Is It OK for a Christian to ___________? [Sermon on 1 Cor 8]

Is it ok for a Christian to __________?

Well, what do you mean by is it ok?  Is it sin? Well as we get into 1 Corinthians 8 today, let’s notice that you can be 100% right and also 100% wrong.  You can have the 100% correct theology on a topic but be sinning by applying that theology without love and you can have a 100% wrong theology about something and abstain from it because your conscience tells you to abstain from that thing and you are doing well by following your conscience BUT although abstaining from that thing might not be a sin, you could be sinning by the way that it makes you proud and self-righteous, like you are the Lord and everyone needs to follow your LAW, which is NOT THE CASE.  

So what am I saying here? Are you damned if you do and damned if you don’t? Well no, there’s a third option.  I think I’m saying, if you ask “Is It OK for a Christian to ________?” Then you’re asking the wrong question.  Isn’t that just such a Holy Spirit kind of answer? You ask a question looking for a yes or a no, maybe some nuance to the yes or no, and the answer from the Lord is: “You’re asking the wrong question.”  The question should be much more like: How Can I Love My Neighbor?

Today I want to offend everyone right where you are, hit you right in the “Is it ok for a Christian to ______?” to help you press in closer to Jesus… who has a LOVE that is so far above and beyond what we can muster that we just can’t ever get there but it should be our lifelong goal to sacrifice our own ambitions and desires and abilities to release our own control and take on His Love, His Righteousness to be clothed in what only He can do, to be Like Him in this strange mysterious Holy Spirit Way, that’s not us, it is getting ourselves to the end of us and bowing down so we can show a glimpse of Jesus to the World.

The concept of a gray area: 

After speaking for 3 chapters on sex and being very black and white about it: fornication is sex outside of heterosexual covenant marriage and sex inside marriage is designed by God to be Holy.  You can’t get much more black and white than this.  So a gray area or non-essential issues are something that is neither sin or holiness in and of itself.

And, it’s good for you to know what is essential and what is a gray area or non-essential because we must never treat what is non-essential as essential and we must never treat what is essential as non-essential.

So some essentials: 

1. Who is God?

2. The Trinity

3. The Deity of Christ

4. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

5. The Atonement

6. Salvation by Grace Through Faith

7. Love your neighbor as yourself

If you don’t believe in certain things then you are not saved.  They are ESSENTIAL. And we use the words essential non-essential carefully here, we’re not saying that non-essential things aren’t important because important is a human word with a human meaning that means important to people.  People get all revved up about the non-essentials so they are very important to deal with carefully and to deal with well, but NEVER raise them up to the status of Essential because they are not essential.  We can agree to disagree… and actually disagree and still have unity.

Non-Essentials

Some people raise non-essentials to the level of essentials.  “Oh you smoke, you’re goin’ to hell.  That’s where all the smoke is ya know.”  

Then theres people that take essentials and lower them to non-essentials and say, “yeah, it doesn’t matter if you believe in the trinity or the Resurrection or that it is by Grace that you have been saved through Faith.  You’re still saved.”  well no… when they do that they are stripping the Gospel of… the Gospel.  When you do that there’s nothing to believe in.  The Rapture of the church a non-essential.  Not everybody believes in a pre-tribulation rapture can you love them anyway? Can you fellowship with people that are wrong? Because I promise you that you are wrong about something and it’s going to be awfully lonely in the church of one where everyone has to believe every non-essential exactly like you believe and it will be only you, and very likely NOT you and Jesus.  These things are non-essential but they are important.

