Scripture: 1st Corinthians 8:1-13
Video Link: https://youtu.be/r5yAZXm_xNQ
Audio Link: https://soundcloud.com/tawabaptist/sermon-4-may-2025-informed-by-love
Structure:
- Introduction
- Love informs knowledge (vv.1-3)
- God is one (vv. 4-6)
- Love restrains freedom (vv. 7-13)
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
Imagine for a moment that you have a superpower. Maybe super strength or the ability to fly or perhaps move objects with your mind or make yourself invisible. What if you could heal people just by touching them? Or discern what people were really thinking.
The examples I’ve given are a bit far-fetched. They sound like something out of a Marvel movie, but power comes in more subtle forms too. Things like, inside knowledge, privileged position, money, creative ability and freedom; these are all examples of more commonplace powers we might take for granted.
Whatever form it might take though, power makes us more vulnerable to temptation and more likely to cause harm. How do we use our power? Do we use it to help others, or do we use it to take advantage?
Today we start a new sermon series in First Corinthains. We are not planning to work through the whole letter, just one section (chapters 8, 9 and 10) where the apostle Paul addresses the question of freedom. How are Christians to use their special power of freedom? From 1st Corinthians chapter 8, verses 1-13 we read…
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. 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. 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. 9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom 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 or sister, 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 or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.
Have you ever walked in, midway, through someone else’s conversation and felt a bit lost, trying to pick up the thread of what they are saying, not sure of what you have missed? Reading Paul’s letters to the Corinthians can feel like that sometimes.
The experts tell us Paul probably wrote at least four letters to the church in Corinth, but only two of his letters survived. To make matters more complicated, the Corinthian believers also wrote some letters to Paul, seeking clarification on a few issues. But the content of their letters is lost to history.
The result is that we, today, are left trying to put the pieces of the puzzle back together. Apparently, 1st Corinthians is Paul’s response to one of the letters the Corinthians had written to him.
One of their questions had to do with eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Is this okay or not? Eating idol meat might not seem like a hot button topic for us today in New Zealand, but it was a big deal in the first century.
Whether the question of eating meat sacrificed to idols seems relevant to us or not, the principles embedded in Paul’s response are still very pertinent for the church in the 21st Century.
Three timeless principles woven through today’s Scripture reading:
Love informs knowledge, God is one and love restrains freedom.
Let us begin with love and knowledge. What do we mean when we say love informs knowledge?
Love informs knowledge:
Well, basically this: True knowledge is not about accumulating a stack of information in your head. (We have the internet for that.) Nor is knowledge about having lots of degrees and qualifications.
True knowledge is relational. True knowledge (what we might call intimacy) comes with the experience of giving and receiving love over time.
I didn’t get to know Robyn by taking a class (although there may have been times when she wished I had taken classes). There were no lectures or tests (at least not the kind NZQA would recognize), but there was a lot of listening and work and laughter (mainly Robyn laughing at me).
As someone said to us on our wedding day. Marriage is an education in which you lose your bachelor’s and never really gain your masters.
Seriously though, Robyn and I have grown in our knowledge and appreciation of each other through more than three decades of marriage, with all the joys and difficulties and humdrum in between that living and working and raising kids together entails.
The first thing we notice about Paul’s response to the Corinthians’ question is the way he models the principle of love informing knowledge. Paul could have simply said, ‘No. Eating meat sacrificed to idols is wrong. Don’t do it. It’s my way or the highway’. End of conversation. But Paul takes a different approach.
You don’t deal with weeds by cutting off the tops and leaving the root in the ground. A more effective way of dealing with weeds is to pull the whole weed out, root and all. And it’s normally easier to pull weeds out if you soften the ground first with some water.
Paul persuades his readers by addressing the root of the problem. But first he waters the ground. He softens people’s hearts in a gentle way.
To be clear, the Corinthians are not the weeds here. The Corinthians are people that Paul cares about deeply. Unfortunately, some of their ideas were like weeds that needed to be removed and replaced with a more fruitful thought.
The surface question might be, ‘Is it okay to eat meat sacrificed to idols?’
But the deeper (root) question is, ‘Do you love God and your brothers and sisters in Christ?’
You see, the Corinthians believed that being spiritual had to do with possessing special knowledge. In their minds, having the right knowledge gives you a kind of superpower that makes you more ‘spiritual’ than others.
But Paul helps the Corinthians (and us) to see that this is not what Christian spirituality looks like at all. For Christians, knowledge is informed by love.
