Excused From the Table

of God would take their Bibles
and turn once again to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We are drawing to a close not
only on this lively and instructive chapter, chapter 10, but we’re
drawing to a close on Paul’s discussion of idolatry as well. He will mention several things
that relate to the subject of idolatry, but the subject in
itself is closing. Paul had explained the seriousness
of his concern about idolatry. In the case of the Corinthians,
they were unwisely flirting with this insidious sin, idolatry,
that had captured and consumed the hearts of so many in Corinth. there was a real danger. And Paul has issued a caution
commensurate with that danger. A Christian in Corinth could
have easily downplayed Paul’s concern as he had initially communicated
it. But Paul has pressed and reasoned
and explained and exhorted More than just the idea of meat offered
to idols, the Corinthians were exhibiting signs of a callous
disregard of their fellow believers. And that showed itself in a greedy
self indulgence. So both the seductiveness of
idolatry and the unchristlike attitudes and behaviors were
grave concerns to Paul. After all, as we were reminded
last week in Paul’s description of idolatry in the epistle to
the Colossians, that exposed an uncomfortable reality to us,
didn’t it? that idolatry is not confined
to kneeling down before a marble statue. That’s what most of us
have in mind when we think of idolatry. Paul says, consider
the members of your earthly body our eyes, our mind, our hands,
our feet, our heart. Consider the members of your
earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and greed, which amounts to idolatry. Idolatry then is loving anything,
something, anything more than God himself. even if that something
is ourselves and our so-called liberties. From Paul’s vantage
point, he could see the signs of idolatry developing in his
beloved church. It was manifesting itself in
selfishness, overindulgence, and unfeeling insensitivity toward
their fellow believers. Idolatry, it seemed, was taking
root in the very church of Corinth. And those heart attitudes did
not die out with the Corinthians. These are and must be battles
that we too wage in our own day. And that’s because the idol self
is still ever present. Just like the Corinthians, we
too are not only susceptible and capable of the sin of idolatry,
we are inclined to it. This has been Paul’s design in
this entire chapter, to show us that the Corinthians were
just as vulnerable to the trappings of idolatry as were the Israelites. And following that progression,
we are just as vulnerable to the trappings of idolatry as
were the Corinthians. The most lamentable fact in the
history of the chosen people was their squandering of privileges,
God-given privileges. Paul presented this in the opening
five verses that God had shown Israel a great outpouring of
spiritual benefits, amazing miracles, divine manifestations of his
gifts and glory. And those were intended by God
as faith builders for his people. the glory cloud, the parting
of the Red Sea, spiritual food divinely provided, spiritual
drink, cool water in the desert. But none of those things, either
individually or collectively, succeeded in leading Israel to
a greater fidelity to God himself. They squandered those blessings.
What is more, We saw that Israel craved evil things, idolatry,
immorality, tempting the Lord, grumbling. Israel showed a ravenous
yearning for wickedness. We haven’t escaped that either.
