Author: Ryan Hale

Paul was working on a donation that the churches would offer to the church in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the home of the first church, the mother church, if you will. Jerusalem was the city where the apostles were continuing their work, but they were continuing the work under persecution and under significant financial stress as well.

So Paul’s desire was to share with the church in Jerusalem, and as he shared this desire, the vision to share with the church in Jerusalem, Paul began to also hear from the other churches in their desire to share in the work. And the response from the Macedonian churches was astounding:

For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people.

2 Corinthians 8:3-4

The Macedonians were not rich. In fact, they were quite poor, yet their hearts had been changed such that they wanted to participate in giving. They wanted to be generous. In fact, they urgently pleaded with Paul so that he would accept their gift. We don’t know if Paul had suggested that they not give, or possibly give less, but it seems that may have been a possibility. Yet the Macedonian churches truly wanted to participate. They truly wanted to be a part of what was happening. They urgently pleaded with Paul that they could give.

So Paul used this example as he wrote to the Corinthians to help them understand the heart of giving as a result of the change that Christ has made within us. Jesus had given all in his love for the Macedonians, and now the Macedonians are giving all that they could give for the body of Christ.

This is the change that Christ makes within us when we realize the truth of salvation that he has given to us. Not only does he give us eternal life, but a new heart. This changes everything, and as a result, makes us want to no longer live for ourselves, but to live for him and for his glory. We no longer want to keep everything for ourselves, but we want to give everything to him and for him.

This is the example that Paul is putting on display for the Corinthians. He is helping the Corinthian church to see that God has so completely changed the hearts of the Macedonian churches that they would plea with him to receive the gift that they had prepared, asking him to take their money such that it would be a blessing for the people living in Jerusalem.

What does this teach us? What do we do? How have we been changed? Are we living in this same way that we would urgently plea that someone would receive the gift that we have been called to give?

Or do we live for ourselves? Do I instead simply live for me?

We each, whether we make a lot of money or a little, have the privilege of sharing with another. This could be through our finances, or it could be through our time, or in giving what we have. Each person has received and so each person, as a result of what Christ has done in them, should also give. And in giving from what we have, we do not only give from our plenty, but we give urgently and pleadingly because of the great gift that has been given to each of us.

Paul called the Corinthians to a life of purity, a life devoted to God. He called them to not associate with the impure, dallying with that which is not from God, but instead to only associate themselves with that which comes from God.

So he says that, because we have these promises, let us purify ourselves. Let us leave all that is impure behind:

Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

2 Corinthians 7:1

Hang on a second, though… The reason that we are doing this is because we have “these promises”. Which promises are we talking about? What is Paul actually referring to when he says that we have “these promises”?

Paul is referencing back to chapter 6 when he listed out these three promises. First, he says:

“I will live with them
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be my people.”

2 Corinthians 6:16

This is a summary of the covenant that God made with his people, the Israelites, and it is directly connected to the covenant that God made with his people even today. From the time of Abraham and subsequently through Moses, then noted again by both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, God makes a covenant with his people that if they will follow his commanments, if they will obey him, then he will be their God and they will be his people.

In our time today, Jesus makes a New Covenant with us. At the last Passover supper, Jesus said that, like the cup that he was sharing with his disciples, his blood was poured out as a sign of the New Covenant.

What does that mean? Jesus is saying that, through his blood, God will be our God and we will be his people. Anyone who believes in him and places their faith in his blood will receive forgiveness for their sins, making them perfect and able to come before God based on his blood.

So originally Jesus, and now Paul, restates the covenant that God made with his people. He is pointing back to the Old Testament, to those various points at which God made his covenant with his people, but noting that we have the opportunity to be the people of God through the blood of Christ.

However, Paul continues by making the point that it is important that God’s people recognize the seriousness with which he takes the requirement of obedience. He quotes Isaiah and Ezekiel and shows that, not only through the original statement of the covenant, but also through the prophets, God calls his people to obedience of his commands, following him:

“Come out from them
and be separate,
says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you.”

2 Corinthians 6:17

God calls us to look to him. God calls us to be his people, and his people leave behind the things of the world. God’s people shoul not want that which is unclean, but instead, God’s people should want him and him alone.

Jesus said it yet another way. He said:

If you love me, keep my commands.

