1 Corinthians 8:1-13 | "Love Builds Up"
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· 23 viewsSunday, August 8, 2021. 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 | “Love Builds Up." In this text, the apostle answers a question from the church in Corinth about knowledge. If “we have the mind of Christ,” how do we then think like Christ? What do we do with the “knowledge” that we have received? This question comes to light in Corinth through a particular set of circumstances surrounding food sacrificed to idols. Should Christians eat of it, or should they refrain? The apostle goes about answering this question by encouraging the church to “think theologically.” Doing so will result in a very real outcome called “love.”
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I. Reading of Scripture
I. Reading of Scripture
1 Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.
2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.
3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
7 However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?
11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.
12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
This is God’s Word, Amen.
[Title Slide]
1 Corinthians 8:1-13 “Love Builds Up”
1 Corinthians 8:1-13 “Love Builds Up”
II. Introduction
II. Introduction
The title of this message is “Love Builds Up.” That phrase is lifted from the text in verse 1.
You see it there: “Love builds up.”
But this title is not offered to us as a theme for this chapter in this letter “To the Church.”
Instead, it is offered more as a hint. A preview of coming attractions.
Perhaps we can think of this “love” like an archeological dig.
There is something there, deposited in the ground, and the apostle tells us what it is - it is “love.”
But for now, it is still covered in soil, disguised from full view.
Love is not going anywhere. It remains where it is, but it comes into view more and more, as the soil is brushed away carefully and methodically, bit by bit, without fanfare, until finally, love is fully exposed later in this letter.
In keeping with this archeological analogy, some of the “dirt” being brushed away in Chapter 8, that reveals more of “love” is something called “knowledge.”
Knowledge can be dirty. It is said today, that someone can be “too smart for their own good.”
While “knowledge” is prized as something that reveals, because it is “the content of what is known” (LN), this same “knowledge” may at the same time conceal. It can blind and restrict our point of view to our detriment, and the detriment of others.
If we know “too much” about one thing, and allow that knowledge to itself become a god to us, an idol, then it will consume us and control us so that we no longer see the big picture or the meaning of that knowledge.
Jesus, said this about the scribes and Pharisees, the religious teachers and leaders.
Jesus said that they “sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you” (Mt 23:2).
This means that the scribes and Pharisees had knowledge of God’s law, God’s instruction, and that was good!
But Jesus then said, “but [do] not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.” (Mt 23:3).
Something was wrong with their vast knowledge, to the point that Jesus called them “blind guides” (Mt 23:16).
What they “knew” was correct, but they could not deploy what they “knew” for good.
Not only was their “knowledge” useless then, it was even harmful.
To the lawyers, Jesus said in like manner:
52 Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”
What is the “key of knowledge”?
How is “knowledge” a blessing and not a curse?
In the world the Church existed in, in Corinth, “knowledge” was prized.
It fueled, as Preben Vang calls it, a culture of “pride, prominence, and personal rights” (TTC).
“Because of my knowledge — I am best, I am first, and I am owed.”
And may I suggest, that our culture has not departed much from this either.
Pride, prominence, personal rights - these things prevail in the politician and yes, even in the patriot.
Our culture tells us to battle over what we know to show that our knowledge is supreme!
But if we have learned anything about the identity of the Church of God, we have learned that Christ’s Church is not political or patriotic because Christians are not politicians or patriots.
Those words are never used to describe our identity in Christ!
Instead, We are Christians! We are in Christ.
And hear what the apostle has already said is true of us — being in Christ, “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16).
Not the mind of an elephant. Not the mind of a donkey.
We, the Church, “have the mind of Christ.” And pride, prominence, and personal rights are directly opposed to the person of Christ and the work of Christ.
So the question is raised:
How do we think, like Christ?
As Christians, what do we do with “knowledge?”
What do you think?
III. Exposition
III. Exposition
The apostle begins by informing the Church that there is something we ought to know.
