Do All to the Glory of God

Sermon Discussion Questions:

1. Read back through 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1 together. What questions do you have? What stands out?
2. What are some things Christians tend to disagree about today? Which of those disagreements would fall into the category of "opinions" that Paul speaks of in Romans 14:1?
3. How would you define "Christian freedom"?
4. Pick a real world example of an issue Christians can disagree about today while remaining fellow members of the same church. How would you relate to the "weaker brother" in that example so that they are not stumbling, but you are not letting your liberty be determined by someone else's conscience?

Consider a few topics with me: Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Climate change and fossil fuels. Immigration reform and open borders. AR-15’s and school shootings. Ukraine and Russia. Israel and Palestine. Defund the Police and Make America Great Again.

Now that your blood pressure is sufficiently elevated…The world around us has no shortage of lightning rods that not only animate culture wars, but bifurcate our society into opposites. As our society digresses, it seems to be driven less by thought-through convictions or principled leaders and more by tribal symbols that telegraph your status as an insider. Your views on wearing a mask during a pandemic, for instance, were often (rightly or wrongly) interpreted as a sign of which “camp” you belonged to. While that list of names and phrases I just read feels so massive—and some are more important than others—of course, in a decade or two, they will be replaced by a new set of rods ready to catch the lightning of the day, and what feels so intensely important now will fade. Paul’s warning to the Galatian church seems like an apropos warning to America right now: “But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another,” (Gal 5:15).

Speaking of the Church, what should the Church do in a culture like our own? Should we follow the same sorting our wider culture follows and create a church for a particular tribe of people? Should our church become the 2^nd amendment church? Or the social-justice church? Should we embrace a political or cultural tribe as the identity of our church? Sure, that may make us narrow, may lead to losing some people, but then at least we would know we all agreed on everything. Or, should we resist the tribalism of the day, and seek to make our church as broad and welcoming to as many different people as possible? We can talk together about the weather, about the Mariners, but let’s not ruffle any feathers by wading into disagreement, and we may have to mute any teaching in the Bible that touches on hot button issues. Sure, that make our relationships shallow (and our teaching shallow), but they would be broad and many different kinds of people would be welcome in our church. Does the church have to choose between being narrow and close, or diverse and distant?

These are the two basic responses that many churches have chosen to take: either a “lowest-common denominator” kind of unity, where you have a bunch of people with wildly different opinions on all sorts of things, but no real relationship because they don’t know how to talk about differences and assume disagreement is inherently wrong. Or a “we must agree on everything” kind of unity, where a kind of Pharisaical hive-mind takes root, and any disagreement is seen as heresy. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he has been dealing with a big division in the church, a serious disagreement over eating food offered to idols. But in his response we see two things at the same time: Paul doesn’t ignore the disagreements and recommend a kind of papered-over unity, nor does he require the entire church to agree. Instead he has been showing them how they can use their freedom in Christ to lovingly serve and prefer one another. And, while the particularities of the disagreements in Corinth may seem miles away from the kind political/cultural turmoil we see today, I think that Paul’s teaching here holds one of the most needed teachings for the American church today.

23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. 24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. 25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. 26 For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” 27 If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— 29 I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, 33 just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

• 1 Cor 10:23-11:1

Freedom in Christ

23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. (1 Cor 10:23)

Paul begins by repeating a Corinthian quotation that was first brought up back in chapter six. There the “All things are lawful” motto was being used by the Corinthians to justify their sexual sin (1 Cor 6:12), but here we see that it apparently was being applied more broadly. It captured a mood of permissiveness and freedom that came out of a misunderstanding of what it meant to be in Christ.

Now, I want to spend this entire first point answering the question: why Paul didn’t just immediately say, No, all things aren’t lawful. That would have been so much simpler! So, there must be something that would be in danger of being lost or misunderstood had Paul laid down a hard rebuke to the Corinthian saying. And I think that is the concept of Christian freedom. What is that?

In the Old Testament, if you were going to become a part of the people of God, there was a very specific culture you had to adopt to worship Yahweh: you had to become Jewish. And that meant that you adopted not only the moral law, but also the civil and ceremonial law as well. That affected the food you ate, the clothes you wore, even the way you planted and harvested your fields. But through the work of Jesus Christ, the New Covenant has now made the people of God not restricted to one particular culture. You do not have to become Jewish to become a Christian. The ceremonial and civil laws of the Old Covenant have passed away—you now can eat shellfish and wear clothes of two different kinds of fabric. If the Old Covenant was like an invitation to a formal dinner party with a strict dress code and one meal offered, the New Covenant is an invitation to a block party in a multi-ethnic neighborhood where everyone brings their favorite dish. There is more flexibility and more freedom—if you want to show up to the party in your tuxedo with a Beef Wellington, you are free to do so! But the person behind you may be wearing flip-flops and holding a crockpot of chili.

Now, that is not a great analogy. It makes it sound like the Old Covenant was strict, whereas the New Covenant is more permissive, laid back. And it may lead you to assume that the Old Covenant was morally intense and severe, whereas the New Covenant is morally expansive and gentle. The Old Testament is about Law, the New Testament is about Grace.