John 14:15

How can you show Jesus that you love him? By obeying him. Do what he says to do and you will be showing him that you love him. You will show that you are his people, the people of God in Christ, by obeying what he has commanded us to do.

So we aren’t just talking about obeying rules. We are talking about loving him. We are talking about showing him who he is to us. We are returning to him the love that he first showed to us by giving himself completely to us.

But then Paul looks back one more time to Samuel’s writings that spoke of David and the nation of Israel and relates those promises to those that God makes to us even today:

“I will be a Father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”

2 Corinthians 6:18

That is an even greater promise! God is making the promise that he will not only be our God and we will be his people, but going much further, he says that he will be our Father and we will be his sons and daughters. So yes, we are within his kingdom and he is our king, but the relationship is even more intimate. The connection is even closer. We are in God’s family. If we are in Christ, God is our Father and we are his sons and daughters. That is the type of love that God shows for us. Not master and servant, but Father and child.

It is for that reason, then, that Paul says that we must put away the things that contaminate our body and spirit. We must leave behind the things of the world. We are in a family relationship with God himself, the creator and king of the entire universe. The one who made us and the one who saves us, who redeems us. He wants us as his child, adopted into his family through the blood of Christ. This is the God that we look to and call Father. These are the promises that God has made to each of us who come to him through Christ.

Last night, a new friend of mine from Iran, one of the most unreached places on earth, told me about his attempt to share what God has been doing in his life with some men and women from his own country. He explained that so many had walked away from Islam but yet they were unwilling to listen to what he was saying because of the pain that was in their lives. He had attempted to share the Gospel with them to help them understand that they can know God through Jesus, not just know a religion with its rules and regulations. He explained, though, that it seemed as if they had been blinded, that they couldn’t see. They couldn’t hear. For all of his trying, it seemed that they just couldn’t understand what he was trying to tell them.

I was reminded of this as I read Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians this morning. He explains something very similar:

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:4-6

Paul says that Satan has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. They are wounded. They are hurt. They are unable to accept the Gospel, and that unfortunately the case for many different reasons. Maybe it is a relationship rift within their family. Maybe it is a misplaced expectation of God. Maybe it is a disappointment from their religion. Whatever the situation is, the “god” of this age has discouraged them, has blinded them such that they cannot see the light that has come from God.

Jesus himself is the light. He is the image of God, the true image of God here on the earth. God is spirit and cannot be seen, yet in Jesus we can see him. However, if we are blind, it is impossible to see Jesus. Therefore, it is impossible to see God.

Paul says that he does not preach himself. He does not call people to follow him. Instead, he calls people to follow Christ, to believe in Jesus. He, and by extension, we, are servants of others so that would believe in Christ.

How different and upside-down is what Paul saying when we compare it to our experience in this world? Do we sometimes actually have the impression that, as people who go to a church, or to a mosque, or to a temple, that we are there to serve those who are leading? If that has ever happened to us, we should understand that this is something that we can expect to cause harm because that is not what God intended. He intended for us to know him and for those who serve the Lord to serve others, bringing them to Jesus, not bringing them to us.

My Iranian friend told me that he had spoken recently with another man from Russia, telling him how he felt that God was with him, that God had been helping him in the moments when he was the most lonely. He had moved to a new country where he didn’t know anyone and yet now he was connected to a community where he felt that he could grow together with others. He wasn’t necessarily even intending to try to share the Gospel with his Russian friend, but it seemed that God was working within him, someone that had not been interested in talking about the things of God before, where instead now he was suddenly open and said that he had felt a similar loneliness himself, that he could relate to the loneliness that my Iranian friend had experienced. We are praying, and will continue to pray that God will lift the veil of blindness and will help his Russian friend to know Christ.

It is clear that this a war for the hearts of the people all around us. It is not a physical war, but a spiritual war. The Father is calling people to come to Christ. He wants that all would be saved. Yet Satan is attempting to obscure that call, to blind everyone possible from the call that the Father is giving. His hope is to destroy God’s people by blinding them, by preventing them from knowing Christ.

Like the situation with my Iranian friend, though, God places us in the path of people every day with whom he is speaking. We must be sensitive and listen to those around us, preparing ourselves for the moments in which the veil is torn away, the moments in which God opens the door and we can simply encourage people to come to know Jesus, the one and only one who can fill the one true need of that person’s life: To know God and to live for him forever.