A. 8:1-3 | What we ought to know.
A. 8:1-3 | What we ought to know.
The words “now concerning” in verse 1 introduce something new.
Look with me at Chapter 8:1 —
8.1
8.1
1 Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.
The church in Corinth must have been a Baptist Church!
For the apostle says “Now concerning food...”
But the apostle is not talking about food in general. He is answering a question about a specific kind of food.
This is food which has been dedicated to false gods (NIGTC).
This is meat that was associated with the worship of pagan gods - offerings to idols (NIGTC).
The Christians in Corinth needed the apostle to answer for them in the simplest form, whether or not this “food offered to idols” was okay for Christians to eat?
While this question seems foreign to us, several commentators point out that this remains an issue in some parts of the world, among missionaries serving in foreign lands.
Perhaps we come close to this question when we enter into a buffet restaurant and pass by a shrine to Budda or another foreign deity as we enter that place.
Should a Christian eat at such a place, obviously dedicated to an idol? Does this say anything about our witness? What becomes of our money when we pay after the meal? Or are we just there for the good “food”? Is it just a matter of eating a meal, after all?
Notice that there are two ingredients to the question that was asked of the apostle:
The first concerned the food itself — “Now concerning food offered to idols.”
The second ingredient concerned “knowledge.”
1 Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.
Notice the quotations marks around “all of us possess knowledge.”
This is probably a quote from the letter the Corinthians wrote to the apostle, and likely another slogan promoted by the culture.
It is not just a matter of the food itself - but that we know what kind of food it is, and we know where it has been!
What do we do? To eat, or not to eat? The problem is our knowledge.
This issue of knowledge became a problem for the Pharisees as they watched the life and ministry of Jesus.
On one occasion, a Pharisee invited Jesus to eat with him at this Pharisee’s house.
37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment,
38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.
39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”
Did Jesus not have knowledge of what kind of woman this was?
Jesus knew.
Or what about the time when the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Jesus to hear him (Lk 15.1).
2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
Did Jesus not have a knowledge of the kind of people he was receiving and eating with?
Jesus knew.
But Jesus knew something that the Pharisees and scribes did not know.
Jesus had a better knowledge.
1 Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.
Knowledge by itself is dangerous.
Without something to restrain knowledge, it becomes unbalanced and is dangerous.
What restrains knowledge? What balances it?
The answer is love.
Knowledge by itself, serves SELF.
Knowledge in action, is love. It serves the OTHER.
I want to take us all to grammar school to see something amazing in the Scripture about what the apostle is doing here!
The apostle is taking a noun, and turning it into a verb.
The apostle is taking a thing, and turning it into an action.
The apostle wants us to see how the knowledge of Jesus is a knowledge that acts!
And this is a knowledge that they ought to have!
Watch this in the text:
“This knowledge” - is a noun, a thing.
“This knowledge [this thing] puffs up.” It causes an increase. It inflates. And who does it inflate? ME!
What happens to a balloon if you inflate it with too much air? It pops! That is bad!
The apostle doesn’t want us to think about knowledge like air in a balloon, but instead, like water in a fountain.
Too much air in a balloon will cause the balloon to pop.
But what happens to water in a nice, garden fountain? At first, the water is turned on, and it fills a reservoir at the top, and when the water level reaches the maximum level that the reservoir can hold, it begins to what? To overflow, and it falls into the next resrvoir, and then the next, and we have a nice waterfall, a nice fountain.
What is the difference?
The air in the balloon serves itself. It is building up of the individual - ME. That is not what Paul means when he uses the word “builds up.”
The water in the fountain reservoir overflows to serve the other reservoirs. It is the building up not of the individual, but of the community. The CHURCH. That is what Paul means when he uses the word “builds up.” (Conz.).
The air in the balloon is knowledge as a noun. It stays put. It is stationary. It BLOWS UP.
The water in the fountain is knowledge as a verb. It is knowledge on the move. It is knowledge put to action by love. It BUILDS UP.
