Sunday Sermon: Marriage, Singleness, and Food (1 Corinthians 7:25-8:13)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. I still wanted to, in our schedule,

I should be on chapter 8 today and I still want to try to get there. So I think we can still get to chapter 8 and get through verses 1 -13.

We'll see as time permits. But I don't want to rush through the portions of 1

Corinthians 7 that we've not yet completed. So let's come back to chapter 7, 1

Corinthians 7. I'm going to start in verse 25 and we'll read through verse 40.

Once again this week I'm out of the legacy standard Bible and if you forgot why last week

I'll remind you here in a moment. So starting in verse 25. Now concerning virgins,

I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy.

I think then that this is good because of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is.

Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife?

Do not seek a wife. But if you marry, you have not sinned, and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned.

Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you. But this

I say, brothers, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none, and those who cry as though they did not cry, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who buy as though they did not possess.

And those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it, for the form of this world is passing away.

But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the

Lord, and how he may please the Lord. But one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, and how he may please his wife, and his interests have been divided.

The woman who is unmarried and the virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be both holy in body and spirit.

But one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

Now this I say for your own benefit, not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote propriety and undistracted devotion to the

Lord. But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she is past her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin, let her marry.

But he who stands firm in his heart, being under no compulsion, but has authority over his own will, and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well.

So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

A wife is bound as long as her husband lives, but if her husband has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the

Lord. But in my opinion, she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I also have the

Spirit of God. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we have been continuing to read about marriage and singleness, and these principles that Paul issues here, some by matter of opinion and some according to the order of the

Word of God, I pray that we would be given your Spirit to be able to discern these things and know the counsel that is being given here and how it applies to us at the present.

Ultimately, we understand that in whatever condition we are in, we are to give glory to Christ.

In our marriages, let us honor our spouse with respect toward one another and glory to Christ.

And for those who are single, that we live in our singleness with thanksgiving, again in all things giving glory to Christ our

Savior. And it's in His name that we pray, amen. So, I want to emphasize once again something that you probably noticed here from about through verse 30 to 31, verse 31.

So when we start in verse 25 where Paul says, now concerning virgins

I have no command of the Lord. And again, as I mentioned last week, this term virgins is in reference to somebody who has never been married.

Never have had sexual relations, never has been married. And this could apply to either men or women.

We see this back and forth that goes throughout 1 Corinthians 7 where Paul talks about men and he talks about women.

Here with regards to virgins, Paul is talking about either a man or a woman who has never been married before.

Now, last week I spent a pretty good chunk of time on verses 15 through about 24.

The two examples that Paul gives there. And through those examples, the example of circumcision and then the example of slavery.

The purpose of those two examples, just to summarize for you once again very quickly, the purpose of those examples is to understand that we're not enslaved to the commandments of men.

But what matters, Paul says in that section, is keeping the commandments of God. So pay attention to the context of these instructions that are given.

Recognize where Paul gives his opinion and he'll outright say, I just, I offer my opinion here. This is not an exhortation.

This is not a commandment that you are obligated to follow. But as someone who is wise in the

Lord, I give wisdom. That's essentially what Paul is saying there. So he says something as a matter of wisdom or as a matter of opinion.

Pay attention to that in context. And then also recognize where an explicit instruction is being given.

Whether it's from Christ himself, because sometimes Paul will say, I give you this instruction, not

I, but the Lord. So he is saying something that has come from Christ. Or where he might say, not the

Lord, but I. If you look in that first section, there's a reference where he says that. And though Christ did not say it in his earthly ministry, it is an instruction that comes from an apostle.

So it carries just as much weight as if Christ had said it himself, because he sent his apostles to continue to proclaim the word of Christ.

So once again, just pay attention to the context to recognize whether we're talking about a matter of wisdom or whether we're talking about an instruction that we all must follow.

Now as Matt said last week, he's not in here today, so he can't defend himself, but is teaching a

Sunday school class. But he spoke up and he said, it really kind of seems thematically throughout chapter 7, it seems like Paul is advocating for singleness.

Like that seems to be his attitude. Just stay single. Now something I mentioned very briefly last week, but want to come back to again, is though Paul does kind of have that attitude here, and he gives the reason why.

We'll come to that here again in just a moment. Don't overlook other places where Paul has explicitly instructed marriage.