In Paul’s time, this was a familiar scene. As the Roman emperors returned from conquest and war, they would enter the city triumphant, led by trumpets and fanfare with the streets lined with people waving palm branches in a show of victory and celebration.

But trailing behind the triumphant emperor, and behind the legions of troops who had fought the battle, were the captives, the spoils of the war. These were the people that they had won. They were the ones that were conquered, that were overtaken in the war that they had fought. These might be some of the soldiers that had surrendered, or they may have been the civilians of the lands that that been won. In either case, they were the people who now overtaken, now conquered such that they would be the captives, and what had been theirs was now the property of the Romans, including their very lives.

I believe this is the type of scene that Paul is thinking about as he refers to his experience in going to speak with others about Christ. He says that he – they, including others with whom he is doing this work – are like those people who are at the end of the procession.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?

2 Corinthians 2:14-16

Paul is saying that they are captives in Christ’s triumphal procession. He is painting the picture of Jesus as the returning king, the one who has defeated the enemy, and they are trailing behind him, their king.

But we can imagine that these people probably didn’t smell very well. They had probably marched a long way from their homeland. They had probably sweated and maybe soiled themselves at times. They were probably being drug along by ropes and chains. They were like those people who were bringing along the end of the king’s triumphant procession.

Except this procession is led by Jesus who came to conquer sin and death. He came as a conquering king, carrying each of us along behind. Yet only to those who will be saved does the “stench” actually smell like the smell of life. On the other hand, to those who will not believe or those who will not follow Christ, to them our smell is that of death.

So in this way, we also are like Paul. We are like those who are being carried along as the captives, as the spoils of war. We are those who have been conquered, who were won by Christ and by his blood. And we also produce this smell, either of death or of life. Either life to those who are being saved, or of death to those who are perishing.

One of the most difficult conversations for most churches that I have been associated with, is the conversation related to the use of money. It is ironic because this has often been one of the objections by people who have been part of a church and have since left, saying that they felt like all the church ever talked about was money.

But in the majority of churches where I have been, it is spoken about, at most, once per year, usually around the time that the church is setting its budget for the year. Possibly in that time that was the point at which we would hear a message about tithing, or it might even be just a practical discussion about the plan for the budget.

But I have also heard other people simply say that there is no reason to talk about money in the church, that God would provide all that is needed.

Yet there is one signficant problem with this point of view: Money, and the use of money, is one of the most common themes for instruction throughout the course of the Bible. It was one of the main themes that Jesus used in the course of his teachings.

Why would that be?

It wasn’t that Jesus was trying to collect more money. It wasn’t that the early church was trying to build a new building. No, the main reason for these discussions was the condition of the heart of the people who were to give. The question was, at that time, and is even still today:

Where is your treasure?

In what are you placing value?

Do you value the things of this earth? Do you, essentially, value that which money can buy today? Or do you place your treasure in heaven, valuing those things that are beyond this earth?

Paul was direct with the churches with whom he was working with regard to the discussion about money. The church in Jerusalem was suffering and they were the original church, the “mother” church, we could say. So Paul felt that it was important that the other churches contribute to help the church in Jerusalem continue on, relieving their burden, even from far away.

So to do this, he looked to each church to contribute:

Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me.

1 Corinthians 16:1-4

Paul is writing to the churches and telling them that they needed to contribute to the collection for the church in Jerusalem. Even further, he even went on to tell them how to do it. This would be a sacrifice for them, but that sacrifice should be made regularly, on a weekly basis, not all at once, probably so that it wouldn’t seem like such a burden to give a lot of money in one pressure-filled moment.

So Paul is clear, not only in the need to contribute, but even also in the manner in which the collection should be done.

In our churches today, we need to teach about the need for using the funds that the Lord has given us as well. We need to explain even how it should be done, just as we see with Paul in this circumstance. Of course, we should also be clear about how the funds should be used for the kingdom of God, not only for the building of ever-larger buildings or other questionable expenses. Instead, let’s teach the use of money, helping those who wish to follow Christ learn to do so with all that God has given us, including the sum of money that the Lord has called us to use for his purpose.

Without the hope of the resurrection, there is no hope. Without the resurrection, there is nothing more. And there were some in the Corinthian church were saying that resurrection is not possible.

So Paul makes the point that if there is no resurrection, their faith is useless.

