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Introduction
We mentioned this last week but I want to stress it today.
The foundation of caring for others is a desire to help them.
There are several times in the gospel accounts where Jesus is moved with compassion for people.
One of those accounts is actually my favorite miracle of Jesus.
Turn to Mark 1:40-42.
Mark 1:40-42 (p.
1152)
Why did Jesus heal this man?
He was moved with compassion.
Why did Jesus touch him?
He didn’t have to.
Jesus could have healed with with a word.
Jesus could have healed him from a distance.
Why touch the leper?
It had probably been years since he had been touched.
The compassion of Jesus went past the physical need to the emotional and spiritual.
The touch was a physical manifestation of Christ’s love.
Jesus wanted to help him.
Jesus cared.
He had a heart and attitude of compassion.
As we noted last week;
In our passage Paul teaches about 3 main attitudes we need to have in order to care for others.
Principle:
Caring for others is a gospel priority.
Guidance:
To properly care for others our attitude must be right.
Outcome:
When we care for others the gospel is advanced and Christ is glorified.
Three main attitudes we need to have in order to care for others.
We are going to look at the final 1 1/2 of them today.
Attitude #1…
1. Seek Their Good vv.
23-24
a.
This demands discernment v. 23
b.
This demands determination v. 24
Three main attitudes we need to have in order to care for others.
Attitude #1: Seek their good.
Attitude #2…
2. Guard Their Conscience vv.
25-30
One of the ways we protect and care for one another is to guard our consciences.
There are two ways to do that in this passage.
#1…
a. Ask necessary questions vv.
25-27
Don’t create drama where there is none.
#1: Ask necessary questions.
#2…
b.
Avoid doubtful decisions vv.
28-30
What this verse teaches us is that there is always someone who is out to ruin a good meal.
Laugh
In all seriousness.
Keep the scenario Paul has given in mind.
You are eating at someone’s house and they are an unbeliever.
Chances are, if they are mentioning where they got the meat, it is because they want to see what you will do.
Why do I say that?
Because I have never eaten at someone’s house and had them tell me where the food came from.
This is a test.
Paul says that there is only one way to pass.
Thomas Constable puts it this way in his commentary.
We might think that in such a situation Paul would have advocated exercising Christian liberty to eat the meat, but he did not.
He advocated abstaining, not because such meat was out of bounds for believers.
It was not out of bounds; Christians could eat such meat.
He advocated abstaining for the sake of the pagan’s moral consciousness.
Specifically, if the Christian ate the meat, the pagan might conclude that his guest was doing something Christians should not do.
He would be wrong, of course.
Yet Paul advocated not violating the pagan’s understanding of what Christians should or should not do rather than instructing him about Christian freedom at the table.
Wow.
That is huge.
Let’s put it this way.
The perception of an unbeliever is more important than my freedom in Christ.
Again he mentions that the earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness.
We can eat whatever we want, however, our freedom is not the issue.
This isn’t about your freedom!
This is about the conscience of someone who does not know Christ!
Even though we have the freedom to eat whatever we want, we limit that freedom for gospel opportunities.
Paul has given direction, we eat whatever we are given asking no questions.
However, if information is volunteered, we assume that there is a belief that we shouldn’t be eating what we have been given.
Based on that assumption, we do not eat so that we might have a gospel opportunity.
There is a very important point to be made here.
Paul is not talking about a weaker brother or sister.
He is talking about an unbeliever.
The implication is that we would handle the situation differently if it were a fellow believer we were dealing with.
We’ll get to that in a moment.
Paul asks a question here that we need to address.
“Why is my liberty judged by another man’s conscience?”
He follows that up with another question in v. 30.
Let’s look at that and deal with both of them together.
It must be remembered that Paul’s whole point in this section is that it is sometimes necessary to voluntarily limit our freedom for the good of others.
In chapter 8 Paul argued that we may sometimes need to limit our freedom to protect the conscience of a weaker brother or sister in Christ.
He will be returning to that argument.
However, his point here is that there are occasions where our liberty could hinder the gospel.
In those situations, we limit our freedom in Christ.
Paul did, that’s what chapter 9 was about.
When Paul ministered in Corinth he didn’t let the church pay him because he felt that it would hinder the gospel.
In the same way, Paul is saying that in a particular situation, it may be advantageous to the gospel to limit our exercise of freedom.
We can put it into perspective like this.
Is it more important to eat a good steak or to have the chance to share Christ with your host?
Thomas Constable again puts the case clearly in his commentary.
We do not need to alter our convictions for the sake of others even though they speak evil of us, as the Corinthians did of Paul (cf. 9:19–23).
Nevertheless we should be willing to change our behavior for the sake of unbelievers.
Paul made it clear in 1 Timothy 4:3-5 that we are free to eat anything as long as we give thanks for it.
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