Bethel Lutheran Church - Pastor Luke Bernthal
Soli Deo Gloria

God-s -Gray Areas- ; 1 Corinthians 8: 1 - 13; 2009-02-08

The Bulletin (order of service)

Text: 1 Corinthians 8: 1 - 13;
1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But the man who loves God is known by God. 4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. 7 But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 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 freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.

The root of the problem that these Corinthian Christians were facing could really be boiled down to the simple question of “What are we to do when God doesn’t give us a specific command what to do in a given situation?” In other words, they were struggling with the question of what to do when they were faced with what they perceived as one of God’s “Gray Areas.” After all, God has only given us 10 commandments, not 10 million. He hasn’t given us specific commands and specific instructions regarding each step and action we take in this life. In contrast to the Old Testament people of Israel to whom God gave many, many laws and regulations spelling out what they were to do in nearly every area of their lives (civil, ceremonial, and moral), since Christ has come and fulfilled those laws that prepared and pointed the people to His coming, God has given us New Testament Christians much Christian liberty and freedom. He has, however, given us some important principles that do apply to, guide, and help direct step of our lives. Jesus summarized God’s guidelines for us in every situation with just two commandments, as we read in our Gospel reading for this morning: “'And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (Mark 12:30-31). In fact, the entirety of God’s Law can be summarized with even just one word: LOVE. Paul says in Romans, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10).

The problem with the Corinthian congregation was not that they didn’t have the necessary theological or head knowledge. Paul says, “We know that we all possess knowledge” (1 Corinthians 13:1a). The problem was a lack of love. He goes on to say, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know” (1 Corinthians 13:1b-2). The problem wasn’t with their “heads,” it was with their “hearts.”

Let me read you a good summary of what exactly was going on in Corinth and within this congregation at the time Paul wrote this letter:

The worship of idols in temples in Corinth lay at the center of the lives of the people. And the food which they ate was intimately associated with this idol worship. Meat from animals without blemish was used in sacrifices to the idols. The worshippers could take some of the unused meat home for consumption there. Some of it was sold in the market. People who bought meat in the market could never be quite certain whether it had or had not been dedicated to idols. Furthermore, eating meat at the temples was very much a part of daily social life. It was somewhat lilke "eating out" in the USA.

Paul had evidently discussed this entire matter with the Corinthian Christians. He had told them that the heathen gods and idols were only figments of the imagination. They do not even exist. Therefore, foods which had been dedicated to these idols and gods were not actually contaminated.

After Paul left, several questions arose among the Corinthians. Evidently there were two erroneous opinions:

1. Some felt that they had unbridled liberty with reference to eating meats;

2. Others felt that they had no liberty at all for such eating.

Paul is about to condemn both opinions. (Buls, Dr. Harold H., Buls’ Notes on the Web)

The “strong” Christians in the Corinthian congregation fully understood the fact that they had the freedom to eat this meat sacrificed to idols, since an idol “is nothing” and there is truly only on God, then the meat isn’t contaminated or “unholy.” "But," Paul reminds them in our text, “not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.” (1 Corinthians 13:7). It’s all very well and good for the strong believers to be happy to eat anything but what about those whose consciences are weak? What about those who have come out of a strongly pagan world where they were steeped in the whole culture of idol worship; who can’t easily remove the connections they have in their minds between the evil of their pagan past and the food associated with it. These people still think of this food as being tainted, so their consciences are defiled by eating it.

Let’s put this in a modern-day example that may be more applicable to our lives here in 21st century America. You and I might know full well that there is nothing wrong with going to the local sports bar with your buddies to have a beer or two. God doesn’t forbid us from drinking alcohol; He does forbid us from abusing it by getting drunk (Paul even speaks about this in this same letter to the Corinthians: cf. 1 Corinthians 6:10; Galatians 5:21; Ephesians 5:18). However, imagine someone who’s knew to the congregation, had recently been brought to faith in Christ and is recovering from addictions to alcohol and drugs. How unwise, how dangerous, and how un-loving would it be for you to invite this person to come join you and your buddies as you have a cold one and watch the game—even though you might be fully able to control yourself and only have a beer or two?

Just because you or I know we are free in Christ to do one thing or another, or to eat or drink one thing or another doesn’t mean that we have to! What we need to keep in mind when we are dealing with these “Gray areas” (things which are neither specifically commanded nor forbidden by God) and our Christian freedom are the instructions Paul gives in our text, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak” (1 Corinthians 13:9). For the Corinthian Christians it was the issue of whether or not to eat meat sacrificed to idols. For us it could be any number of things. Think about some of the things that are prevalent in our day that may not be wrong in and of themselves or within certain limits, or in certain contexts, but at the same time require great caution because there is an obvious element of evil or temptation associated with them; things that might be difficult for a Christian to participate in:

• Alcohol
• Smoking
• Drugs
• Bars / clubs
• TV/Movies/Video games
• Gambling (casinos, the lottery, raffles, etc.)
• Certain kinds of sports (Boxing, MMA, horse racing, football?)
• Other things?

