1 Corinthians 8:1
Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.
What is the true freedom does a Christian really have?
Your liberty ends where my nose begins
IN ESSENTIALS UNITY, IN NON-ESSENTIALS LIBERTY, IN ALL THINGS CHARITY
- RUPERTUS MELDENIUS -
Big idea:
God desire us to express our Christian freedom conscientiously
Do you need your meat to meet your needs?
Problem #1:
Eating meat offered to idols
Principle #1:
Act from a clear conscience, not just knowledge
1 Corinthians 8:2
Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.
How many of us want to go back to non mobile Era. Paul says knowledge can be good, but knowledge can be puffed up. It can breed Arrogant, feeling of superiority...
1 Corinthians 8:7
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.
Knowledge is to know true, falsehood etc. Conscience is conviction tell us good, bad etc. When conscience is defiled, muddy, you do something that's wrong, u think its right and vice versa
1 Corinthians 8:8-12
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 rights 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.
Paul said when you stumble someone who is a believer against their weakness in conscience, you are sinning against christ.
Are u sure idols are nothing?
They represent the demonic, fallen elohim
The Stumbling Block:
(Romans 14:23) But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.[a]
I should not do it if my brother's conscience is weak
1 Corinthians 8:13
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.
Act from clear conscience, not knowledge
Problem #2:
Insisting on one's rights as ministers of the gospel
Principle #2:
Exercise true freedom, not just rights
When are "rights" wrong?
1 Corinthians 9:1-2
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? 2 Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
1 corinthians 9:9-12
For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”[a] Is it about oxen that God is concerned? 10 Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. 11 If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? 12 If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.
1 Cor 9:16-19
For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. 18 What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel. 19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
1 Corinthians 9:22
To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.
1 Corinthians 9:23-25
I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
Athelete vs believers right
Exercise true freedom, not just rights?
True freedom is when one can give up one's right although it's one's right.
The worst kind of enslavement is an enslavement to one's own sense of freedom
- Gordon Fee -
Philippians 2:5-8
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
True freedom is the ability to say yes and No
Problem #3:
Destroying the unity of God's family
Principle #3:
Build on what is helpful, not just lawful
1 Corinthians 10:23
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.
The right standing with God is not for us to do everything we want to do.
How can it be helpful for partakers of the table to be partakers of the demon?
Paul told the Corinthians they have made awful what is lawful
Galatians 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:13
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
What's the result of your choice?
1 Corinthians 10:24
No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.
Christ save us not to build our own kingdom. He saved us to build His kingdom
Exercise our freedom with responsibility
1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
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