2000220a - 1Corinthians 8.1-13 - Radical Spirituality, the Mark of Faith
Opening
First Corinthians addresses the subject of true spirituality.
Big debate about whether or not it was all right for a Christian to eat certain types of meat. Very Polytheistic (God of love, war, travel..)
Pagan temples - often offering was meat; birthday/etc..sacrifice 1/3 entrails/parts; eat 1/3; priests’ cut (paid in); took in a lot more than needed, so sold, discount/best plc (meat man).. are you supporting them?
Violate conscience>sin. (Romans 14.5-6) some saved out of pagan cult.
In our society, eating meat sacrificed to idols is no longer an issue. But the principles Paul teaches in this passage are as relevant as ever.
TV Show ID object: Not seen from normal perspective; microscopic. There are several conclusions you could reach after reading this passage…
1. It’s about food. (surface level, irrelevant issue)
Did anybody struggle with that this week?
2. It’s about freedom. (takes issue into our day but doesn’t hit root)
One thing: not everyone agrees what’s right and wrong.
Imagine a big blackboard: things Christians do/don’t. Minds..
Aldrich: Lifestyle Evangelism; LasVegas/Christmas tree.
We have different ways of showing reverence, living uniquely..
3. It’s about spirituality. (What are the marks of faith…)
College religion professor .. deep things of God and mean in office.. bad day lasted semesters..
Radical
• not
• not..
it’s determined by your attitude in your attitude in the process. Simply put, Paul teaches that true spirituality is defined not only by how good you are, but how good you are to others.
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Marks??
True Spirituality is Evidenced by Love (don’t say it yet)
If you want to become spiritual, there are a number of things you ought to master in your personal life.
• For example, we need to be committed to the goal of spirituality. We need to be able to say, "I’m not going to let the world, or sin, or money, or enemies, or friends or family stand in the way of my becoming close to God."
• We also need to be disciplined. We need to be able to govern ourselves and force ourselves at times to do what we don’t necessarily feel like doing, and, at times, not do what we really feel most like doing. It takes discipline.
• Also, we need to be consistent. We need to make a regular habit of prayer, Bible study, worship, and service to God. These things can’t be done in a half-hearted "when I feel like it" fashion--they must be done consistently.
• We also need to be teachable. We need to become students of the Word, and learn what the Bible says about God, about holiness, about forgiveness, about marriage, about child-rearing, about career ambition, and about all the other areas of our life. We need to know the truth in order to live the truth.
But, as important as these habits are, they are not really the key to spirituality. It’s not enough to accumulate knowledge, or be disciplined, or be committed. There is something much more important than any of these. Can you guess what it is? You have got to develop a heart of love.
• (v. 1) Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. condescending
Knowledge puffs .. love builds (wax on about this!)
• (v. 2-3) The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves is known by God.
A few hundred words later Paul writes more about the subject in what has become known as the "Love Chapter." In that chapter he says…
• (13:2-3) If I have faith that can move mountains but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is the primary component of the Christian life. You’ve heard the saying, "People don’t care how much you know, they want to know how much you care." The same can be said about God. His primary concern for your spiritual growth is not how much you know, but how much you love. When you stand before the throne on judgment day, he won’t say, "Wow! You really knew the Greek. HC! Or…Boy! You could argue the authorship of Isaiah with the best of them. Or…Wow! You sat in the same pew every Sunday for 57 years." Those aren’t the things God is looking for. He wants you to develop a heart full of love towards others and towards him. True spirituality isn’t measured merely by how good you are, but by how good you are to others.
True Spirituality is Evidenced by Empathy
What is empathy? According to the dictionary it is: "The capacity to identify with a person .." In other words, it is the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes--to see things from his or her point-of-view.
In discussing the matter of eating food that has been sacrificed to idols, remember that Paul has already stated that it is not a sin. Then he goes on to say…
(v. 9) Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. Legalist? DIFF blkbd items?
A man who had been a Christian for several years told a pastor that his favorite form of relaxation was smoking pot. "Do you see a contradiction between scripture and smoking marijuana?" He said, "No. In fact, scripture allows it." "How in the world..?" He said, "Genesis 1:29. God says, ’I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food."
Now the pastor had him: "It says ’for food’. You smoke marijuana; you don’t eat it." He said, "You haven’t tasted my brownies."