So, in chapter 8 Paul turns to gray areas/non-essentials and the one in particular that was plaguing the Corinthian church was eating meat that had been offered to idols.  Some thought it was wrong and sinful and others thought it was fine.  Eating meat offered to idols is not a thing really at all in our day but back then in Corinth it was what was done with most of the meat so it was a big deal.  People in Corinth thought that the way you would get a demon was by eating food that had a demon.  So they thought the way to get rid of it was to offer meat to a god like Jupiter or Zeus and the god would be so pleased that they would protect them from that demon and eating the god-offered meat would then cleanse them of the demon.  So this is the backdrop of where the Corinthians were coming from and when they became believers it was a real and important question to them of whether they should still eat this meat that had been offered to idols like they used to and they were raising this issue from a non-essential to an essential.  So, they asked Paul this question in a letter and it made me think, well, we don’t have this specific problem that they had but we have lots of problems like this.  So I did sort of a reverse google search to look at what would auto-complete if I typed in “Is it ok for a Christian to …” and here’s the top 20 things that Google thought I might be asking about based on millions of searches of people out in the world.

Is it ok for Christians to ____________________?

1. Get tattoos?

2. Get pierced?

3. Wear jewelry?

4. Wear makeup?

5. See R-rated movies?

6. Drink alcohol?

7. Be cremated?

8. Dress up in costume?

9. Celebrate halloween?

10. Buy a lottery ticket?

11. Take birth control?

12. Kiss before marriage?

13. To Do Yoga?

14. Smoke Marijuana?

15. Play games of chance?

16. Do Legal Drugs?

17. Use Social Media?

18. Work on Saturday?

19. Own Nice/Expensive Things?

20. Play video games?

Now you might have strong feelings about some of these.  You might have strong feelings about all of these, your conscience might give you an answer immediately that you should not be doing them or you could have strong feelings that those things are fine and would definitely not be sin for you.  BUT DON’T RAISE THEM UP TO THE LEVEL OF ESSENTIAL  They can be important and still be non-essential.  

A Side Note About The Internet:

if you are unsure about the sinfulness or righteousness of a gray area, is googling or using AI the right way to find the answer? No, the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, Valued Christian friends that are further along in their walk than you, these are the right way.  What the internet says could be one data point for you, it could be a starting point but if you are serious about knowing what actions or desires in you are sinning against the Creator of the Universe and what actions you can do with all holiness and give that activity to the Lord then you can’t just ask Siri or Alexa or Chat-GPT.  Holiness is too important for that.  Search the scriptures, pray for insight, and seek out the Holy Spirit and those who you trust for the insight they have.  We might touch on some of these specific topics today but I should probably get into the actual text of chapter 8 so:

So, Paul turns to a new topic that is perhaps specific to their time and place, the eating of meat that has been sacrificed to idols but can be very instructive for us when we look at other gray areas in the Christian Faith.

Food Sacrificed to Idols NLT

8 Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. 

I just can’t read this any other way than sarcastic.  But it is also such a deep truth.  KNOWLEDGE DOES MAKE US FEEL IMPORTANT!!! And we fall into the trap of thinking that it is knowledge, theology, good hermeneutics, good teaching, good bible study and memorization that will strengthen the church but it turns out no!  It’s love.  This is coming from the guy who teaches the Bible Study Methods Course.  That is not what strengthens the church.  It’s Love that strengthens the church!  As most of you know I’m a math and physics teacher for my day job so I think sometimes in terms of mathematics and I made a graph after discussing this with Pastor Brandon that shows this point so if you’ll allow my nerdiness for a moment.

You see in this chart, what I think often happens, not always, but VERY often is we start out very high up on the LOVE axis, we love God and we love others and we’re just so thankful for God saving us, and we just want to share that love with everyone, but we don’t really know anything about the bible or about God and we find ourselves googling Is it ok for a Christian to ___________? Because we really have no idea what we should not do, but we really love God so we want to do rightly by Him.  But then as we “progress” in our Christian walk we study the bible and we sit under bible teaching and we listen to podcasts and read books and we gain knowledge about God, but that Love Fire that we once had grows cold, we start to get judgy and critical and quite honestly unloving.  And it’s at this point that we google things like “Is it ok for a Christian to _______?” because we want ammunition for rebuking someone and verses to quote about why we know with our great knowledge that they are sinning.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  I would say instead of both groups googling this question what we should all be saying is How can I love my neighbor?  Jesus said there are only two commandments, love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

2 Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. 3 But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.

