1 Corinthians 8-9, Are You Fighting for Your Rights?

The Knowledge That Puffs Up and Love That Builds Up

1st Corinthians chapter 8 starting in verse 1 hear the word of the Lord. Now concerning food offered to idols. We know that all of us possess knowledge. This knowledge puffs up but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something.

He does not yet know as he ought to know, but if anyone loves God, he is known by God. Therefore is 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.

For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth as indeed There are many gods and many lords 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.

However, not all possess this knowledge but some through the former association with idols eat food as really offered to an idol and Their conscience being weak as defiled. Food will not commend us to God.

We are no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do eat. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 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? And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed the brother for whom Christ died. Thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak you sin against Christ.

Therefore if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble. Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord. Are Not you my workmanship in the Lord if to others I am NOT an apostle at least I am to you for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife as do the other apostles and brothers of the Lord and Cephas or Is it not only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?

Who serves as a soldier at his own expense who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? For who tends a flock or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? Do I say these things on human authority.

Does not the law say the same for it is written in the law of Moses. You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake?

It was written for our sake because the plowman should plow and hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. If we have sown spiritual things among you. Is it too much if we reap material things from you if others share this rightful claim on you.

Do not we even more nevertheless? We have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service?

Get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings in the same way. The Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

But I have made no use of any of these rights. Nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision for I would rather die then have anyone. Deprive me of my ground for boasting. For if I preach the gospel that gives me no ground for boasting for necessity is laid upon me.

Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this of my own will I have a reward. But if not of my own will I'm still entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my reward that in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge.

So as not to make full use of my rights of the gospel. For though I am free from all I have made myself a servant To all that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win Jews to those under the law became as one under the law though not being myself.

Under the law that I might win those under the law to those outside the law became as one outside the law. Not being outside the law of God. But under the law of Christ that I might win those outside the law to the weak I became weak that I might win the weak.

I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the Gospel that I may share with them and its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one receives the prize.

So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we and imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control.

Lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word. When Mary and I lived in Ethiopia we found as you can imagine that there was a lack of entertaining things to do.

I don't think there were any movie theaters that I remembered anything like that. So the American Embassy would have a weekly movie night for US citizens and their guests like Mary I'm put on by the Marines there and we went at least once.

I don't remember we went more than once we went at least once. Though before the main event the time we went they showed a music video that classic piece of musical art by the artists formerly known as the Beastie Boys.

You've got a fight for your right to party or maybe it should be pronounced party. Sorry, I just had to do that. I Wondered though as I was sitting there in the US Embassy and Addis Ababa Ethiopia. Watching the Beastie Boys perform that great piece of art that it is.

I wondered is this what foreigners think that. This is what we Americans are talking about when we talk about fighting for our rights. You know, that's one of the things Americans say a lot right men fought and died for our right to.

You know, you fill in the blank speak freely to vote have a free press to bear arms. To assemble to worship and believe as we think best those rights were fought for this country came into being fighting for our rights.

Boldly demanding, you know, give me liberty or give me death. Demanding that we have as the Declaration of Independence put its certain inalienable rights. Of course the Founding Fathers they weren't like the Beastie Boys.

They were different. They were willing to sacrifice their own lives the last line of the Declaration of Independence. But as we pledge our our lives our fortunes and our sacred honor and that was for the rights of not just themselves.

But of others their countrymen, so for them, it wasn't a selfish Beastie Boy like, you know right to party. But since then we have Americans have deeply ingrained into us that fighting for our rights is a good thing.

It's a heroic thing as the motto for New Hampshire puts it live free or die. Fighting for our rights is such a good thing to us. Then some other people come along not as mature and Make and try to make anything.

That they like sound noble and good you know like the right to party or the LGBT agenda by dressing it up as fighting for rights. It appeared that the Corinthians would have made very good modern Americans.

They were determined to fight for their right to party to eat and to drink as they Was they wanted as much as they wanted but no thought for anything other than themselves right now enjoying their Hard-earned rights, but here Paul tells them to do what they probably thought was unimaginable.