This guy was way off base. You can pull any verse out of context and use it to justify practically anything; I do not agree with his conclusion. But even if he were right, Paul’s words in verse 9 would apply to him: "Don’t use your freedom to cause someone else to stumble." You’ve got to look at everything you do in light of how it affects everyone else. The same can be said for any number of other things. It’s not about how many "questionable" activities you can get away with, it’s about being able to recognize the impact your actions have on others.
True spirituality is evidenced by empathy--being able to see the world from another’s point-of-view. It’s not merely a question of how good you are, it’s a question of how good you are to others.
Paul tells us that if we want to be spiritual, we have got to learn to empathize. We will give thought to how our actions affect those around us. We’ll learn to see the world through the eyes of others. Being spiritual is not just about how good you are, it’s about how good you are to others.
True Spirituality is Evidenced by Sacrifice
This is the hardest part:
(v. 13) .. if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall. Give up filet mignon..
In the book of Romans:
It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that will cause your brother to fall. (Romans 14:21)
This is saying, "When someone else’s spiritual health is at stake, you are willing to sacrifice your freedom for their benefit." (doesn’t play well, but biblical)
In that culture eating food sacrificed to idols was an issue. In our culture it isn’t. But there are other "freedoms" that we should approach with caution, in order not to cause any of our weaker brothers and sisters in Christ to stumble. What "freedoms"? …
But honestly we ought to be saying, "Does that mean I let other people control my life? What if someone tells me that when I play golf it causes them to stumble? Am I supposed to give up golf? Or what if they say that they think it is wrong for me to consume caffeine? Am I supposed to give up coffee?"
We need to make a distinction here. Paul is talking about sacrificing for a weaker seeker/fellow Christian. If anything causes a weaker, younger, spiritually immature believer to question the validity of his or her faith, we should be willing to sacrifice in order to prevent that person from stumbling.
On the other hand, there are some people who may disapprove of something you do, and it doesn’t cause them to question the validity of their faith, it causes them to question the validity of your faith—and they want to judge you because you …
Ex: May find smoking offensive, but not a “weaker brother” unless you are so weak that you will follow the example of one who lights up.
Ex: 1828 Malaysian slave brought dark-skinned husband to Dutch Reformed Church which officially taught no discrimination for communion. Some whites were “offended” to share Lord’s Supper with him. Leaders knew better but used 1Cor8.13 to exclude him, starting Apartheid in SA.
These people are what my grandmother called busy-bodies, and you can ignore them.
You may be convinced that certain things are okay and do not conflict with the Christian life. In fact, there are a number of things that we make issues out of that the Bible never mentions at all. You may be absolutely right when you insist that we are free to do them. But you know… that’s not the point. The point is that true spirituality is marked by a willingness to sacrifice so-called freedoms for the sake of a sister or brother.
On the other side of the coin, if you take a great deal of pride in all the worldly things you don’t do and the religious things you do, don’t make the mistake of thinking your asceticism makes you spiritual. If you don’t smoke, drink, … that doesn’t mean that you are spiritual. If you never miss church, tithe.. doesn’t mean.. Spirituality isn’t about surface-level behavior. It’s more than just how good you are, it’s how good you are to others.
So, if anything you do causes someone to stumble in their faith, it’s best not to do it all. It is best to sacrifice a so-called freedom for their spiritual good. Someone said: “Love is a safer guide than knowledge.” We create community when we restrict our freedom for the sake of others. The Christian life is not a private matter. There are things I don’t do that I could do; places I don’t go that I could go within my freedom in Christ. I could say I don’t care what others think, but I do care.
Conclusion
You would think a sermon on Radical Spirituality would focus on disciplines like prayer, Bible study, fasting, worship, and so on. I believe in spiritual disciplines. They are all essential to living the Christian life-- So don’t make the mistake of thinking that the Bible says "If you’re nice to people then you’re spiritual." No, no, no, no, no.
It goes much deeper than that. We all know, in living the Christian life, we strive to become good, we strive to become holy, we strive to become like Jesus. But being like Jesus involves much more than praying and reading your Bible and turning off your TV at the right time. It involves letting God’s presence in your life bring out the best in you--and it shows in your relationships.
If you want to be like Jesus, it’s not merely a question of how good you are, but how good you are to others.
