Non-Essentials

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1

Video Link: https://youtu.be/VCYych5ltnc

Structure:

• Introduction
• Brass tacks
• Guiding principles
• Christ’s example
• Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

There’s a well known saying among Christians: In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, love.

Essentials are not negotiable. We do not depart from those things which are essential to the Christian faith. Essentials include things like our belief that there is only one God and that He raised Jesus from the dead.

Non-essentials are those aspects of faith which are less crucial. For example, how much water is used at baptism and whether we gather for worship on a Saturday or a Sunday. We have freedom to decide for ourselves with the non-essentials.

The kind of love in view here is self-giving love, the sort of love which seeks the good of others. Love of God and love of neighbour needs to be our motivation in all things.     

In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, love.

We are not sure where this saying comes from. It is often attributed to St Augustine, but no one has been able to substantiate that. More likely it comes from a 17^th Century Lutheran theologian by the name of Rupertus Meldenius.

Whoever coined this phrase though was probably reading the apostle Paul at the time. Over the past several weeks we have been working our way through First Corinthians chapters 8-10, where Paul writes about Christian freedom.

Two weeks ago, in Corinthians 10, verses 14-22, we heard about one of the essentials of Christian faith. Namely, avoiding idolatry. Christians are not to participate in pagan worship, that is not negotiable. We believe in one true God and we worship only him.    

Today we conclude our series in Corinthians by focusing on the remainder of chapter 10, where Paul writes about the exercise of liberty in non-essentials. From verse 23 we read…

²³ “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. 

“I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. ²⁴ No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. ²⁵ Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, ²⁶ for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” ²⁷ If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. ²⁸ But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. ²⁹ I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience? ³⁰ If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? ³¹ So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. ³² Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— ³³ even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. ¹ Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

We are talking about the exercise of Christian liberty in non-essentials. Today’s message has three parts. Brass tacks, guiding principles and Christ’s example. Let’s begin with Paul’s brass tacks.

Brass Tacks:

The idiom ‘getting down to brass tacks’ is a way of saying let’s focus on the practical details. Let’s go beyond pleasantries and determine how this is going to work out in reality.

There is little agreement on where the saying originated from. Some think it refers to the brass tacks used to hold furniture upholstery in place. Others reckon brass tacks is like a Cockney rhyme for ‘hard facts’.

And then there are those who say brass tacks alludes to the metal tacks on a shop counter which are used for measuring things, like lengths of rope or rolls of dress fabric.

Whatever the origin of the saying, in First Corinthians 10, Paul gets down to brass tacks. When it comes to the question of meat sacrificed to idols, this is what it looks like, practically, to exercise Christian freedom.

Can I eat meat sacrificed to idols as part of pagan worship, in a pagan temple?

No. Never, this is idolatry. We covered this a couple of weeks ago. Pagan worship is the worship of demons. You cannot worship Jesus and demons at the same time; those two things are mutually exclusive. In essentials unity.

What about meat that I buy in the market? In all likelihood some of the meat sold in the Corinthian market place had been offered to idols when it was butchered. So, can I eat idol meat that I purchased in the market place?

In verses 25-26 Paul says: Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, ²⁶ for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

Verse 26 is a quote from Psalm 24. God created the lamb and the cow and the chicken. All meat belongs to God and comes from God, so it is kosher.

What if a pagan invites me to dinner in their home? Can I eat the meat they serve me? Yes, but not if someone else is negatively affected. The other person may be quite wrong in thinking you shouldn’t eat idol meat, but being right is not the point. Do all things in love; that is for the good of the other.      

You may wonder how this brass tacks discussion about idol meat might be relevant to us. Well, given the increasing ethnic diversity in New Zealand it is becoming more relevant every day. For one thing it means you don’t have to worry about where you order your takeaways from or what restaurant you might go to with friends.

Let me give you a real-life (brass tacks) example, something that happened to me a year ago. Every now and then I bake a brownie for morning tea at Robyn’s school. One time one of the staff asked Robyn if I would make her a brownie.

I was a little surprised by the request, because this person follows a religion with strict food rules. She has to be careful about what she eats. Apparently, my brownie is okay though, probably because it’s meat free. 

I was more than happy to bake her a brownie. She offered to pay but I wasn’t having any of that. A few days later the container came back (via Robyn) filled with some of her cooking. It was delicious.

I didn’t raise questions of conscience. I wasn’t worried that eating her chicken samosas would somehow displease God. How could it. God made the chicken.

Food is something God uses to connect people. Eating someone else’s food is an act of trust. It brings us closer to one another and therefore better able to see the image of God in those who are different from us.

Guiding Principles:

In essentials unity. In non-essentials liberty. In all things love. Our main focus today is how to exercise Christian liberty in non-essentials. We have heard about Paul’s brass tacks. Now let’s consider his guiding principles.

If you think about it, our freedom generally as human beings is fairly limited. Most of the really important things in life, the things that make a real difference, are decided for us.

We don’t have a choice about when or where we are born. We don’t decide what kind of family we grow up in. We are not free to choose our genetic make-up and we have little to no choice about who we fall in love with.

And yet all those things set us on a particular path in life. 

Millions of people in this world live in poverty through no choice of their own. Poverty isn’t just a lack of money. It’s a lack of options, an imposed restriction of freedom. When it comes to freedom, we need to acknowledge that it’s not an even playing field. The grass is greener for some people. 

Brass tacks may be useful up to a point, but they only go so far. We need guiding principles in the exercise of freedom because every person’s situation is different.  