Idolatry, verse 7. Immorality, verse 8. Testing
the Lord’s patience, verse 9. Grumbling, verse 10. Those are
all traps into which we too can fall. Paul’s whole reason for
outlining Israel’s sins was to show the Corinthians and us that
even though we have been abundantly blessed by God’s work in our
lives, we are not above falling. We are not above practicing idolatry. Worse yet, these temptations
are very much alive in our day and in our nature, we are inclined
to them. We are inclined to idolatry. It’s idolatry of a different
kind than that which was prevalent in first century Corinth, but
it is idolatry nonetheless. And even though we have received
God’s grace in plentiful measure, We are by nature inclined to
these enticing temptations. The Corinthians were just like
Israel, and we are just like the Corinthians. And just like
them, we will reap what we sow if we do not watch and respond
as God would have us. And thankfully, Scripture, by
way of our dear friend Paul, provides us helpful direction
about how to avoid such traps. In verses 12 through 14, Paul
urges the Corinthians and us to wisely learn from Israel’s
mistakes. Paul says these things were written
for our instruction. Israel’s examples are for all
future believers, not just the Corinthians. And so here Paul
urged us to a watchfulness for sin, to take heed. And he exhorted us about the
familiarity of sin, that our trials and temptations are not
unique. They are common to man. And that
these trials are measured by God himself who knows our frame. He will not allow us to be tempted
beyond what we are able. And then finally Paul adds there
that God provides a way of escape. We don’t have to sin. And that
escape is captured in his third and final exhortation there in
12 through 14. It’s an exhortation to avoid
sin, to flee. And that is advice we found that
works every time. if it’s employed. Then last week,
we consider that fourth section of chapter 10, verses 15 through
22, and there Paul spoke of Israel’s pattern of fellowship. This seemed strange to us, to
suddenly begin to talk about communion. But still speaking
of our tendency towards idolatry, Paul took us to a consideration
of communion, the nature of communion. That might have seemed odd initially,
but we saw Paul’s point in the end. Paul showed us the nature
and the history of communion, what we described as an intimate
oneness. That’s what communion is. And
it was communion not only that involved the communion of the
Lord’s table, as we providentially celebrated last Lord’s Day, but
the communion involved in the Jewish sacrifice. And that established
the foundation for Paul to caution us about the potential of communion
with demons through idolatry. That caution is for us. And that’s
a grave caution indeed. If we were not motivated already
to identify and eradicate idols prior to that admonition, we
certainly were now. But having secured the saints’
attention so dramatically there, Paul himself does not waste a
valuable opportunity, because it’s here that he presents to
us guidelines for the proper use of things indifferent, things
that are not in themselves necessarily sinful. And we find that admonition
in verses 23 through 30. Would you just follow along as
I read? All things are lawful, but not
all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not
all things edify. Let no one seek his own good,
but that of his neighbor. Eat anything that is sold in
the meat market without asking questions for conscience sake.
For the earth is the Lord’s and all it contains. If one of the
unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that
is set before you without asking questions for conscience sake. But if anyone says to you, this
meat is sacrifice to idols, do not eat it for the sake of the
one who informed you and for conscience sake. I mean, not
your own conscience, but the other man’s. For why is my freedom
judged by another man’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness,
why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks? Now, while Paul was willing to
think the best of the Corinthians and us, by putting the matter
for us to consider or judge, as he encouraged the Corinthians
to do in verse 15. He is unwilling here to be harsh
in this matter by throwing the matter out to his readers and
effectively telling them, you figure it out. Instead, here
in the verses before us, Paul does two very beneficial things. First of all, he communicates
some enduring principles that will be effective for honorably
navigating through any gray area, any Christian liberty. And then
he takes and applies these principles to one very clear-cut example,
meat offered to idols. And in this we see the love and
the gentleness of this faithful shepherd. Let’s consider first
the guidelines for the proper use of things indifferent, things
that are not forbidden explicitly in Scripture, things that are
not in themselves wrong or immoral. We’ve been discussing many such
gray areas over the course of the last several weeks. How do
we manage those areas in our life? Paul gives us principles
for just such a dilemma. If you would, We’ll begin in
verse 23, as Paul is giving these guidelines for the proper use
of things in different. The first thing that he says
is, he issues a test for us, a series of tests, really three
in all. And the first test that he gives
us, the question that we could pose before any gray area dilemma
is, does it promote my personal benefit? Does it promote my personal
benefit? Look at verse 23. All things
are lawful, but not all things are profitable. Let’s be reasonable. When Paul says all things are
lawful, he is not literally suggesting here that all things, every possible
thing is lawful. Murder is unlawful. Adultery
is unlawful. Drunkenness is unlawful. Putting clean dishes in the dishwasher
