Title: Love, Liberty and Weak Brethren
Text: 1 Cor 8: 1-13
Date: December 18, 2014
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Next,
Thursday is Christmas Day. Every year I get the same questions. Knowing it
originated a pagan “holy day”, knowing Christ was not born on December 25, knowing
the idolatry of manger scenes, some believers have nothing to do with it. That
is fine until they speak against believers who gather with their families, put
up a tree and exchanges gifts. Other believers enjoy the fact that at least one
day of the year, the whole world is forced to recognize the birth of the Lord
Jesus Christ. To some degree, folks are forced to be nice, to give, to spend
time with their families. We preach Christ each time we gather, not just one or
two days in the year, so it does not alter our worship at all. But these two opinions among believers got me
thinking on 1 Corinthians 8.
Things
that are indifferent are not to be made into laws. They are not always black
and white. Believers worship God in
spirit, not in the letter. We must use spiritual discernment. Our liberty
varies depending on who is with us at the time.
One believer may think that idols or meats or days are defiling. They
are wrong to cut off brethren who consider idols, meats and days as nothing at
all. Likewise, a believer who understands liberty in Christ should not use his
liberty to put a stumblingblock before the weak believer, who does not. We are
never to turn grace into law.
Here is
the main point: God-given knowledge, together with God-given love, makes true
believers seek to edify one another rather than divide, especially over things
which are totally indifferent. Our subject is: Love, Liberty and Weak Brethren.
1 Corinthians 8: 1:
Now as touching things offered unto idols,…
When idolaters
finished their religious services, they sold the meat they offered to idols in
the market place. A believer could buy it, take it home and eat it. Or if
invited by friends to idolatrous feasts, some believers at Corinth even ate those
sacrifices in the idols temple or at festivals. Other believers would not dare
eat such meat and had a problem with those who did. So the question is whether
a believer should or should not eat the various meats which idolaters offered to
their idols. It is not a yes or no
answer.
A WORD CONCERNING LOVE
First,
mature believers, have knowledge of our liberty from ordinances: touch not,
taste not and handle not—“as touching things offered to idols, we know that we
all have knowledge.” Our life is in Christ.
Therefore, Christ “is the end of the law for righteousness to
every one that believeth.” (Rom 10: 4) “The
kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in
the Holy Ghost.” (Rom 14: 17) We are not bound by old covenant law in any way.
The kingdom of God is concerning our heavenly meat and drink, Christ himself: righteousness
in Christ, peace in Christ, joy in Christ. We worship in spirit and in truth in
the Holy Spirit.
If men insist we observe ordinances, the apostle Paul
told the Colossians, never let men bring us back into subjection to old covenant
ordinances. Christ…
Colossians 2: 14:
Blott[ed] out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which
was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;…16:
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an
holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17: Which are a
shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ….20: Wherefore if ye
be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in
the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21: (Touch not; taste not; handle not;
22: Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and
doctrines of men?
So,
mature believers have this knowledge of our liberty in Christ. But knowledge is
not enough. Knowledge without true God-given love, makes a man proud, “Knowledge
puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” (1 Cor 8: 1) Where God gives true knowledge
and love in Christ, there is true
wisdom. We do not compromise the truth. But
believer’s desire for our weaker brethren to be edified rather than us having
our own way. Listen to James,
James
3: 13: Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him
shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. 14: But if
ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not
against the truth. 15: This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is
earthly, sensual, devilish. 16: For where envying and strife is, there is
confusion and every evil work. 17: But the wisdom that is from above is first
pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy
and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18: And the fruit
of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
But a man with knowledge, who does not have charity,
mercy, gentleness and peaceableness, knows nothing as he ought, “And if any man
think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.”
(1 Cor 8: 2) He does not know how to use knowledge wisely: to love, to edify
his brethren for the peace of the church. The proud man uses knowledge to please
himself, even if it divides brethren and the church. But even, Christ, pleased
not himself!
Romans 15: 1: We then that are strong ought to bear the
infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2: Let every one of us please
his neighbour for his good to edification. 3: For even Christ
pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that
reproached thee fell on me.
