Food Offered To Idols Series

1. We Know That We All Have Knowledge (8:1-3).

2. We Know That an Idol Is Nothing (8:4-7).

3. We Know That Food Is Not an Issue with God (8:8-12).

I. We Know That We All Have Knowledge (8:1-3)

First, we know that we all have knowledge.

Paul began in verse 1a by saying: “Now concerning. . . .”

This is now the third time in his letter that Paul used that phrase. In fact, Paul used it a total of six times in his letter (7:1; 7:25; 8:1; 12:1; 16:1; and 16:12). Each time Paul used it to answer a question or an issue raised in the letter he had received from the Corinthians.

Paul now addressed the issue of food offered to idols. I mentioned earlier that this was not only a sacrifice of food, but it also involved eating the food (cf. 8:10). It was done in a “restaurant” at some pagan temple. People would gather for social as well as religious reasons.

Some Christians from pagan backgrounds were once again going back and eating at the pagan temple restaurants. But they now understood that meat was meat. They knew that the pagan gods were false gods. They knew that God was the only true God. And so they said, “We know that ‘all of us possess knowledge’” (8:1b).

That was their first reason for exercising their Christian liberty: we know that we all have knowledge. That statement was true but egotistical. They felt superior in their knowledge. They had an accurate understanding of food and false gods and the true God.

But they apparently had a serious deficiency. So Paul said in verse 1c: “This ‘knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up.” The Corinthian Christians had knowledge, but they did not have love. They were solid in doctrine, but they were weak in love. They did not understand the necessity of love, a love that builds up.

Knowledge of God’s Word is extremely important. It is impossible for Christians to grow and to obey God if they do not know God’s Word. God offered a sober word to his people Israel in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”

But knowledge, even of God’s Word, is not enough. As John MacArthur says, “It is essential but not sufficient.” Knowledge, by itself, puffs up, or as the New American Standard Bible puts it, “Knowledge makes arrogant.” To have love without knowledge is sad; but to have knowledge without love is equally bad.

A mature Christian will be mature in two areas: knowledge and love. He will be mature theologically and also relationally. He has a growing understanding of Bible doctrine, and at the same time, he has a growing ability to relate those doctrines to himself and to others. He knows that love is the medium through which biblical truth is communicated. Paul said in Ephesians 4:15, “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”