no delusion that that golden statue represents a real god. And the food is good and the price is right. So what's the problem?
But you also know, that some of your fellow church members, can't stand the place precisely because of the golden statue. They have a history with gold statues. They used to be part of the Golden Statue Cult. They've recently gotten out of the Golden Statue Cult, and they are still processing it in their soul. They've been avoiding the restaurant because of their experience in the cult. You know that they consider the place off-limits. Dangerous. That it could pull them back in.
How should you, knowing about your brother or sister may very well feel very confused or even betrayed by your going to that restaurant?
I know its a weird illustration. A restaurant like that probably wouldn’t do very well in Ames. Or would it? Maybe if we looked a little more carefully at what’s going on around us, the illustration isn’t as far off as it seems.
In our passage today we’re going to see Paul address the situation the Corinthian Church was facing. And it wasn’t just one restaurant for them. Every trip to the market, every dinner party, every cultural rhythm carried the risk of this kind of situation with it.
Paul is going to address the attitude of some in the Corinthian church who had the right idea about how to think of this situation, but they had the wrong focus. An arrogant self-focus instead of an others focus, with devastating consequences. We’ll see Paul redirecting their focus on the goal of loving one-another, so focusing on building one another up, rather than focusing on what they had the right to do.
Let’s read.
1 Corinthians 8:1–13 (CSB)
1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by him.
4 About eating food sacrificed to idols, then, we know that “an idol is nothing 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 there are many “gods” and many “lords”—6 yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from him, and we exist for him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through him, and we exist through him.
7 However, not everyone has this knowledge. Some have been so used to idolatry up until now that when they eat food sacrificed to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not bring us close to God. We are not worse off if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat.
9 But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, won’t his weak conscience be encouraged to eat food offered to idols? 11 So the weak person, the brother or sister for whom Christ died, is ruined by your knowledge. 12 Now when you sin like this against brothers and sisters and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food causes my brother or sister to fall, I will never again eat meat, so that I won’t cause my brother or sister to fall.
Right idea, wrong focus, devastating consequences.
Right idea
We can see that the Corinthian Christians had the right idea, the right theology, in verses 1-4. “We all know… that an idol is nothing… there is no God but one.” And Paul doesn’t correct their idea. He affirms it, in fact he amplifies it!
He draws on Deuteronomy 6:4-5, the great Israelite confession and the greatest commandment:
Deuteronomy 6:4–5 (CSB)
“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
Paul’s statement in verse 6 here is remarkable. He is stating in no uncertain terms that the “One God” of Israel and Jesus Christ, are one. Paul continues that all things were created through this one God, Jesus. Pointing at the creation account in Genesis 1:2, with the Spirit of God hovering over the pre-creational waters of chaos, and speaking creation into existence:
Genesis 1:2–3 (CSB)
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
And you have the whole trinity in Paul’s single thought.
Paul affirms the immense freedom that followers of Jesus have when it comes to food or drink! He’ll go on in chapter 10 to expand this whole thought, but he says there “The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” (Quoting Psalm 24.) All things come from Christ. Including the meat in question. The meat isn’t the issue, Paul says. The way you’re dealing with the situation is. You are focusing your freedom in the wrong direction.
Wrong Focus
Paul has in mind younger believers, who he calls “weak in conscience.” In Romans 14, Paul picks this topic back up and also calls this an issue of “weak faith.” This is a less mature believer whose inner compass, inner sense of right and wrong, is more restrictive than one who knows Christ well. It has more rules. In this case, certain kinds of food or drink are off limits.The weak conscience is offended when someone else does something they consider off limits. They have set up an extra-biblical law in their mind and hold themselves to it.
Counter-intuitively Paul says that the move of the stronger-faith, better-informed conscience, more mature believer, is not to flaunt their strength and maturity.
The problem is a familiar one to me. It is where I tend to struggle. There is something about theological knowledge that tends to make one, in their flesh, very judgy. To feel superior. For me this comes across as impatience with someone who “hasn’t caught up yet.” This passage corrects me every time I read it, and the Lord is working on me.
Paul calls those with stronger consciences to be mindful of how their actions are read by those with weaker consciences. If my actions will cause another believer to struggle in their faith, I am to abstain. Even if those actions are not sinful.
An example. Years ago, the community group I was in would break out into men and women once a month. On that week, the men would go to Old Main (which is now Sweet Caroline’s). A bar and grill. It was a fun treat, and the relaxed atmosphere I think helped us connect as friends and open up about our faith. Eventually a new member joined our group who had a fairly traumatic childhood related to an abusive adult, and alcohol was involved. This individual couldn’t even go past the alcohol section of a grocery store without a whole lot of baggage coming up in his heart. Our decision was pretty easy. We stopped going to this bar and grill restaurant. No problem. The group continued. Friendship grew. Openness happened.
Look at verses 2 and 3.
1 Corinthians 8:2–3 (CSB)
If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it.But if anyone loves God, he is known by him.
You can know, and be right, about your freedoms in Christ. That the type of food and drink doesn’t matter. But if you wield that knowledge in an unloving way, you are way less knowledgeable than you think. Paul will crank the volume on this thought all the way up in chapter 13.
1 Corinthians 13:1–2 (CSB)
1 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
And then he says: “But if anyone loves God, he is known by him.”More important than what you know, is who knows you. When you know that you are known by the Most High Creator God of the Universe, it won’t matter much at all that people know how much you know.
Importantly in verse 1: Knowledge puffs up. In Paul’s writing, there is an article before “knowledge”. It’s not just “knowledge puffs up” generally, it is “This knowledge puffs up.” Knowledge wielded in selfish pride puffs up. Knowledge without love puffs up. Paul does not say to avoid knowledge, he says to use your knowledge lovingly. Because when you don’t, the consequences are devastating.
The Consequence
Paul’s language couldn’t be sharper! If your actions are the grounds for temptation for a weaker Christian to violate their conscience, you are ruining, literally destroying, that brother/sister in the faith. And you are sinning against Christ.
The Goal
Paul shows us the path in verse 1. Love. The knowledge that we have immense freedom in Christ, because Christ, who created everything, called us, saved us, freed us from our slavery sin, death, and lies, leads us to love for the One God, Jesus Christ. According to Jesus, The first great commandment is immediately followed by the second: Love your neighbor as yourself. Love for Jesus overflows into love for our brothers and sisters, which means our knowledge will be utilized to build them up. Not to demand our freedoms and rights.
And Jesus is our example here. If anyone in all creation had the right to demand their rights and freedoms it was Jesus. Paul writes to the church in Philippi, another Greek city, about this same thought:
Philippians 2:5–8 (CSB)
5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. 7 Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.
John Chrysostom, an early church pastor, wrote in the late 300s, about the attitude we should take toward our weaker brother: “Christ died for him, and will you not even give up eating meat for his sake?”
This is the shape of love: Paul Tripp definition: “willing self-sacrifice for the good of another that does not demand reciprocation or that the person being loved is deserving.”
That is the kind of love we received from Jesus. It is the kind of love we are to show.
Paul says in verse 8 that it’s not about the food or drink:
1 Corinthians 8:8 (CSB)
Food will not bring us close to God. We are not worse off if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat.
What matters? Knowing you are loved by Christ, in a way that results in you acting in love toward all your brothers/sisters. In love, correcting, rebuking, instructing, pointing them from false paths to true paths. Pointing out where they have gone wrong, strengthening where they are weak, encouraging where they are fainthearted, so that they are built up.
A life that has been touched by Christ, will turn around and extend Christ’s patience and care and love, giving up things we have the right to do, so that others can come to know Him better.
Let’s pray.
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