Christ did
not seek his way. He sought the glory of God and the good of his brethren. So he
bore the infirmities of his weak, unfaithful, doubting brethren. When we reproached
him while in our unbelief and rebellion, in our self-righteous, haughtiness, he
bore our infirmities, even since we have believed him. Yet, he did not cut us
off. He bore our weakness; he was patient toward us—even bearing our sins and
the stripes we deserved on the cross.
If a believer
does love, God gets the glory, “But
if any man love God, the same is known of him.” (1 Cor 8: 3) Notice, he equates
loving our brethren with loving God—because brethren are one with Christ. The
Lord Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
(Mt 25: 40) When we provide food for one of his hungry brethren, we feed
Christ; when we provide clothing to a needy brother, we clothe Christ; when we
are charitable to our weak brethren, we love Christ. The Lord Jesus said we are
one with Christ, even as God the Father and God the Son are one. (Jn 17:
22)
The believer who loves is “known of God”—“approved of
God.” But also, it means he’s made a new creature in Christ by the new birth. God
knows us, from everlasting, with everlasting love which is in Christ, having
chosen us before time. Christ knew his own when he laid down his life on the
cross. He entered the holiest of holies with our names on his breast. Then in
our experience of grace, God “knows us”, making us alive and drawing us to
himself, to his Son. This is when Christ creates us anew, imparts true knowledge
and love in the new heart and makes us willing to follow him in faith. Christ
said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28: And I
give unto them eternal life.” (Jn 10: 27)
Galatians 4: 8: Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye
did service unto them which by nature are no gods. 9: But now, after that ye
have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and
beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage
The believer who is known of God expresses love to Christ
by trusting our weaker brethren to Christ, by bearing their infirmities. Remember,
when one mother stole the other mother’s baby? Solomon said, “Bring sword and
split the baby in two.” The mother who loved the child said, “No.” She would
rather see the child live than see it divided. So it is with a believer
constrained by Christ’s love. When God knows us, God makes his child hate being
divisive, and hard-hearted, and proud, and haughty, and insistent on having our
way. He makes us love our brethren and seek their good. We may know we are free
in Christ. Yet, if we are not charitable to brethren, we know nothing as we
ought. And if we do love God by
loving our brethren, God gets the glory. God has known us and put his love in
our hearts.
A WORD CONCERNING
LIBERTY
Secondly, believers have liberty in Christ, “As
concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice
unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there
is none other God but one.” (1 Cor 8: 4) Believers, matured by God’s grace,
know an idol is nothing; God is the only God; there is no other. Men make idols
out of things; we worship God who created the things; men worship special days—we
worship God who made all days; men worship dead men—we worship God before whom
all men must stand; men cut down trees, carve images, cover in gold and silver,
call it a god—we worship God who made those trees, even the tree on which he
gave his life to redeem us with his own blood; men worship earthly mt zion,
Jerusalem, even that so-called holy temple—We worship God our Savior in spirit and
in truth in heavenly Zion, in heavenly Jerusalem in the true holiest of holies.
John 4:
21: Jesus saith unto [the woman at the well], Woman, believe me, the hour
cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship
the Father. 22: Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for
salvation is of the Jews. [circumcised in heart, in Spirit, whose praise is of
God, not of men] 23: But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to
worship him. 24 God is a Spirit:
and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Where
the inward working of the Spirit is missing, men need outward images and outward
works they can see with the carnal eye. Christ’s true church worship God in
spirit and in truth; idols are nothing in the world to us.
Also, remember:
men may call something a god but it does not make it God, “For though there be
that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many,
and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are
all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all
things, and we by him.” (1 Cor 8: 5-6) God in three persons—Father, Son and
Spirit—is the only true God. And he is revealed in fullness in one Lord Jesus
Christ, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” (Col 2: 9)
He is the mighty God, the Everlasting Father. “ (Is 9:6)
All things are of him and by him: all things created, all
things in providence and all things in grace. True believers are in him and by
him: in him as our covenant God, in him by everlasting, immutable love, in him
by vital, inseparable union, chosen by him, redeemed by him, reconciled by him,
called by him, justified by him, preserved and kept by him, resurrected and
glorified by him. So the believer, grown in grace and knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ, worship the only true God in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. We
know an idol is nothing at all—their days, ceremonies, offerings, images are
nothing.
