The Who of Love | Knowledge and Love - 1 Corinthians 8 | April 21
Intro
Hey family! How are we all doing?
We’re back in the book of 1 Corinthians. And believe it or not we are actually nearing the finish line even though we are just now, after today, halfway through. There’s light at the end of the tunnel.
We have nine chapters left, and while that seems like a lot, what we’ll see is that there is a single unifying theme throughout these last chapters, indeed the whole book really. We mentioned how 1 Corinthians is a book about unity and how to live for God in a world that is overwhelmingly unchristian. And while that is true, those statements don’t really address how we do that as much. I know we’ve talked a lot about the practical side of belief, but there is another theme that does speak more directly to the how. And that is love!
We talked about calling. We are called to love (1 Peter 4:8). We talked about unity. Unity is held in love. We talked about fellowship. Fellowship, togetherness is a demonstration of love. We talked about how to live for God in a world that is overwhelmingly unchristian. The solution is the knowledge of the love of Christ. It’s all about love.
So as we fill ourselves with the Word of God in these final chapters, we’re going to see love and we’re going to encounter love in three literary units addressing the Who of love; the Way of love; and the Why of love. The Who of love (8-10). The Way of love (11-13). The Why of love (14-16).
When I say literary movement, I mean that these repetitions of three chapters form a complete thought. So, in chapters 8 through 10 we’ll be looking at the Who of love. We know these chapters form this unit because of the great design of the Bible. It’s breathtakingly beautiful how every word is constructed in perfect accord. Don’t just believe me, I’m going to show you. In chapter 8, we’ll read it in a moment, but just to show you chapter 8 begins, “Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.”
And Chapter 10 ends, “24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. 25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. 26 For ‘the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.’”
There’s a lot in the middle, but where 8 begins, 10 concludes the thought. That doesn't mean Paul doesn’t chase some rabbits along the way. Paul is notorious for long complicated sentences and big leaps in thought. When I was taking ancient Greek the recommendation was to start with John. You don’t want to read Paul first because you may get discouraged.
In fact, the apostle Peter even wrote about this. In 2 Peter 3 he says, “15 And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— 16 speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand…”
So he’s going to get distracted along the way; nevertheless, it’s all about love. As we get further along we’ll find passages that have been used to teach in other ways are actually really about love all along. Perhaps the whole book is about love. Maybe even the whole Bible if it’s not too bold of me to say. It’s a love story about a God who loves and pursues His creation. Even though we continue to reject His love, He continues to provide a way for us. It’s all about love.
In the beginning of the chapter it sets the stage, “we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
The Who of love. It’s about knowing God and being known by God. There is a right knowing that leads to a right loving. Right knowing loves people and builds them up and it treasures and values God. You don’t know anything if your knowing is not resulting in a love for God.
Well here, let me just read the whole thing.
SCRIPTURE
1 Corinthians 8, “Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
7 However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.”
KNOWLEDGE & LOVE
So it’s about love. And it’s about knowledge. It’s about love. It’s about knowledge. And it’s about how these intertwine with one another, and work with one another, or at times work against one another.
Because there is a “so-called-knowledge” and there is a real knowledge. While real knowledge leads to life and love, this so-called-knowledge, under which we tend to operate by default, leads to destruction and death. So knowledge, then, is essential but it’s not sufficient. There are ways in which you can have knowledge, you can be right in a sense, but ultimately be wrong. Knowledge is not enough without love. There’s a knowing and then there’s a knowing as you ought to know. There’s a loving and then there’s a loving as you ought to love.
So what’s really going on here?
IDOLATRY
Let’s start building some meaning, building some understanding, and working on that right knowledge. The context is idolatry. “Now concerning food offered to idols… Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols…”
In the exchange of letters that preceded 1 Corinthians, because remember this is not the first letter Paul wrote to them, at some point someone from Corinth wrote back to Paul asking his advice about what to do at social gathering where the food was probably ritually sacrificed to an idol, knowing that some of the Gentiles who became Christians may sin by eating because not too long ago they were worshiping these non-gods. In other words, there’s probably a Jewish believer who has knowledge that idols are not really gods and wants Paul to give him permission to eat and not feel guilty even though some of the Gentiles have expressed concerns. As we know Paul’s not going to do that, but he’s going to use this opportunity to teach an even greater lesson about love.