In 1 Timothy chapter 3, as I pointed out last week, verses 1 through 7, or even through verse 13, where you have the instructions for elders and deacons, an overseer of the church and a servant of the church.

They must be what? The husband of one wife, right?

Both the elder is to be a husband of one wife and the deacon, a husband of one wife. Now some have even taken that instruction so far as to say that a person must be married in order to qualify as an overseer of the church.

I don't know that we necessarily have to go that far, but you nonetheless see Paul saying that this person should be married to one wife, and he must manage his own household well on top of that.

If he doesn't manage his own household well, then how will he care for the household of God? Later on in 1

Timothy, in chapter 5 verse 14, Paul suggests that young widows get married, bear children, and keep house.

So he even instructs there that a young widow should go ahead and get remarried so that she will continue to bear children if she's still of childbearing age and be able to keep her house.

And in the context of that too, if you look at that in 1 Timothy 5, Paul wants to help to prevent these young women from becoming gossips and busybodies.

But if they keep themselves occupied with a household that they have to keep, well then that keeps them in their own business and out of the business of others.

There's also a section in 1 Timothy chapter 4 where Paul says that those who forbid marriage are teaching the teachings of demons.

So you have three consecutive chapters there. 1 Timothy 3, that an elder and a deacon should be the husband of one wife.

Chapter 4, those who forbid marriage are teaching the teachings of demons.

And then in chapter 5, that young widows would get married, bear children, and keep house. So you find there instructions on getting married.

Why then does Paul here in 1 Corinthians 7 seem to have this attitude of not getting married but stay single if you're single?

And really the best understanding of this is in this particular section, the opening section of this next half, which is in verses 25 to 31.

Now once again, he begins the section with now concerning, look at that, and that's always a transitional phrase in 1

Corinthians. Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion.

So once again, Paul is offering his opinion here, which is a matter of wisdom. I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the

Lord is trustworthy. Now let me stop there for a moment. Just kind of qualify this giving of an opinion a little bit.

Has anybody heard of the Billy Graham rule? Do you know what the Billy Graham rule is? Anybody heard of this before?

It was termed just a few years ago the Mike Pence rule. So it's been called by both names,

Billy Graham rule and the Mike Pence rule. Mike Pence made headlines several years back when he was vice president of the

U .S. when he said that he would not go out alone with a woman who was not his wife or his daughter.

That if he was ever going to be seen out in public with another woman or if he was even seen going into private with another woman, it was either going to be his wife or his daughter.

He would never be seen alone with another woman. This got referred to in the news, in the press as the

Mike Pence rule. And it was kind of a, you know, it was like the updated version of the

Billy Graham rule. Billy Graham imposed upon himself and anybody who was on his staff that they could not be alone with a woman who was not their wife.

Now Billy Graham's ministry was huge. Probably the largest ministry in the modern era that has ever been witnessed.

And yet Billy Graham's entire ministry was scandal free. And not anyone who even worked in his vicinity was accused of any kind of adulterous relationship that could have potentially tainted the work that Billy Graham was doing.

Billy Graham himself. Isn't that fascinating that he imposed this rule and kept his ministry pure by this rule?

Then Mike Pence said something similar just a few years ago and he became an object of ridicule in the press because of this.

And it was, the way that people came about this was like they were saying, oh, so women are just nothing but harlots,

I guess, and a man just absolutely cannot control himself and anytime he's alone with a woman, apparently some sort of scandal is supposed to take place.

No, that's not what was being said at all. You're reading way too much into the rule. The rule was not a command to follow as if by not following it, you have somehow sinned.

Are you sinning if two people of the opposite sex are alone together and they're not married to one another?

Is any sin taking place there? I sure hope not. But as a matter of wisdom, it's a good idea that two people of the opposite sex who are not married to one another, not be alone together.

That was something even that Becky and I tried to implement between the two of us when we were dating, that we would date in public places, that we would be around other people, that we would not be alone.

We had marriage in mind, but hey, the thoughts can get going, especially when you got marriage coming up, right?

We needed to protect ourselves, have good accountability around us. And so even when we were dating and even in our courtship, we tried to instill as a discipline that we would not be alone together, especially not at dark.

On Wednesday, I'm going through Song of Songs right now in the marriage class that I'm doing on Wednesday night.

And one of the things that you notice in Song of Songs is that this couple, as they are growing fond of one another before you get to the wedding day, about halfway through Song of Songs, all of their meeting up with one another is always in daylight.