or dirty dishes in the dishwasher that’s clean is unlawful. I’m not the only one. So Paul
is obviously not saying here that unlawful things are lawful. That would be absurd. Instead,
Paul is referring to things that are morally indifferent, neither
right nor wrong. Such things are dependent upon
context in order to determine their ethical status. Is it right
in this particular situation to enjoy my Christian liberty? In order for a thing to, or an
act, or a deed, a behavior, a lifestyle, an activity, whatever, in order
for something to be unlawful, God’s Word must address it. Thou shalt not do thus and such. Otherwise, it’s morally indifferent. That’s all we’re trying to establish
here at the outset. This particular principle was
obviously well-established and well-known because this isn’t
even the first time that Paul has uttered these words. He did
so back in chapter six, verse 12. Would you just turn there
just a moment, 612. You see what the Corinthians
did This is probably a phrase that was so common, Paul had
uttered it on a number of occasions. And so the Corinthians had resorted
to the blame game. They were doing whatever they
pleased. They were living it up, enjoying
their Christian liberties, all under the umbrella of all things
are lawful. Paul, you said it yourself. Well, It probably was something Paul
said in their midst. This concept of Christian liberty,
though, wasn’t just to be unchecked. It was indeed for freedom that
Christ set us free. We do have and enjoy Christian
liberty. Paul doesn’t take issue with
that here at all. But that liberty is not absolute. Paul does believe in Christian
liberty, but it can’t be unchecked. All things are lawful, but there
is context. And Paul says that there are
things that are in and of themselves profane. They are sinful and
therefore unlawful. Back, if you would, to chapter
10. Now remember, Here in verses
23 and 24, Paul is going to give us three principles, three questions
to ask of ourselves to determine whether or not something we’re
doing is morally permissible at that moment. In and of itself,
it’s indifferent. We want to find out if we can
enjoy it here in this moment. The first thing that he addresses
here is the effect of that particular freedom on ourselves. Is it profitable? The first thing that we should
notice that something may be perfectly lawful and yet may
not be profitable. The word translated here as profitable
is the Greek word sumpharo, beneficial. what is morally superior, better,
expedient, advantageous, are some of the translations. These
are things that do not inherently promote what is good. They can, but they don’t absolutely promote
what is good and wholesome and beneficial in a Christian’s life.
they’re not necessarily morally beneficial, like say prayer or
scripture reading. It doesn’t mean that they’re
sinful, say fishing or hiking or gardening, but context will
determine the appropriateness of these things. In God’s Word,
may indeed grant us the freedom to engage in and enjoy something,
but there may be inherent dangers associated with it. We might
put alcohol in that category. It’s tough to build a case for
absolute prohibition from scripture, but given the inherent pitfalls
of alcohol abuse, whether it is profitable to drink at all
is a good question. In the case currently passed
during the Corinthians, meat offered to idols, there was not
a hard and fast rule here about such meat that was transferred
and sold in the marketplace. That’s why Paul has to take three
chapters to discuss this very difficult issue. It was an indifferent
matter. Well, not only Does this thing
or practice promote my own personal benefit? But there’s another
test there in verse 23, another principle that Paul places before
us, a question that he would have us ask ourselves. Not only does it promote my own
personal benefit, but secondly, does it promote the strengthening
of the church? All things are lawful, but not
all things edify. I’ll tell you how I get the church
out of that. To introduce this principle,
Paul reiterates the backdrop, all things are lawful, knowing
that he doesn’t mean literally all things. But this time Paul
says, not all things edify. There are things indifferent,
things in themselves neither lawful nor unlawful, that may
or may not, given the context, edify, build up. Now, the reason
that I say that this particular guiding principle speaks to the
strengthening of the church is this little word edify that Paul
uses here. The word is a biblical word.
Jesus used it. The gospel writers all used it,
especially Luke in both his gospel and the book of Acts. But when
Paul uses this word, it is most frequently with regard to edification,
that is the building up of the church. Just listen, Romans 14,
19. So then we pursue the things
which make for peace and the building up of one another. We’re building up the church
by building up the individual saints within the church. Romans
15, 20. Thus I aspired to preach the
gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would
not build upon another man’s foundation. I want to build the
church by planting these churches. But Paul was unwilling to go
and undercut another man’s effort. First Corinthians 8.1, earlier
in this same epistle. Concerning the thing sacrificed
to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes
arrogant. Love edifies. Love is that driving
feature of the church that God uses to build the saints and
thereby build the church. Several chapters ahead, chapter
14, Paul asks in 1426, what is the outcome, brethren, when you
assemble, when one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation,
has a tongue, has an interpretation? Let all things be done for edification. We need to build the church by
doing all unto God’s glory. And then 1st Thessalonians 5
11, Therefore encourage one another, build up one another just as
you are doing. That’s how Paul used the word.
