I Corinthians 8:1-13

William F. Schnell

February 1, 2009

The Schnell kids never tire of hearing stories from their childhood. "Tell the story about so-and-so" or "thus-and-such" they will say, even though they already know the story by heart. But as soon as the stories turn to the childbearing years and begin to hint at the amorous aspects of their parents’ relationship, the kids will clap their hands over their ears and say, "TMI, TMI,"—Too Much Information! They might as well being saying, "TCTC"—Too Creepy To Contemplate.

I sometimes get that reaction from the church staff—especially Rev. Horak—whenever I broach the subject of how my peculiar body functions. For example, when we began wearing these ear microphones I instructed Rev. Horak to wipe a tissue behind his ear before putting it on to clear away any oils or sweat that might keep it from adhering properly. Rev. Horak stopped me with an upraised hand and said, "This is more than I want to know. Besides, I don’t sweat behind my ears." Well he found out the hard way that he does sweat behind his ears, which is probably more information than you want to know.

Sometimes even needful knowledge is better kept under wraps until an appropriate time. Nancy was married and divorced before I met her. After we had our children we wondered when we would share that information with them. Some people never share that information with their children, but we would prefer to cultivate a more open relationship with our children. So when Mary was about 10 years old the opportunity came up one day and I told her. Mary’s first response, sensing that she had just achieved a new level of maturity to be entrusted with that kind of knowledge, was: "Don’t tell Jim."

I usually counsel people not to withhold knowledge from their children. Sometimes when a family member dies a mom and dad will ask me if it is appropriate to take their young children to an open casket funeral. Barring unusual circumstances my answer is always, "Yes." Otherwise we risk creating an inordinate fear of death in them by our own evasiveness. Sometimes people who have received a difficult diagnosis will ask me if they should keep it to themselves to spare their loved ones of worry. Barring unusual circumstances my answer is always, "No," the only exception might be to wait for a few days until diagnostic test results come in. Otherwise we might deprive our loved ones from caring for us, which might leave them cause for regret later.

Still, how we share or withhold knowledge can impact others for good or ill, which is why we should give careful thought to it as we are instructed to do in our text for this morning. It is not only about knowledge, but about actions which are informed by our knowledge and how those actions may either be helpful or hurtful for others who are watching and maybe patterning their own actions after what they see in us. Just because something may not be harmful to us, does not mean it is not harmful to others. If we love others as ourselves, we are going to be sensitive to that and adjust our actions accordingly.

St. Paul begins our text writing, Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know (Verses 1-2). The title of our message is, "What We Ought to Know," and what we ought to know is the limits of our knowledge. Some people who know more than others tend to get puffed up about it—to get arrogant about it. In their arrogance they might even come to believe that they know it all.

Well it is one thing to know more than the average person and it is another thing entirely to know it all. Thomas Edison, who was a pretty bright fellow (if you will pardon the pun), once said: "We do not know one millionth of one percent about anything." And that was an understatement. The smartest person in the world is still ignorant about most things. Bright people mess up their lives, and the lives of those around them, big time and all the time. One does not have to look very far to see really smart people making really stupid mistakes.

On the other side of the coin we find common people without much education or even intellectual ability making excellent choices that benefit themselves and those they love. That is because love builds up, as Paul puts it. Therefore, Paul concludes, The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. He ought to know the limits of knowledge, especially as compared with the surpassing potential of love. In cases where one must take a backseat to the other, then let knowledge take a back seat to love.

To illustrate this point Paul addresses a question put to him by the Corinthians about food sacrificed to idols. The church in Corinth was situated in the heart of the Greco-Roman world with its mythologies, gods and idol worship. Temples to numerous gods were found everywhere, and it was the custom for pagans to sacrifice animals to them. The poorer cuts of meet were burned for the gods, and the better cuts of meat were given to the priests or eaten by the pagan worshippers at temple banquets for weddings and such. Because the priests received more meat than they could consume, they sold some to the local markets which, in turn, sold it to the public (which is one way the priests were compensated).

Many members of the Christian church at Corinth were former pagans who used to participate in such pagan sacrifices and banquets. When they became Christians they sought to leave all things pagan behind them. Meat which had been sacrificed to pagan gods was one of them. To buy that meat at the marketplace and then eat it was sacrilegious to them—it was participating, however indirectly, in the worship of idols. Therefore these pagan coverts to Christianity were fastidious about the meat they purchased and ate, going to great lengths to insure that it had not been tainted through the worship of idols.

Others Christians at the church in Corinth did not come from pagan backgrounds. Some were Jewish coverts and others had relocated from other places where they had no exposure to pagan practices. They had no problem purchasing and eating meat from the marketplace regardless of whether or not it had previously been sacrificed to idols. To think that such meat was somehow spiritually contaminated was silly superstition and beneath their intellectual dignity. So they freely consumed it, creating quite a scandal among their Christian brothers and sisters in the church who had formerly been pagans.

Eventually this issue was brought to Paul’s attention by the non-pagan converts who wrote him while he was off planting churches elsewhere, and he felt constrained to address it by letter. He writes: So, then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one (Verse 4). Paul was not a former pagan. Paul’s life had not been impacted by pagan practices. Paul personally had no problem eating meat that had been sacrificed to an idol which was, in his words, nothing at all.

I know this, he says, some of you know this, But, he continues in our text, not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled (Verse 7). Some people have been weakened by past experiences so that it is a violation of their conscience to eat such food. We can intellectually try to convince them otherwise, but on a deeper level they still have a problem with it. But that’s their problem, not ours. We are free to eat such meat, right?

Paul responds, Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge (Verses 9-11). In other words if you go to a pagan temple to, say, attend a wedding and reception where you eat food sacrificed to an idol, a fellow Christian with the weakened conscience might see you and follow your example and later come to regret what is for him or her a violation of conscience. Indeed, such a person might even feel that living up to Christian standards is a lost cause and revert back to paganism.

Paul concludes, When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall (Verses 12-13). Never mind the intellectual knowledge that an idol is nothing, or that meat sacrificed to an idol can not be spiritually tainted or that Christians are freed from paganism. If you love your Christian brothers and sisters you will be as patient with them and forbearing of their weaknesses as Christ has been with you. At least when you are with them you will forego the burger and order the salad plate.

Just like you will forego the beer or cocktail and order a coke if you are dining with someone who is struggling to overcome an alcohol problem. I know long-term recovering alcoholics who insist that their family and friends go ahead and have a drink in their presence because they do not want their problem to put a crimp in everyone else’s style, but I also know that it definitely does not help to drink in front of some who are maybe just beginning a mighty struggle to overcome a drinking problem.

Intellectually we may think that alcohol is their problem and not ours. We can drink one and be satisfied. We may not even finish the one we have. We might go a week or two or longer without any alcohol or any desire for it at all. But if the opportunity presents itself, we want what we want. Why should our freedom be restricted by somebody else’s problem? They just happen to be around. It’s not like we are intentionally trying to tempt them.

Nevertheless they are being tempted by our behavior because they have a weakness. A voice inside them is saying, "Everybody else is having fun. I deserve some fun too. Why should I be the only one to go without? One sip wouldn’t hurt, just to loosen up a bit." But if somebody is emboldened by our behavior to take just a sip, they probably are not going to stop with one sip. They are probably going to slip right back into a problem that can easily destroy their lives. If we love them we are not going to do anything that might encourage their drinking.

Who are the weak looking to you for strength? What are they getting from you, intellectual reasoning about how they should buck up and be more like you? Or are they getting the kind of love and understanding that is willing to make personal sacrifices on their behalf? Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.