Being spiritual is not about having the right answers or insights. Being spiritual is about giving and receiving love.
Indeed, Christian spirituality is about loving God and loving your neighbour as yourself.
Paul agrees with the Corinthians’ statement that, “We all possess knowledge”. However, he qualifies their statement saying, “But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.”
Or, as J.B. Phillips puts it: “While knowledge may make a person look big, it is only love that can make them grow to their full stature. For whatever a person may know, they still have a lot to learn.”
In other words, knowledge doesn’t make you spiritual. Knowledge makes you arrogant. It inflates your ego, so you think you are better than other people. Love grows you spiritually.
In verse 3, Paul uproots the Corinthians’ false thinking: But whoever loves God is known by God.
Life is connection with God (intimacy with him). To be known by God is to be recognized by God as having a relationship with him. We gain true spiritual knowledge by being in a loving relationship with God. A relationship in which we receive love from God and learn to trust and obey him as well.
Love informs knowledge. If knowledge is divorced from love, then it becomes a destructive power. That’s Paul’s first principle. His next principle is that God is one. Or said another way, there is only one true God.
God is one:
Some people will not open an umbrella inside because they believe it brings bad luck. According to one theory this superstition comes from ancient Egypt where noblemen used umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun. To open an umbrella inside was considered offensive to the sun god.
These days we avoid opening umbrellas inside because we don’t want to knock anything over or poke anyone in the eye. It has nothing to do with any sun god.
In medieval times people associated black cats with the devil and witches and the plague. Consequently, for some, having a black cat cross your path is an evil omen. But really there is no scientific basis for being fearful of black cats, unless you are a mouse or a bird or a saucer of milk.
What about throwing salt over your left shoulder? Well, apparently this is to cleanse yourself of the little devil which sits on your left shoulder whispering things into your ear.
In my experience there is more than one little devil and they tend to attach themselves to memories. They don’t sit on my shoulder; there’s not enough room for them all. What’s the point in throwing salt over my shoulder? Not only is it a waste of good salt, it also means I have to vacuum more often, which is bad for my back.
The city of Corinth, in the first century, was a very superstitious place. There were pagan idols everywhere you went. Trying not to offend any of the gods and trying to appease them if you did cause offense, was exhausting.
One of the attractions of converting from pagan worship to Christianity is that with Jesus there is just one God. It’s a lot easier to serve one master, than many at the same time. Knowing there is only one God and he loves you, sets you free from a lot of unnecessary fear and superstition.
Knowing there is only one God also gives you a kind of superpower in a society that believes in many gods. And, as I said at the beginning of this message, having a superpower can be a dangerous thing.
Some of the Corinthian Christians were misusing their knowledge to justify some sketchy behaviour. They reasoned that because there is only one true God, then the so-called gods which the idols of wood and stone represent, don’t really exist. Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, Aphrodite and so on are nothing.
And if the idols are nothing, if they are not real, then they have no power. Therefore, eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols cannot hurt you.
Just like opening an umbrella inside your house is not going to offend the sun god and bring you bad luck because there is no sun god.
Again, Paul is gentle in weeding out the Corinthians’ self-serving thinking.
Paul agrees wholeheartedly that there is only one true God and all the idols are nothing. But he does qualify this somewhat by acknowledging the dual reality.
Objectively speaking there is only one God but existentially speaking (in the felt experience of most Corinthian citizens) there are many gods and many lords. Those gods and lords (false though they be) are still real enough in the minds of the pagan majority.
Later, in chapter 10, Paul goes on to clarify: “…the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons”.
In verse 6 Paul gives a wonderfully rich and valuable theological statement which has stood the test of time down through the centuries…
…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.
There’s a lot going on here, so let me give you the skinny version. Paul is affirming that there is only one God. God is the creator and Jesus is the one through whom God created all things. Caesar is not lord, as the cult of emperor worship believed. Jesus is Lord and he is one with God.
More than this, the one true God is our Father. To describe God as our Father indicates a close and caring relationship with God. The Christian God is not like the pagan gods who don’t care about humanity. Our God is invested in his creation like a good Father is invested in his children.
Building on this idea of God being a Father, we look to God just as a child looks to their parents to know things. We know who we are and why we are and what to do by looking to God our Father. God gives us our identity, our purpose and the right path through life.
