4th Sunday after Epiphany “I Can ~ but I Won’t”
January 28, 2024 1Corinthians 8:1-13
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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
For this Lutheran Education week, Paul teaches us a lesson based on one of the very basic doctrines of the Bible: ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ We think about others & care for them because of the way Jesus cares for us, and saves us from our sins. As Christ has loved us, so we are to love one another.
Sometimes, even though we can do something, we don’t do it, so that someone else doesn’t get hurt. And God is not just concerned about us physically hurting someone; He especially doesn’t want us to spiritually hurt someone. We are to be careful so that we don’t lead someone into temptation to sin. Recall Matt.18:6, when Jesus warns you saying: ‘whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in Me to sin, it would be better for them to have a mill stone tied around their neck & be thrown into the depths of the sea.’ We are also to be careful that we don’t cause someone to relive a past guilt of their past sins, of which they’ve been forgiven. To summarize this teaching of Paul, let’s say: “Yes, I can; but, no, I won’t.”
A simple illustration could come from this time of the NFL football playoff games. Sometimes we see players of the losing team interviewed after the game, and they focus on one bad call from the referee; as if that’s the only reason they lost the game, instead of all the missed passes, missed tackles, or fumbles. Sometimes, then, that results in a media frenzy of blame & suspicion of all referees for the next games. Instead of stirring up that kind of trouble, that player can decide: Yes, I can focus on & complain about that one call; but no, I won’t. By doing that, that player also becomes a good example to other players, to fans, & to young people about what it means to respect the game & the referees, & practice good sportsmanship.
The principle is: ‘I can do many things; but -at times- for the sake of others, I won’t.’
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In our Epistle lesson, the Holy Spirit, thru Paul, puts this teaching in front of us by beginning with these words: “Now concerning food offered to idols…”(v 1). We are not very familiar with this idea: Food sacrificed to idols, & not eating that meat. So, what’s this all about? In Paul’s day, in the city of Corinth, you would find all sorts of temples & shrines to various idols & false gods.
What would happen is that sacrifices of animals would be made, and the meat of those animals would be split 3 ways. First, some would be left at the altar for the false god. Second, some would be eaten as a celebration by the people who worshiped that false god. And third, some would be taken to the marketplace & sold. Since there were many false gods & many occasions for sacrificing, IF a person in Corith was going to eat any meat, that meat -likely- had first been sacrificed to an idol before it reached the marketplace.
What complicates things is that these temples or shrines were also the meeting places for that community. That means, that the birthday party, anniversary dinner, Kiwanis & Rotary meeting, were going to happen at places where idols were worshiped. The meat for the meal would come from the altar where it had been sacrificed to a false god. The Christian church in Corith is surrounded by this culture; with -both- it’s older members & newer converts; with those of strong & mature faith, and those whose faith was new, immature & tender.
From Paul words, we see that some of the members of that Corinthian congregation were a bit too puffed up in their own knowledge. They thought, ‘We know those are false gods;
& the idols are just wood, metal or stone. We know there’s just one true God. We know this food isn’t going to take us away from Jesus. It’s just plain food, because false gods don’t really exist anyway. We can eat at these temple meals without harm.” And all that was true; and they could.
However, in the same body of believers there were other people who had once been involved in those kind of sacrifices & worship. They had been brought up as children or deceived as adults into those false religions. Then the Gospel of Christ had come and saved them from that spiritual death. At this time, they were not so strong, & sometimes they still had doubts.
For them to eat that meat made them feel guilty == like they were participating again in false worship; that meat & those idols were still too closely connected for them, so their conscience was hurt. Their tender faith was afraid that participating in those meals would lead them away from Jesus. These were the kinds of ‘little ones’ that Jesus was warning about when He talked about mill stones.
Now, this was enough of a concern, that someone wrote to Paul about this for his guidance. And the word from the Lord is not ‘yes’ or ‘no’; it’s in between. Obviously,
the actual worship of false gods & idols is wrong.
Just like /adultery, /stealing, /abusive anger, /profanity, /& drunkenness are sins and are forbidden; whether in public or private. But eating this meat is a grey area. Paul says, ‘yes, you can eat this meat, like in the privacy of your home, since you know the idol is a fake, and you’re not participating in its false worship.’
But later, in chpt.10, Paul comes back & says, ‘And no, you can’t be a part of those temple meals when they are a mixture of a social & spiritual things, because that meal is a participation with the demons that may be present there. That meal not only gives the wrong public witness of your faith, but is spiritually offending to those who are struggling to stay faithful to Jesus.’
So then, what about when you’re not in public, but you are with other people?
Can you eat the meat that had been sacrificed to idols then? Here is where we get that principle: ‘Yes, I can; but, no, I won’t = if it could hurt a person I’m with.’ If that person sees me eating that meat of idols, and begins to think that that it’s okay to worship the idol too, then I’m in the wrong, & I might have to go shopping for a mill stone. Out of love for the brother or sister who could stumble, even tho you can, you don’t.