If you are considering a tattoo of a Bible Verse and you determine that it isn’t sinful for you to get one then I would suggest 1 Corinthians 8:2 “Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much.”

It is not the person who claims to know all the answers who God knows, it's the person who loves God that God recognizes.  This reminds me of Jesus saying well done good and faithful servant and listing the servants acts of love, not what they knew of theology.  But the one that thought they knew God, He says depart from me you workers of iniquity for I never knew you.  John Calvin said it well that “knowledge is not commendable unless it has been dipped in God’s Love.”

It turns out it’s not what you know, it’s who you know, and actually it’s who knows you.  It says, “the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.” 

4 So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. 5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. 6 But for us,

There is one God, the Father,
    by whom all things were created,
    and for whom we live.
And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ,
    through whom all things were created,
    and through whom we live.

So, here is the correct theology, when someone offers meat to a false god [an idol], it’s not real, they are just having a barbecue.  When we thank OUR Lord for the meat and ask Him to Bless it, that is real.  There is such a vastly infinite difference between the meaning of lowercase g god and uppercase G God.

Lydia and I read the Psalms together in the morning and it’s really been a wonderful addition to our marriage.  Here’s one we read a couple weeks ago.

Psalms 135: 15-18

15The idols of the nations are merely things of silver and gold,

shaped by human hands.

16They have mouths but cannot speak,

and eyes but cannot see.

17They have ears but cannot hear,

and mouths but cannot breathe.

18And those who make idols are just like them,

as are all who trust in them.

The idols that this meat has been offered to are just objects made by men, men who were made by God.  Even if the idol is signifying a demon, guess what: that angel before it fell was MADE by God the Father.  

Isaiah the Prophet pointed out the absurdity of false Gods

44:13Then the wood-carver measures a block of wood
    and draws a pattern on it.
He works with chisel and plane
    and carves it into a human figure.
He gives it human beauty
    and puts it in a little shrine.

14 

He cuts down cedars;
    he selects the cypress and the oak;
he plants the pine in the forest
    to be nourished by the rain.

15 Then he uses part of the wood to make a fire.

    With it he warms himself and bakes his bread.
Then—yes, it’s true—he takes the rest of it
    and makes himself a god to worship!
He makes an idol
    and bows down in front of it!

16 He burns part of the tree to roast his meat

    and to keep himself warm.
    He says, “Ah, that fire feels good.”

17 Then he takes what’s left

    and makes his god: a carved idol!
He falls down in front of it,
    worshiping and praying to it.
“Rescue me!” he says.
    “You are my god!”

18 Such stupidity and ignorance!

    Their eyes are closed, and they cannot see.
    Their minds are shut, and they cannot think.

19 The person who made the idol never stops to reflect,

    “Why, it’s just a block of wood!
I burned half of it for heat
    and used it to bake my bread and roast my meat.
How can the rest of it be a god?
    Should I bow down to worship a piece of wood?”

20 The poor, deluded fool feeds on ashes.

    He trusts something that can’t help him at all.
Yet he cannot bring himself to ask,
    “Is this idol that I’m holding in my hand a lie?”

The people doing this are not really worshiping an actual God but a created thing.  There is only one God and Creator and He is the One who created EVERYTHING and One Lord that is Jesus Christ, so… in a sense Paul is saying here is the 100% right theology.  It is ok for a Christian to eat meat offered to an idol… and the people on the one side of the argument are like YES!  Take That!  Yeah! And they are dancing around high fiving.  However… oh no, there’s a however…

7 However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. 8 It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do.

I look at this as sort of how Paul feels the debate should go.  First there was the 100% correct theology side.  There is only one God so those idols aren’t real, so it doesn’t matter if we just eat the meat.  