It says that in the poem. It's always in daylight and it's always around other people. And that's not necessarily a command that if you go the other way that you're somehow sinning, but it's a good principle.

It's a good matter of wisdom. And so just as we talk about those things as wisdom issues, so Paul is issuing something here that's wisdom.

It's a matter of wisdom. He's not saying you have to stay single or you're doing something sinful because notice he says in verse 28, if you marry, you haven't sinned.

But he gives the reason why this is the advice that he is handing to the church in Corinth.

By the way, it's only here. It's only to the church in Corinth. We don't see this in any of his other letters.

So he has something in particular in mind when he says it's better to remain single.

Verse 26. I think that it is good because of the present distress. It is good for a man to remain as he is.

Now what is this present distress? I'll bring that up again here in a moment when Paul mentions it again.

Verse 27. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Don't try to get out of your marriage.

Like don't hear what Paul is saying here and going, oh, well, hey, to serve the Lord, apparently

I have to leave my spouse. So hey, I've found an out. I can get out of my marriage and now

I'm going to go be a missionary for the Lord. That's not what Paul is saying here. If you're bound, don't seek to be released.

Are you released? Don't seek to be bound. Every single thing that I do, even ministry decisions that I make,

I've got somebody that I have to confer with first. Who's that?

My wife. I got to ask her, hey, does this work? We've got to pray together.

And even if it's something that we think that we should do as a family, it's something that we believe we should be on the same page about, right?

When we two years ago moved from Kansas down here to Texas, that was a ministry move we wanted to make together.

I certainly did not want to do that if Becky decided, hey, I don't want to be that far away from my parents.

Okay, well, if that's the case, then maybe this is not time for us. So we had to be on the same page about those things.

Paul says those are worldly concerns, and indeed they are. They're godly considerations. Absolutely.

We want to be able to be near Becky's parents, want to be able to take care of them as they are aging. That's a great idea.

That's certainly a godly endeavor. But at the same time, it's a worldly consideration because it's something that's going on in this world that might prohibit doing ministry that I'd be able to do at the drop of a hat if I didn't have any of those worldly kind of connections.

You following me? So Paul wants to keep them from being prevented in those kinds of things.

If you feel it is the Lord's will for you to be pursuing ministry in this way, then don't be bound to something that's going to keep you from responding in ministry as quickly as the

Lord asks. If you marry, he says in verse 28, you have not sinned.

And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. That's in reference to a man. First of all, in verse 28, if you marry to the men, you have not sinned.

And then in the next part regarding women, if a virgin marries, she has not sinned, yet such will have trouble in this life.

And I am trying to spare you that. This is the next part, verse 29. But this

I say, brothers, the time has been shortened so that from now on, those who have wives should be as though they had none.

Now what does that mean? What is Paul in reference to there? So I kind of briefly touched on this last week, but some of what

Paul has in mind is a coming persecution. Remember we talked about that last week. And the example that was given to this is if a person is responding to the

Lord's call to ministry, and they're going out with the gospel of Christ in the midst of a

Roman culture at this particular time, was very hostile against Christianity. There were people being put to death.

We even saw in the story in Corinth, the leader of the synagogue beaten because he was letting the church use the synagogue for meeting, for fellowship and gathering.

So there was persecution even in Corinth. And as this persecution was going on in the world at that time, if a person is being told, hey, renounce

Christ or we're going to kill you, they'd probably respond like Paul, to live is

Christ, to die is gain. Go ahead and kill me, I'll get promoted. But if they said, you renounce

Christ or we're going to kill your family, then that might cause a little more pause.

I would want to believe that a Christian caught in that circumstance would still confess Christ no matter what, but it certainly would be a lot harder.

When now it's pain or affliction that's coming upon my wife and my kids. Are there certain places that missionary wouldn't go because they know that area is more hostile and it would be more of a threat to my wife and to my children.

So Paul is saying to be free from those kinds of things, to be free from that, it would be better for you to not marry and that way you're not bound to a spouse, bound to have to care for your family, which in obligation of the

Lord, you must do. First Timothy chapter five is where it says, if a person will not care for his family, even members of his own household, he is denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

So God doesn't want you to leave your family and then go out and do ministry. He wants you to make your family your primary ministry.

But then there's also a distress that's going on at this time that's even more particular than the persecution that's going on.