In simple terms, Paul has two guiding principles when it comes to liberty in non-essentials: God’s glory and other people’s good. Whatever we do, we need to be asking ourselves, does this glorify God and is it beneficial to others?

God’s glory is a constant theme throughout Scripture. We don’t have time to explore every aspect of God’s glory today. Suffice to say that in the context of Corinthians 10, verses 30-31, giving glory to God means thanking God for his provision, in all things.

More broadly, we glorify God by living in a way that reflects his character. Just as the moon reflects the light of the sun, so too the people of God are to reflect the glory of God. We see God’s character most clearly in the person of Jesus.

Giving glory to God is intimately connected with seeking the good of others.

In verses 23-24 Paul makes the point that just because you have the freedom or the right to do something, it doesn’t automatically follow that you should. Our primary consideration needs to be the good of others.

Paul repeats this principle in verses 32-33 where he writes…

³² Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— ³³ even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

Paul uses his freedom to help others come to faith Christ. If eating meat is going to create an obstacle for someone getting to know Jesus, then Paul will give up his right to eat meat. Likewise, Paul would not refuse the hospitality of an unbeliever if doing so would turn that person away from Jesus.

For Paul, the best way to glorify God and seek the good of others is to help people to receive Jesus.

Now in hearing that Paul tries to please everyone in every way, we need to be clear, Paul was not a Chameleon. Paul did not compromise the gospel. Paul held fast to the essentials of Christian faith. At the same time, he was flexible with the non-essentials.   

When it comes to freedom, the Christian believer needs to be a bit like bull kelp. Bull kelp is a type of seaweed which is incredibly strong and flexible.

The holdfast, which anchors the bull kelp to rocks, is very difficult to remove and can withstand forces equivalent to 1100 km/h on land. The stem is flexible and can stretch by up to 40% of its length before breaking. This allows it to absorb the energy of waves, preventing it from snapping. 

The strength and flexibility of the bull kelp enables it to grow in strong ocean currents, forming kelp forests which are essential to the survival of many marine species. 

As believers in Jesus, we need to be like bull kelp, strong and flexible. Anchored to the rock of Christ, but also flexible enough in non-essential matters, that others may come to faith in Jesus.   

Christ’s Example:

In essentials unity. In non-essentials liberty. In all things love. We are talking about how to exercise Christian liberty in non-essentials.

We have heard about Paul’s brass tacks and his guiding principles. While these are helpful, there’s nothing like seeing a model of what Christian freedom looks like in practice. And so, it is to Christ’s example we turn now. 

In verse 1 of Corinthians 11, Paul concludes his commentary on Christian freedom by saying: Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

Paul did not come up with these ideas about freedom and responsibility on his own. Paul took his lead from the example of Christ. The gospels are peppered with story after story of different ways in which Jesus demonstrated what liberty in non-essentials looks like.

When Jesus sent his disciples out on a short-term mission trip, he told them to eat what was put in front of them, for it is not what goes into a person’s stomach that makes them unclean. It is what comes out of the human heart that matters.

On other occasions Jesus touched lepers and helped people who were technically excluded, thus showing what it looks like to exercise liberty in non-essentials for the glory of God and the good of others.

Of course, not everyone can agree on what is essential and what is non-essential. For example, Jesus often came into conflict with the Jewish leadership over what was acceptable to do on the Sabbath.

Keeping the Sabbath holy by resting from work is one of the ten commandments, given by God, and therefore essential.

By the time of Jesus, Sabbath keeping had become integral to Jewish identity, with literally hundreds of manmade rules surrounding it. Rules like not healing people on the Sabbath, because that was considered work.

To the Jews these man-made rules were essential, but to Jesus they were non-essential. In fact, they obscured God’s purpose for the Sabbath. In Luke 13 we read how Jesus exercised his God given liberty in the non-essentials…

¹⁰ On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹ and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” ¹³ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. ¹⁴ Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” ¹⁵ The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? ¹⁶ Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

In this vignette, we see how Jesus glorifies God by bringing the Lord’s purpose for the Sabbath into focus. At the same time, Jesus also seeks the good of the woman that she may be saved. To do this though, Jesus had to break the non-essential manmade rules, and that got him into trouble.  

Conclusion:

Exercising liberty in the non-essentials requires us to find a right balance. Jesus was challenging a narrow legalism which, although well intentioned, actually undermined God’s purpose. We too need to avoid that kind of legalism.

However, the context in which Jesus was serving is not the same as our contemporary New Zealand context. Our society is highly secular and relatively permissive by comparison with first century Jewish society.

Narrow legalism is probably not a significant risk factor for most of us today. We are more likely to go to the opposite extreme of compromising the essentials. Whatever context we find ourselves in, Jesus is our guide. We must follow his example of love with truth.

Let us pray…

Gracious God, may the love and truth of Jesus guide us, that we would keep unity with the essential elements of our faith and wisely exercise liberty in the non-essentials, to the praise of your glory. Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
2. What are some of the essentials of the Christian faith, which we must hold to? Why are these essential?
3. What are Paul’s brass tacks when it comes to eating idol meat? How might this apply in our world today?  
4. Discuss / reflect on Paul’s guiding principles in relation to exercising liberty in non-essentials? How do we work out these principles in our daily life? 
5. How can we discern what is essential to Christian faith and what is non-essential?
6. Discuss / reflect on the ways Jesus (in the gospels) held fast to the essentials while remaining flexible in the non-essentials?
7. How might we reach out to others without compromising the essentials of our faith?