God’s people are called upon to be wise & discerning, & always looking after others. Some things in the world are not commanded one way or the other, and we DO have freedom in Christ. Our conscience may be clear & our relationship with the Lord Jesus secure. However, when those things put a strain on the conscience of my brother or sister in Christ, now God is expecting me to help & protect them. This is the way it IS as Christians in a world that isn’t always ‘black or white.’
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So, even tho we don’t have that same problem of ‘meat sacrificed to idols’ in our culture, how can we be mindful of this Biblical principle? One application that often gets used is this:
(wine glass) So, is it okay to have a glass of wine? Yes; Biblically, there’s no question about it, as Jesus himself drank wine. Getting drunk is wrong; it’s a sin. But God gave wine for His festivals, and to gladden the heart of man, says Ps.104. And between this ‘yes’ & ‘no’ we are to be discerning, with Paul.
It is said that, in our day, one out of 6 Americans are problem drinkers or alcoholics.
If that was your craving, how difficult would it be for you to attend a party, a celebration, or a baseball game, where alcohol is plentiful, & everyone else partakes under self-control?
That struggling ‘neighbor’ could use the encouragement of someone who has the mind of the Spirit to think, ‘I can; but I won’t. I’ll have what they’re having.’ Love your neighbor as your self. That’s one example of how it works. You & I have much freedom in Christ; but you & I are also servants of our brothers & sisters in Christ, in Jesus’ name. As meat was connected to false worship, so alcohol may be connected to drunkenness. That’s the most common of the examples of this principle of avoiding something that may tempt our neighbor to sin.
This principle can be applied to other things. If a person has trouble with compulsive shopping or hoarding, you won’t take them with you when it’s time to get a new wardrobe, or when you want to hit all the spring rummage sales. Can you go? Yes. But you won’t if they’re with you. Are you taking your diabetic friend out for lunch? Yes, you could go to the fast food restaurant, but instead you’ll defer to them for a place with more healthy choices. Likewise, when helping a young person shop for clothing, you will avoid those places that make immodesty too easy to choose. I can buy a lottery ticket, but not when I’m with someone who’s had money troubles because of lottery tickets or gambling.
Are you a person that has some good self control over social media, phone use, or how much online video gaming you do? But what about the other person who is with you? Are they someone who can go overboard with those things & it ends up causing them trouble? The Lord does not want you to be the cause of their trouble. And we won’t belittle people by announcing that ‘we could, but we’re looking out for them.’ Love is not boastful or proud, says 1Cor.13, it serves. I know I can do many things, but I love my brother or sister in Christ, so this time I won’t.
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Now, as Paul aims these words at our old nature, has the Holy Spirit brought into our minds this moring some times when we have exercised our freedom to do something, but also hurt a brother or sister in the process? We have. Maybe we’re not positive, but we can think of some times when our attitude was: ‘I’m going to do what I want; they’ll just have to put on their big-boy-pants & fend for themselves.’ That sounds ‘puffed up.’
And what about those times when it didn’t even occur to us that someone with a tender conscience & faith was seeing what we were doing & were tempted because of it. But that’s why we have this Word from the Lord. In this body of Christ, we are not alone
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There is good news here for those times we have failed to care for our brother or sister, ignored them, or just failed to think of them. It’s in the words Paul uses, in vs.11, to remind us that Christ Jesus died for our brother & sister. And those words proclaim to us the Gospel that Jesus died for you & me as well. Jesus could’ve thought only of himself, and stayed in heaven in full power & glory, and let us take full responsibility for our sin. In God’s holiness, that would be justified. He could’ve; but He didn’t.
God is holy; AND God is merciful. So, the Son of God chose the gracious way.
He did what we needed so that we would become His brothers & sisters in His Church.
He is God & Lord over all, and yet He takes the very nature of a human servant for His weaker brothers & sisters, so that we would not be destroyed.
He goes thru the suffering & the bloodshed to become the once-for-all sacrifice for the world. In ignorance, the religions of the day in Corith imagined that they could win the favor of the gods with the flesh & blood of animals. But what God was teaching thru the Law of Moses was that the one true God does not accept bulls & goats as any substitute for the sins of man. What was promised was a Messiah from heaven, a suffering servant, who would bear our griefs & carry our sorrows. There is just One who was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, so that with his stripes we are healed.
It’s because this Savior, Jesus, died for us that -as we live- we will care for our brothers & sisters for whom Christ died. In the freedom Christ now gives us, when it comes to those things that He doesn’t forbid or command, He expects us to serve one another in the kind of love that has been shown to us.
We like our ‘rights’, but we don’t have the right to cause others to stumble. If this seems like a cross to bear, we remember that Jesus has told us to take up our cross and follow Him. We will love our neighbor as our selves.
Because of Jesus, I can do this or that; but because of Jesus, and my love for someone else, this time I won’t.
Amen