Whatever it may be plug that example into Paul’s words at the end of our text: “For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple [or drinking at a bar, gambling at a casino, etc.], won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall” (1 Corinthians 13:10-13).

Just because we are “free” to do something, doesn’t mean we have to. Remember, we’re just as “free” in Christ NOT to do it! That is true “freedom,” and true Christian maturity knows when to use that freedom and when to give up certain freedoms at times for the sake of others. In short, it means being willing to love our neighbor more than exercising our freedoms just because we have the right to. If we just go around doing whatever we want just because we can, or say “I am free to do whatever I want to. If other people don’t like it, that’s their problem” that thinking is not only un-Biblical and un-Christian (just imagine if Jesus had that type of attitude! We’d be lost!) it really isn’t “freedom” at all! It’s actually bondage!

One pastor tells the story of a guy he knew that told him, “I could never become a Christian.” When this pastor asked why, the man said “Because there is no freedom. I’d have to give up ‘this and that.’”

The pastor asked him “If you are so ‘free,’ then stop doing those activities that you feel are so ‘liberating.’ The man looked at the pastor with a disheartening look because he knew he couldn’t. The pastor then asked him, “You’re not as free as you thought you where, huh?”

Let me share with you a rather humorous illustration I found earlier this week that will hopefully help bring the point of our text home for all of us:

Imagine that you had invited someone over to your home. Let’s suppose there was a skunk outside and something scared it so that it gave off its scent. The smell begins to enter the home. You immediately reach up for your favorite air freshener and start to spray the room. Your guest begins coughing and can barely breathe. You recognize the person is having a severe allergic reaction and their airway is quickly closing, what would you do?

A. Keep spraying the house until the skunk sent is all gone.

B. Stop spraying the house with the freshener and help your friend whatever means necessary to get them to the hospital.

C. Look at your friend and wonder why he or she does not have enough faith to overcome the air freshener. Or…

D. Let your friend know you are sorry the air freshener offends them, but you have every right to spray your house to make it smell good. (Rick Gillespie-Mobley)

Hopefully, if we ever really were in this type of situation, we would get our friend to the hospital as soon as humanly possible. But, unfortunately, this sort of thing, in a sense, happens all the time, because of a twisted perception of being “free in Christ” when it comes to the “Gray Areas” of life. You see, in reality, to God there are no “Gray Areas.” There is only right or wrong. Good and evil. He wants us to be guided by the knowledge He has given us in His Word, and just as importantly, be guided by our love for Him and our fellow human beings to act accordingly.

So how do we decide what to do when we come across these, so called “Gray Areas”? Based on the words of our text and other areas of Scripture here are a few guidelines:

1. Does it build up my faith and/or the faith of my fellow Christian?

“For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another” (Romans 14:17-19 NASB)
In essence, Paul is saying don’t get wrapped up in the “Gray Area”. Instead, ask is this building or burning the Kingdom of God? Is what I’m doing contributing to unity among my fellow believers, or is there a possibility it could divide it?

2. Can it lead me or others to bondage or addiction? (Be very honest with yourself here!)

Remember Paul’s words from our sermon text two weeks ago, "Everything is permissible for me"-- but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"-- but I will not be mastered by anything. (1 Corinthians 6:12)

3. Do you have any uneasy conscience about it?

Martin Luther is famous for saying, “It is neither safe nor right to go against one’s conscience” (Diet of Worms). While our conscience is not the Holy Spirit, as believers our consciences are guided by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. Paul writes in 1 Timothy, “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5).

A good indicator that you have an unclear conscience about a gray area is if you try and hide what your doing. A good test to give yourself is this: Whenever you are doing something, from watching TV to eating, ask yourself, “If someone knocked on the door right now, could I open the door without scurrying around or checking the peep hole?” Even better, if that person knocking at your door was your pastor, would you be ashamed of what you were doing if he walked in? How about if it were Jesus? If you are afraid that someone whether inside the fellowship or even outside were to find out, chances are it isn’t right for you to do.

4. Finally, Can it cause someone else to stumble or sin?

Paul writes in our text, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak…Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall” (1 Corinthians 13:9, 13).

Remember, that Jesus shed His blood and died to save the soul of your neighbor, just as He died for you. That’s how much love and concern Jesus has for them. Shouldn’t we have the same? Let’s take our actions even in—or perhaps, especially in—these “Gray Areas” very seriously. Let your words and actions always reflect, not just your knowledge of God, but also your love for Him and your fellow man. May it never be said of us because of our abuse of our Christian freedom, “So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge” (1 Corinthians 13:11). As someone once said, “The life that you lead may be the only ‘Bible’ some people ever read. What version, or perversion, of the scriptures are they reading in your life?” Amen.