He’s talking about the building of the church by the building
of the individuals. The stated object of this word
edify is Christ’s church. just as Paul introduced this
principle back in chapter three, the caution of building on an
improper foundation. One of the most dangerous things
we can do as believers is to tear down the work of Christ,
that Christ is doing Himself, instead of building, instead
of edifying. Love edifies, Paul says there,
edification, pertains to the Christian community as a whole.
Paul is guarding the well-being of the church here in the abuse
of these Christian liberties. He’s not just guarding the individual
believers. Paul says that some things, some
practices, some are in themselves indifferent. They cannot edify
to help build Christ’s church inherently. But if they’re abused,
they will tear it down. They don’t necessarily contribute
to the church’s Christ-like character, either in the individual himself
or in the greater body of Christ. They don’t enhance the spiritual
growth, either of the individual or of the collective measure
of believers. But if these liberties are abused,
they will cause destruction. They will tear down the work
of Christ. And so the building of Christ’s
church is to be our one great goal as Christians. We’re building
here on earth what will be compiled together as Christ’s kingdom
in eternity. And so we build up the individual
members, which builds up Christ’s church, which ultimately builds
Christ’s kingdom. This is the second question that
we are to put to ourselves regarding indifferent things. Not only how might it affect
me? Is it profitable? But also how
will it affect the church? Will it edify? And there’s a
third principle, a third question that we ought to put to ourselves
in order to evaluate in different things, things that may or may
not be profitable or edifying in themselves. And the third
probing question has to do with others, and not just the church
or the people of the church specifically, but others in general, very general. Does it promote my personal benefit? Does it promote the strengthening
of the church? And thirdly, does it promote
the advantage of others? And here, Paul begins by pressing
us to be or to become others-oriented. We need to look beyond our own
noses to the concerns and the sentiments of those around us. We’re not to be self-centered
with regard to our choices, our actions, our activities, the
exercise of our beloved Christian liberties. We have to take others
into account. We have to think of the sensitivities,
the weaknesses, the feelings and scruples of other people.
And we need to navigate Paul’s words with great care. First
of all, this word good. It’s not a literal translation
here. It’s interpretively supplied.
We come across these all the time. Literally, Paul just says,
we should not seek our own, but that of others. And obviously
he’s implying something there. And so that word good is interpretively
supplied. And there are a number of potential
suggestions that you could plug in there if you don’t like the
word good. some of the potential suggestions
to fill out what would otherwise be a rather wooden sentence.
We shouldn’t seek our own, but what is others? Let no one seek
his own profit. We’ll just borrow that word from
earlier in the passage. Let no one seek his edification,
likewise. Or perhaps let no one seek his
own interests. Any of those would fit. But the
supply of the word good works as well as long as we’re aware
that it’s supplied and we’re flexible in that. Paul says,
let no one seek his own good. Now that sounds to our ears to
be rather dour and even dreadful. What kind of existence would
it be after all if we didn’t want anything flavorful? Heaven
forbid that we put salt on our food What kind of existence would
it be to live a life that is devoid of any enjoyment, anything
that is good? But Paul isn’t saying that we
cannot or should not seek our own good ever. What a dreary
existence that would be. No, Paul is speaking here comparatively. that if push comes to shove and
we are up against the problem of offending someone by the enjoyment
of something, that we are to play the better part and relinquish
the so-called right and to pursue our friend’s good above our own. It’s simple. This is Paul’s version of the
golden rule. As he told the Philippians in
2.4, do not merely look out for your own personal interests.
He acknowledges there that we do look out for our own good.
