Problems Plaguing a Local Church, Part 16
In our message, LOOKING TO BUILD OTHERS UP (1 Cor. 8:1-13), we left the subject of marriage and continued to look at a new question asked of the Apostle Paul by the local church in Corinth: “Now concerning…” (1 Cor. 8:1; see also 1 Cor. 7:1, 25, etc.) “things offered to idols” (1 Cor. 8:1a).
Specifically, believers were asking, “Can Christians eat meats that may have been offered to idols sold in the agora/marketplace of that day?” (1 Cor. 8:1, 4).
In that time, everyone went to the open market downtown or street markets in other parts of the city to buy food and supplies- much like we go to a grocery store in our day. In Corinth, sacrificial animals were offered to various pagan gods and goddesses in temples daily (1 Cor. 8:5). Only a token portion went to the so-called deity and was burned up on those altars. The temple priests of these cults, their attendants and their families ate some of the meat, but frequently could not consume all that the worshippers brought. Consequently, they sold what remained to the meat market and operators in the agora (marketplace). There, the general public purchased it much like we would buy items from Safeway or Walmart today. The meat was very desirable and popular because usually the best was offered to these false gods. And butcherers oftentimes did not label this food in order to make a sale and avoid unnecessary work. So, the believers in Corinth who had been saved out of idolatry by grace through faith in Jesus (i.e. 1 Thes. 1:9) were asking, “Would it be right to eat meat that might have been offered to Aphrodite or some other false god!?!?” What do you say Paul? We, likewise, in our time have similar issues today dealing with Christian liberty. Is it appropriate for a believer to go into a bar, a casino, be on TickToc, etc., etc.?
Some, to justify their freedom in Christ, cited a slogan from their day, “We know that we all have knowledge” (1 Cor. 8:1). Paul agrees with them here on the marketplace question, but cautioned them to exercise such “knowledge” in “love” (1 Cor. 8:1b). Knowledge without love “puffs up” (that is, it is prideful) and actually sets the person who thinks he is strong up for falling (1 Cor. 8:1b; Prov.16:18). In this way, we see the so-called ‘strong’ brothers can actually be weak as was the case with some of the Corinthians here who were right intellectually on the issue of eating food in the marketplace but went too far when they erroneously returned to false temples and their ‘gods’! (1 Cor. 8:10; 10:18-21, etc.).
True knowledge is exercised in God’s holy love (1 Cor. 13). It is found in fearing the Lord which ‘builds up’ others in Christ’s love and glorifies God (1 Cor. 8:1b; James 1:21-22; Prov. 1:7, etc.). True knowledge is God’s Word applied (= wisdom 2 Pet. 3:17-18). Since God’s love is holy, we need to also be careful we do not define ‘love’ as the culture does by condoning the things that God hates (Rom. 12:9; 1 Cor. 13:6, etc.). Furthermore, only God knows all things and only God has full knowledge (1 Cor. 8:2). And the Bible says here for us to know God deeply… intimately, we need to walk with Him doing what He says (1 Cor. 8:3; Eph. 5:18; John 14:21; 1 John 1:9, etc.).
Paul agrees with the brothers here advocating Christian freedom in the agora or marketplace of that day because indeed, “an idol is nothing in the world, and there is no other God but one” (1 Cor. 8:4). His answer is, “YES, you are free to buy and eat such meat in the marketplace,” because all the many “so-called gods… and… lords” of this world could never compare to the incorruptibility or beauty of one true God who made all things!!! (1 Cor. 8:5-6; 1 Tim. 4:4-5, etc.). We are, in this case, neither better off or worse off by eating (1 Cor. 8:8). But he cautions the brothers who know this to be careful to not exercise their freedom of eating marketplace in front of a weak brother who is still struggling with this issue (1 Cor. 8:7). That could result in him or her plunging into sin (worshipping this false ‘god’ in this case), and ‘perishing’ even physically through such sin because all sin destroys (1 Cor. 8:7, 11). By reason of being long accustomed to idols in their past life, some brothers were weak here and we should be sensitive to that (1 Cor. 8:7, 11; 10:13; Rom. 14:23). In the same way, if we have a brother or sister struggling with an idol today- some weakness in his or her life, we should try to help them not to fall in that way by exercising our freedom in Christ an appropriate and loving manner (1 Cor. 8:12). Paul explains, in this case of food in the marketplace of that day, he would not even eat meat from there again out of love to keep that brother from falling (1 Cor. 8:13). We should do the same, but it is important to also point out we do this only for the purpose of helping our brother or sister mature (grow in Christ). We do not ‘pamper’ them but seek to build them up in love (1 Cor. 8:1) never condoning sin or we can also become weak (Gal. 6:1-5; 1 Cor. 10:12-14, etc.).
Addendum: It is also important to note there are still some places that are unhelpful for a Christian to go and some things we should run from (1 Cor. 6:12, 18; 10:14, etc.). And the Holy Spirit writing through Paul does not dismiss the idea of idols altogether (1 Cor. 10:14). Idols do exist in the minds of those who yield to them- apart from confession of sin for God’s child (1 Cor. 6:12; 10:20; Rom. 6:12; 1 John 1:9, etc.), and Jesus Himself referred to Satan as “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 1 John 2:15-16, etc.). Eating in the marketplace was one thing, but eating in an idol’s temple Christians were to abstain from! (1 Cor. 8:10; 10:20-21, etc.). We will see as we continue this discussion in future chapters that some of these brothers exercising knowledge went too far and stumbled themselves! (2 Pet. 3:17-18, etc.). And they did this by returning to the practice of attending cultic meals in the idol temples as they flaunted their supposed ‘freedom’ in Christ (1 Cor. 8:10; 10:20-21, etc.). Grace (our freedom in Christ) is not a license to sin (Rom. 6:1, 12-16, etc.), and to stay free in Christ in a present-day sense, we need to do what His Word says (John 14:21; Gal. 5:1; Eph. 5:18; 1 John 1:9, etc.).