So you notice that Paul is talking about how these things are passing away.

These things are coming to a conclusion. You'll have trouble in this life.

I'm trying to spare you. This I say, brothers, the time has been shortened so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none.

What does he mean by the time has been shortened? There's something more specific that's going on here than just a general sense of persecution.

Now as I mentioned last week, I believe that the statement that is being made is something that is temporary.

This is not some sort of principle that Paul is laying down that's going to be universal for the church throughout time, like for 2000 years.

So as though today we're reading this going, well, yeah, the time has grown short for us too. So we must consider this, that, or the other.

He's talking about something in particular that's coming upon the church at that time. When I was putting together my notes for this,

I read from 19th century theologian Albert Barnes, and he suggested that the distress is something occasional or temporary.

He notes of Paul, he by no means meant that this should be a permanent arrangement in the church.

So what was the temporary stress that Paul had in mind here?

Well consider that when Jesus gave his Olivet Discourse, which we read about in Matthew 24, in Mark 13, in Luke 21,

Jesus is on the Mount of Olives. This is where the disciples ask him, what will be the signs of the end of this, of what's going to happen here?

Because Jesus had just talked about the destruction of the temple. He had just said that in their presence. Like what are going to be the signs of that?

And what will be the signs of your coming? And so Jesus answers that question in two parts.

If we had time, we'd go to Matthew 24 and divide all of that, but not necessary. Anyway, Jesus is warning them about the destruction that's going to come upon the temple.

And of course, he also talks about his second coming in there as well. The destruction of the temple happened when?

70 AD. How long was that after Jesus had this conversation with his disciples?

40 years. That's one generation. That's what we consider a generation is 40 years.

So from 30 to 70, 40 years, that period right there in between,

God was doing something in which he was phasing out the practice of the old covenant.

Now, the new covenant had already been inaugurated. Anybody who was in Christ was in that new covenant.

So yeah, the new covenant, it's already here. Paul, the Corinthians, anybody who is in Christ is already part of that new covenant.

But what's happening is God is taking away any ability to even practice the old covenant.

If the temple's not there, there's no way to practice the old covenant. And so these are the things that Paul is talking about here.

That the present time has grown short, and these things are passing away. He's not talking about end times.

He's talking about the destruction of the temple, which was just about 15 years away. Just 15 years from this instruction that he's giving to the church in Corinth.

That's not long. And of course, there was a huge, massive persecution that came upon the church when the temple was destructed, about three years prior, and then for a couple of centuries after that.

From the destruction of the temple until Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome in the fourth century.

That was the worst persecution that the church had ever experienced in its history. This is what

Paul is thinking about. That the present time is passing away, and then there's going to be great distress that's going to come upon the church after that.

And so he lays this down as a matter of wisdom. Not as something that's explicitly said, you have to do this.

This is not a command. But he says as a matter of wisdom. The time has been shortened, verse 29, so that from now on, those who have wives should be as though they had none.

And those who cry, as though they did not cry. And those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice.

And those who buy, as though they did not possess. And for those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it.

For the form of this world is passing away. What do all those things have in common there?

Where Paul is saying, as those who cry, as though they did not. For those who had a spouse, as though they had no spouse.

What does Paul mean there? You have to allow your devotion to the

Lord. Even though you may be married and have other worldly concerns, your devotion to the

Lord has to be paramount. You have to rule, help, better your devotion to the

Lord. Right. Yeah. If you didn't hear him, it's about devotion to Christ. Your devotion to Christ has to be above everything else and not ruled by any other devotions that you have in this world.

It comes back to the two illustrations that Paul gave in the middle part of this chapter. What matters is keeping the commandments of God.

We have Christ as forefront. And by the way, that's a theme that's throughout this letter, right? That's what we've seen so far.

Paul is continually drawing the Corinthians' attention back to Christ, that everything would be focused and centered on Christ.

In your marriage, honor Christ. In your singleness, honor Christ. When it comes to having a virgin daughter, whether or not she's going to get married, honor

Christ. And that's where we go next. So skip down here for the sake of time as we kind of wrap up these instructions again.

Verse 36, if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she is past her youth, and it must be so, let him do what he wishes.

He does not sin. Let her marry. Hmm. How many of you have the

English Standard Version? What does it say there instead of, if any man thinks he's acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter?

