Bible Study - 1 Corinthians Chapter 8
Bible Study - 1 Corinthians Chapter 8
| 1 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. |
Here Paul changed subjects to another question in the letter from the Corinthian church. They had asked if it was okay to eat meat from animals that had been sacrificed to pagan idols. Because Corinth was a major crossroads for land and ship based shipping and trade, religions from all over the world established temples there. The meat from the animals sacrificed would end up in the markets for sale. While it wasn't all or even a majority of the meat for sale, it was common enough to be an issue. Paul addressed this more thoroughly in chapter 10. In trying to unscramble the eggs that is the mess of Corinthian misunderstanding, Paul must also counter the gnostic heresy of Corinth and Greek culture. Gnosis is the Greek word for knowledge. In gnostic belief knowledge is wrongly believed to be the path to salvation. This is still a problem today, although it isn't usually labeled as gnosticism. Knowledge puffs up, that is makes arrogant. This is not a condemnation of all knowledge. The knowledge Paul talks about in verse 4 is clearly good for us to know. After all, the Holy Spirit has given us scripture so that we can have knowledge about God and the path to salvation and reconciliation with Him. And scripture tells us that God's creation is a way to know Him. Thus, by learning about creation we learn about God. Contrary to the false narrative of atheists and anti-Christians, Christianity was the motivation for scientific learning, not its opponent. Prior to Christianity all natural phenomena were attributed to "the gods" and "spirits" taking action. The scientific method itself came from a Christian worldview. All of the Ivy League schools except Cornell were established by Christians to be research colleges. The very concept of colleges and universities came from the Christian desire to learn about God's creation. While they have been transformed into anti-Christian propaganda machines today, they would not exist if not for the Christian worldview. That knowledge puffs up is not necessarily about formal education. It is about how arrogance keeps a person from actually learning. Whether a person dropped out of grade school or checked the boxes to earn a PhD, they can be arrogant about what they "know". And that arrogance prevents them from learning anything new, so they never learn where they are wrong. Arrogance keeps people stupid. You can see this by the millions of videos showing college students and professors saying the dumbest, anti-scientific things with total arrogance even though they have nothing to base them on but their own arrogance. The Dunning-Kruger Effect is about this phenomenon. The gnostic virtue of knowledge making one self-sufficient is the opposite of Christian knowledge that brings love and seeks God, and is concerned about one's neighbors. |
| 2 If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; | No matter how much we know, we know nothing compared to God. And much, if not most, of what we know is wrong. An objective person working on the human genome project sees that it is the product of genius among geniuses, and that there must have been a designer who is God. An arrogant person who "knows" there can't be a God because they don't want Him to exist tells themselves it is a proof of atheism as it shows, (in their self-deluded mind,) it can happen without Him. |
| 3 but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him. | Loving God results in seeking Him and learning about Him. The amazing part is we are known by Him. This is an idiom that means more than just knowledge. As God is omniscient, he knows everyone in a purely knowledge sense. What being known by God in this context means is we belong to Him. We are part of His family, adopted in and co-heirs with Jesus. |
| 4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. | In other words, that meat that was sacrificed to idols means nothing because the idols aren't real. There is only one God. Anything else is a fake. |
| 5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, | This is a little awkwardly worded. But what Paul was saying is that these so-called "gods" only exist in the minds of those who believe in them. To those who have been mislead into false beliefs, they are real. And Paul acknowledged there are a lot of them out there, particularly in Corinth. |
| 6 yet for us there is but 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. |
Whereas, we know the truth. There is only one God. Everything that exists apart from Him is from Him. And the purpose of our existence is Him. And the only Lord is Jesus, who is God and created all things. Our existence is because of Him. And our salvation is because of what He did. That Paul refers to the Father under one God and Jesus under one Lord does not mean that Jesus isn't God. That would mean Paul was contradicting his writing elsewhere, which he is not. He worded it this way in parallel and opposition to the many gods and many lords of the pagans in verse 5. |
| 7 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. | The knowledge that not all men have is that idols are non-existent. And some who used to believe in idols before, but now know and follow Jesus were still stuck in their previous attitudes and views. So when they would eat the meat they know was sacrificed to an idol, even though they know in their mind that it is nothing, a part of them still feels it is wrong to eat this meat. Paul is absolutely and completely clear that this is nonsense and untrue. To feel this way is to be a weak Christian who is not grounded in the truth. They were letting their feelings get in the way of their faith. They had not yet yet learned from Jeremiah 17:9 that their heart is a liar. So they feel guilty despite not having done anything wrong. People are still like this today as they grew up in the mainstream culture which is pagan. And thus they have all sorts of weird and wrong ideas of what it means to be a Christian. It doesn't help that some denominations make false doctrines based on these cultural lies, such as most Baptists teaching that dancing is a sin. |
| 8 But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. | It doesn't matter what we eat or don't eat when it comes to spiritual matters. It has no effect. What we eat has an effect on our physical bodies, (although even that is not as much as the pagan culture claims.) But there is no spiritual impact. |
| 9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. |