Why not relinquish your rights give them up and These two chapters he tells them first in chapter 8 Relinquish your rights for others and then in chapter 9 Relinquish your rights for the reward. Do you fight for your rights.

Many of their many of the Corinthians fought for their rights because they had knowledge. They knew what their rights were. They could tell you with eloquence and feeling that when they were in bondage in their sin that Christ fought for their rights.

They could probably tell you with tears in their eyes with great feeling how their freedom from legalism had been fought for and bought. By Jesus obeying the law for us taking our sins on his body on the cross.

They might shout, you know, hallelujah about it sing. Emotionally be overwhelmed with feeling and joy for how their freedom was fought for and it was bought. And now they're determined to enjoy it and they would be right about all that.

But then they'd go to a party and eat whatever sacrifice meat is put before them and drink whatever they felt like. Do whatever they wanted to do not caring at all about the Christian that they led into sin or the unbeliever that they turned away from Christ and if someone criticized them well What do they know?

We've they've got a we've got to fight. For our right to party they acknowledge they knew the gospel. They knew what so many of their superstitious neighbors didn't know those ignorant pagan people all around them.

The idols that the pagans worshipped they weren't really gods at all. They knew that they were smarter than their neighbors. Yeah, there were there was no power or spirit behind that statue to Zeus. It was nothing and so when they got an invitation to attend a banquet at the in honor of Zeus at that temple.

Well, why not go? You know, why be left out? Why spend another boring evening at home when I could be dining with my friends at the Zeus temple after all I know. That there's really no Zeus. There's no spirit there.

So the meat that was sacrificed to him was really sacrifice to nothing. That was their knowledge. Paul said it puffed him up. It makes them feel like they were so much better than the other poor fools that don't know that an idol is nothing.

Can't they see they think of themselves? Can't they see there's no Zeus to worry about. I'm actually celebrating the freedom that Christ has fought for and bought for me. Can't they understand that he's ignorant people.

And if they can't well, then who cares that's their fault. That's their problem. And that was their attitude. They were puffed up. They were inflated thinking that they were so great. When they weren't thinking about the other members of the body.

By by knowledge here. He didn't mean an extensive amount of learning. Although that can puff you up to I guess there was one bit of knowledge that the idols are nothing. That we are free in Christ and that was what was puffing them up just one little bite of information.

It's all the knowledge you took to puff them up. Of course, the problem wasn't in the knowledge. After all the knowledge is true. Idols are nothing. Christ did buy our freedom. Those are great truths.

The problem wasn't with the knowledge. It was with the with the knowers of it. They used it to puff themselves up instead of being humbled by it. Knowledge only puffs up those who lack love love for others.

Those who have love Who have love for for God and for others are humbled by knowledge. The same gospel that made some to fight for their right. To party or whatever because it gave them that gave them knowledge of their rights.

It makes others see. What was paid? To give them their rights. It makes others humbled. It makes others survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died. That it demands my life my soul my all.

Love he says builds up. First of his love for God in verse 3 the person who is built up Loves God because notice he says he loves God. Because God has known him knows the verb tense there has known him.

Love builds up he. If anyone imagines that he does not if anyone imagined that he knows something. He does not yet know as he ought to know anyone who loves God. He is known already. By God never there at the end of verse 3 is a past perfect indicating a completed action.

The lover has been known by God in the past. In other words, he's foreknown. God has committed to be in a relationship with that person from eternity past and and the knowledge of that. And you're foreknown that you're for loved.

I guess that doesn't puff him up, you know. It doesn't make him think well see my theology is so much better. So much more finely tuned than all those other poor people out there. It amazes him or her about the prior commitment.

Prior to our actions prior to anything we've done or any when we were God's prior commitment to us to love us. That's why we love God we get a glimpse of his initiative taking love his for love. We love because God first loved us as John says.

