Sermon Discussion Questions:
1. Read 1 Corinthians 8 together. What questions do you have? What stands out?
2. Why do the knowers have a false knowledge?
3. How do we pursue knowledge rightly? What does real knowledge produce in us? See Job 42:1-6
4. What would you say to someone who, after reading 1 Cor 8:1-3, believes that knowledge and the intellectual life for the Christian should be avoided?
5. Practically, what are we to do when we interact with others in our church who disagree with us on "matters of opinion" (Rom 14:1)? What do we do if we are the ones with a weak conscience? A strong conscience?
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.
- 1 Cor 8:1-13
Paul responds to another issue that the Corinthians have written to him concerning food that has been offered to idols. Apparently, there is a group of people in the church—let’s call them the knowers—who know that “an idol as no real existence” and so believe that it is fine to eat food offered to an idol, even to eat food in an idol’s temple. Paul will return to this matter more in depth in chapter ten, but here are a couple of details about the background of what Paul is talking about:
- Worshippers of pagan gods would offer food sacrifices to the deity in their temples, but would often then turn around and serve the food to other people in the temple, bring it home and use it themselves, or sell it in the market at a discounted price.
- Temples were not used exclusively for worship, but were also used as a kind of community center were birthdays and holidays would be celebrated, and sometimes this food would be used in those parties.
- Apparently, many of the Corinthian Christians appeared to think that one could eat this food without any problem.
But there is another group of people who Paul identifies as “the weak” who disagree. They believe that there are real gods behind the idols and therefore doing anything with the food offered to idols is forbidden.
Interestingly, Paul is not going to side with either in the dispute, but is going to correct them both by looking at the danger of knowledge, the necessity of knowledge, and then finally the abuse of knowledge.
The Danger of Knowledge
1 Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. (1 Cor 8:1)
The knowers of the Corinthian church boast of the knowledge they possess: all of us possess knowledge. We all know this. What the “knowledge” is will be explained in just a moment, but Paul immediately jumps into a rebuke of the knowers. In fact, though Paul will correct both parties, he will spend most of his time chastising the knowers. Paul says, “This “knowledge” puffs up.” The ESV helpfully puts the word “knowledge” in quotation marks to emphasize that Paul doesn’t think the “knowledge” these knowers claim to know is real knowledge. Why? Because their false “knowledge” just leads to their own inflated ego. Real knowledge of God doesn’t make you think highly of yourself, it empties you of yourself in the presence of Someone infinitely greater than you (Job 42:1-6). The man who uses his knowledge of God to make himself look impressive is like the audience member at a concert who thinks his clapping is what everyone else came to listen to. No one cares about your applause—you clap because you have seen something great and you can’t help yourself from applauding what is laudable.
The word for “puffs up” is used repeatedly by Paul in rebuking the Corinthians (1 Cor 4:6, 18, 19; 5:2; 13:4)—it is most often translated as “be arrogant.” The faction in the church that claim to be rich in knowledge are really just distended airbags; inflated, hollow, and fragile. They use their knowledge as a way of exaggerating their own importance and getting what they want.
In contrast to this, Paul teaches us that “love builds up.” Love is the opposite of the vanity and conceit of the knowers. Paul has already used construction metaphors in describing the growth of the church (1 Cor 3:10ff), but here he shows that the animating virtue in the construction of the church is love, not the kind of knowledge that the knowers claim. Love for God and love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is what builds God’s church. If our knowledge is devoid of that love, then it isn’t real knowledge. “If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge…but have not love, I am nothing,” (1 Cor 13:2)
“If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know,” (1 Cor 8:2). What does that verse mean? I have thought for years about what this passage means. How does anyone not “imagine that he knows something.” Don’t we all imagine that we know things? Isn’t that how knowing works? What is 2+2? Well, I am pretty sure it is 4. But is my confidence that two and two make four the kind of certainty of knowledge Paul is condemning here? Should we end every sentence we ever say with, “…but I am not really sure, who knows…”? Okay, I don’t think so.
The word for “imagines” (dokeō) is used to describe something that appears like something, it seems like. Because the knowers “knowledge” leads to them being puffed up and arrogant, it is an imaginary knowledge, it appears like knowledge, but it isn’t. Knowledge that terminates in the ego of the knower is counterfeit knowledge in Paul’s eyes. Which interestingly tells us that knowledge, according to Paul, isn’t just about being smart—it is about virtue as well. So, the idea of someone knowing tons and tons of theology and Bible, but being an arrogant jerk—in Paul’s mind—is an oxymoron.
