1 Corinthians 8 - 9:18

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
Series: 1 Corinthians (Acts)

Rusty's Notes

Review:

• We have moved on from marriage, sex and circumcision to a new topic today!
• Paul turns to issues of food sacrificed to idols in 1 Corinthians 8.
• It looks, in chapter 9, as if he has moved on to yet another topic (money for ministry) but comes full circle in chapter 10 back to the issue of food sacrificed to idols in a way that makes it clear that chapters 8–10 are meant to be taken as a unit.
• What ties them all together is the theme of not allowing Christian freedom to become a license to sin, or to potentially lead another fellow believer into sin or even to acting against his or her conscience.[1]
  
  

FOOD OFFERED TO IDOLS
1 CORINTHIANS 8
1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

• “We all have knowledge” is another Corinthian slogan of that time period.
• Similar to “All things are permissible but not all things are profitable.”
• Secular slogans that Paul uses as logic in Christian lifestyle.
• Difference between “knowledge” and “wisdom”.
• What are we hearing during election week?
• Knowledge (facts)… and proving that they don’t mean anything.
• “We just need a little more love… that leads to grace.”
• Paul is saying… BREATHE!
• Proverbs 21:1 - A king’s heart is like channeled water in the Lord’s hand:

He directs it wherever he chooses.[2]

• The king has authority… but God has ultimate authority.

2 If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it.

• Know it all… hard to listen to.
• They may know it all but have no wisdom in sharing their knowledge.
• Rusty, you do this every week…
• But, I will listen to you as well.

3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by him.

• God takes the initiative in human interactions.
• For God so loved the world…

4 About eating food sacrificed to idols, then, we know that “an idol is nothing in the world,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth—as there are many “gods” and many “lords”--6 yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from him, and we exist for him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through him, and we exist through him.

• Why take meat sacrificed to idols and make it such an issue?
• Probably because some of the poorest believers only ate meat on any regular basis on the two or three or four days every month that were Roman or Greek holidays and festivals in which the temple to Aphrodite in Corinth offered free food to the populace as long as it lasted; and poor and rich alike could come, but always in the context of some religious devotion or worship.
• Was the meat somehow inherently tainted?
• Paul is going to argue not and that Christians have full freedom to participate, but he recognizes the disagreements among them and so he will also stress that “If I have a clean conscience, a clear conscience to eat, but my Christian brother or sister doesn’t, then I should refrain.”[3]

7 However, not everyone has this knowledge. Some have been so used to idolatry up until now that when they eat food sacrificed to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not bring us close to God. We are not worse off if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat.

• Some have wondered if Paul is contradicting the apostolic decree of Acts 15 here, where, with Peter and James, they agreed that for the sake of Jewish ministry, as Paul traveled, believers would—even Jewish believers—would refrain from sexual immorality, blood, the meat of strangled animals, and food sacrificed to idols.
• I don’t think it’s a contradiction, because that was a decree sent off to a group of churches, much closer to Jerusalem in contemporary Southeastern Turkey and Syria, and it was a voluntary approach for the sake of Jewish evangelism not to put unnecessary stumbling blocks in front of the gospel.
• Here, the context is entirely different.
• Is it okay for poor Christians who don’t get to eat meat very often to eat meat at these special holidays, even though it has been dedicated to a pagan idol? And Paul says, “Yes, it is.”[4]

 
9 But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, won’t his weak conscience be encouraged to eat food offered to idols? 11 So the weak person, the brother or sister for whom Christ died, is ruined, by your knowledge. 12 Now when you sin like this against brothers and sisters and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food causes my brother or sister to fall, I will never again eat meat, so that I won’t cause my brother or sister to fall.

• Brother or sister… you know them well.
• One of the biggest issues in our society and in this community is the consumption of alcohol.
• We are free to drink… I will have a drink on occasion.
• I do not have a problem with people drinking alcohol.
• Jesus did turn water into wine.
• But I have to measure the room/situation.
• I have an impact on the room… as do you.
• Alcoholism is typically a private issue because it causes others to see you as weak.
• Just as identity issues or any other sin does.
• You don’t know all the alcohol issues in this room… neither do I… But I know a lot of them.
• Some of them have sought help, some have discussed and some are just obvious.
• But believe it or not… what I do impacts those around me.
• I rarely get invited to alcohol socials. Why?
• Because some people are considerate enough to not put me in awkward situation.
• Other just want the freedom to drink without the freedom from a “suspected” judgment.
• Others don’t want me around because they might just go beyond what they can handle.
• I rarely drink because I am sensitive to the many people that I deal with that have this issue.
• This is all Paul is saying here… They are free to eat the meat… and so are you… but if it bothers you or you think your actions may lead to others stumbling… then don’t partake!
• Paul is still saying it is about “others”.
• Are you really participating “socially” if you are putting your own selfish desires first?