We do look forward to what’s profitable for us. Do not merely
look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests
of others. Likewise, echoed in the opening
verses of Romans 15, 15.1, Now, we who are strong ought
to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just
please ourselves. Did you catch that? He doesn’t
say that anything good or pleasurable or enjoyable is forbidden. He just says that we don’t just
seek that. Each of us is to please his neighbor
for his good, for his edification. What a world it would be, right,
if people just lived like that. even if only the people of the
church just live like that. The golden rule practically applied
to our choices and enjoyments. How would the other person like
to be treated? And I want you to see secondly
how broadly Paul applies this maxim the New American Standard,
the ESV, both translate the recipient of this kindness as our neighbor. Neither is this a literal translation. Paul could have used that word
neighbor, a Greek word for neighbor, to specify exactly who it is
he was talking about. Literally though, it just, the
word there is another. Another person, let us seek the
good of others. And it doesn’t even necessarily
imply that this other individual is a Christian. The word that our translators
opt for, neighbor, does capture that. Our behavior matters. An unbeliever can spot hypocrisy
a mile away, can’t they? The choices we make, the things
that we do, are witnessed and observed by both believers and
unbelievers. Our behavior matters. It impacts
others’ lives. Well, these are all sound principles
for navigating the gray areas. Those three little questions
that we can ask ourselves? Does it promote my own personal
benefit? Does it strengthen the church?
Does it promote the advantage of others? While Paul can’t possibly
apply them to every possible contingency, every possible gray
area or Christian liberty, he does take the time to address
the issue that was so pressing in the Corinthian church. Meat
offered to idols. That’s what he does in the ensuing
verses. Verse 25 and following. And he
gives us three different little scenarios. The first one is meat
for sale. Look at verse 25 if you would.
Eat anything that is sold in the market without asking questions
for conscience sake. Is this bale meat? You know,
or is this just round roast or whatever the thing is. Eat anything
that is sold in the marketplace without asking questions for
conscience sake for the earth is the Lord’s and all it contains. Remember, this is the issue that
was vexing this particular church. It was no small matter. And so
Paul takes it up here, applying the guidelines for the proper
use of things indifferent, meat offered to idols, he’s already
established that. The first question of the test,
does it promote my own personal benefit? It’s pretty clear here,
because the first word of the sentence says it all, eat. If
you’re hungry, eat. If you’re shopping at the meat
market, preparing for your evening meal, buy and eat. But that’s only one test. What
about the second test here? Does it promote the strengthening
of the church? No, not necessarily, but neither
does it harm the church here, and Paul’s argument is actually
an argument from faith. Look at the second portion of
that verse. Verse 26, the earth is the Lord’s and all it contains.
That’s an argument from faith. Buying meat, even this meat,
sold in the market, is an acknowledgement that God is sovereign over all,
and in His goodness, He has provided for our sustenance. In effect,
this is God’s market. This is God’s provision. Our
dinner is God given. But there’s a third test, remember,
or third question. Does it promote the advantage
of others? Now things get a little sticky. And in this case, actually it
does in a number of ways. The first one is the one who’s
selling the meat benefits from our purchase, doesn’t he? It’s
to his advantage that I make this purchase. And it’s also
a benefit to whoever I’m feeding that evening, whether it’s my
family or friends or neighbors. In this case, it promotes what
is advantageous to others. And Paul says, if you go to the
market, buy it and eat it, you’re free. You have this Christian
liberty. but he presents another scenario.
And we see that scenario in verse 27. If one of the unbelievers
invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before
you without asking questions for
conscience sake. This time, someone else is hosting
the dinner party, not me. It’s a private dinner party in
their home. We can tell Paul is not talking
about lunch in the temple grounds like he did last week. The reader
is the invitee, but Paul even identifies the would-be host
as an unbeliever. And so we have to be extra cautious
in accepting this invitation. We’re watchful, we’re cautious,
we’re wary. Even as we begin to recall our
guidelines for the proper use of things in difference, we begin
to arrive at a much different answer this time around. This
time, someone else is the host, someone
else is doing the cooking, And so we ask, does it promote my
personal benefit? Paul’s advice here, the first
question is identical to the first scenario, our own dinner
party. Eat, that’s what he says. If someone invites you to dinner,
even if it’s an unbeliever, and you desire to go and enjoy their
friendship, go, Paul says, and eat what is set before you. The
same answer applies in the first scenario. If I’m the host here,
I get to enjoy my friend’s company. Even if he, this host is an unbeliever,
the dinner party passes the test, the basic test. I need to eat.