And if there is no resurrection, then Jesus was not resurrected.

And if Jesus was not resurrected, our faith is in vain. There is nothing to hold onto.

In that case, Paul says that you should then go and have a party!

If the dead are not raised,
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

1 Corinthians 15:32

He is quoting from Isaiah 22 where the people were called into repentance, to come back to the Lord. Yes the Israelites were not interested in repenting. They were not interested in returning to the Lord. No, instead, they were only interested in living for today. They were interested in only what they were interested in. They went on eating meat. They went on drinking wine. And in themselves these are not necessarily bad things, but in the context of the call to come to the Lord, they essentially ignored God.

And so, in the same way, Paul says that the Corinthians should do the same thing. If they deny the resurrection, they might as well just enjoy their day. They should do what they want to do. They should live their best life. Each one should “do you”, if you will.

In other words, live the life that you have because in the end, it really means nothing. There is no significance. There is nothing more to live for. Live it up. Eat and drink. Do whatever makes you feel good or whatever you want. You might as well because there is nothing else with which to concern yourself.

But if you believe in the resurrection, you live for Christ today as a result of the resurrection, and you live for Christ forever as a result of the resurrection. The hope of the resurrection of Christ, which defeated death, is our hope. When we say that we have faith, we mean that we have faith that Christ’s death was God’s sacrifice for our sins, just as was foretold by the scriptures, and that his resurrection to eternal life will also give us life forever with him.

Without the resurrection, we have no hope. Without the resurrection, there is no life, so we should go and do as we like, for tomorrow we die. But Jesus was raised from the grave. Jesus was raised to life and lives even today. We live for him today and we will continue to live for him in eternity.

The theme in the book of 1 Corinthians continues, chapter after chapter. This time, Paul is making the distinction between people who are speaking in tongues in the church and those who are prophesying. The core issue that he brings up is this:

Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church.

1 Corinthians 14:4

What is Paul talking about here? He is saying that if you speak in tongues, you are speaking the language of the Spirit of God. And that is good. We should speak the language of the Spirit.

But within the church, Paul is saying that there is little to no benefit in this. No one else can understand what you are saying. Yes, there can be – in fact, must be – an interpreter. Without the interpreter, Paul says that there should be no speaking in tongues.

Yet even still, even if there is an interpreter, who is being edified? Who is being built up? According to Paul, it is the one who is speaking, and only the one who is speaking, not anyone else who is listening.

So Paul says that we need to begin to think like adults and no longer like children:

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. In the Law it is written:

“With other tongues
and through the lips of foreigners
I will speak to this people,
but even then they will not listen to me,
says the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 14:18-21

What does he mean that we should think like adults and not children? Children think about what they want. They think about what makes them happy. Children think about what pleases them in the moment, what pleases them now.

Adults should think about the good of what others want. In fact, they are thinking about the needs of the children. They should be thinking about what others need, not just what they want in that moment.

This theme fits directly into the conversation of unity that Paul has been carrying throughout his letter to the Corinthians. One very important way that they can have unity is to no longer think about what they want, but what is needed to build others up, to build up the body of Christ.

Instead, Paul says that words of instruction and words of prophecy are the words that are needed to build others up. In fact, he makes a direct distinction with prophecy, telling the people to desire the gift of prophecy so that they can prophesy within the church.

What does that mean? Is Paul saying that we should have a church that is full of people who are telling the future all of the time?

Think about a person who has a prophetic gifting. This person, a prophet, speaks in two primary ways:

First, yes, they speak of the future. They tell of what is to come. They speak words of encouragement for God’s future work and the significance of his work upon our lives. As believers, we are humbled and come in fear of the great power of God, but that same power is where we place our hope and faith for eternal life and that all of the evils of the world to be set right. God’s work is an encouragement for each one of us, both because it will come to a righteous and holy end, and also because he includes each of us that are in Christ and within his kingdom within his work. These prophecies, when properly aligned with the word of God, are a great encouragement to the body of Christ, to the church, and should edify the church each time that they are heard.

However, a second type of message of a prophet is that of realignment to God, a call to God’s people to come back to the Lord. The prophet prophecies, speaking to God’s people that they will hear the clear call to repentance. They speak a clear word from the Lord when the people have strayed from the path that God has laid out for them, calling the people to return back to him.

