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Corinthians 10:14-33
On December 2nd, 2006 I
made a choice. I said “I do” to Miriam. And that meant that I said
“I don’t” to every other woman on the face of the Earth. I’m glad I said
“I do.” Miriam actually said the words “I sure do.”
When it comes to loving
God, you say “no” to everyone else and every other thing that can come between
you and God. It doesn’t mean you can’t love a spouse. We just can’t
put the spouse before God. It doesn’t mean that you can’t make money.
We just don’t want to serve money over God.
So, Paul talks about
this issue of idolatry in 1 Corinthians 10, which is putting something before
Him. I divided up this passage into two sections. One is focused on
clear issues of idolatry. The other is focused on grey areas of the
Christian life.
There
are some things in the Christian life that are clear, black and white.
For example, it’s wrong to murder, steal, lust, lie, hate, cheer for the
Gamecocks, etc. But there are some things that are not so clear.
For example, watching certain tv shows, drinking alcohol, tattoos,
wearing a pink sombrero during church, etc. In 1 Corinthians 10:14-22,
we’re dealing with something very clear.
Therefore, my dear friends,
flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I
say. Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in
the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the
body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we
all partake of the one loaf.
Consider the people of Israel:
Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? Do I mean then
that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No,
but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not
want you to be participants with demons. 21You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons
too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. Are
we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he? –1 Corinthians
10:14-22
The
command is clear: “Flee from idolatry.” “Run from idolatry.”
Sometimes it’s best to ask questions after you obey. My little
Sarah loves to ask questions. She’s very inquisitive. That’s ok,
although very taxing to a parent’s brain sometime. But there are times
when she needs to obey first, then ask questions second. Miriam has told
her of a story about herself when she was a little girl. They were taking
a trip in their van when her dad stopped quickly and told everyone (a wife and
six kids) to “get out of the van!” There was no explanation, just a
command. The kids had been trained to obey so they got out quickly.
They didn’t find out until after they were outside that he had spotted a
bunch of yellow jackets in the car. That was his reason. When it
comes to idolatry your very soul could be in danger. So, “Get out!”
You can ask questions later.
The
bottom line in this passage is that we need to avoid worshipping idols at all
costs. In Paul’s day, non-Christians would sacrifice animals to their
gods. Then the meat would be sold at a marketplace. Paul is saying
that the meat in and of itself is not evil. It was the act of worship
that was evil. While worshipping idols may seem relatively harmless at an
initial glance, it’s actually very dangerous. That’s because the
worshippers weren’t just worshipping a god who didn’t exist. They were
worshipping demons. I have made friends with people over the years who
were involved in other religions. They were nice people who were very
generous and hospitable...more so than many Christians I have known. But
even though that’s the case, their soul was still in danger because they were
worshipping false gods, or “demons” as Paul described them. But there’s
more to idolatry than just bowing down to a physical statue. Paul said
that when a person offers sacrifices to these false gods they actually become
“participants with demons.”
This is
what the Bible says about idolatry:
Greed
is idolatry: “For of this you can be
sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”—Ephesians 5:5
A
misrepresentation of the one true God is idolatry: “And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an
engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, ‘This is your
god, O Israel, that brought you out of Egypt!’” –Exodus 32:4
Worshiping
celestial objects is idolatry: “And when
you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars--all the
heavenly array-- do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping
things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.” –Deuteronomy
4:19
Idolatry
comes from the state of the heart: “‘Son
of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts…” –Deuteronomy 14:3
The
root of idolatry is believing a lie: “They
exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things
rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.” –Romans 1:25
Self-indulgence
is idolatry: “Their destiny is
destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.
Their mind is on earthly things.” –Philippians 3:19
Men and
women both struggle with idolatry. As a man I have seen how idolatry has
slipped into my life and into the lives of other men. Some of it starts
with the local church not showing Christian men that following Christ brings
purpose, fulfillment, adventure and challenge. If a Christian man doesn’t
find these things in Christ then it increases the chances that he’ll find it
somewhere else. He’ll find it at work. He’ll find in hobbies.
He can even find it in trying to achieve “success” in ministry.
When
Christian men think of what’s required of them by God, many will think of
fulfilling a church meeting quota for the week, or drinking coffee with someone
for discipleship (“So, tell me, how are you really feeling, Bubba?”), or that
he needs to be super-in-touch with his feelings, or that he needs to become
timid or cowardly. I’m not joking. This is what men think.
But I’m
here to say that following Christ (while you’re at work, while in your hobbies,
while doing ministry) is the most fulfilling and challenging thing you can do
with your life. One of the things I’m doing on campus is I’m showing
young men this picture. Why not reach a whole dorm for Christ? Why
not aim for moral purity and godly decision making in your classwork? Why
not see a real brotherhood develop with the other Christian men around you?
I would rather have 10 men involved in our church that have a
relationship with God that’s a mile deep rather than 100 men that have a
relationship with God that’s an inch deep and a mile wide.
I’m not
fond of sitting down and drinking coffee very often. I’ll do it some.
But I prefer to be doing something together. Let’s go share the
gospel, or come work with me in my business, or let’s blow something up.
Young men can live a “life of adventure” through a video game. For
example, they play games that involve being a particular character in Call of
Duty or many other games. The games have story lines. The guy
playing it gets a sense euphoria that they’ve accomplished something, even
though they haven’t left their bean bag and bag of Doritos in the last 8 hours.
Video games provide adventure without the risk. When a young man
doesn’t have a sense of purpose or some kind of challenge or adventure they can
be a part of then they will turn to something else to fill that void. And
that’s where greed comes in as they work a job, or getting their significance
from a girl that they like, or just being self-indulgent.