What does that verse read there instead? Not behaving properly toward his betrothed, right?

That's almost like completely different. We're talking about something totally different there. If any man thinks that he's acting unbecomingly toward his betrothed versus if any man thinks he's acting unbecomingly towards his virgin daughter.

Again, I'm reading from the Legacy Standard. The New American Standard will read this way as well. That's accurate.

That's how we say it. I think the King James also has that and the New King James. The reference is to virgin daughter, not a betrothed.

If you're talking about a betrothed, then the reference would be like between an expectant groom and his fiance, but that's not what

Paul has in mind here because where you get to the part where he says in verse 37 or verse 38 rather, so then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

If you read that in the ESV, maybe he gets married and maybe he keeps her his betrothed.

That doesn't make sense. Why would he keep her engaged and never get married to her?

That doesn't really make much sense there. For whatever reason, the English Standard translators went with betrothed here instead of recognizing that what's really in mind is a virgin daughter.

It's talking about a father who has a virgin daughter. Should he give her in marriage or should he keep her chaste, keep her pure?

Because hey, listening to these instructions from Paul, I want to keep my daughter from the present distress, so maybe

I shouldn't give her in marriage. That's what Paul has in mind here. Now, of course, this is very cultural.

This is difficult for us to comprehend in our present culture today, although I can tell you as a dad of three daughters,

I totally relate to it. If any man thinks he's acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she is past her youth, now that reference means that she's now of childbearing age.

In her youth, she was not of childbearing age, but now having grown and desires marriage and she can have children.

If it must be so, let him do what he wishes. He does not sin, let her marry.

If she desires to be married and he lets her get married, he hasn't done anything sinful. Verse 37, but he who stands firm in his heart, being under no compulsion, but has authority over his own will and has decided this in his own heart to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well.

He keeps her from getting married. He wants to save her from the present distress, so then he does well.

So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

We have the final instruction here in verse 39. The final piece of advice, a wife is bound as long as her husband lives, but if her husband has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes only in the

Lord. And again, that comes back that that's over every other piece of counsel that Paul has given in this particular chapter.

It is all in the Lord. It is all in Christ. In verse 40, but in my opinion, she is happier if she remains as she is.

And I think that I also have the Spirit of God. Paul is speaking out of the wisdom of the

Spirit of God, just like we might read Proverbs for the wisdom of God, though many of those Proverbs are not necessarily imperative.

They're not commands that are given, but it's good wisdom. So it is that comes from the Apostle Paul here, these matters of wisdom that he has shared.

Any questions as we conclude chapter 7 before we move on?

Any other questions on chapter 7? Y 'all, y 'all,

I can boast on you here, y 'all are the best class about this of every other class at First Baptist Church, because I've been hearing from the other teachers, man, we have gotten really chatty in chapter 7, and there's all kinds of questions that's popping up.

Y 'all are great. Either I've just explained that wonderfully, or you're ready to move on.

So it's one of those, one of those two. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 8 verses 1 through 13. Now this, even though I've only got about 20 minutes left, this is actually going to go pretty quick, because the things that are being talked about, the principles that are here in chapter 8, go through chapter 9 and 10.

And to really understand what Paul is saying here in chapter 8, you really have to have the whole view in mind.

So we're not going to get terribly far with the exposition of chapter 8 verses 1 through 13, and we need to keep in mind even what we have at the very end of it, at the close of chapter 10, to understand the principles that Paul is giving here with regard to food offered to idols.

That might be the subject that's above your chapter, or something about Christian liberty, or something like that.

This is the matter that Paul is addressing here. It's the issue that the

Corinthians have raised with Paul, and he's responding to the question that they have asked. So let me go ahead and read all the way through these 13 verses.

Once again, we have that transitional phrase right at the very beginning. Now concerning.

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols. We know that we all have knowledge.

Knowledge puffs up, but love does what?

Builds up. If anyone thinks that he has known anything, he is not yet known as he ought to know.

But if anyone loves God, he has been known by Him.

Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no

God but one. For even if there are so -called gods, whether 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 we exist for Him.

And one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

However, not all men have this knowledge. But some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

But food will not commend us to God. We neither lack if we do not eat, nor abound if we do eat.

But see to it that this authority of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be built up to eat things sacrificed to idols?