So these calls to repentance, these calls to return, are also encouraging for the entire church because they are calls to return back to Christ. They are calls to return back to the one who unites his entire body. And what is more, Paul says, if an unbeliever is there while the believers are prophesying, they will understand that God is truly there among them. Not because they are hearing a strange tongue spoken, but because they will be convicted of sin as a result of the prophetic message.

But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

1 Corinthians 14:24-25

There are different ways in which we might make the point that Paul is making. He is calling the people to unity and to edify one another within the church, building up the church, building up the people around him.

Another way that I have also heard this expressed and that I tend to subscribe to myself is to ask this question: Whose kingdom am I building? The kingdom of God where Christ is king? Or my own kingdom?

In other words, am I spending more time thinking about what I want and what I prefer? And am I then acting based on those thoughts? Or am I spending more time thinking about what will build up the body of Christ, thus being part of the solution that will build the kingdom of God and bring him glory…and then acting upon that?

Those are important questions, I believe, even for the church today. There are many other silly types of issues that divide us today based on our own preferences. There are many different types of churches that branch off of other churches based on stylistic choices. Choices in music. Choices in preaching style. Choices in the types of chairs that we sit in. Choices in the temperature of the room. So in reality, as the saying goes, if we point the finger at others – as we might here with the Corinthian church – we have three more fingers pointing directly back at us. That which we might accuse the Corinthians of doing, we do the same, and worse.

So we must look for ways in which we can edify the body of Christ, ways in which we can build others up in Christ, not tear them down.

God help us to edify the body for building up your kingdom, to your glory.

The message is simple: unity is paramount. Whether we are talking about avoiding division because of alignment to different leaders in the church, division because of socioeconomic status, division as a result of rebellion against authority, division over legal rights and religious knowledge, or any other type of division, the message is the same. Put all of these things aside to align yourself with Christ and instead of fighting such that you end up dividing, fight for unity.

Paul made a metaphor and called us the body of Christ. One part of a body cannot tell another part that it isn’t needed. One part of a body cannot tell another that it isn’t wanted. No, a body needs all of the parts of the body.

The church is the body of Christ:

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

1 Corinthians 12:27

There are different parts of the body. Just like a human body that has arms, legs, a head, muscles, and various organs that make the systems of the body function, the body of Christ also has different parts that function differently but yet all function together.

No part of a body would work well without the other part and no part of the body would want to lose any other part of the body. Not only would there be incredible pain, there would be a lack of function. There would be something missing in the normal function of the way that the body should work, in the way that it was designed to work.

In the same way, in the body of Christ, we are all designed to have a role and every part is necessary. Every part is required. If we lose a part, there would be incredible pain, incredible anguish. And the body would no longer function as it should. The body would no longer function is the way that it was designed to work.

Each part of the body has a role. Each part of the body of Christ has a gift that it has been given. Do not hold back your function, your role, in the body of Christ. And do not reject the function, the role in the body of Christ of others.

I am not sure that I always grasp the extent to which God and his word stand in direct contrast with the ways of man and the systems of our world today. Some might say that to live the Christian life is like swimming upstream. Others might say that a Christian should be counter-cultural.

While these descriptions are certainly correct, I’m not sure that the language is vivid enough even yet to describe how different God’s ways are from man’s ways.

I thought of that today as I read – yet again, after reading this same verse many, many times and not thinking of it this way – this verse in 1 Corinthians 10:

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31

Paul has explained to the Corinthians that they should not be so prideful in their insistence that they can eat food that has been sacrificed to idols. He tells the Corinthians that they should be considering others, preventing them from stumbling in their walk with Christ just by their eating, just because they have the knowledge that they can.

No, if they were to do this, they would be thinking only of themselves, and this is exactly how the world works. And this is why eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols is such a significant issue.

Yes, Paul says, it is important not to participate with idols, which are demonic in nature. It is important of course, in that case, not to eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols.

But even more important is the need to think first of the glory for God.

In the world’s way of thinking, we think of what we want. We think of what pleases us. That which makes us feel good.

We spend time on ourselves. We spend time making ourselves money. We work to build our fame, our fortune, our power. We spend time on that for which we are passionate.

Paul says, though, that if you are a believer, if you follow Christ, you think and live very differently. You live to glorify God. In this example, Paul is talking about whether or not the believers should eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols, but he is clear in his comprehensiveness of his statement: Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.