So when we previously loved people. Study the Bible and gain some knowledge from it or maybe hear an informative message gain some knowledge. That knowledge Doesn't puff us up because it's wrapped up in and filled with received with reminds us of love.

So we are built up. We know. There's no idol. Okay, there's no there's no real power behind Buddha. I Father my father-in-law's funeral that the fake money the so-called hell money that they were burning to him somehow transfer it To the spiritual realm that way there wasn't anything even said that to my sister-in-law.

That's hell money. It goes to him when you burn it and I just said no it didn't go anywhere it gets burnt up. It's just paper going up in smoke, but we didn't participate in it. Mary and I. We didn't have the attitude well since there's nothing we destroy our shoulders and thinking well since there's nothing but there's nothing wrong with doing it.

That's what go through the motions make the other people happy. After all we know is it says in verse 6 that there is one God the Father out of whom all things come and for whom all things Exist and the Son the Lord Jesus Christ to whom all through whom all things Came to be and through whom we exist the supremacy of God and all things notice that everything is from God.

All things all things are from the Father and through the Son and for God that's their purpose is for him not for us. Now that is that is knowledge if you have that knowledge not the so-called knowledge that makes me think it's all about me.

You know the way the consumer thinks the supremacy of me in all things Jesus fought and bought my freedom so I can indulge myself and whatever I feel good about. I can go through the motions of some pagan ritual if I want to it's all about me, you know, but whatever is convenient about me.

But that our main goal is surveying the wondrous cross to glorify and enjoy him forever. That's true knowledge. Some use their knowledge their little bit of knowledge to fight for their rights. The best use it to pour contempt on all their pride.

They relinquish their rights. For the weaker brother. Are you fighting? For your rights. Yes, we have knowledge. We we know we have the right to eat or to drink anything. We know that an idol is nothing.

We know that we can have a can of beer or a glass of wine. We know we can watch an R-rated movie. If we if we want to we can go to a party where the keg will be flowing where some will be binging. Where the smoke in the air isn't all from tobacco where newly met couples may be going off to bedrooms.

But we think oh, we know we can go To a party like that and hopefully be above it all we know we are free and if and if some Christian looks at us like we're backslidden for Living like that for thinking like that.

Well, it's because they're ignorant. They don't have the knowledge that we have and they're legalistic. We know better. Those are the temples of self-indulgence that we might be invited to here today.

Are we free to go? Maybe. It is possible some could go right into parties like that maintain a Christian witness not give into temptation and do so with the winsome Joyful loving attitude that attracts people.

It's also possible. They could like going into environments like that encourage some other weaker Christian who starts out thinking that he's afraid to drink he won't be enticed by anything and. And he soon finds that he's enslaved having another drink or into some.

Some immorality who finds himself enticed into that drawn into that. He's a weaker brother who was destroyed by our freedom and verses 11 and 12. Paul says that by so doing by but by just thinking about ourself mind free, so I'm gonna do it.

I don't care about you that by living like that. We are hurting the brother or sister for whom Christ died that fact. That the Lord Jesus suffered beatings and lashings and punches and scourging with whips and nails.

Pierce through hands and feet and finally worst of all and an alienation from God the Father himself on the cross. We cried out my God my God. Why have you forsaken me the fact that he bore all that to purchase this other person?

So often we hear all that and we think all that for me, but we need to understand he did that also for others that fact. It's supposed to make us value that other person. Value him or her more than we would though the right to accept the invitation to the party.

More than the thick juicy pork chop or the glass of wine or there are rated movie more than any of the little treats. We might be left to ourselves free to take value them. More than our rights. Are you fighting for your rights?

It's not good enough to eat or drink. Just because we can. And it doesn't impress God if we abstain from any food or drink. What is supposed to determine whether we eat or drink or watch this is not our rights or our legalism.

But our concern for someone else some other christian. Especially another church member another the part of the body that we're in. He wants you to live as if you cared about more than just yourself. You're cared about other members of the body, especially the weaker brothers.