We don’t look to blind superstition to guide our behaviour, like the pagans do. Nor do we manipulate knowledge to justify our own bad behaviour, like some of the ‘knowledgeable’ Corinthians were doing. No. We take our lead from God’s love for us.
We are talking about the responsible exercise of knowledge and freedom.
Love informs knowledge and love restrains freedom. Wait, did he just say, ‘love restrains freedom’? That can’t be right, can it? Isn’t love supposed to let me do what I want? No. True love knows when to exercise restraint.
Love restrains freedom:
Now the kind of love in view here is not a fluctuating feeling. Rather, it is a settled commitment to the wellbeing of others, irrespective of how they make us feel. It is agape love, self-giving love. The kind of love modelled by Jesus.
Jesus didn’t need to go to the cross, at least not for himself. He was free to walk away, but he chose to restrain his freedom out of love for God and love for us. ‘Not my will Father, but your will be done’.
We drive north to see family in Hamilton and Tauranga every three months or so. It normally takes us about seven hours depending on road works and traffic. Our is not new or fast or powerful, but it is reliable; it gets the job done without costing too much.
Most drivers are patient and show consideration on the road. But every now and then you come across someone who takes a crazy risk. Best to give them room and pray they don’t cause an accident.
People like that may know how to drive and they may own a fast and powerful car, but that doesn’t entitle them to pass at speed by crossing a yellow line on a blind corner. That kind of behaviour is not loving. It puts personal freedom ahead of the wellbeing of others.
Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Seeking the wellbeing of others sometimes requires us to limit our power and restrain our freedom.
In verse 7 Paul says that not everyone possesses the knowledge that there is only one God and idols are nothing. As believers in Christ, they may know in their head that God is one, but this knowledge hasn’t properly connected with their heart yet. It’s not part of their felt experience.
After years of bowing and scraping to idols in fear and superstition, they still feel like the pagan gods are real and could do them harm. What if eating the idol’s meat contaminates them in some way? What if eating in a pagan temple without worshipping the pagan gods makes the gods angry?
Those believers who felt free to eat sacrificial meat thought their faith was stronger or more mature. They were looking down on other believers who had a sensitive conscience and were more selective with their eating.
So, in verse 8 Paul says: food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
In other words, eating meat sacrificed to idols does not prove that your faith is stronger. It doesn’t make you more ‘spiritual’. In fact, God is not that concerned with what goes into your stomach. The Lord is more concerned with how you treat others, especially those you might think are weaker than you.
Paul’s line of reasoning here follows Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 15 where the Lord says, 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
In verse 9 Paul gets to the crux of the matter saying: Be careful that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.
Have some consideration for the wellbeing of other believers, for whom Christ died. Just because you feel free to eat meat doesn’t mean you should. Be ready to limit your own personal freedom for the sake of others.
If someone feels morally uncomfortable eating meat or drinking alcohol or watching a particular movie or laughing at your dodgy jokes or whatever, then don’t pressure them.
Don’t goad them into following your example, by making them feel they are somehow inadequate if they don’t do as you do. Let others feel comfortable in their own skin. Let their faith grow and take shape as the Holy Spirit directs.
In verse 12, Paul joins the dots for the Corinthians (and us) saying: When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
Again, we are reminded of the words of Jesus who said: Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
To sin against another believer is to sin against Christ. To love another believer is to love Christ and to love Christ is to love God. Paul would rather give up meat altogether than cause a fellow believer to fall and lose faith. Love informs knowledge and love restrains freedom.
Conclusion:
What is the takeaway here? (Please excuse the pun.) Well, one person’s meat is another person’s poison. What you have no problem with may be quite harmful to someone else.
We need to be conscious of the power of our words and actions and how these affect others. In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty. In all things let love be your guide.
Let us pray…
Father God, you are one and you care for all people, weak and strong. Forgive us for the times we have wounded others’ faith and conscience. May your love inform our knowledge and restrain our freedom, through Jesus we pray. Amen.
Questions for discussion or reflection:
- 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?
- If you could choose a superpower, what would it be (and why)? What more subtle powers do you already possess? How do you use your power?
- What is the purpose of knowledge? Why does love need to inform knowledge?
- What does it mean (for Christians) to be spiritual? What does it mean to be known by God?
- Do you have any superstitions? If so, what are they and where do they come from?
- Discuss / reflect on 1st Corinthians 8, verse 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. What are the implications of this statement?
- Why is it important to restrain freedom? How do we know when to restrain our freedom?
Tawa Baptist 