But, the rebuttal is, but not everyone knows this, so imagine what people will think if they think they are worshiping that god through eating the meat.   I mean, if it doesn’t matter whether we eat it or not then why don’t we just not?

9 But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. 

Now this is Love which goes way beyond being correct in your theology.  

10 For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? 11 So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer[b] for whom Christ died will be destroyed. 12 And when you sin against other believers[c] by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. 

Wow, that escalated quickly.  Love is so important that it trumps being correct.  The real question is not is it ok for a Christian to eat meat offered to idols, it’s how can I love my neighbor, and it is SO important to love your neighbor that Paul says if you encourage a weak believer to eat the meat and violate their conscience then that believer, whom Christ died for will be destroyed, you are sinning against them and sinning against Christ!  The Law of Love is So important.  Paul finishes this section with what he might do himself in this situation:

13 So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.

 So he gave the correct theological framework but concludes that if me doing a thing that is ok for me to do causes a brother to stumble then I will just not ever do it as long as I live… that’s love.

 It is easy for a Christian to say, “I answer to God and God alone” and to ignore his brother or sister. It is true we will answer to God and God alone, but we will answer to God for how we have treated our brother or sister.

A final note about this: “Lest I make my brother stumble:” At the same time, the issue is making a brother stumble – and stumble over an issue that has direct relevance to the brother in question. Paul would never allow this principle to be a way for a legalist to make demands and bind a Christian walking in liberty.

In Galatians 2, Paul describes a situation where Peter made Gentiles think they had to come under Jewish customs and laws to be saved. Peter did this through his association and approval of some legalists. Paul rebuked Peter strongly because of this. Even if the legalists from a Jewish background had said to the Gentiles, “Your lack of obedience to our customs stumbles us. We are stumbled brothers. You must do what we want,” Paul would have replied, “You are not stumbled, because you aren’t being tempted to sin through their actions. Your legalism is being offended. Out of love, I will never act in a way that might tempt you to sin, but I don’t care at all about offending your legalism. In fact, I’m happy to do it!”

So, gray areas are what they are.  They are gray areas.  They are places for grace on one another, not for legalism.  I can make a great argument that tattoos are ok for Christians, but wouldn’t that argument be easy if the tattoo was deliberately designed for witnessing Christ to people?  A conversation starter? A commemoration of the verse that means the most to you?  If you are getting the tattoo in order to love people that’s really different.  If  you are playing games of chance with your children to keep them off of screens and get them interacting with the world around them and with their family in a friendly but competitive way, learning strategy and how to think clearly and carefully, you are playing those games of chance out of love.  If you are buying a bunch of lottery tickets and flaunting them in front of your Christian brother begging them to join you in the gambling, who had a gambling addiction, that’s messed up[replace that with alcohol or legal drugs or anything else addictive].  That’s more than messed up, it’s a horrible sin against your brother and against the Lord.  It’s the motives, the heart that God sees, not just the action.  The legalist sees the action, the weak believer sees the action, let’s strengthen one another in the Word of God but so much more so, let’s build the church with Love for one another.  After all, they will know we are Christians by our love.

So go ahead and ask your brothers and sisters “is it ok for a Christian to ______________? Ask that question of the bible and of the Holy Spirit and of your Elders” But ask yourself “how can I love my neighbor?” Because in the end you will be judged not on your theology but on how you loved…

Prayer

Father, we need your Holy Spirit.  There are alot of gray areas and we want to Love you like when we first met you first and foremost, not ever losing our first love, but we want to also show our love to you by studying your word and getting to know you more and more… so help us not to slide down into an unloving attitude toward others but show us the unity that you can bring us to, discussing your word and lifting one another up.  We don’t ever want to be a stumbling block but we also don’t want to be an enabler of legalism so we need your Holy Spirit to give us discernment that can only come from you, not the internet, not the AI, but you, who gives us every good gift and has a plan for our lives.  Help us Lord, for your Love to increase in us.  Amen.