But
what about some of the grey areas of the Christian life? Paul says,
"Everything is
permissible"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is
permissible"--but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his
own good, but the good of others. Eat anything sold in the meat market without
raising questions of conscience, for, "The earth is the Lord's, and
everything in it."
If some unbeliever invites you
to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising
questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered
in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told
you and for conscience' sake -- the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours.
For why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience? If I take part in
the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God
for?
So whether you eat or drink or
whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to
stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God--even as I try to please
everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many,
so that they may be saved. –1 Corinthians 10:23-33
In this
passage there is a Christian (who I will call Billy Bob) who thinks that meat
sacrificed to idols is okay to eat but the other Christian (who I will call
Bocephus) disagrees. What should Billy Bob do (WSBBD)? In essence
God is telling us that some of our choices should be constrained by other
Christians’ consciences. We know that the Bible says that there are other
things that guide or constrain our choices as Christians. God’s will
should constrain or guide our decisions. The prompting of the Holy Spirit
in our hearts will do the same. God will use our own conscience to help
us make right decisions as well. I don’t want to spend time focusing on
those issues. But I do want to focus on decision making based on 1
Corinthians 10. In our American culture we take great pride in
independence. This culture also puts great emphasis on us being free to
do whatever we want. We’re encouraged to do whatever our heart wants.
Some people’s dream is to have financial independence so that they can
wake up in the morning (or in the afternoon) and do whatever comes to their
mind that day. That would be a dream lifestyle. So why should
someone else’s conscience constrain my choices or constrain my lifestyle?
To answer that I think it would help to go forward a little bit to 1
Corinthians 12:14-26:
Now the body is not made up of
one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I
do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part
of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not
belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the
body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If
the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God
has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them
to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are
many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand,
"I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I
don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be
weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we
treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with
special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God
has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts
that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its
parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part
suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
So,
what can we learn about the church in this passage? God designed the
church to be interdependent in order to produce humility: “The eye cannot say
to the hand, "I don't need you!” and “those parts of the body that seem to
be weaker are indispensable…” and “the parts that are unpresentable are treated
with special modesty…” and “God has combined the members of the body and has
given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no
division in the body…” He has designed the church in such a way so that
weakness will unite us.
This
interdependence and consideration for those who are weaker in the faith will
bring glory to God. This requires humility for those who are stronger to
limit themselves in some way for the sake of someone else. It’s like the
checks and balances that are in place for our three branches of federal
government: the judicial, legislative and executive branches. Did you
know that the traditional hot water heater was designed, on purpose, with a
weakness? If the heating element doesn’t stop heating up and continues to
heat up then the pressure in the tank will build up tremendously. There
are cases where hot water heaters have ruptured or blown up. But it was
designed with a valve that will open when the pressure in the tank rises to a
certain point. If something goes wrong internally then there will be a
part that will bring the pressure back to normal level. Peoples’ lives
will be protected because of weakness.
God
doesn’t want one strong Christian to go off and bring disaster on himself or
the church. By being in the body of Christ, and being around people of
weak faith, they must exercise humility. A humble Christian is less
likely to cause a “blow up” situation in the church. And what will keep a
strong Christian humble? Many times it’s brought about by a weaker
Christian in the body of Christ. This “weak part” of the system actually
provided safety for everyone else. One of God’s greatest desires is for each
Christian, including the strong Christian, to have humility. He values
humility over “ministry success.”
One
thing I want to clarify is that Paul is not talking about restriction just for
restriction’s sake. In other words, we don’t restrict ourselves just so
we can appear holy or more spiritual. Paul is talking about restricting
ourselves for a particular person at a particular time for a particular reason.
There may be some Christian in this world that has their conscience
bothered by people who wear pink sombreros to church on Sunday. I’m not
one of those people. I think that’s just fine. Just because
someone, somewhere on this planet has a problem with something doesn’t mean
that I need to restrict myself.
If that
was the case then Paul would have said to stop eating meat sacrificed to idols
because somewhere in the world there is some Christian who is bothered by it.
What he is saying is that if there is a certain person at a certain time
that has their conscience bothered by something you are doing then maybe you
should consider stopping it. You’re not stopping it because it bothers
you but because it bothers someone else. If someone is bothered by me
saying something is sinful because the Bible says it then of course I’m not
going to change. That is something that is unchangeable. That’s
God’s command, not mine. Paul is not saying to drop your Biblical
convictions because another Christian doesn’t see eye-to-eye with you.
Worshiping idols is one of the things that Paul says is unchangeable.
It doesn’t matter what anyone says to you. Worshiping idols is
wrong. But eating the meat that was sacrificed to idols is another issue,
a kind-of grey area if you like to use that terminology.
If a
believer was with me, in a situation like Paul described, and the idea of
eating meat sacrificed to an idol bothered their conscience, then I would defer
to the Christian brother. I would be appreciative to the non-Christian
who offered me the food but I would have turned it down. This would
probably have been kind-of insulting in the day of Paul, rejecting this kind of
hospitality. God is saying honor the conscience of your brother in Christ
over the chance of insulting your non-Christian friend. Sometimes you
have to pick and choose who you’re going to please, when you have a conflicting
situation. But when you have a situation where another brother’s
conscience is not bothered, then do what you can to make sure you don’t cause
the non-Christian to stumble. This is why Paul says, “Do not cause anyone
to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God-- even as I try to please
everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many,
so that they may be saved.” (1 Cor. 10:32-33)
So, in
the act of saying “I do” to God, you’ve said “I don’t” to the worship of
everything else. And in the act of limiting your choices because of
another believer, you’ve made the choice to elevate God’s desires over your
own. God’s glory is the ultimate goal in any of this. That’s why
towards the end of the passage it says, “So whether you eat or drink or
whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31)
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