In reality, these idolatrous ceremonies were big parties where business deals were happening. It was a social event. And if you weren’t there you were missing out on key networking opportunities. This is the Linkedin of the ancient world. If you weren’t there you might not financially make it. The question is not really about food, it’s about livelihood. But the people being saved out of that world can’t separate the eating from the worship.
We know idols to be little carved images made by human hands, but they thought of them as real gods. Isaiah 44 says, “9 How foolish are those who manufacture idols. These prized objects are really worthless. The people who worship idols don’t know this, so they are all put to shame. 10 Who but a fool would make his own god—”
Who would do something like that? :He says sarcastically:
This still happens today. For sure this happens, in certain parts of this world. But because there’s not a one to one correlation in our own culture it may be easy to think that we don’t have an idol problem. Let me put your mind at ease right now, we definitely have an idol problem in this culture. They’re just a little more deceptive–just below the surface.
In Romans 1 it says, “...They knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people…”
Our idols tend to look a lot like people. Maybe even ourselves. We become our own God trying to satisfy our own insatiable desires. You see back then idolatry was all about control–gaining some semblance of control over life’s hardships. I want a good harvest so I’m going to do this special ceremony for this god and gain control of the circumstances that are beyond my control so I can have a good harvest or get pregnant or this or that. It’s all about control.
Sometimes we treat God that way. We worship ourselves and use God to get what we want and gain control over our circumstances. And it’s reflected in our prayers. We tell God what He should do. But Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father in Heaven, holy is Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” But instead we’re trying to build our own kingdoms. We’ve become lovers of self.
LOVERS OF SELF
2 Timothy 3 starts out, “You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!”
Watch out! Beware! It’s going to be the case more and more that people are only going to love themselves. The love that they had for one another will grow cold (Matthew 24:12). They’re love for their brother will grow cold and they’ll love only themselves. That’s all they’ll do everyday is look at themselves, stare at themselves, talk about themselves. They’ll go to the Grand Canyon and take pictures of themselves. They’re not going to be these life giving spirits (1 Corinthians 15:45). They’re going to suck the life out of every relationship. They’re going to live their lives in selfie mode.
And this is not talking about the world, this is talking about people within the church. It’s talking about us! We’re the problem. We read passages like, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39), and we think I just gotta love myself more! That’s not what it’s saying, that’s not the point. You love yourself enough. You’re all you ever talk about. You do not need the Spirit of God to be concerned with yourself.
Jesus is not on display through our collective self interests. He didn’t become human and get tortured and murdered to leave us in our self-consumed state. Jesus did not die to create a community of self-centered people.
And so, the Corinthians, when they ask this question about food sacrificed to idols, they’re not concerned with their brother. So Paul writes, “‘all of us possess knowledge.’ [But] this “knowledge” puffs up…. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.”
You know, but you don’t know. Your knowing is defective. Your knowing is broken. Even though you are kind of right, ultimately you’re wrong because you were more concerned with yourself than for your brother for whom Christ died. If you know something, it should make a difference.
And so, we too come to church and walk away thinking that didn’t really do it for me this morning. The sermon didn’t speak to me. I don’t really like the way Zach preaches, his style doesn’t resonate with me. The songs didn’t move me. I wasn't really feeling it. That’s not what it’s about.
And we go to family group and think, they don’t care enough about my problems, about what I’m going through. Or we don’t share much of ourselves at all and we just allow other people to be vulnerable and we never really give the Spirit any opportunity to change us. Our knowing is broken.
Listen, some of us know very little about the Bible. The only time we even hear the Word of God is on a Sunday or perhaps at a family group. And that’s not right, we’ve got to be feasting on these words of life on our own too. Loving God happens when you know as you ought to know. Some of us need some more knowing.