Craig Blomberg says it this way: “Love, not knowledge, must form the foundation of Christian behavior” (NIVAC).
When it comes to what we DO as Christians,
What we do is not determined by what we know, but by who we love.
[Repeat this…]
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Do you want to know God? Do you want to know His Word? Do you want to grow in knowledge?
You can’t without a two-fold love: First, a supreme love of God, and second a love of neighbor.
8.2
8.2
2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.
There exists a knowledge that we think we have, and also a knowledge that we ought to have.
There exists a knowledge that we imagine we have (WITHOUT certainty), and also a knowledge that we must have (with CERTAINTY).
Do you think you have “come into some knowledge?” You have attained it? You have arrived? You now know it all? (src?)
Then the apostle says, you know nothing.
The knowledge we ought to have, the knowledge we must have is explained in the next verse.
It is NOT knowledge that begins with us. Instead, it is knowledge that begins with God.
8.3
8.3
3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
God is brought into the picture.
Theology is brought into view.
Theology is a knowledge of Theos, of God.
The apostle wants us to know that needful knowledge, is godly knowledge. Knowledge of God, that is received by God.
This is where knowledge becomes a verb. An action.
Look at the text:
“But if anyone LOVES God” - love is an ACTION...
“he is KNOWN by God” - knowledge is an ACTION.
In other words, godly knowledge exists in an active relationship called LOVING GOD.
What does John say?
19 We love because he first loved us.
And the same is true of knowledge.
We “know” God why? Because God reveals himself to us. God gives us knowledge of Him.
In John 14:15, Jesus says -
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
You see, it is not enough just to know about God. We have to love God.
This has always been a grave danger for church-goers. You “go to church” and fill your mind with knowledge and it doesn’t go anywhere.
It doesn’t manifest itself in any kind of faith or obedience. So it puffs you up and inflates you until spiritually, you are convinced you are in Christ because of your weighty knowledge but the Scriptures say you have not love. You don’t obey. You are being destroyed by that knowledge! You are about to burst!
You want to show how much you know about God? Don’t become a teacher. Instead, show your love.
Love shows more about our knowledge of God than facts. Love shows that we know enough about God to trust him by faith.
Loving God is the source of knowledge.
And the text says that it is not only that God loves us, but here - God knows us.
3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
One of the great passages of God’s love in all the Bible is preceded with these words:
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
The apostle asked earlier in this letter —
For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
Godly knowledge is received by God, and because of this, the Church is exhorted to first know God, and second to live as those who are known by God.
Live as one who knows God (8.4-6)
Love as one whom God knows (8.7-13)
B. 8.4-6 | Live as one who knows God.
B. 8.4-6 | Live as one who knows God.
8.4
8.4
4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
We must think theologically.
We must have a knowledge that is grounded not in what we think we know, but in what has been revealed about God.
“To answer your question, Oh Corinthians, about food offered to idols, we must use our knowledge about what we know NOT about that food — but about GOD!”
What God has revealed about Himself, gives us everything we NEED to know in order to answer our questions in this world.
8.5
8.5
5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—
That is ( by the way ), the viewpoint of the world.
Some religions are polytheistic. They worship many gods.
Some people believe in one God, but live as if there are many. They are controlled by their passions and allow their passions to master and become “lord” over them.
But we Christians are different.
8.6
8.6
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
We exist, we LIVE as those who know God - the ONE God, the True God.
This is a confession of faith that shapes our very lives!
This ONE God, the Father is Creator. We live for Him and for His glory!
This ONE God, Jesus Christ -
This means Jesus IS GOD!
And THROUGH Him all things were created, and THROUGH HIM we live! And through Him, the Holy Spirit lives and dwells in our heart by faith.
“There is ONE God.” His name is Jesus Christ.
That confession is the beginning of godly knowledge. And by that confession, all questions are filtered as we THINK about God to answer our questions.
The apostle would have each Christian “live as one who knows God.”
But also to “Love as one whom God knows.”
