THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER
"Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. " (John 5:39)

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 41, NOVEMBER 10, 2002

GIVE ME MY RIGHTS!!!  

            We live in a very selfish society.  It seems as though everybody is demanding “their rights” and woe be to anyone who in some way seems to infringe upon them.  Folks are ready to call a lawyer and sue at the drop of a hat.  It is even possible for those of us who comprise the body of Christ to fall into this “Me First” way of thinking.  Paul teaches us some very valuable lessons about this way of thinking in 1 Corinthians 8, 9, and 10.  

            1 Corinthians 8:1 – 2, sets the stage for the discussion.  It says, “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge.  Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.  If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know.”    There were some questions that evidently had been brought to Paul’s attention that he was about to consider in chapter 8.  Those questions revolved around the eating of meat that had been sacrificed to an idol.  Remember that this was Corinth , a Gentile city filled with idolatry, and that the church there was made up of Gentiles converted from that idolatry.  

            The questions were: (1) Could a Christian attend a banquet in the temple of an idol?  (2) Could a Christian eat meat sacrificed to an idol in the home of a believing or non-believing friend?  (3) Could a Christian eat meat sacrificed to an idol if he inadvertently bought it at the market?  In the very beginning Paul makes the point that any answer arrived at must be arrived at by reasoning tempered with love.  Anyone strutting around thinking that he had all the answers due to his superior knowledge didn’t even know the most basic thing.  

            In verse 4 Paul wrote, “Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one.”    The foundational point was that idols were nothing.  They were useless and meaningless.  There was but one God that existed, and there was, and is, no other.  However, not all of those converted Gentile Christians fully understood that yet.  There were some who still viewed the eating of meat that had been part of a sacrifice to an idol as worship of that idol.  They had been raised attending feasts in honor of the idols and to suddenly change their attitude toward such was difficult.  So, if they ate such meat their conscience was violated.   

            In verse 8 we find, “But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.”  Paul’s point was simply that food does not affect our relationship to God.  What we eat doesn’t make a bit of difference one way or the other.  (Please understand that he is not discussing gluttony in this passage.)  

            Now consider verses 9 – 11.  “But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow becomes a stumbling block to the weak.  For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?  For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake  Christ died.”  The brother or sister in Christ who understood that the idol was nothing and that he or she was free to eat the meat had to be very careful and considerate, lest their knowledge and understanding turn out to be an occasion of stumbling for the brother who did not understand.  Perhaps he would be emboldened to do something that he believed in his heart was wrong.  Christ died for the brother who had not yet arrived at that understanding.  Shouldn’t a brother who had such knowledge be willing to forego his liberty to eat to help the other?  

            Paul’s conclusion to the matter is found in 8:13 and in 10:23 – 24.  He wrote, “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, that I might not cause my brother to stumble.”  Over in chapter 10, we find, “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.  All things are lawful, but not all things edify.  Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.”  

            As a Christian, even if something is right and proper in itself when understood, if my doing it will cause another brother to stumble, then I need to let it go.  I need to be willing to forego my liberty to help another.  

            In chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians, Paul demonstrated how this principle of conduct had ruled his life as an evangelist and apostle.  He had not married, even though it was his right to do so, in order to facilitate his work.  Being single made it much easier for Paul to move about and thus teach more the gospel of Christ.  He had not required the brethren in Corinth to help in his support, even though he had the right to do so.  He had foregone that right with them in order to help them.  He was always willing to relinquish a personal right for the benefit of others.  So should we.  

            “Give no offense either to Jews or Greeks or to the church of God;  just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved” ( 1 Cor. 10:32 – 33).    Personal rights and liberties are not nearly so important as is the salvation of others.  It must truly be God first, others seconds, I am third.

                                                                        Greg Litmer

 A man and his son went to services, and when they came out the father was complaining that the services were too long, the preacher wasn’t any good, and the singing was off-key.  Finally the little boy said, “Daddy, I thought it was pretty good for a dollar.”