For through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake

Christ died. And in that way, by sinning against the brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, ever, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

Now what is going on here? We have this chapter divided up into three parts, verses 1 -3, probably recognized as its own section, kind of introducing the matter that Paul is going to be addressing for these three chapters, 8, 9, and 10.

Then in verses 4 -8, Paul mentions knowledge about idols, and then in verses 9 -13, he says not everybody has this knowledge.

But the statement that he makes here at the very beginning of chapter 8 is almost as if it would be like a title of this section as Paul addresses these things.

Not just this issue with food sacrificed to idols, but even Christian liberty altogether.

Those things we have the right to do as Christians, it's not a sin for us to do, but should we do it?

Is it the right thing that we should do in the Lord, especially when we have to consider one another in our obligation to care for each other in the body of Christ?

So once again, starting in chapter 8, concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge.

Everybody in here has knowledge of some kind. You all know something. You all know things that I don't know, and vice versa.

So we all have knowledge. But knowledge does what? What does it say in chapter 8, verse 1?

Knowledge puffs up. What does that mean? Knowledge puffs up. Yeah, it makes us arrogant, makes us prideful.

I know something that you don't know. Is it ever heard any of your kids do that?

Mom and dad tells, we can't tell our kids anything. Hey, you know about this, but don't tell your siblings.

I know something you don't know. So much for that secret, okay? So yeah, knowing something, knowledge just makes us puffed up.

It's not that knowledge is bad. Knowledge is good. But consider again where we just came from, what we just learned about in 1

Corinthians 7. How do we finish up? Verse 39. A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives.

If her husband has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the

Lord. All of these things in Christ. Whatever we do that is not in Christ is for ourselves, it puffs up.

Paul says in Romans 14, whatever is not done in faith is sin. And so whatever we do apart from Christ that just be for ourselves, it just puffs us up.

Knowledge, still a good thing to have knowledge. It's a good thing that everybody knows how to read.

But if that's not a gift, if that's not a skill or knowledge that you possess to the glory of God, you have an ability to read so that you may read the

Word of God and get to know Him better. Then you have this skill or this ability just to puff yourself up and not really to come to know

Christ or even share Christ with others. So knowledge puffs up.

Knowledge makes us arrogant. But love does what? Love builds up, right?

A continuing theme we see in 1 Corinthians here as well. Paul had said back from the very beginning in chapter 1, what was the first issue that he confronted in writing to these

Corinthians? You guys are divided. And you're puffing yourselves up by,

I follow Cephas and I follow Paul and I follow Apollos and I follow Christ.

So just puffing themselves up with whatever knowledge it was that they had. So Paul urges them toward humility and he urges them in wisdom.

Now what is the difference between knowledge and wisdom? We have this encouragement toward wisdom. What's the difference between the two?

There you go, that's a good way to put it. Knowledge is knowing what's right, doesn't necessarily mean doing it, but wisdom is doing what is right.

Wisdom is taking the knowledge that you have and putting it to work. And if we are in Christ, it is putting it to work in such a way that is honoring to the

Lord. So love, in love we are to build one another up.

And this knowledge that you have, may it be used for serving one another in the body of Christ.

We get deeper and deeper into that. We're getting closer and closer to 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, where heavy rebuke is issued against the

Corinthians because they've been prideful and they've not been kind to one another. They've been impatient toward each other.

And so that reminder that love is patient and love is kind, and it is not self -seeking.

These Corinthians are still kind of arrogant. They're still puffed up. If anyone thinks he has known anything, he's not yet known as he ought to know, as it says in the book of Proverbs, don't praise yourself, let another man praise you.

But these Corinthians are puffed up in their own knowledge. If anyone loves God, he has been known by him.

1 Corinthians 8, 3, if anyone loves God, he has been known by him.

In 1 John we read that we love God because he first loved us.

Same sort of thing. Same sort of statement that's being read between the two. Verse 4, therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols.

We have our introduction of the section there, and then Paul gets straight to the matter. Eating things that have been sacrificed to idols.

We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and there is no God but one. So what's the issue here?

What's going on in Corinth that is the specific thing that Paul is addressing? That's correct.

Right. The meat had been offered to idols. So when you went to like the butcher shop in Corinth, whatever meat was hanging there in the market had first been offered to a false god in the temple.

And even in some cases, the temples were the butcher shops. So you might go into a temple to sacrifice to one of these false gods.

They've got the meat there that's on the altar, and then whatever meat is not consumed there on the altar, there's a booth just right outside the temple right there.