And if that is your view of the Old and New Testament, then you might stumble into the same error the Corinthians were: All things are lawful. But, in a way, it is an understandable error to make. Because the New Covenant does not specify the same kind of strictures to diet, clothing, holy days, as the Old Covenant did, there is more latitude on what food we eat, what we wear, what days we celebrate. Must you eat kosher? Must you circumcise your children? Must you keep the Old Testament festivals. No, you don’t need to—if you want to wear the tuxedo, you are free to, but you don’t have to. And this freedom is not something inconsequential.

Paul warns the Galatians, who have been told that they must accept circumcision or they cannot be saved, that if they accept that they lose the freedom that Christ has brought: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery,” (Gal 5:1). And you may be thinking at this point: What on earth does this have to do with me? I don’t disagree with anyone over ancient Jewish customs, I disagree about modern, 21^st century issues. Fair point. But notice what Paul says just a few verses later to the Galatians:

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. (Gal 5:13-15)

Freedom may seem like an opportunity for you to live exclusively for yourself, to ignore what love of neighbor requires, and so bicker and snipe at those who make your life inconvenient to you, those who seem to get in the way of your poorly conceived notion of freedom. The same dilemma presents itself here in Corinth. “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. 24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor,” (1 Cor 10:23-24). The theme of freedom, liberties, and rights have dominated chapters eight through ten. The Corinthians have a “right” to eat food offered to idols (1 Cor 8:9). But their freedom in Christ is not freedom from serving their weaker brother; freedom in Christ is freedom to serve.

So, what do we need? We need the wisdom to know how we can maintain our freedom in Christ, without confusing it as freedom from loving our weaker brother.

Freedom to Partake

“Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”  If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.” (1 Cor 10:25-27)

“For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” This is a citation from Psalm 24, a citation that most rabbis in Paul’s day—and remember, Paul was trained as a rabbi—taught should be said over your food prior to eating to bless it to God. The reason why you are free to eat is that the earth is the Lord’s! Satan cannot create, so no food is inherently defiled. Further, no person is inherently defiling, so you can attend your non-Christian neighbor’s meal. A book written outside of the Bible, before Jesus was born, that many Jews read and revered was the book of Jubilees. In that book faithful Jews are told: "Separate yourself from the gentiles, and do not eat with them, and do not perform deeds like theirs. And do not become associates of theirs. Because their deeds are defiled, and all of their ways are contaminated and despicable, and abominable,” (Jubilees 22:16).

Paul’s teaching here is flying in the face of the Jewish culture he was raised in. He is able to do so, because Paul has become a student of Jesus. Listen to Jesus’ teaching in the gospel of Mark:

14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:14-23)

The clean/unclean laws of the Old Testament were a symbolic picture of the far greater spiritual reality Jesus came to illuminate for us. The ritual laws that designated what made one unclean were intended to reveal to God’s people that they were in need of not merely an external cleansing, but an internal one. This washing is what Jesus’ death came to accomplish! Through His death on the cross Jesus Christ has provided the means by which those whose hearts are full of evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness…could be purified, cleansed, and made new. And this cleansing does not come from any external religious act, only from faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ and His work on the cross to make you clean.

So, Paul says, as you walk through the meat market, as you go to the dinner party, feel free to enjoy what is set before you without needing to investigate whether or not the food you are about to eat is idol food—it is of no importance. The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, including the prime rib you are about to enjoy. Even if pagans have wrongly appropriated this good part of God’s creation and are using it for something sinful, that does not mean that it is itself sinful. The piano was forbidden in most churches until the late 1800’s because it was previously used primarily in bars and pubs for dancing and revelry. It was considered profane and unfit for sacral use in worship. But the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof! Satan didn’t invent pianos! Just because the world has abused the good things of God’s creation—food, alcohol, authority, technology, art, science, marriage—does not mean that God’s will for us is to throw away what He has made (cf. 1 Tim 4:1-5). We should be wise and we should never use God’s gifts for sinful purposes, but when we turn our noses up at the good things God has made we actually rob God of the glory He deserves for this good thing.

Freedom to Abstain

But, Paul anticipates a problem: “But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—” (1 Cor 10:28).

So, you are walking through the meat market or sitting at the dinner party, and a person tells you that this was offered to idols, Paul tells you to abstain from eating, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience.

There are two options about who the person is who is informing you that the food has been offered to idols. One option is that the person is an unbeliever in the meat market or at the dinner party. But another option, and one I am more persuaded by, is that the individual informing you that the food has been offered to idols is one of the weaker brothers of the church. The reason I am persuaded of this is Paul’s explanation that you should abstain for the sake of the other person’s conscience (1 Cor 10:29). Nowhere else does Paul write about the need to help preserve a non-Christian’s conscience, and this posture of considering someone else’s conscience perfectly mirrors what Paul was just teaching in chapter eight:

“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 8:10-13)

So, if a brother leans over and tells you, Hey, just a heads up, that is idol-food, he is probably telling you because he thinks it is wrong. And if you go ahead and eat the food at the dinner party, he is going to feel a kind of peer-pressure to join you—but if he does, he will violate his conscience, and he will sin, and you will be sinning as well—even though eating the food itself is not sinful!