 
PAUL’S EXAMPLE AS AN APOSTLE
1 CORINTHIANS 9
1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2 If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, because you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

• What do I have to do to prove to you that I am a true apostle?
• The criteria for apostles to be selected was to be both an eyewitness of Jesus’ resurrection, but also one who then can witness, in the sense of proclaiming the gospel message to others.[5]
• Give Paul credit for starting the Gentile churches.

3 My defense to those who examine me is this: 4 Don’t we have the right to eat and drink? 5 Don’t we have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife like the other apostles, the Lord’s brothers, and Cephas? 6 Or do only Barnabas and I have no right to refrain from working?

• Paul now goes on to prove his personal ministry by asking a series of rhetorical questions.
• Shouldn’t Barnabas and I be taken care of?
• If we had wives with us, shouldn’t they be taken care of as well?
• Who does what we do for free?
• Can I not participate like other Greco/Roman teachers and leaders… to eat from their generosity?
• When it comes to benevolence… I cannot receive from Leavener funds without it being taxed as income.
• I am given a designated salary just like everyone else.
• Money given to Leavener goes into the Leavener account and can be dispersed to help others… but not my family.
• Trust me… we are well taken care of by God… through many of you.
• We receive gift cards or items… or car surprises… as I am sure that Paul and Barnabas did as well.
• But at Leavener… we still have not asked for a dime.

7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not drink the milk from the flock? 8 Am I saying this from a human perspective? Doesn’t the law also say the same thing? 9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain., Is God really concerned about oxen? 10 Isn’t he really saying it for our sake? Yes, this is written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes should thresh in hope of sharing the crop.

• Don’t over burden the oxen so that it cannot do its work.
• There are provisions made for those who are laboring.
• This is not my personal issue… this is Paul’s at the time.
• It seems as if he is still having to establish his credibility and trust.
• He might have to because he is not actually present with them and doesn’t know how they are interpreting his teachings on difficult personal topics.

11 If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you? 12 If others have this right to receive benefits from you, don’t we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right;

• Paul has earned the right for such benefits but refused to take them (at least from Corinthians) for the sake of the Gospel being considered cheap or a business.
• He continued to make tents and earn his living.

instead, we endure everything so that we will not hinder the gospel of Christ.

• Asking for money, demanding money for ministry, can lead to all kinds of abuses.
• Paul wants to avoid every hint of these scandals.
• He wants to avoid every chance, in a culture rife with the practice of patronage, of anybody giving money to him thinking that that entitled them to give it with strings attached and dictate where Paul had to go, what he had to do, what he could preach about, what he could not say.[6]

13 Don’t you know that those who perform the temple services eat the food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the offerings of the altar? 14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should earn their living by the gospel.

• Paul once again declares the right for those who share the Gospel with others can also earn their living this way.
• Although Paul refused to do this from the Corinthians.

15 For my part I have used none of these rights, nor have I written these things that they may be applied in my case. For it would be better for me to die than for anyone to deprive me of my boast! 16 For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am compelled to preach—and woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this willingly, I have a reward, but if unwillingly, I am entrusted with a commission. 18 What then is my reward? To preach the gospel and offer it free of charge and not make full use of my rights in the gospel.[7]

• Paul will interestingly accept money and be grateful for it when he writes the letter to the Philippians, who have sent him a generous gift while he is in prison, probably a Roman prison in around the year 60–62.
• So it’s clear that what he is saying here to the Corinthians is not an absolute relinquishing of a willingness to receive financial and material support, but it is his consistent policy thus far with respect to the Corinthians.[8]
• “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel.”
• I can’t imagine a world where I would not talk about the Good News of Jesus Christ… whether I got paid/supported or not.

To speak of grace, love and mercy in a world and time that so definitely needs it.

[1] Blomberg, C. L. (2017). NT334 Book Study: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Pr 21). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Blomberg, C. L. (2017). NT334 Book Study: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[4] Blomberg, C. L. (2017). NT334 Book Study: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[5] Blomberg, C. L. (2017). NT334 Book Study: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[6] Blomberg, C. L. (2017). NT334 Book Study: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[7] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (1 Co 8:1–9:18). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[8] Blomberg, C. L. (2017). NT334 Book Study: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.