I Corinthians 8:1-13
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
A couple of weeks ago, Barbara and I were discussing which passage I should preach on today. Barbara told me that I should preach on the passage from I Corinthians because unless I explained what it’s about, you probably wouldn’t pay much attention to a discourse on something that none of us will have any personal connection to- whether we should eat meat sacrificed to idols. I mean, isn’t this one of those Bible passages that we can safely ignore? Isn’t it irrelevant to our Christian life today?
No, we can’t ignore it, and no, it isn’t irrelevant. What we need to do is peel back the outer skin of the story so that we can get to the heart of the message. Scripture passages sometimes remind me of cutting up a clove of garlic. First of all you need to unwrap the skin around the bulb, in order to get at the individual clove. Then you need to peel the clove before you can dice it up and add it to what you are cooking. Today’s passage from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is just such a passage. In order to understand what Paul was trying to say, we first need to understand the context of this passage.
Biblical scholars believe that Paul wrote his letter to the church at Corinth in response to a letter that he had received from them. This is made clear, for example, at the beginning of chapter 7, where Paul writes “now for the matters you wrote about”. This Epistle is also sprinkled with phrases such as “you say” and “now about” before Paul begins to address an issue. Our reading begins with “Now about food sacrificed to idols” and Paul continues addressing this issue in chapters 8, 9 and 10.
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians deals with a number of specific topics, such as factionalism, lawsuits, spiritual gifts, and food sacrificed to idols. There are, however, some overarching themes that seem to run through all of the more specific issues. These themes are an overbearing pride on the part of some at Corinth in their supposed great knowledge, a creeping into the Church of the rampant paganism that was present in the ancient city of Corinth, and some people misusing their freedom in Christ to do things which were destructive to the community at large.
The specific focus of today’s passage has to do with the eating of food sacrificed to idols, and so we need to ask what the big deal about this was in ancient Corinth. Well, we first need to understand some things. In the ancient world, few people ate meat because it was rather expensive and considered a delicacy. At many of the ancient pagan temples, animals would be ritually slaughtered as sacrifices to the gods, however, only a few select organs were actually needed for the ritual and so the temple would butcher the rest of the animal and use the meat in two ways. First, the temple would sell the meat in the marketplace, and temple meat would normally be a cheaper but better cut than the non-temple meat. Second, the temple would hold feasts in honor of its pagan god. These feasts were not like a church potluck of today. In those days, pagan religion was the civic religion, which every good citizen was expected to follow. So these would be public affairs, like official community events. However unlike community events of today, these feasts would have been held in honor of a pagan god.
Now we need to think about the early Christians in Corinth. The early Corinthian church was made up of a very diverse group of people, two groups of which are particularly relevant to today’s passage. One group was made up of relatively recent converts from paganism, hot on fire for the Lord, but still very young and immature in their Christian lives. They would still be very spiritually sensitive to any involvement with paganism, and might be seriously undermined in their faith if pressured into following, what they believed, were pagan practices. Another group were older converts from paganism, and many of these people seem to have been attracted to the freedom that Christianity brought. This group was also inordinately puffed up with pride thinking themselves to be exceedingly knowledgeable about the Christian faith, yet apparently lacking love and pastoral concern for their fellow believers.
It would appear that the prideful Christians, in their supposed knowledge and freedom, had argued that since idols were false, there was nothing special about the meat that had been offered to them, and that Christians could therefore freely eat whatever they wanted and could attend whatever temple feasts they wanted. The new sensitive converts, however, Paul knew still seemed to believe that the pagan gods had some power, and that they would somehow be affected by eating meat sacrificed to idols. What’s more, the faith of these new converts could be irreparably harmed if they were pressured into eating such meat, since their consciences told them it was wrong. We all know that when we ignore our consciences when they tell us we are doing something wrong, it becomes easier and easier to ignore them. Our conscience acts to convict us of our sin, and when we ignore it, we are shutting out God from our lives.