But, notice, just because that brother’s conscience is bound here, it does not mean that Paul’s is. Paul clearly states: “I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?” (1 Cor 10:29-30). In Romans 14, where Paul similarly counsels the church on matters that they are disagreeing over, he notes that on matters of opinion, if the individual can partake with thankfulness to God, then they should be free to participate (Rom 14:6). Paul’s counsel here does not require us to come to hold the same beliefs of the weaker brothers in the church. We externally restrict our liberties when around them, but that does not mean we internally adopt them. If we can give thanks and praise to God for the good gifts of His creation, then we should freely enjoy them, but our freedom to enjoy never comes at the expense of a thoughtful consideration of how our actions will affect the weaker brothers and sisters around us.

Paul demonstrates the wisdom we need to preserve our freedom in Christ, without compromising obligation to prefer our weaker brother. Let’s say that you are out to lunch with another member, and as you are in line waiting to order food, they reveal that they are under the impression that, because in the garden of Eden meat was not consumed, it is sinful to eat meat. Now, you know that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, that God gave explicit permission to humankind to eat meat in Genesis 9, that Jesus actually declared all food to be clean. You know they are wrong. But as you walk up to the counter to order, what should you do? Paul tells us: if eating meat causes my brother to stumble, I’ll never eat meat.

Now, if I had the time, I would try to talk through a dozen different examples of things Christians can disagree on today from the realm of politics, to parenting, to schooling, to diet, to interpretations on unclear Bible passages—but this would no longer be a sermon if I did that. There just wouldn’t be time, but there is a principle working behind Paul’s teaching here that can plug and play into a thousand different instances of disagreement in the church.

Paul gives us a category for disagreement: “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions,” (Rom 14:1). Notice the category of “opinions” Paul has in mind here. We want to be a church that has our consciences bound by God’s Word. Paul is a man whose conscience is bound by God’s Word. Nevertheless, Paul does believe that there are some matters in God’s Word that are not equally clear and so within the church we can have differing opinions. This is why our church practices what is sometimes referred to as “theological triage.” What is contained with our church’s statement of faith is a summary of what the elders believe to be essential for our unity as a church. Which means that what isn’t contained in that statement of faith is something that we can disagree over while preserving our fellowship together as fellow members.

Freedom to Serve

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, 33 just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.(1 Cor 10:31-33)

Now, you may be thinking: That is a nice ideal, Marc, but the reality is that we do disagree on things that don’t feel small, but feel very big, and once we leave this building those disagreements present themselves. And I understand that hesitation. If you disagree with someone else about who our next president should be, then that likely won’t feel like a trivial disagreement. So how do we actually achieve this kind of unity and fellowship? Paul gives us one massive, beautiful, glorious mission to bind us together: do all to the glory of God.

Whatever we do—from our eating and drinking, to our parenting, to our voting, to our careers, to how we spend our time and money—we all are aimed at the same goal. And that goal is so grand and so enormous that it dwarfs everything else. And as we strive towards that aim, we do so with the confidence that we are all going there together. Now, how you seek to glorify God in matters of opinion may look slightly different than what I think, we may disagree on the means, but we agree on the end. One way our church can shine like a light on the hill in our society is by uniting around what is eternal, and exercising charity towards one another in what is temporary.

One thing I said frequently during the pandemic was this: “I know it doesn’t feel like, but Covid is temporary. Your relationships with your brothers and sisters in Christ is eternal. Don’t confuse the two and treat each accordingly.” And you know what? During covid, that didn’t feel true. It felt like covid and lockdowns and masking was going to last forever and it was easy to feel just so exasperated with fellow Christians who disagreed with us. But see how covid came, and it went, and our brothers and sisters are still here. And church, know that I am so proud of how you handled that, so proud of how we preserved the unity of our church during a time when so many chose their own preferences rather than serving their brother.

What practical advice does Paul give us to color in a mission of living entirely for the glory of God look like? Three things:

• Give no offense to insiders or outsiders: “Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God”
  • We do not only ask ourselves, do I have a right to this? But also, how will this affect others around me?
  • This command applies equally to strong and weak.
    
    
• Be a people-pleaser, not self-pleaser, “33 just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved”
  • “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. 24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. (1 Cor 10:23-24)
    
    
• Be open to correction. Remember, this letter was read publicly to the whole church. The weak brothers sat in the congregation hearing all of this and then had to realize that Paul thought they were wrong.
  • The kind of relationships expected in the church anticipate enough trust and shared love that in time we can help each other grow.

“Christian freedom is not “I always do what I want.” Nor is it “I always do whatever the other person wants.” It is “I do what brings glory to God. I do what brings others under the influence of the gospel. I do what leads to peace in the church.” – Andy Naselli and J.D. Crowley