Others of us know the Scriptures very well, but we use them to convince and justify our own preferences and desires. But that’s not what it’s about. That’s not the point. We should love one another more than we care about our preferences or our rights.
Yes, you’re right, Paul says; the idols are not really gods. But that’s not the point. The point is that in using your knowledge, you weren’t thinking about your brother. If you know something, it should make a difference.
LOVE YOUR BROTHER
You must love your brother. Right knowledge leads us to right love which sacrifices for the sake of our brother.
“First John 4:12 says, “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” Here the apostle John is talking about the love that we Christians should have for one another. When you look at your Christian brothers and sisters, do you honestly love them? Do you say, “That’s my brother — if he were ever in trouble, I would be right there with him”?
Is that the type of love you have for those around you? God means that we embody this kind of love. When John writes, “No one has ever seen God,” do you get it? Here’s what he’s saying: if we could love each other the way God loves us, then someone who doesn’t even know God, someone who’s never seen his beauty spiritually, may be able to see the love of God in our love for each other.
Just as Jesus embodied God in the incarnation as God in the flesh, so there is a sense in which this is passed on to us. In our love for others, we now incarnate God’s love, so to speak, because others see the love of God in us in a way they would not otherwise. As people come into our gatherings, do they see so much love that they actually get a glimpse of God? Or do they only see a lot of knowledge on display?” (Francis Chan).
Sure, there is also an expectation for our brothers to grow in knowledge and love of God and so not remain in a state of weakness. Hebrews 6 says, “So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. 2 You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.”
There is an expectation of growth and maturity. That “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). But as for our responsibility there exists the reality that to truly love another person you have to accept the unique demands that comes with that person. By the mere act of choosing to love anyone you are agreeing to take the hard and not just the easy. The weakness not just the strength. To love someone you have to accept the demands that come with them.
And what that looks like is not self-centeredness, justifying our freedom, and insisting on our own way. It looks like a healthy other-centeredness. Healthy other-centeredness loves because God first loved. Healthy other-centeredness wants Jesus for other people, leaves room for appropriate responsibility, and prioritizes the spiritual good of others. And it starts by staring at God rather than ourselves or other people for that matter.
LOVE GOD (THE WHO OF LOVE)
We need to stare at God. Not people. Not circumstances. Stare at God. He’s the only place worthy of your attention–worthy of your fixation.
What I want to do to finish our time is just listen to God’s words to Job in chapter 38 and allow us to sit, close your eyes (it may be difficult to stare at God with our eyes open), and stare at the God whose thoughts are not our thoughts and ways are not our ways. He laid the foundations of the world and all of creation moves at His command. Listen and then we’ll sing.
JOB 38
4“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
9 when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10 and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
12 “Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
13 that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
14 It is changed like clay under the seal,
and its features stand out like a garment.
15 From the wicked their light is withheld,
and their uplifted arm is broken.
16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.
19 “Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
and where is the place of darkness,
20 that you may take it to its territory
and that you may discern the paths to its home?
21 You know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great!
22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,
or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I have reserved for the time of trouble,
for the day of battle and war?
24 What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,
or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?
25 “Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain
and a way for the thunderbolt,
26 to bring rain on a land where no man is,
on the desert in which there is no man,
27 to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
and to make the ground sprout with grass?
28 “Has the rain a father,
or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb did the ice come forth,
and who has given birth to the frost of heaven?
30 The waters become hard like stone,
and the face of the deep is frozen.
31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades
or loose the cords of Orion?
32 Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season,
or can you guide the Bear with its children?
33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
Can you establish their rule on the earth?
34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
that a flood of waters may cover you?
35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go
and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts
or given understanding to the mind?
37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom?
Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
38 when the dust runs into a mass
and the clods stick fast together?
Resources (*the views expressed within the following content are solely the author's and may not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Mountainside Church):
https://midtowndowntown.com/sermons/the-demands-of-love-part-1
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-life-of-the-mind-and-the-love-of-man