“It is an outrage that they should be commonly spoken of as Intellectuals. This gives them a chance to say that he who attacks them attacks Intelligence. It is not so…It is not excess of thought but defect of fertile and generous emotion that marks them out. Their heads are no bigger than ordinary: it is atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so.” (Lewis, Abolition of Man)
“But if anyone loves God, he is known by God,” (1 Cor 8:3)
The knowers are dividing from their weaker brothers because of their superior knowledge, but Paul has just demonstrated that their “knowledge” is no real knowledge. But here Paul focuses on a different kind of knowledge: God’s knowledge. The knowers are fixated on what they know, and their knowledge is leading them to act unloving towards their weaker brothers, but Paul reminds them that if “anyone loves God”—including those weak brothers and sisters in Christ—then “he is known by God.” Knowers are fascinated with what they know, but they have missed the importance of who God knows. God has chosen the weak and the strong in the Corinthian church to be part of His elect, He knows them. And if God knows them, has welcomed them, then the knowers should also welcome, know, and love the weak (Rom 14:3-4).
The Necessity of Knowledge
Lest we make Paul sound like a relativist who thinks knowledge is unimportant, consider what he said in 1 Cor 8:2 “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.” There is a way that you “ought to know” truth. You must know. In fact, in Paul’s pastoral letters he explains to Timothy that God desires all people to come to a knowledge of the truth:
God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim 2:3-4; cf. 2 Tim 2:25; 3:6-7)
He also exhorts Timothy to think hard and trust God to help him understand what Paul says: “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything,” (2 Tim 2:7).
So after rebuking the knowers, Paul does actually affirm their basic theological assertion as correct:
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. – 1 Cor 8:4-6
The knowers have cited the shema, Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one,” as their basis for their claim “an idol has no real existence.” And Paul agrees. There may appear to be many “so-called gods” yet for those who know the truth, there is only one God. As we pointed out last week, here Paul provocatively brings Jesus’ identity into the “one God” of the shema. And this knowledge, this truth, is the reason why Paul is confident that there is no such thing as a real god besides the one true God.
Good theology frees you
If a snake bites you and you are convinced that it is one of the most venomous snakes in the world, you are terrified. But if someone walks up and informs you that the snake isn’t venomous at all, you are incredibly relieved. Truth is freeing. And there is no more freeing truth than knowing eternal, unchanging truth; truth that stands like granite cliffsides against the tossing waves of time. Wherever you are, whatever culture you are in, whatever superstitions or lies or pseudo-science or tyrannical power comes and goes, God’s truth stands. Feed your soul on God’s Word, listen attentively to the sermons, read good books, listen to good teaching so that you are not a victim to your own desires, or to whoever happens to be speaking most passionately.
The weak Corinthians are living a miscalculated life where they feel like the world is haunted by other deities besides Yahweh. And this is affecting their liberty and their conscience. “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,” (1 Cor 8:7).
What is a “conscience”?
Your conscience is your internal alarm system to tell you when something is right or wrong. It is a gift given to you by God, but it is fallible. It can be misinformed by being too restrictive or too permissive. We need to shape our conscience through God’s Word. Nevertheless, when we are faced with a decision and it does not seem immediately clear to us what we should do, the Bible is clear that we should heed our conscience. There are few things sweeter than the gift of a clean conscience. But a defiled conscience is a miserable experience. And, if we repeatedly go against our conscience, then we run the risk of forming a habit of silencing our conscience and then not heeding it when it is raising the alarm about something that is clearly a sin. Again, this shows us our great need to be serious students of God’s Word to rightly calibrate our conscience.
The Abuse of Knowledge
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. (1 Cor 8:7)
There are some persons who, because of their former life in the world of paganism, cannot shake the thought that Poseidon and Zeus are real entities and therefore eating any food that had been offered to them was participating in the worship of these gods. The knowers claimed in their letter to Paul that “all of us possess knowledge,” but Paul says, “No, actually not everyone does.” The knowers wanted freedom to pursue their own rights, and in their puffed-up arrogance, they did not take notice of those around them who didn’t understand everything the knowers believed. They hadn’t slowed down or cared enough to pay attention, to get to know the weak in the church, to know their former life. And here we find a simple word of instruction to us, do we not? We must slow down and get to know one another enough to know where each other’s weaknesses are, to know about our former life, to know about what a stumbling block may be. We must care about each other.
Paul is going to return to the issue of eating food in a temple in chapter ten. Here, he appears to be agreeing with the knowers that idols have no real existence and that because of their knowledge they possess a “right” to eat food offered to idols—even to eat in the temple. In chapter ten, he is going to balance what he says by pointing out that when pagans perform their worship ceremonies, they are doing something demonic, and so Christians should by no means participate in that whatsoever. There is real danger here (see 1 Cor 10:14-22). But there appears to be some way that the Corinthians can participate in eating of food offered to idols that Paul doesn’t think is necessarily wrong in of itself.
Paul then reminds them of how relatively unimportant this matter is:
“Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do,” (1 Cor 8:8).
Food will not commend us to God—it is of no great importance whether you get to eat that meat that was offered to an idol. Sure, perhaps it tastes good, maybe you got a bargain for it in the market, maybe you have been used to having it in your diet, but in the end, it is of no great importance. “We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do,” (1 Cor 8:8). If we abstain from eating, there is no harm done; if we do eat, it doesn’t make anything better for us in the eyes of God. Paul here is exclusively addressing the knowers.