We're going to sell the rest of the meat in market. But it was pretty well known, whatever was for sale in Corinth, unless you had raised your own meat and slaughtered your own animal, you're probably buying meat that had first been offered to a false god.

Now this isn't an unusual practice, even in the minds of Hebrews, because when the sacrifices were made in the tabernacle and later in the temple, those things that were not consumed on the altar, who ate it?

The priests did. The rest of it went to the priests. So this was a concept that was fully in the minds of even the

Hebrews who were familiar with their own law. There was some of that sacrifice, some of that offering that was given to God, and then the priest would even be able to partake in it and get some of it as well.

And so it was the case in the pagan temples in Corinth. In fact, some of the butchers and some of the persons at market selling the meat, they were the pagan priests from inside the temple.

They're like, hey, I can get a little extra money off of this meat. And so they're selling that stuff that they had previously sacrificed a portion of to a false god.

So the Jews in particular that were part of the church in Corinth, when they see this going on, they're like, no, no, no, that was sacrificed to a false god.

So if I eat that meat that had been sacrificed to an idol, now I'm a partaker in that.

And there were even some Gentiles in the church in Corinth who had previously come out of their idolatry.

And they see this going on, and they're like, I feel like I'm going right back to what

I was doing before. I'm participating once again in idol worship that I had been doing before. And his conscience is defiled.

So this is the matter that Paul is addressing. Concerning things sacrificed to idols, but what does he say about an idol?

We know, and it's as though he's speaking to those who are puffed up with their knowledge.

An idol's an empty thing, and it doesn't even matter. There's nothing to an idol. It's not even really a false god.

It's just a thing that's been made by man. So what difference does it make if I'm eating meat that's been sacrificed to it or not?

There's no real presence in that thing. So Paul, acknowledging that particular statement of knowledge that had been said in the church, he says, we know an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no god but one.

All of these are not other gods. There's only one God. I remember when I was a kid and I used to follow my dad around when he would do pulpit supply and he would speak in all the different churches that he would speak in.

I still vividly remember an illustration that he would do when he would talk about matters such as this, and he would talk about idols, and how silly and arrogant idol worship is.

But he also made a point to kind of, you know, tie into how easy it is for any of us to raise up idols, put something in the place of God and feel like we need to have that in order to feel satisfied or be complete.

But anyway, when he would be up there on the chancel, that's what you call this thing, a chancel.

It's not really a stage or a platform. But when he would be up there and he would be giving this illustration about idols, he would have the mic stand and he would pull the mic stand over here, and while he's talking he takes his jacket off and he just sets the jacket on the mic stand.

And then at some point in his talk he would just say, here's your idol, right here. He has his jacket posed on the mic stand.

He said, this is what an idol is. It's an empty suit. There's nothing in it.

There's nothing to it. It's a jacket on a rack. There is not really a

God in that thing. Certainly we can say it's something demonic. Satan is working through it in some form or another.

But there's no real power in that. It is made by the mind and craftsmanship of man.

An idol is nothing in the world. Paul acknowledges that. He says there's no

God but one. We worship the one true God. Verse 5, for even if there are so -called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, like in addition to the gods that the pagans worshipped there was also the

Lord of this and the Lord of that. Yet for us there is one God, the

Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him.

And one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

There's our God and our Lord, Father and Son, from whom are all things, through whom are all things.

And once again, the attention is being brought back to Christ. Worship and honor

Christ. But even in the mind of Christ, there must be consideration for one another just as Christ had consideration for us.

Continue on. Verse 7, however, not all men have this knowledge, but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrifice to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

Now, here's the thing with this. You know, when we read about Christian liberty issues in Romans chapter 14, it almost seems like the rebuke there is on the person who is weak -minded.

Because you have to grow up, you have to mature in the Lord, and you have to come to understand these principles, these things, that you still don't understand because you are immature in your faith.

Here in 1 Corinthians 8, that's not where Paul places the burden.

This is upon the prideful. The rebuke is upon those who think, hey, an idol is nothing,

I can eat whatever I want. Paul is not telling the weak, well, you've got to grow up so that your conscience won't be defiled.

Rather, the weight of the responsibility he puts upon those who are puffed up in their knowledge.

He doesn't call them mature, right? He doesn't refer to them as mature here because back in chapter 3, he says, no, you're all infants.