C. 8:7-13 | Love as one whom God knows.
C. 8:7-13 | Love as one whom God knows.
Our knowledge of God is not meant to stay with us. It is to be transferred to another so that they might know God too.
Isn’t that what Jesus did for us?
Look at the reality. You Corinthians say “all of us possess knowledge.” Well, here is the contrasting truth:
8.7
8.7
7 However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
Some don’t know as you know.
Some aren’t as strong in knowledge as you are.
And you were so puffed up with your knowledge you couldn’t see the weak.
Praise be to God, that God did not overlook our weakness because of His infinite knowledge!
14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
Godly knowledge does not blind.
8.8
8.8
8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
It’s not about food.
Do you hear this, Church?
It’s not about food.
It’s not about masks.
It’s not about social distancing.
It’s not about vaccines.
It’s not about race.
It’s not about gender.
It’s not about politics.
It’s not about nationality.
It’s not about patriotism.
It’s not about Constitutional rights.
These things do not commend us to God!
Literally, these things do not “bring us close to God!”
Not one of these things brings us close to God.
Oh, how arrogant we are to make much of these things as if they determine our godliness. As if they are the measurement of our holiness.
These things do not bring us close to God!
And this food offered to idols doesn’t either.
But here is a warning. A word we haven’t seen in awhile. A hint that danger is near. It is the word “Watch out!”
Pay attention!
8.9
8.9
9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
8.10
8.10
10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?
That word “encouraged” is the same word for “build up” in verse 2 that was used of “love.”
Knowledge builds up too - but when knowledge builds up, it becomes destructive.
Watch this:
8.11
8.11
11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.
Knowledge if it builds up can destroy.
And worse - can destroy a person for whom Christ died.
That language of Christ dying is the love language of God.
That’s -
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
That’s -
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Knowledge, if it is not restrained by love, destroys.
It also wounds.
8.12
8.12
12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
Someone who has a weak conscience is “bruised” easily (src?).
We sometimes wonder why a brother or sister acts the way they do, and it is likely that when they were weak, a Christian wounded them with their “knowledge.”
They are bruised believers.
Conzelmann says it this way:
Thee apostle would say to we who are strong - “Do not ignore the cross” (Conz.).
Do not ignore the strength of God taking on human flesh. Being wounded for our sin and dying because our sin was strong. Our arrogance was strong. Our ignorance was strong. Our selfishness was strong. Our pride was strong.
“Do not ignore the cross.”
Vang says it this way. “Do not UNDO what Christ came to do.”
Use your knowledge to get yourself out of the way. To show love for the other.
The apostle ends with these words:
8.13
8.13
13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
Do not cause a brother to stumble.
Yes, some are weak. But Christ is strong.
And I find my strength in Christ to forsake whatever I have a right to do, so that my brother might become strong.
As Christ gave up his rights for me, I give up my rights for my brother.
That is love.
IV. Conclusion
IV. Conclusion
Warren Wiersbe says - Knowledge must be balanced by Love.
A. Gospel Proclamation
A. Gospel Proclamation
How did God choose to communicate his knowledge of us and to us? Through LOVE!
In the Garden, the devil lied to God’s creation and said:
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Knowledge becomes an idol when we allow it to make ourself god.
But Christ came with the knowledge of God, and Christ showed us God’s knowledge by revealing God’s love.
The serpent said “I know what God knows.”
But Jesus came to show us what God knows.
God knows our sin.
Yet He loved us to make away for it to be forgiven, covered and removed.
“Christ died for our sin, according to the Scriptures.”
God knows what has power over us. Death and The grave.
so “Christ was buried.”
God knows our future.
“And on the third day, God raised Christ from the dead.”
YES - GOD KNOWS what the enemy knows too.
Christ is RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And through Christ in us, this world will know God too!
You want to talk about food?
Jesus says:
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
Jesus says:
45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—
46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.
47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
48 I am the bread of life.
49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
[…]
54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
Love builds up, because Love raised up.
7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
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