I love my friends. So it benefits me. But what about
the other test? Does it benefit the church? Does
it promote the strengthening of the church? Well, it might,
just might. If the dinner conversation opens
the door to the gospel, and especially if the individual comes to faith
in Christ, on the face of it, it certainly does no harm to
the church. And the final test, the third
question, does it promote the advantage of others? Well, in
the case of our unbelieving friend, it sure would. They’re not only
able to enjoy the company of friends, our friendship, and
in this case, possibly interface with someone who loves the Lord
and comes bearing the hope of the gospel. That’s quite an advantage,
isn’t it? It’s an opportunity for the gospel.
We are called, you will remember, to be in the world but not of
the world. Paul addressed this issue back
in chapter five, you’ll remember. In chapter five, Paul was clarifying
a comment that he had made previously that believers are not to associate
with immoral people. Remember this whole discussion? And then he went on to clarify,
and his point was they were not to associate with any so-called
brother if he was immoral, covetous, idolater, reviler, drunkard,
swindler. He did not mean that we should
not associate with the immoral people of this world. In other
words, he says we should. We should go to the dinner party
at the heathens house. We should associate with them. We should hang out with them. We should interact with them.
We should have them into our homes. We should be willing to
attend their dinner party. But there’s yet another scenario. Quite different from the first
two. Not only a dinner party that I’m hosting, not only a
dinner party that another unbeliever is hosting. But this scenario,
Paul presents this last situation beginning in verse 28. This too
is a private dinner party in someone’s home, which we are
an invited guest. Only this time someone says either
before dinner or during the meal, or perhaps even leans over and
whispers in our ear, this meat is sacrificed to idols. This is now an entirely different
situation. He’s just introduced the information
that this is idol meat. In the previous two cases, it
could have been, may have been, we don’t know, we didn’t ask,
and they didn’t tell. But some wondered whether the
one making the announcement here was the host himself. Some commentaries
suggested that the host divulges this, and there were a variety
of reasons suggested as to why the host would do this. Maybe
A host would do this out of a desire to be completely up front. Oh,
I’m mortified. I just realized you’re a Christian.
You probably don’t eat meat offered to idols. You know, it’s full
of gluten. Or perhaps he just spills the
beans accidentally, casually, just a comment in passing, that, oh, by the way, this is
meat offered to idols. Or maybe, and this is, I think,
the most unlikely scenario of all, that maybe the host abruptly
divulges, like what happened to me when I was one time eating
stew, that the host eventually surprised me was deer meat, something
that I had never to that point, or actually never since enjoyed, Hey, guess what you’re eating.
Isn’t that the most enjoyable dinner conversation? The host
suddenly divulges this news out of an almost orneriness. Ha ha,
gotcha, you’re eating idol meat. There’s a variety of motives
that you could attach. None of them are addressed here
in scripture. But I think it’s unlikely that the host is the
person that makes this announcement. I don’t think the message comes
from the host at all. Most likely, in my opinion, it
comes from a Christian friend who has also been invited to
the dinner party. And he is much less settled on
this whole issue of idle meat than we are. We might be free
to go, and even still, if it’s just me and my unbelieving friend,
we might carve up that roast and eat it. But not our Christian friend.
He’s our weaker brother. And somehow he recognizes, maybe
he saw the packaging, maybe the label was laying there on the
counter, who knows? But somehow he recognizes that
this is meat sacrificed to idols. And whether he does so publicly
at the whole table, hey, this is idol meat. Or maybe he just
leans into me privately. This is meat sacrificed to idols. He identifies it as such. And
now we need to run through our three questions. Does it promote
my personal benefit? It may be my personal conviction
that there’s no such thing as an idol. It does not harm me
personally to eat this meat. But if my own conscience would
permit me to eat such meat, the matter is not yet settled, is
it? Does it promote the strengthening of the church? If I and perhaps
other believers are considered to be partaking of an idol’s
feast, if this information has come from a fellow believer,
then I have to be sensitive to his conscience. Otherwise, I begin to tear down
the very work of Christ. It’s not our own conscience that
causes concern here. We’re at peace about this matter.