You see here finally in first corinthians chapter 8 what we saw in remember in act chapter 2 act chapters 4 and 5. Where they dedicated themselves to the to the fellowship? To the sharing. To meeting each other's needs to giving up their own excesses.

Even if they had a right to them and in essence if I had a right to their property but of the way that but. To give them up for the needs of others. Do you see finally? Here in first corinthians chapter 8 the idea of the church.

What paul is saying here is that the church not a not a building not. Not a religious rituals not even sermons as important as that they are but the church the the people the members. They're supposed to matter to you.

They're supposed to matter to you more than my rights. Do you see that? Do you see that finally the christian life isn't just about you? And what makes you happy? Here first corinthians 8, you know in first in the time.

He wrote first corinthians. There's only one church at corinth. Understand that all everyone had to be a part of that one body. They couldn't skip out go. They don't like it here. They're gonna you know, they don't like the church of paul.

They'll go to the church of apollos or the church of peter. Whatever suits their needs. When they began to even think about forming little cliques and clubs in the church divided by preferences. Paul scolded them for that remember was paul crucified for you.

He said no, of course not they were they were here. They were stuck together. Now, of course we have the option. We have the option to choose and if we're consumers of religion. At heart. That's what's driving us.

Our rights what making me happy i'm going to consume a church like I go to a restaurant. If we don't get what paul is getting at here if we have a spirituality, it's basically like the beastie boys. Okay, we're fighting for our right to party for what makes us happy.

Well if that's our attitude We'll ignore the church. We'll ignore the people. We'll skip off to other another option that caters to us. And if someone reminds us Of the others of the church of the people that we have pledged to walk together in christian love.

Relinquishing Rights for the Reward

We'll say as good consumers I have rights. Do you fight for your rights? Or do you relinquish them for their weaker brothers? In chapter 9 the corinthians were fighting for their right. To get everything that's coming to them.

I want everything that's coming to me is their attitude. And they couldn't comprehend why anybody like paul Would intentionally lay down their rights. What mistakes does that make? I got rights for a reason.

There must be something wrong with him. Maybe he's too weak. He's a he's a wimp that paul is. Maybe he doesn't have knowledge like we do. Or maybe he's not really an apostle after all. Today we would assume the same wouldn't we?

You know some guy who willingly lets himself get deprived of something. That is his by right. Like his salary. Like a wife like flying first class staying in a five-star hotel driving a rolls royce. Whoever could have that.

And doesn't grab it doesn't hold on tight. There's something wrong With him, isn't there? He's supposed to fight for his rights. Isn't that the american way? But paul says he will relinquish his rights for a greater reward in those first 14 verses of chapter 9.

He says that he too has a right to eat and drink to have a. He has a right to a believing wife. And finally and this takes up most of the first half of the chapter. He has a right to remuneration. He has a right to he's a right to money.

Right, he should get paid. He's a right to get paid for his preaching and his ministering to them. Here paul gives it four basic reasons why he has a right to be paid first. It's just taken for granted.

Isn't it that soldiers and farmers get compensated? Right soldiers are quoted in the service. We call it they deserve at least. Like food and clothing and shelter from the nation that they're they're serving.

No one gets an army and says you gotta. You gotta feed yourself. No, we we we take care of them. Farmers get to feed themselves from the crops and the animals that they're attending, right? If they're growing a crop they get to eat some of it.

If if that's true for earthly things then surely that's also true for spiritual things. Second. He says it's just it's a scriptural principle. He quotes deuteronomy chapter 25 verse 4. You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.

And so because god is more concerned with with men than with animals. Then the principle also applies to men working in the church. You don't stop them from eating. You provide for them in verse 10 third the old testament.

In the old testament those working in the temple had a right To the some of the meat that was sacrificed. That's how they got their food. It's from the sacrifices. And finally fourth. It is a command of the lord jesus himself.

That's kind of the tops it all off because you're not convinced by any other argument the lord says he commands. That those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. Not much room for debate there.