So what was Paul to do? Should he simply reassert the theological truth that idols are false, chastise the weaker Christians, and let the chips fall where they may? Thankfully, Paul does not do this. His response is aimed primarily at those who were puffed up with pride in their supposed knowledge and freedom. He begins by bursting their bubble of pride, saying that “knowledge puffs up while love builds up.” In other words, boasting of great knowledge without showing love just shows you are full of hot air, and that you don’t really understand what God is all about. Paul writes that pride in one’s supposed knowledge is not what Jesus Christ is all about – rather love is what the Gospel is about.
Paul then affirms the theological truth that idols are false and points out that only the God of the Bible is true. He states that there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were made and through whom we live. Note that in this reply, Paul does not compromise on the truth of the Christian faith, but he does insist that the lens through which we see the faith, and through which we act out our faith, must be one of love.
So let’s look at how Paul applies these principles to the issue at hand – that of eating meat which had been sacrificed to idols. He begins be affirming the truth, but in a pastoral way. He reminds the overly proud Christians that some of their weaker fellow believers don’t yet fully understand that idols have no power and that if they would bow to peer pressure and eat food sacrificed to idols, their consciences would be seriously harmed and they could lose their faith. Paul even throws in a little wisdom of his own - saying that food doesn’t bring us closer to God and that abstaining from controversial idol meat won’t hurt you.
Paul finishes up the passage we read today by repeating the principle that love trumps knowledge. Even though there is nothing inherently wrong in eating food sacrificed to idols, Paul makes it clear that that isn’t really the issue. Instead, for Paul, the issue is the effect that some Christians eating such food would have on their weaker brothers and sisters. Their consciences told them eating idol meat was very wrong, and they might have been encouraged by peer pressure to do it anyway. Thus these weaker colleagues would violate their consciences by doing something they thought was a serious sin, and this would contribute to their falling away from God.
Think about it – suppose your young nephew, who has always looked up to you but who previously has had problems with alcohol abuse, comes to visit you. You learn that he has just converted to the Baptist faith and is on fire for the Lord, but you also learn that he believes that all drinking is of the devil. Would you, knowing how much he looks up to you, then pull out a beer in front of him, and laughingly tell him not to be such a tea-totaller and to join you with a brew? You could be destroying his conversion. No, you would wait, and out of love for him, abstain from drinking when he is around. And, maybe, after he has had time to mature as a Christian, you could talk with him later, and explain your point of view.
Paul writes that the momentary pleasure we might have in exercising freedom isn’t worth the soul of our brother or sister. And this is the very important principle that we can learn from this passage and apply to our own lives. We all have choices to make in our lives. While some things God has clearly commanded us to avoid, there are many things that are permissible. But we completely miss the point of the Gospel if we just focus on all the things we can do, and forget about loving one another. Rather, an integral part of the Gospel is to give over everything to God, to subordinate our freedom to the Gospel, and certainly, never to insist upon our rights and freedoms when to do so would undermine the faith of a fellow believer.
This message is particularly relevant to us today. We are barraged on all sides by messages telling us that it is all about us – what we want, what we deserve. Companies tell us in their advertising that our primary focus should be on pleasing ourselves – indulging ourselves with material goods. Politicians of all stripes tell us that we should insist on our civil liberties, no matter the cost to others. They tell us that we should get to keep all of our money, and make everyone else pay instead. Think of some of the early American slogans – “live free or die” and “Don’t tread on me.” Our culture is one in which we are expected to demand that our rights and freedoms are pre-eminent. But Paul tells us that the Gospel of Jesus Christ points to a more excellent way. That way says that even when we are right, even when we can legitimately claim a right or a freedom, we should not do so, if it would be a stumbling block to the faith of a brother or sister. Rather the guiding principle for Christians is not personal freedom, but love.
And so a little later in this letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes the famous chapter on love. Let’s turn to it together as a fitting conclusion for today’s sermon – 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Paul writes:
If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,but do not have love, I gain nothing.Amen.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Let us pray:
Lord, you have shown us so much love, coming down from heaven to live amongst us, and suffering death on our behalf. We ask you to send your Holy Spirit on us today, that we might love each other as you have loved us. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
