20180128Knowledge versus
Love
Knowledge Versus Love /
Based on 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 / Delivered on
January 28, 2018 to CCH
Hymns: Help Us Accept
Each Other, Make Me a Channel of Your Peace, The Gift of Love
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
8:1 Now concerning food
sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge."
Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
8:2 Anyone who claims to
know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge;
8:3 but anyone who loves
God is known by him.
8:4 Hence, as to the
eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really
exists," and that "there is no God but one."
8:5 Indeed, even though
there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as in fact there are many
gods and many lords--
8:6 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.
8:7 It is not everyone,
however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols
until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol;
and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
8:8 "Food will not
bring us close to God." We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no
better off if we do.
8:9 But take care that
this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
8:10 For if others see
you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not,
since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food
sacrificed to idols?
8:11 So by your knowledge
those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.
8:12 But when you thus sin
against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you
sin against Christ.
8:13 Therefore, if food is
a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of
them to fall.
Good morning. My name is Darci Strutt McQuiston, one of the
Lay Speakers of the United Methodist Church up on the hill, and it is my honor
to be here with you.
Our scripture today deals
with a topic that seems a little foreign to us here in Hudson Wisconsin in 2018. We don’t need to question if our meat has
been used to honor an idol when we buy it from County Market or Family Fresh. We may want to check if it is organic or grass-fed,
but sacrifice-free isn’t normally a topic on the label. I think there’s a deeper message that does apply
to us within this scripture so hang in there with me.
The three ideas I am
pulling from the scripture are:
Knowledge and freedom
Me versus Us
Knowledge versus love
Knowledge and freedom
In chapter 8 of 1
Corinthians Paul is dealing with a question brought to him by members of the
congregation. Those that were more
mature in their faith felt their knowledge led to the freedom to eat meat
sacrificed to idols but wanted Paul’s full OK.
8:4 Hence, as to the
eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really
exists," and that "there is no God but one."
Idols were created by man,
not by God, and as such were not sacred because “no idol in the world really
exists”. Therefore, logically, there’s
no harm in buying meat that’s leftover from sacrifices because the meat is meat
nothing more. Eating meat with that
belief did not mean you were honoring the idol, it just meant you were hungry
for some meat.
Sin was linked to your
thoughts. The “Why” you did something is
what made it right or wrong. If you were
strong enough in your belief to know the meat as just meat then you were free
from being called an idolater because nothing about the meal had anything to do
with the idol for you. You were free to
shop wherever you wanted. Or were you?
Paul reminded the
Corinthians that it wasn’t just a question of what they did themselves. They needed to be concerned with more than
their own salvation. They were part of a
community of believers.
Me versus Us
8:7 It is not everyone,
however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols
until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol;
and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
8:8 "Food will not
bring us close to God." We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no
better off if we do.
8:9 But take care that
this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
8:10 For if others see
you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not,
since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food
sacrificed to idols?
8:11 So by your knowledge
those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.
8:12 But when you thus sin
against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you
sin against Christ.
Paul had agreed with them
that it wasn’t a sin to eat meat sacrificed to idols, but causing a member of
the community to stumble was a sin.
Jesus dealt with this idea
of causing someone to stumble directly in Matthew 18:6.
“If anyone causes one of
these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for
them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the
depths of the sea.
The Christian journey is
not a solo one. Christ told us that
plainly when he said the second great commandment was to love your neighbor as
yourself.
We are in community. We are a body of believers. We are called to be our brother’s keeper. Paul agreed that eating meat privately may be
OK, but if they caused a less mature member of the community to eat such meat
while feeling guilty and sinful then that was not OK. Such guilt would separate him or her from a closer
relationship with God.
Knowledge versus love
8:1 Now concerning food
sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge."
Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
8:2 Anyone who claims to
know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge;
8:3 but anyone who loves
God is known by him.
Knowledge can make you
feel proud, or puffed up, but love is what supports the community – it builds others
up.
Later on in 1 Corinthians
Paul will teach which is more important.
1Co 13:8-10 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.
And verse 13 And now these
three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Knowledge didn’t even make
the first cut. In the Garden of Eden, it
was eating from the tree of knowledge that caused the fall of man to begin with. Knowledge isn’t as important as we think it
is.
So what can we glean from
this scripture? We don’t have problems
with meat sacrificed to idols but there are other things within our culture that
divide us as Christians. Whether or not
women should have a place of leadership beyond the kitchen committee, whether
or not parents should allow their children to be pulled away from Sunday
worship by traveling sports, whether or not gays or lesbians should be allowed
in worship, or whether or not women should be allowed to wear pants is still in
question in some local churches here in Hudson.
I have strong beliefs
about some of these, and they may differ from yours. I was trained in debate in High School, but need
to temper that tendency. A new Christian
brother doesn’t need to believe all I believe to begin his relationship with God
through Christ. Convincing a person to
act like me, on an issue they are not secure is OK, may hinder their
relationship with God because in their mind they feel they have sinned. It could cause them to stumble in their faith. In our scripture today, the weak would be
defiled not because of what they ate, but because they believed it was wrong
and ate it anyway due to peer pressure.
God’s command was that we
love one another for love is of God and when you love you are like Him. If the person beside you has accepted Christ
into his or her life, then the spirit of Christ has entered into them and when
you hurt them you are hurting Christ.
God wants all of his children to be in relationship with Him. We go against God’s will when we hinder their
relationship from building.
We will continue to debate
the hot issues of our culture and struggle with what is before us. This scripture encourages us to let love triumph
over knowledge. My ideas of truth have
altered as I’ve grown in my faith. What
I believed to be absolutely true in my youth has softened and sometimes changed
to the point I now believe absolutely the opposite! If in my passion I caused someone else to follow
my lead when they felt it was a sin, then I am sorry. I vow to do better. Their relationship with God is far more important
than my claim to know something.
Salvation is through relationship not knowledge.
Care for those in your
community. Let your words and actions be
tempered by love, as God loves, with patience and with the understanding we are
each at different stages in our journey.
Help build up each other with this love so all our relationships with
God can grow. Strengthening another’s relationship
with God strengthens our own.
This is a tough lesson. May God be with us as we consider what it
means.
Amen
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