Is there? They shouldn't have to have another job on the side to make the ends meet. They have a right to pay. So paul here insists that he has an absolute right to remuneration to get paid. It's not a privilege.

It's not a gift. It's an inalienable right to get money for his ministry to be provided for. But he will not fight for that, right? He will lay it down. If someone is going to scoff. You know, they're going to say ah those Christians.

They're just in it for the money those ministers. Anyway, at least the whole church thing. It's just a racket to get a cushy job, you know, no heavy lifting required. Well, that's the way they're going to think.

Then he'll give up the right. He won't take any money and it's not from them. He was taking money from macedonia. He won't take it from them. Their need to hear is more important than his rights and that The corinthians didn't understand.

You're supposed to fight for your rights, aren't you? And so they began to question maybe he's not really an apostle after all. Why is he why is he working in the day? And Why is he not a big shot in a wagon with the servants attending to his every need?

So they begin, you know, what's going on with this guy? How can he really be such a powerful person? And let himself just get taken advantage of. Like that like he is. After all the strong don't let themselves get hurt by the weak.

Do that. Ah now we see why Paul began this this letter chapter one. To determine to focus on jesus christ crucified. But they still didn't get it and so often neither do we he says. It's for the reward.

He's giving up his rights for the reward in verse 18. He believes that if he if he takes money for his preaching it will be an obstacle for some. People will hold it some will hold it against them. They'll think he's just another professional speaker.

He's just in it for the for the cash, but by refusing to take what is his right pay. He will show the skeptics that he preaches because he has seen the lord. It's just he's he's seen him and he can now not not preach the gospel because of what he's experienced.

That he is compelled to preach. They're like jeremiah. He has a he's a fire in his bones and he cannot keep it in. Because he knows the truth of what he says. So even if he gets nothing for it, no one pays him a dime.

He's still going to preach it. What is his reward. You know why work hard? Every day fabricating tents. When he has every right to demand money for his ministry. What's his reward? The reward is of having the gospel go out with no obstacle most easily accepted.

No opportunity to be scoffed at oh, he's just in it for the cash that Is its own reward? Do you fight for your rights? Or you look for the reward? Of helping the gospel go out. The apostle paul insists in chapter 9 verse 19 that he has all the rights.

He has those rights that they've been fighting for even though I am free from all he says I am free. Yet he's relinquished all his rights. I've made myself a servant of all. That I might win the more.

You know, there are missionaries. They're good ones and evangelists who at their best have every right. To be earning a nice living in suburban america to be driving in luxury cars. And watching their hd tvs and content with a comforting religion, but instead they will relinquish Those rights to win people.

To be used by god in the salvation of people. What can you? Give up. You may have the right to keep more of your money instead of giving it. To give it to the church or to many other ministries. But you relinquish those rights so that you might be a part of this great mission of winning more.

Some of you may feel more Churchy are more comfortable. You have a right you think to meet in a more traditional Church environment, you know old-fashioned instead of in a gym where the air conditioning is barely keeping us.

You know comfortable. Instead of meeting in a gym we could meet in the old country church. Do you have a right to that a traditional old-fashioned church with pews and straight lines? So that you can settle into your pew in the back row if you're a good baptist.

But you accommodate yourself. Accommodate yourself to this. To sitting in a gym. With barely adequate air conditioning because you know that the gym can help win more. Right, we can use this gym to win more than we can use.

A bunch of pews in an all rectangular building here in verse 12 is that great motto of all true missionaries and in all christians you understand that the church and that our lives are not first about Ourselves our comfort our consuming our religion for ourselves not about fighting for our rights, but it's first about god.

Paul’s Right to Remuneration and His Refusal to Use It

That we be reverent when reaching up. And then for others that we be relevant. When reaching out that we remove as many obstacles as we can. The motto is here. In verse 22. I have become all things to all people.