This is going to be the point that Paul is going to expand upon in the next chapter: the most mature in Christ are not those who use their superior knowledge and experience to get what they want. The most mature in Christ are those who are willing to sacrifice the most for the sake of the weak. And so Paul sharpens his admonitions here most pointedly at those claiming the most knowledge. Food is not of first importance, so be willing to go without—its unimportant.
Do you know what is unimportant? One essential aspect of Christian unity is going to be found in knowing what is and isn’t important. Study our statement of faith and our membership covenant for a summary of what we say are things that are essential for our unity here in our church. If something isn’t included in those documents, we are saying we can freely disagree on them while remaining united. What kind of food you are eating, Paul says, is of no importance…
But, somehow, at the same time, it is also deadly serious:
9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. (1 Cor 8:9)
The knowers have a right, they are entitled to eat that food. But Paul say take care…how you use that liberty can cause the weak to trip. Maybe you are strong enough to leap over it, but the small ones following in your footsteps are going to get hurt.
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. (1 Cor 8:10-12)
So, the weak brothers and sisters go out and notice that several other church members are eating food at Zeus’ temple. They think that is wrong, but they feel a pressure to join in because they don’t want to be left out. But all the while their conscience is telling them: Don’t do this, don’t do this. So they may be doing something that is actually not sinful, not wrong—but because their conscience is telling them it is wrong, then for them it is wrong. The knowers may not be doing anything inherently sinful, but because they are leading the weak to stumble, they are sinning against their weak brother, and in sinning against their weak brother they sin against Christ!
13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. (1 Cor 8:13)
How to Apply this Today
We do not have the same set of circumstances facing us today. But there are plenty of things that we can disagree about in our church. What kind of media should you consume? Who should you vote for? How should Christian’s use alcohol? What kind of schooling option should you use for your children? Should Christian’s ever go into debt? What constitutes modest clothing? What should Christians do about climate change? Should Christians get tattoos? Should Christians participate in Halloween? Should Christians ever use cosmetic surgery? How much money should Christians be giving away?
For the Weak
Maybe you are wondering if you have a “weak” conscience on something—meaning, your conscience is telling you this is wrong, about something that other Christians that you know and trust don’t seem to think is wrong. What should you do?
First, listen to your conscience. Maybe you feel lame at not being able to join in on what everyone else is joining in on; maybe you feel nervous about the decision you have made because of what others may think of you. But the Bible is abundantly clear: when you feel like I think this is wrong, it is always wise to abstain. “But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin,” (Rom 14:23).
Second, shape your conscience. If you find that you are confronted with other brothers and sisters who seem to disagree with you on something, be willing to admit that you could be wrong. Your conscience could need calibration. There may be restrictions you have that have not come from the Bible, but from your culture and upbringing. If, for instance, you have always said, “God bless you,” after someone sneezes, but notice that many other Christians around you don’t say that, you may feel like they are doing something wrong by failing to bless you after you sneeze. But, if you are humble enough to admit that you may be wrong, then you can study God’s Word and find that the Bible doesn’t say anything about blessing someone after they sneeze.
Or, there may be permissiveness that likewise is illegitimate. You may need to add or remove something through your study of God’s Word.
For the Strong
Paul warns the knowers, what their “knowledge” is doing: “so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died,” (1 Cor 8:11). I think Paul brings up Jesus’ death here to remind the knowers that while they may not care much about the weak in the church, Jesus certainly does. He died for them. He shed His blood to bring them into His family.
And the other reason I think Paul brings this up, is to remind the knowers that Jesus died for them too. The only reason they are in God’s family is by the same blood. They are not here because of their superior understanding or intellect—they are just as dependent and just as righteous as the weak. What makes someone a Christian? It isn’t an awareness of how smart they are, it is an awareness of how sinful and needy they are; it isn’t a life that showcases their brilliance, it is a life of total trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ. A Christians is someone who has acknowledged their own spiritual bankruptcy and is banking everything on Jesus Christ to pay the bill their sin has owed.
We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me… Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” (Rom 15:1-3, 7)
Jesus did not live His life constantly looking to exercise every right and liberty He had to make Himself more comfortable. His aim was not His own ease and comfort, it was the good of others. He denied Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. And when we see what He did for us, we are moved by the beauty of His sacrifice to then extend that same graciousness and self-sacrifice to others. So, that means, if you are “strong” you have an obligation, a moral responsibility, to demonstrate the same patience, grace, and welcome that Jesus Christ showed you when you first came into His family--when you knew almost nothing and had a million wrongheaded perspectives on everything--and still shows you now, when you still have so much wrong and misunderstood. What patience, what kindness, what love have we received in Jesus Christ?
The mission of our church: unity amidst diversity. Creating a covenant community who worships Christ above all. Our church has been given the humbling privilege of getting to demonstrate a concrete, tangible reality of what Jesus’ own sacrificial love looks like.