We can conduct ourselves as our conscience directs. This is why Paul says in verse
30, we would otherwise, how would we otherwise be able to partake
with thankfulness? We couldn’t hardly do that if
we knew that we were doing something wrong. But we are constrained
in our choices by the effect they have on other people, especially
other believers. And we must not prompt or press
others to behave contrary to their own conscience. This is
not the place for that discussion. When you’re seated at the table
and this matter suddenly comes up, you just decided to push
yourself away from the table. Here it’s our brother’s conscience
that stops us, and we don’t want to offend him. What’s more, it
does not promote the advantage of others. On the contrary, it
leads only to spiritual confusion, not only for our Christian friend,
but also for our host. And now that our unbelieving
friend knows that this meat is offered to idols, if we partake
we are justifying such activity in his eyes. My point is that we cannot possibly
ever get this hungry. We must never be so eager to
satisfy our own earthly cravings that we would disregard the sensitivity
of our brother in Christ or offend an unbeliever. But there are
many, many other applications of this principle because there
are many other areas of freedom, aren’t there? Ways in which if
we are not careful, we can offend our brother or we can destroy
an opportunity for the gospel with an unbeliever and ultimately
bring untold consequences down upon our heads. I remember one
such example of this. We were with some friends looking
for a restaurant. You know how this goes. And one
option was proposed. Let’s go over here. One person
in our party recoiled at the idea of going to that place because
they identified it as a bar because they served alcohol in addition
to food. Well, in this day and age, the
very few places you can go, maybe village in, where you can go
and have food, but where they don’t serve alcohol. Anyway,
this was for me a classic illustration of this principle. We didn’t
force the issue. We found somewhere else to eat. throughout this lengthy discussion,
chapter eight, verse one, we’ve had to really pay attention,
haven’t we, as believers? We’ve had to apply ourselves
and engage our minds in the endeavor to be able to apply Paul’s instructions
of these things to ourselves, to make them practical for us,
because we don’t really battle idolatry in the sense that the
Corinthians did. For the Corinthians, their battle
was very visible. a very visible idolatry, so-called
gods represented by statues, that’s not our battle. I would call what the Corinthians
battled figure worship. But for us, I would call it figurative
worship, where it isn’t a being who is being worshiped as much
as it is a person or a concept or a thing. It’s not idolatry
in the classic sense, but it’s still idolatry nonetheless. And
just as idolatry among the Corinthians had created friction in the church,
the whole issue of meat offered to idols, so our modern day figurative
worship, things that we will not let go of, it brings its own kind of trouble,
doesn’t it? Usually this presents itself by one that we would affectionately
refer to as a weaker brother. And the bottom line is his standard
is different than mine. Or if I’m the weaker brother,
my brother’s standards are different than mine. Differing standards,
that’s the nexus of all our strife. What relationships are allowable? What conversations are permissible? Can I get a tattoo? What expenditures
are appropriate? What is the right and God-honoring
use of time? How am I to dress? What are we
to drive? Where are we to live? How much
is too much debt? What about all those areas where
scripture seems to be completely silent? What activities are inherently
worldly and dangerous? How much insurance should I have? What possessions are acceptable? What about piercings? How many
additional holes may I put in my body? What constitutes an
obsession? What is an imbalance? And the
truth is, many times, most times, it’s a brother. One with a different
standard than us, who helps us work through and identify those
imbalances. We think that what we’re doing
is good and right. We think we’re doing well. And
suddenly a so-called weaker brother challenges us with his differing
perspective. And we might be tempted to disregard
him. And we must not. We might be tempted to disregard
him simply because he’s younger in the faith. Then again, many times, his fresh
perspective His sincere walk with Christ and a consideration
of some biblical teaching serves as a providential correction
for us who claim to be the stronger of the two. Corrections are made. Disaster
is averted. Sometimes it’s the opposite,
where we as a stronger brother, more informed, more mature, We
have the opportunity to enlighten our weaker brother as to the
freedoms that we have in Christ. It goes both ways. Weaker brother, stronger brother.
The sinful brother is the one that will not take his brother’s
sentiments into account. And we do that to the detriment
of the church. Is it profitable for me? Is it beneficial to the
church? Is it beneficial to my brother?
Good tests. Let’s pray. Our merciful King.