That I might by all means. Save some. To the chinese he became chinese took his shoes off at the door and ate with chopsticks to the young he became young. Sang contemporary music wore shorts straight talk whatever to the black.

He became black concerned about their concerns sensitive to their perceptions of how they've struggled. They've been suppressed. You know this church we boldly declare that we are an interracial church put that out there.

And we have probably lost some visitors because of that and accounting like this. But if we think that's all there is to it, you know, just just kind of being open to all kinds of people. Opening the doors letting anyone in that's just that's that's naive.

That's just the beginning. It's great if we're not at all racist. But being interracial in one body is about more than just being open to all kinds of people. It's about understanding them. It's about sympathizing with them.

What they what they've been through what their life is what their life has been like what they've experienced accommodating to them. To their culture notice. He says in verse he says in verse 22. I have become.

I'll just say he doesn't say I am open to all people. He said I've become like them. I've in other words He has willing to lay aside his rights. He his comfort what what's convenient for him? To accommodate others.

To win them he changed for them. So we too lay aside our rights maybe sometimes in dress or whatever is most comfortable to us to only talk about we lay outside our rights to only talk about things or We're used to talking about or are to only be around people who who like us.

Or or around people who are like us. Instead we strain to overcome every alienating difference Between ourselves and other people to remove every obstacle about ourselves that keeps them. From hearing the gospel notice.

It isn't just so that They will like us. It's so that We will win some of them. So that they will be saved and be transformed along with us. To be more like christ. We will liquish our rights so we can win Others.

So they can get the reward. We get an award a prize. Here for them a wreath like a garland put on the head. We're being used by god for the salvation of others. The prize is so much greater than our rights.

That he shows us he shows us in verses 24 to 27 that it's worth the greatest discipline. To get that in that last paragraph. He compares our lives to a race. To win this race to gain that prize that wreath.

We have to be intentional to run with the purpose intent on intent on winning. It's not a casual job. It's an intense sprint. Straining for the finish line with with every muscle. Is it in us compelled to give our all?

We're not aimless into verse 26. Like a boxer just boxing the air and we have a goal. We see the target. We see what we want to be a follower of jesus to be useful for the kingdom of god. And to by all means save some and nothing else matters not even our rights.

You know athletes are free. To sleep late and to skip workouts. And to put in half-hearted efforts at least for a while. But not if they want to do their best not if they want to win. What their rights are.

Doesn't even enter their minds. Like they're just driven by by their goal. They want to win that that reward athletes buffet their bodies. Straining and weight lifting or in wind sprints or in long runs or in drills over and over again controlling what they eat.

They they buffet their bodies. Today christians think they can buffet their bodies. That since they are free. They're free to indulge in whatever they crave. That it's all about our rights. That we don't have to deny ourselves a thing.

We don't have to sacrifice a dime or a date or a dessert or a drink. That's the that's the consumer religion today. But here paul says That if that's our attitude. That's the way we think. And We're going to be disqualified.

My senior year in college. We ran a track meet at emory university in atlanta and one of our sprinters fault started. He jumped the gun. And according to ncaa rules, he was disqualified immediately. No second chance.

And so ejected from the track. He came up to where the team was. He's angry. He's complaining throws down his stuff and says what idiot made up that rule? Apparently he didn't know that our coach. Had formerly been the chairman of the ncaa track and field rules committee.

And so the coach calmly replied I did. So to the churchgoer. Who thinks it's all about? You know church is all about singing his favorite songs hearing a pep talk being Catered to the consumer religion who thinks it's all about him.

Uh what he wants without a thought of others in the body. Not considering them all the other of the other people. Who has as much concern for other people in the church as as a customer at a buffet as of other customers.

You know, it's all about all right. Our attitude is it's all about our rights. You know, when are you going to refill the banana pudding? When are you going to sing my favorite song? When are you going to stop rebuking me preacher?

After all I I paid for this buffet I put money in the offering. I have a right to banana pudding. I have a right to be catered to to be flattered to have a church. That's all about me such a person a consumer of religion.