You're all behaving as those who are still of the flesh and not really of the spirit. So he's not calling the ones who are eating meat that have been sacrificed to an idol in the temple.

He's not saying they're more mature and so that's why they're able to do this. On the contrary, he rebukes them because they're not being considerate of those who are weak in their conscience.

Verse 8, but food will not commend us to God. We neither lack if we do not eat nor abound if we do eat.

So those who think I can eat and I'm fine with eating it, you're not any closer to God than those who are not eating because they think their conscience is defiled.

Food doesn't bring us closer to God. Not eating food, same thing, doesn't bring us any closer to the

Lord. Verse 9, but see to it that this authority of yours, I kind of wonder if there might be some sort of sarcastic tinge to that.

This authority of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak, but see to it that you consider others' needs ahead of your own.

It's another way of saying that. Verse 10, for if someone sees you who have knowledge dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be built up to eat things sacrificed to idols?

For through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined. The brother for whose sake Christ died, you've harmed his conscience.

You've not been considerate of your brother and now you've caused your brother to sin because you were boasting in your own knowledge.

And in that way, by sinning against the brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

If you have been so self -centered in this knowledge that you have, that you've not been considerate of your brothers and sisters of the

Lord, and it's because of your being puffed up that someone else has, in the weakness of their conscience, believed that they have sinned and now their conscience is defiled, you sin against your brother and against Christ.

We must come to understand, brothers and sisters in the Lord, yes, we are our brother and sister's keeper.

Remember when Abel was missing and God asked Cain, where's your brother?

What was Cain's reply? Am I my brother's keeper? Answer to that is, yes, you are.

And for us as brothers and sisters in the Lord, in the body of Christ, it is the same. Now as we go on with this, and we'll talk more about this when we get to chapters nine and ten, it's not as if we have to be mindful of absolutely everything that somebody could be offended about that we're doing.

That's not the point at all. But rather, Paul is calling them to humility. The point is, you're not considering anybody at all.

That's what Paul's confronting them with. You're puffed up in your knowledge. You're not even considering anybody else's conscience or liberty or any of that matter.

You're just doing what you want to do. And you're not even doing it to honor Christ. You're just, hey,

I can do this, so I'm doing it. We've seen that kind of attitude previously from the

Corinthians, even with the rebuke of sexual immorality in chapters five and six. Some of them were behaving that way because it's like, hey,

God's going to forgive me anyway. And so this is the attitude of mind that Paul is confronting.

Therefore, Paul says in verse 13, and he sets himself as an example. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble,

I'll never eat meat again ever so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

Consider as we close 1 Corinthians 11 1. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 11 1. This verse is actually not the beginning of chapter 11.

It's actually the conclusion of chapters 8, 9, and 10. Someone with a nice loud voice read 1

Corinthians 11 1 to us. Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.

There you go. Be imitators of me as I am of Christ. Paul is saying, imitate

Christ, essentially, is what he's saying. Be as Christ. Honor Christ.

Put the needs of others ahead of even yourself. That's the principle that's being laid down here in chapter eight, and we're going to see other ways in which

Paul will illustrate that as we come to chapters 9 and 10 in the coming weeks.

That's the conclusion of the lesson today. We would remember and honor Christ in all things and consider those needs of the others ahead of even our own.

Any other questions or comments as we bring this to a close? Remember Christ and Him crucified for our sins?

It is because of the sacrifice of Christ that we sacrifice for each other.

Let us pray and we'll be dismissed. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here today. Some interesting matters concerning something that was going on in a church 2 ,000 years ago in a particular city with particular circumstances.

Not really anything that we see going on around us today, but yet the principle still remains that we must be considerate of one another.

And even where we see a brother or sister in the Lord stumble and fall into sin, how can we help that brother or sister know what is right according to Christ?

For as we've read and as we've heard in chapter 7, what matters is keeping the commandments of God.

How do we help one another do that? Now keeping the commandments of God doesn't make us righteous.

We could do all the right things all our life long and we would still be unrighteous.

For as said in Isaiah 64, 6, even our best deeds are as filthy rags before a holy

God. We are able to do righteous things because Christ has made us righteous.

We've been clothed in His righteousness. And so teach us to know what is the right way that we should go for your glory and even for the benefit of one another.

Lead us in your truth as we live day by day, remembering the gospel of Christ in all that we do.