1 Corinthians 8
McGeeCHAPTER 8THEME: Christian liberty regarding eating meatWe are in the section of the epistle dealing with Christian liberty, which extends from chapter 8 to the first verse of chapter 1Co_11:11. It touches on several aspects of Christian liberty. Chapter 8 deals with the problem of whether or not we should eat meat and the liberty that a child of God should have in this particular area. We need to recognize as we go through this section of the epistle that Paul is writing to the Corinthians and that he has called them carnal, babes in Christ. He deals first with carnalities, and later he will deal with spiritualities. Since it is in the level of carnalities that the contemporary church lives and moves and has its being, this section is pertinent for you and me. The subject of diet is just as controversial as marriage and divorce. Diet is a fad with many people. (Right at the moment diet is more than a fad with me because my doctor has put me on a very strict diet.) Diet generally is an essential part of the ritual of many of the cults and “isms.” Many of them have stringent rules about diet. It is interesting that God in the Old Testament gave Israel certain restrictions about eating meat. An edible animal had a parted hoof and chewed the cud. That eliminated the pig whose hoof is parted but does not chew the cud. There were also certain fowl and fish which were designated by name as unfit for food. You can find these listed in the Book of Leviticus and also in Deuteronomy, chapter 14. A friend of mine, who belonged to a cult that would not eat pork, was discussing this with me one day. So I asked him, “Have you ever eaten ossifrage?” “A what?” “An ossifrage.” “Well,” he said, “I don’t even know what it is.” So I told him, “You’d better find out what it is because you may come to my house someday and I might serve you roast ossifrage, which for you would be as wrong to eat as pork.” It is amazing that the cults that place such importance on the Old Testament dietary regulations are so ignorant of the actual details. Why did God give a special diet to Israel? He makes it very clear: “Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth. Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing” (Deu_14:1-3). Also, I do believe that diet is important for health. God gave Israel foods that were good for them. Even doctors today prescribe diets which exclude certain foods. The Bible puts up a red light and is very specific on many things which are wrong for us to do. For example, God condemns drunkenness. There can be no argument nor question about that. However, there is a gray area, questionable practices, doubtful things about which the Bible is silent. These are things which are neither black nor white, and the Bible doesn’t give us specific instructions. For example: Should a Christian smoke?
In the South they think that mixed bathing is wrong and smoking is all right. On the West Coast boys and girls, men and women swim together without compunction, but they condemn smoking. There are different rules which have been put down by certain groups of Christians. They may be good rules or they may be bad rulesI’m not going to argue about that. What I want you to see is the great principle which Paul is laying down here. There is another preliminary consideration which is an understanding of Corinth in Paul’s day. If you do not understand the background, you will miss the whole point of the chapter. It is this: the best place to eat in Corinth was not at the swankiest restaurant; the best place to get good meat was in the meat shop that was run by the temple. In Corinth the people brought sacrifices of animals to offer to the idols. They would bring the best animals they had. The meat was offered to the idol, but it didn’t stay there long because they believed that the spirit of the idol ate the spirit of the animaland that finished the meal for the idol. Then they took the meat to the shambles or stalls around the temple, which was the meat market where the meat was sold. If you wanted to buy filet or the best steaks or the best prime rib roast in Corinth, you had to go to one of those shops at the temple to get meat which had been offered to idols. Some of the Christians in Corinth were offended by this practice and were asking Paul about it. They would be invited out to dinner with another Christian family and would be served a lovely filet mignon. During the course of the conversation they would say, “My, this is wonderful meat. Where did you get it?” The lady would answer that she got it at the temple meat market. This would offend the couple who felt that it was wrong to eat anything that had been offered to idols. This is the question which Paul discusses in this chapter.
Should a Christian eat meat that had been offered to idols? This was a real problem to the people in Corinth because many of them had come out of that background of idolatry, and they thought it was a compromise with idolatry. Others in the church felt that it made no difference. Let’s listen to Paul as he discusses this problem in the city of Corinth.
1 Corinthians 8:1
CHRISTIAN LIBERTY CONCERNING MEATKnowledge blows up like a balloon or like an automobile tire. Love doesn’t blow up, but it fills up. Love for God and love for others should determine our conduct. Knowledge alone puffs up and tends to make us harsh in our dealings with others. This is a danger with a great many folk who feel that they have a lot of knowledge and yet in reality know very little. Let me give an illustration. We had just concluded a service at a Bible conference in which six young men had received Christ. A man came to me and insisted that I break away from everyone else and discuss with him the subject of election (he erroneously felt that I had alluded to it in my message). I took a few moments to talk with him until I discovered that he didn’t want to discuss it; he wanted to tell me what he thought about election. I discovered that he had been reading on that subject recently and that he thought he knew everything about it. As I listened to him, I could picture myself as a young seminary student going into the office of a theological professor to tell him what I thought about election.