The rest of the chapter is among the most misused passages in the Bible. People who are in the wrong falsely use this to try to force Christians who are in the right to conform to their false beliefs. That is the false doctrine of the lowest common denominator. It is wrong and sinful. In Romans 14 Paul commands us not to do this. That being said, we should take care not to make things difficult for the person whose faith is weak. This is absolutely not saying don't ever do something. Paul is totally clear we are free to do so. It is saying that new converts take time to shake off their old attitudes and hangups. And we should act with mercy towards them while they are weak and inexperienced new Christians. However, this is not an excuse for weak Christians to stay weak. They need to grow up and get their minds right. And it is absolutely wrong to pander to these perpetual babies. For them it would be right and the Christian thing to deliberately eat this meat in front of them to provoke them out of their deliberate ignorance. This was Jesus approach to those who were religious but not following scripture. |
| 10 For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? |
We who are strong and knowledgeable Christians know that we are free to eat the meat. If someone who is a weak new Christian sees us doing something they still feel is wrong, then they will feel they can do this thing against their own conscience. However, this does not mean we can't ever do anything someone else disapproves of. The example Paul gave was dining in an idol's temple. All the meat served in these temples was sacrificed to that idol, leaving no doubt where it came from. Strong and mature Christians know that idols don't exist and that it doesn't matter that the meat was sacrificed to non-existent idol. But this could make things harder for a weak Christian. However, some of the sacrificed meat was also sold in the market. And in chapter 10 Paul clearly said when buying meat in the market just don't ask where it came from. And when eating in another's house don't ask if it was sacrificed to idols. Dining in an idol's temple is not the same as eating the meat outside the temple. Because this passage is so misused there are a few points that should be made clear. First, what some person thinks is wrong is not the standard we live by. Scripture is. The judgement of the foolish or Pharisee is not the standard for Christian behavior. Second, Paul was not talking about busybodies disapproving of things that scripture approves of. This is entirely about weak, immature Christians who are genuinely seeking Christ but haven't shaken off the baggage of their wrong views of what is right and wrong. This is absolutely not a license to remain a weak and immature Christian. Nor does this mean strong and mature Christians should allow them to remain weak and immature. We are commanded to educate and build up the newbies so they become strong and mature. When people are in error we are directed by Paul and Christ to educate them in the truth. Third, we don't have temples that sacrifice animals to an idol and a restaurant where you can eat the meat. But there are some places that are like those temples were there is no doubt that what is in there is inappropriate for Christians. A perfect example is a strip club. There is no doubt that the intent of this place is to arouse lust by showing nudity, which is something Jesus said is sin in Matthew 5:28. (To be clear, nudity itself is not wrong as God commanded the great prophet Isaiah to go naked for three years. It is lust outside of marriage that is the problem, and why nudity is generally not a good idea outside of marriage.) There is no circumstance that going in there would be good, other than the a government officer required to go in while doing their duty. Fourth, both Paul and Christ were totally clear that people who try to add their own fake morality to the requirements for others are not Christians and are enemies of God. Jesus called them vipers and sons of Satan in public and to their face. Anyone who says we must never do something that scripture approves of because they think it's wrong is absolutely and completely wrong. They are being a Pharisee and an enemy of God. They will say things like, "That's not very Christian of you" when they clearly have no idea what a Christian is. For example, they will try to equate going to a restaurant where there is a bar as being the same thing as going to a strip club. They are wrong. There is nothing wrong with alcohol. In fact, Psalm 104 makes it clear that it is a gift from God to make our hearts glad, and Amos 9 says that drinking wine from one's own vineyard is a sign of God's blessing. Scripture instructs us not to get drunk. But the modern day Pharisee sins when they turn that into staying away from alcohol entirely. There is nothing wrong with going to a bar itself. Although I wouldn't take someone who struggles with alcoholism to one. Fifth, it is a sin for a Christian to accept the fake standard of the modern day Pharisee. It is saying that God's law is not enough, and God needs their help. God said to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. But the Pharisee in people says that's not enough and have to come up with more rules to make sure people don't violate that, like the maximum number of steps you can take on the Sabbath before you've sinned, or being around sinners is guilt by association. Accepting these false standards is wrong and a sin. Christians who accept Pharisaism are replacing God's word with the word of a person, and putting a human in the place of God. That is idolatry. |
| 11 For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. | This is the slippery slope problem. Because a weak and unknowledgeable Christian incorrectly thinks it's wrong, their conscience is hurt by us doing it in their presence. And by this they are more likely to do actual sinful things. This is something they should grow out of. If someone has been a Christian for over year and is still having a problem with this, then they are the problem. And strong and mature Christians should take deliberate action to correct them. |
| 12 And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. | The problem addressed is leading another into real sin. It is not that they do something they think is sin but isn't, but the consequences of going down that path. This also goes for those who try to put legalism on others. They ought to know better but still try to beat Christians over the head with their hangups. They need to grow up and get past these foolish things. When a weak Christian is still a weak Christian after years, I question whether they really are a Christian at all. And the actions of one trying to put legalism on others are actions of a wolf in sheep's clothing rather than a Christian. |
| 13 Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. | If this verse was meant literally, then Paul would not have written chapter 10. Never eat meat would just be the end of it. Clearly this is hyperbole trying to make a point for those Christians who were flaunting their freedom in Christ directly in the face of new Christians who weren't yet mature enough. |
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation.