MY DUTY TO YOUR CONSCIENCE – 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on February 17, 2019 under 2019 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; February 17, 2019 from 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Theme: Morally innocent actions can become sin if they harm the conscience of another believer.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

One of the greatest Bible teachers I ever learned from was Dr. John G. Mitchell—the founder of Multnomah Bible College. And I’ll never forget a story he told us one day in one of our New Testament classes.

He told us that before he was saved, he used to smoke cigars. He said that he had been smoking them since the time he had been a teenager. In time, he heard the gospel and placed his trust in Jesus. And after he was saved, he began to tell people more and more about what the Lord Jesus had done for him. But he also kept right on smoking cigars. One day he was on a train, trying to sharing the gospel with a couple of men. But he noticed that neither of them were listening to what he had to say. Instead, they kept looking at the cigars sticking out of his pocket.

Now, dear brothers and sisters; you and I know that there is nothing inherently immoral about smoking a cigar. It might be a problem, of course, if you smoked too many of them. But there is nothing really sinful itself about a cigar. But Dr. Mitchell said that the two men that he was talking to thought it was inconsistent to talk about the Savior while puffing away on a cigar. He said that it doesn’t do any good to try to tell people about Jesus and, at the same thing, hang on to habits that defeat the purpose. And so, he pulled the cigars out of his pocket and threw them out the window of the train—never smoking a cigar again. He said,

That was the end of it for me—just like that. It boils down to—do I love the Saviour, do I love people more than some dirty old habit? Then let me get rid of the habit if it’s going to affect my testimony for the Lord, if it’s going to hinder somebody coming to the Saviour.¹

To some people, that might seem like a rather old-fashioned example—especially since it’s about trains and cigars. But it illustrates a very timeless principle for us as believers. It shows us that while we might have a legitimate moral right as Christians to do this or that, the principle of showing people the love of Christ is more important than our rights. We need to be ready to suppress our rights, if needs be, in order to show love to others. That’s what the Lord Jesus did for us. He set aside His rights as the second Person of the Trinity in order to save us. And that’s what He expects us to do for others. We’re to behave that way not only toward those who are unbelievers, but also toward those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

And that’s what this brand new section of 1 Corinthians—that we begin looking at this morning—is all about.

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Now; as you’ll remember, the apostle Paul had been answering some questions that the Corinthian Christians had written to him. One of the questions that they had was about something that might sound sort of strange to us today—and that is the whole matter of eating meat that had been offered as a sacrifice to a false god in a pagan temple.

The ancient city of Corinth was filled with pagan temples to all kinds of false gods. People used to come from all over the known world to worship at one of the many temples in Corinth. And at certain times of the year, there were a great many offerings that were made in these temples to pagan gods. Naturally, none of these offerings were consumed—because none of the gods they were offered to were real. And so, after the rituals had been completed, there was a considerable amount of food left over. It was perfectly good meat; and so it was often sold in the temple for public use. Sometimes, it was even served within the temple; and people would come and pay to eat some of it. It was a big part of how the temples made money. And all of this was just normal, everyday life in many parts of the ancient world—particularly in Corinth.

Some folks who had placed their faith in Jesus Christ had grown sufficiently in their understanding of things to know that there was no other god but the one true God; who alone is the Creator of all things, and who is the Father of our Lord Jesus. And because they knew that this was so, they didn’t feel that there was anything inherently wrong with going to the market or to the temple and buying and eating this perfectly good meat that had been offered to an idol. It hadn’t really been offered to anything at all. Some of them even felt free to go to the temple and eat it in the temple courts—just so long as they didn’t go so far as to join in with pagan people in actually bowing down to a false god in the process.

But others felt that this was a horrible and immoral thing to do. How could a Christian ever eat meat which had been offered to a pagan god?—let alone buy it from a pagan temple?—or worse, to even go inside the pagan temple to eat it? This even caused some weaker, less-mature Christians to be tempted to eat such meat when they didn’t really believe it was right to do so; and to thus fall back into old patterns of the paganism of their former lives, and feel ashamed and guilty before their Lord.

Now; it seems to me that it was the more ‘knowledgeable’ Christians who were writing to Paul about this. I believe it was they who were a bit annoyed by the scruples of these weaker Christians. They were a bit like the kind of believer in Dr. Mitchell’s story that would have felt free to smoke cigars anywhere and anytime they wanted, and who would have been irritated by those who thought it was somehow a wrong thing to do so. These ‘knowledgeable’ Corinthian Christians knew the truth—and they knew that Paul also knew the truth; and so, they wanted Paul to give an answer to this matter.

And Paul did. His answer is a long one. It begins in Chapter 8, and runs all the way to the first verse of Chapter 11. It’s a long answer, because it’s an important issue. But the answer wasn’t like what the so-called ‘knowledgeable’ Christians might have expected. Paul answered by urging them to focus on the bigger issue of love. They needed to balance their ‘knowledge’ with sincere love for their brethren.

He began his long answer, in Chapter 8, by writing these words to them;

Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him. Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble (1 Corinthians 8:1-13).

This morning, we’ll just look at these introductory words in Chapter 8. But they teach us an important lesson—one that is applicable in lots of different situations in our life together as believers. It’s that morally innocent actions can become sin if they harm the conscience of another fellow Christian. We may have the freedom to do certain things—perfectly innocent and harmless things in and of themselves; but we should not be guided in life by what our ‘freedoms’ may be. Instead, we should so let the love of Jesus guide our lives that we would never exercise those freedoms to the harm of our brother or sister in Christ.

If it comes down to it, we should gladly throw our cigars out the train window in order to exhibit the love of Jesus to each other.

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Now; Paul is dealing with a particular issue—that of eating meat served to idols. But it seems to me that he begins, in the first three verses, by putting forward the general principle that is behind it all.

In verse 1, he writes, “Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge.” The way that Paul puts this, in the original language, is in the perfect tense. It’s as if he was saying, “Now, we know completely well—as an established fact—that we all have ‘knowledge’”. And that’s a rather interesting way to put it.

I have wondered if there wasn’t just a hint of sarcasm in those words. And it’s why I think that it was the supposedly ‘more mature’ Christians who had written this question to him—the ones who thought they were ‘knowledgeable’. It may have been that they had written as if to say, “Dear Paul; please straighten these fussy Christians out about this whole ‘meat-served-to-idols’ thing. After all, we know the truth!” And it may be that Paul wrote back to them in this way in order to somewhat ‘deflate’ their pride. It was as if he was saying, “You have ‘knowledge’; do you? Well let’s just remember—we know that we all have knowledge; and not just you.”

That is very often the problem with those of us who are ‘knowledgeable’ in the body of Christ. We may be theologically astute, and have accumulated a fact or two. But knowledge all by itself, without love, causes us to be a bit prideful toward those who we don’t think of as being as knowledgeable as we are. That’s why Paul goes on to say, “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.” To “edify” means to build someone up—to make someone stronger—to make them more stable and sound in the faith. If our so-called ‘knowledge’ is held on to by us in such a way as to inflate ourselves up and tear another down, then it is a very foolish kind of ‘knowledge!’

In verse 2, Paul wrote, “And if anyone thinks that he knows anything” (and it’s not that he or she actually does know, but only that they ‘think’ they know), and if they thus tear someone else’s spirit down by their supposed knowledge, then “he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.” The mere theological facts of a thing are not enough to know. We might be absolutely right that there is no other god than the one true God, and that meat served to idols is harmless. Or we might be absolutely right that someone can smoke a cigar without any harm to their soul. Or we might be theologically right about a multitude of such ‘non-moral’ issues and practices that we could list-off. But if that’s all that we know—and we do not go further to show love in the way we handle that knowledge in relation to others—then we clearly do not yet know as we ought to know. It’s an incomplete knowledge. It doesn’t include love.

Paul went on to say, in verse 3, “But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.” And I believe what he means by this is that if anyone loves God—even that poor, naive Christian who we don’t think has as much knowledge about a non-moral matter as we have—then they, in spite of their weaknesses and faults, are known in a perfect and saving way by God our Father. And we’d better be very careful to treat them with love!

I think here of something that Paul said in the Book of Romans—in another very large section of Scripture where he talks about these sorts of non-moral issues. In Romans 14:1-6, Paul wrote;

Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master, he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks” (Romans 14:1-6).

We may accurately “know” the bare theological facts about a certain practice; but we can’t know the heart of one another before the Lord. And if someone with whom we disagree on these matters loves the Lord, then they are His and are completely known by Him. He is wonderfully able to take care of and guide those who are His own.

So; when it comes to those non-moral practices that we “know” we have the freedom to enjoy, let’s make sure that our ‘knowledge’ isn’t the most important thing to us. Let’s make sure that our love for one another in Christ is the thing that guides and equips our knowledge. And then, we will truly ‘know’ as we ought to know.

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So then; after having written to the Corinthians about that general principle, Paul then dealt with the specific application to the problem at hand. In verses 4-6, he wrote “Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.”

Here, he was talking about the things that we can legitimately “know” about this issue. We know, for example, that an idol is nothing at all. It is a statue, or a figure, or an image—and nothing more. It represents nothing; because the god it seeks to portray is not real. It is an imagination of the fallen human heart. And what’s more, we also know that there is only one God. He is the God who created all things. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus.