I thought I was telling him something he didn’t know! Well, I don’t care what stage of spiritual development you are in today, you don’t know everything about any subjectand I don’t either. All of us are in the learning process. Paul could say of himself, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings …” (Php_3:10). It is the knowledge of Christ which we need above everything else. If the man who wanted to argue about election had been governed by love, he would have been rejoicing over the conversion of these young men and would not have taken me away from folk who needed encouragement and counsel. Paul is saying that we have a certain knowledge and, because of that certain knowledge, our behavior is governed by it.
1 Corinthians 8:3
We ought to be governed by love rather than knowledge.
1 Corinthians 8:4
After you have come to Christ, after you have the Word of God, you know that an idol is nothing. That is the way Paul spoke of the idolsthey are nothing. There is but one God. So he says that the meat that was offered to the idol was not affected. Nothing happened to it. It was not contaminated. In fact, it was prime meat. So the instructed Christian could go there to get his meat and eat it with no problem.
1 Corinthians 8:5
These idols were merely called gods. As I stood in the ruins of the temple of Apollo in Corinth, I thought of this passage of Scripture. I thought of all the sacrifices that had been offered to that image of Apollo there. It was nothing. The meat was brought in to the idol, put there for a little while, and then it was taken to the meat shop. It didn’t make any difference in the meatthe idol was nothing. The instructed Christian knew that. He knew there is but one God, the Father, and that there is but one Lord Jesus Christ. He made all things, and all things belong to Him.
1 Corinthians 8:7
The weak ones, the babes in Christ, the carnal Christians, these were the ones who were offended by the meat offered to idols. They did not have the knowledge. Their consciences bothered them. So they criticized the others who felt at liberty to eat the meat. May I say that we still find the same thing today. We have people who call themselves separated Christians. They think they are being very spiritual when, actually, they are revealing that they don’t have the knowledge. They are the ones who say you can’t do this and that. They are the ones who are offended at Christians who use their Christian liberty. They are like the Christians at Corinth who were offended when they were served meat offered to idols and said, “Oh, no, we are separated. We won’t touch that meat.” That kind of separation is not due to spirituality; it is due to ignorance. Now Paul lays down a great principle:
1 Corinthians 8:8
Meat has nothing to do with our relationship to God. You will remember that Simon Peter had trouble with this. He had been brought up to consider certain things unclean according to the Mosaic Law. When the sheet came down from heaven in his vision and the Lord told Peter to arise and eat, Peter refused. He said, “…Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean” (Act_10:14). (He calls Him Lord at the same time that he is failing to obey Him.) Then the Lord said, “…What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common” (Act_10:15). In other words, God is no longer making the distinction between the clean and the unclean animals. That is passed. Now we can eat any animal that we wish to eat. Down in San Antonio, Texas, they can rattlesnake meat. Now if you are going to have rattlesnake for dinner, please don’t invite me to come over. This has nothing to do with religious scruples, but it has a lot to do with a weak stomach. Paul has stated a great principle here. Meat does not commend you to God. You may do as you please in such matters. This is the liberty that a believer has.
1 Corinthians 8:9
Now it is not a question of it being right or wrong to eat meat. It is a concern for others. You have the liberty to eat the meat if you want to. But what about your concern for others? You have the knowledge, but what about your love? Do you have love for your weak brother? Are you concerned how this will affect him?
1 Corinthians 8:10
The reason many of us who are in Christian service do not do certain things is so that we may not offend others. Let me give an illustration. There was a time when I loved to dance. In fact, I was chairman of the dance committee of an organization before I accepted Christ. After I started studying for the ministry, I gave up dancing. In college the president of the ministerial students was also president of the student body, and he was active in promoting dancing. Knowing I had been chairman of a dance committee, he tried to get me to help him. I told him, “No. I can’t do that.” I am not going to argue if it was right or wrong because it is not a question of knowledge. There are many things I am at liberty to do which I do not do. Why? Well, my decision is on the basis of love. I do not want to hurt my weak brother. Because of my example, he might be out there on the floor dancing the fandangoor whatever they dance todayand I don’t want to be responsible for drawing him away from the Lord. He is a weak brother.
1 Corinthians 8:11
You see, we operate on a different principle. It is not a question of an activity being right or wrong. It is a question of its effect on that weak brother or upon your neighbor. You see, knowledge, after all is a very dangerous thing.
1 Corinthians 8:12
When we are responsible for a believer falling away from Christ, we are affecting Christ Himself.
1 Corinthians 8:13
Here is the motivation for action on these things. Paul will go over this same principle again in chapter 10, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not” (1Co_10:23). There is no point in arguing about whether something is right or wrong. It is a question of the effect upon the weak brother. It is not a question of knowledge. All things are lawful for me. The liberty of the Christian is not pinned down by legality. He is not circumscribed by rules of conduct. His liberty is limited by love. His motivation should be not to offend the brother but to be a blessing to him. That is how to determine Christian conduct. That is the motivation for Christian conduct. My knowledge can tell me that it is perfectly all right for me to do something, but my love for the weak brother will keep me from doing it.