March 25, 2016              1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Download discussion questions:  1 Corinthians 8_1-13 knowledge

Paul begins this passage with another of his “Now concerning” transitions to a new topic.  These may be the specific questions the Corinthians had asked him about (1 Corinthians 7:1).  From the first subject of marriage (7:1-40), now he turns to another question that was a part of the Corinthians’ lives:  idol worship (8:1).  The specific issue was about the food that had been sacrificed to idols.  What could (and could not) be done with the food after the pagan service?

A pattern of repeated words or ideas often gives a good starting point for seeing a writer’s concern.  In this passage words like “know” and “knowledge” occur at least ten times.  Early in the passage Paul makes it clear that knowledge has a dark side.  “Knowledge makes arrogant” (phusioi, φυσιοῖ, “puffs up).

Arrogance (using the same word) has already been in Paul’s concerns for the Corinthian Christians.  The apparent competition or comparison of different teachers was one source of their arrogance (4:6, 18, 19).  Then they seemed boastful about the liberal outlook they had on blatant immorality (5:2).  Both of those sources of their arrogance were from distortions in their understanding.  Those two distortions come together in this passage.  The rivalry between followers of different teachers was likely based on the knowledge they had from the teachers.  The acceptance of immoral behavior may have been a twisted understanding of grace and what was permitted in this new Christian morality.  Now their knowledge of what was permitted concerning pagan sacrifices reopened the same problem of arrogance.

Paul was emphatic about the emptiness of idols:  “There is no such thing” (v.4).  A natural question came up in our group.  How could he say that when there were idols everywhere in that culture?  Paul himself had seen plenty of idols, if nowhere else in Athens just before he came to Corinth (Acts 18).  One member of our group suggested that Paul understood that those objects of wood or stone or metal were statues until the people made them idols.  Another comment pointed back to the Hebrew Scriptures, and the irony that a piece of wood was used to make a “god” and the leftovers were used for a cooking fire (Isaiah 44:13-17), or the psalmist’s ridicule of idols that have mouths but cannot speak and feet but cannot walk (Psalm 115).  The understanding of the one true God exposes the meaninglessness of idols that are really just statues.  That knowledge (Paul’s theme) is an important part of the Christian faith.

The problem is that not everyone (“all men” in v. 7) have that knowledge.  The reason is the culture they are immersed in.  Many Corinthians, before becoming Christians, were “accustomed to the idol” and that perspective was all they knew.  Idols were just a part of life, so the adjustment to the radical idea of a single God was difficult.  In our discussion the word “confusion” came up several times.  For those “accustomed” to idols, comfortable with multiple “gods” and various religions, the adjustment to one and only one true God could be bewildering.

That adjustment was the pressure point the Corinthian church seemed to be feeling.  Some in the church (maybe those who had been believers for a while, or those who had been under Paul’s eighteen-month ministry in the city) had the knowledge.  They understood the difference between an idol and a statue.  But new believers, fresh from the pagan temples, would probably assume that Christ was just one more deity to add to their list.  They would expect to continue the normal patterns of life and pagan worship and meals in the various temples (v. 10).  Other new followers of Christ might still be confused about the reality of idols and not yet recognize they were just statues.  The potential for confusion had many dimensions.

No one raised a hand when I asked the group how many had been tempted to eat meat offered to idols this week.  This is one of many passages that have important application, but the application looks much different in twenty-first century Denver (or anywhere) than in first century Greece.  One person shared a story about a friend who made the statement that “the Broncos are my god” and then offered a toast, which the person did not share.  Another described the controversy in a church when a yoga class was started.  Some in the church wanted the exercise and stretching benefits of the discipline and had no interest in the religious aspect (perhaps the “knowledge” Paul describes?) while others felt it was a dangerous association with spiritual darkness.  There are plenty of modern examples of controversies similar to what Paul was addressing.

We discussed our usual response to issues like the yoga class.  The consensus seemed to be that our first step is usually education.  “If we can just get the people to see that yoga is harmless exercise…” OR, “If we can just show them that the spiritual darkness is inseparable from the stretching…”  Interestingly, Paul says nothing in this passage about explaining or educating each other.  He doesn’t encourage those with knowledge to carefully explain their position.  He doesn’t exhort the weak to think more about what grace means.  Our usual response is about knowledge and Paul makes it clear that knowledge is not the issue.  Edifying love is the issue (v. 1).  In fact, our discussion suggested that our usual approach (“Let me explain this to you…”) may even be a form of the arrogance that Paul warns about.

No one could say that Paul is against knowledge.  Most of his letters are efforts to communicate clear, precise knowledge about God, Christ, the church, Christian behavior, and a long list of topics.  Paul is not anti-intellectual or trying to over-simplify issues.  But neither does he want anyone to put knowledge ahead of love.  In addition to the use of the word “arrogance” mentioned above (4:6, 18, 19; 5:2), he uses the word once more in this letter, in chapter 13, “Love is not arrogant” (v. 4).  Knowledge that grows out of arrogance or expresses arrogance is not loving, even if the knowledge (“those are just statues”) is correct.  Paul’s personal response is the humility of suspending his personal freedom to avoid causing the confusion, making the brother stumble (v. 13).  Modifying our behavior can express the humility of Christ that will lovingly edify the person struggling with an issue.  Rather than causing stumbling we may have an opportunity to discuss the knowledge we have about grace.

Paul brings his point to a sobering reality in verse 11 with the chilling thought that even our accurate knowledge can have a toxic effect on “the brother for whose sake Christ died.”  I may need to correct that brother, I may need to instruct him, I may even need to challenge him.  But whatever I do must be done in light of that reality.  God forbid that my arrogance should impede the work of Christ in the life of another.  This passage may not be so much about how to respond to the yoga class, but how to respond do what goes on in my heart when confronted with disagreements within the church.

In remembering that we are daily dealing with those for whom Christ died, the words of C. S. Lewis are powerful:

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.  All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.  It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.  There are no ordinary people.  You have never talked to a mere mortal.  Nations, cultures, arts, civilization – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.  But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.[1]

[1] C.S.Lewis,The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses (New York:  HarperCollins, 2001), 45-46.