Paul mentions that there are many ‘gods’ and ‘lords’. I believe that, in saying this, he is acknowledging that there are other systems of authority in God’s created realm. There are, for example, authorities within the realm of men—’mighty ones’ on the earth. There are kings, and governors and officials; and we are duly obligated to honor them. As Paul wrote in Romans 13;

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves (Romans 13:1-2).

There are also rulers and authorities in the spiritual realms. We don’t know very much about them—only what the Bible tells us. But among God’s angels, there are structures of authority and power. In Ephesians 3:10, Paul wrote of “the principalities and powers in the heavenly places”. There are even structures of power and authority among the fallen angels; because Paul speaks in Ephesians 6 about how we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,

but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).

So; there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’. But we don’t worship them. We only worship the Creator God who is the source of all authority. And speaking hypothetically, even if the pagan gods that the pagan peoples worship in the temples were real (which they are not), it still wouldn’t matter to us. Not a single one of them is our God. For us, there is only one God—the true God—our heavenly Father who is the Creator of all things. And for us, there is only one Lord—the Lord Jesus Christ through whom God the Father created all things; and by whom we are made acceptable to the Father and are saved.

Now; that’s truth! That’s what we know in our minds. That’s theological fact. But more is needed from us than just the bare knowledge of the fact. Along with the knowledge of the fact, we also need the sensitivity of love for one another. Look at what Paul said in verse 7. “However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.”

A brand new believer—freshly saved from out of the world of paganism—may not have had the truth of these things sufficiently settled into his or her heart just yet. Their conscience—their inner sense of right and wrong—may not have been sufficiently informed by the word of God yet. They may still be learning the truth from God’s word about such things. And having been accustomed to the idea that an idol is a real thing, they eat meat from a pagan temple as if it had actually been offered to a god. And when they do so, they feel dirty and defiled inside.

I was reminded recently of a story told by Fritz Ridenour. A group of Christians in a church were planning to go to a baseball game together; and they invited a new Christian to come along. But this new Christian brother was shocked. “How can you call yourselves Christians and go to a baseball game?” They didn’t understand why he could possibly have a problem with a baseball game. But what they didn’t know was that, before he had become a Christian, he had practically ‘worshiped’ baseball. It had occupied too much a place in his life. It had become his ‘god’. The worst thing that could have happened to a new Christian like that would have been for the other ‘more knowledgeable’ Christians to look down on him for his lack of knowledge; or to have dragged him to a game—where his conscience would have been defiled. Instead, what he needed was love and compassion and patience; so that, in time, his conscience could be trained and developed.

In verse 9, Paul said, “But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.” The ‘knowledgeable’ Christian is not—in any way—benefited spiritually if they exercise the freedom to eat meat served in a pagan temple; nor is the ‘weaker’ Christian missing-out spiritually if they abstain from meat served in a temple. In the end, it makes no difference. But what does make a difference is how we handle the weaker brother or sister in love. Paul goes on to say in verses 10-12, “But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.”

It is a serious matter to harm the brother or sister for whom the Lord Jesus laid down His very life! It is a very serious matter to cause such a one to stumble! It’s not just an offense committed against them—it’s an offense committed against our Lord! The high cost of harming the work of our Lord in the life of another is not at all worth defending our ‘knowledge’ about non-essential, non-moral issues!

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So then; what should we do? Look at the commitment of love that the apostle Paul makes in verse 13. He writes, “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.” It’s not that Paul would never eat meat again. He knew that there was nothing wrong with eating meat served to an idol. And he certainly wasn’t making it a rule for all believers that they never again eat meat. Rather, he was making the commitment that he would never eat meat again if it hurts the conscience another believer. He made the commitment to so love his brother or sister that he would lay down his own rights willingly in order to protect them, and do them good, and preserve the work of Christ in them.

In Romans 14:20-23, he put it this way:

Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin (Romans 14:20-23).

Dear brothers and sisters; when we stand before the Lord Jesus on the great day of review, we won’t be evaluated on whether or not we enjoyed all of our rights and liberties to the fullest degree possible. Rather, the question will be whether or not we followed the example of our Lord Jesus in these things—our Lord Jesus who willingly laid down His rights in order to save us from our sins. Did we allow what is ‘morally innocent’ to become sin, because we harmed the work of Christ in our brother or sister with it? Or instead, were we willing to sacrifice our liberties—and to even refrain from that which is our right to enjoy—in order to do good to our fellow believers and to protect their precious conscience before God?

Dear brothers and sisters; let’s be willing—if needs be—to throw our cigars out the train window for the cause of Jesus, and for the love of our fellow believer!

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Dick Bohrer, Lion of God: A Biography of John G. Mitchell, D.D. (Portland, OR: Multnomah Bible College, 1994) p. 47.

EA