A WORD CONCERNING
WEAK BELIEVERS
Still, not all believers, have this knowledge, “Howbeit there
is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto
this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience
being weak is defiled.” (2 Cor 8: 7) The weak believer sees an idolater
slaughter a pig, pray over it, offer it to his idol. The leftovers are great for
the smoker. But the weak believer has a
superstitious notion that the piece of pork is now impure. He does not fully believe that the idolater’s
day is nothing, that his prayers and his ceremony are nothing. He does not
realize that his idol is nothing. The meat has not been affected at all!
But if he eats a pulled-pork sandwich from that meat, he
does so against his conscience; without fully believing Christ, that he is free
to do so, that his completion is unchangeably in Christ alone, not in things or
days or observances. So his conscience is defiled, it’s wounded. He has not
changed before God in Christ, but the peace in is mind is interrupted.
Yet, be sure to understand, it was not the meat itself
that defiled him, “But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat,
are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.” (2 Cor 8: 8) Believer,
Christ alone commends us to God, not meat, not days, not whether we eat or
don’t. We are righteous and holy in Christ at God’s right hand, complete in
Christ, and that will never change. This
is what Paul meant when he said, “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth
any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” (Gal 6: 15)
Please hear this, “things”—days, meats, ceremonies, etc,
never make a believer better or worse. If you eat or if you abstain it does not
commend you to God. It is our own sinful heart that defiles us. Christ did not
observe the Pharisee’s ceremony. They thought their unwashed hands defiled
their food, their food defiled their hearts. He said, “Not that which goeth
into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this
defileth a man.” (Mt 5: 11)
Still, believers are pure in Christ. Things are not
unclean in themselves. But when a believer doubts his liberty in Christ, and
does a thing without believing on Christ, that is sin.
Romans
14: 14:…I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing
unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it
is unclean… 20: For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are
pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence… 23: And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he
eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
If there be a weak believer who hears this—and you are
occupied with whether you should eat this or eat that, observe this day or not—please
here me—turn from “things”, turn from you, set your heart on Christ alone, not
on things below! Ask Christ to give you an understanding—to make you see your
liberty in Christ. Only he can increase faith.
Hebrews
13: 8: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. 9: Be not
carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing
that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not
profited them that have been occupied therein.
Yet, not every believer has this knowledge. So what is a
mature believer to do with his liberty before his weak brethren? “But take heed
lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that
are weak. 10: For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the
idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to
eat those things which are offered to idols; And through thy knowledge shall the
weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?” (1 Cor 8: 9-11)
For instance, the weak brother follows your example,
contrary to his conscience, not knowing and understanding Christ has set him
free indeed. Then afterwards, his weak conscience shall be wounded. His peace
with Christ will be interrupted. He falls into great distress thinking he has
sinned against the Lord who bought him
This is one for whom Christ died, yet you have lead this
weak sheep into this great trouble in his spirit. Remember, how one our
brethren are with Christ?—“But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their
weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.” (1 Cor 8: 12) This is the mature
believer’s constraint; this is why we do not use our liberty to make our weak
brethren stumble, “Ye sin against Christ!”
FIVE THINGS
So what are believers to do? Let me briefly give you five
things.
One, for the mature believer, “Wherefore, if meat make my
brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my
brother to offend.” (1 Cor 8: 13)
Illustration: The believer and the wine
Two, remember, just because a believer thinks he should
abstain from certain meat or drink or observe a certain day—does not mean he is
not a believer, so receive him but don’t doubt him—“Him that is weak in the
faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he
may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.” (Rom 14: 1-2)
Three,
let not the mature believer despise the weaker brother and let not the weaker
judge the mature, “Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let
not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.”
(Rom 14: 3)
Four, wait
on the Lord Jesus to fully persuade your brethren in his own mind, “One man
esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every
man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it
unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not
regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he
that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. “ (Rom 14:
5-6)
Five, when men try to draw a line and make you take a
side, opposing brethren over something that is nothing at all—like Christmas or
food and drink and so on—remember, this message. It is not black and white; we must use
spiritual discernment. Never draw a line, making it a matter of law. Believers are under grace!
Amen!