Are there ways in which that which we want can overlap with giving glory to God? Yes, of course. But frequently, like the situation with the Corinthians’ desire to eat meat, even if it has been sacrificed to idols, they need to first consider what would bring God glory. Yes, legally, they can do it. But no, it will not bring God glory. Others may stumble. Others may lose their opportunity to know Christ. Others may not be saved because of their desire to exercise their rights. And thus, we will lose our opportunity to glorify God, or for him to receive more glory because that would be one or more persons who will not worship him, who will not glorify him.

God’s way to think, to act, to live, is completely different than the world’s way, than our way. As followers of Christ, we must learn to not live for ourselves, not even just living for others, but instead living for the glory of God.

Apostle Paul and the Corinthian church have evidently been exchanging letters back and forth and the Corinthians, unfortunately, seem to be somewhat contrarian in their perspective of how they should be treating certain – let’s say – more sensitive topics.

For example, at one point, the Corinthians wrote to Paul that “We all possess knowledge.”

What are they saying?

It seems that the Corinthians are saying to Paul that they know what he knows. They understand what was written. They are saying that they have the knowledge of the scriptures that Paul has, which in all likelihood is true.

In short, it seems that they are saying that they know their rights. They have the right, in this case, to eat food, specifically meat, that has been sacrificed to idols. Why? Because an idol is nothing. There is no actual god in that idol, so any food that has been sacrificed to that idol is not actually a sacrifice at all.

But Paul explains back to the Corinthians that there is something more that is required. It isn’t just that the Corinthians need to know their rights. They don’t need to just know the law. They need to understand, within the confines of the law, how they can love other people in such a way that those others can come to know Christ. They need to know how they can do that without placing barriers in front of those other people, preventing those others from fully coming to Jesus, giving themselves to him.

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God.

1 Corinthians 8:1-3

By eating this meat that has been sacrificed to idols, even though these people within the Corinthian church are correct from a lawful perspective and from a spiritually “legal” perspective, Paul is explaining that they are acting wrongly from a loving perspective. Their actions, while based on right understanding, are actually preventing other people from knowing Christ because it looks completely wrong to these other people.

This meat that they are eating has been sacrificed to another god. How could they eat it? That is what the pagans would do!

Paul is saying that this is the thinking of those who are considering coming to follow Christ and yet are seeing the Corinthian Christians eat this meat and find themselves scandalized, or as Paul says, it becomes a stumbling block to them and their young faith is destroyed.

Is their faith destroyed because the Corinthians were wrong to eat the meat? No, they weren’t wrong in their understanding. They weren’t wrong in their knowledge. They were wrong in their love for other people.

They knew that there would controversy by going to eat this meat. They knew that this was a significant issue of their day. And yet, because they knew they were right – or because they knew their “rights” – they went ahead and did it anyway. And they did it despite realizing that other people would fall away from Christ.

Paul explains, though, that if someone would fall away from Christ as a result of the meat he were eating, he would never eat meat again! The important point is not that we are right, or that we are able to exercise our rights. The important point, instead, is that we would show love to others so that they would know Jesus!

Of course, there are fundamental truths upon which we cannot compromise. We cannot remove the foundations of our faith to accommodate people who do not believe in the foundations of that faith.

But there are many different aspects of our faith that are secondary, yet have, because of the knowledge that we have obtained, become primary in our minds such that our insistence that we are right, that we can do this thing or we insist that we cannot do this thing, that it becomes a stumbling block for others to follow Christ.

Here is, in my opinion, a silly example:

I have heard it said that Christians cannot have tattoos. I have also heard it said that Christians are allowed to have tattoos. I understand the argument for why someone would say one or the other, why they would take one position or the other. But are you so sure of your position – for or against – that it is worth arguing about such a statement that you are willing to risk someone falling out of relationship with you, or as I have actually seen happen, with Christ as a result?

There are several examples, I believe, that we could make with this, but I believe Paul, in this case would say that if, by getting a tattoo, you cause another person to stumble, he would never get a tattoo. On the other hand, if criticizing a person for getting a tattoo might cause them to stumble in their relationship with Christ, I believe that he would not voice that criticism, understanding that there are differing views on this topic and that this would be a significant problem for some people.

We must be careful with our knowledge, that it doesn’t puff us up, but instead walk in love, building up one another so that each will know Christ and grow in him.