1 Corinthians 10:14-11:2, Called to Edify

Theological Proposition/Focus: It is all about God and therefore it is all about what God wants not what an individual wants.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: The call of a Christian is a call to give up anything and everything needed in order to edify the body.

Introduction: Memory Verse: 1 Corinthians 10:6

Setting the Stage:

As a church we have used the phrase otherish. When we use that phrase we remind ourselves that we are called to put others first. I want to suggest to you that the cure to so many of our problems is putting others first but it is so hard to do. You see it goes against our nature. For the church in Corinth their insistence on factionalism was destroying their fellowship. One item that Paul particularly wanted to deal with was the Corinthians question about food offered to idols. Paul had dealt with this already once in Chapter 8 where he reminded the Corinthians that knowledge was not all it is cracked up to be. Love for others should drive us to be considerate. Now Paul comes back to the issue of food offered to idolatry and offers a deeper analysis of the issues involved while simultaneously establishing a principle, we are called to edify the body.

Body

The call to follow Christ brings with it a great deal of responsibility. (14-22)

Remember, Paul has already addressed food offered to idols in chapter 8. Paul's entire argument in chapter 8 was something like "be careful that nothing you do causes your brother to stumble." Now Paul is going to dig in to the question again but from a different angle. In the first half of chapter 10 Paul reminded the Corinthians that Israel, despite having every advantage still fell for idolatry. I think that Paul's point is that sin is sneaky and easy to fall into. It is from this background that Paul reopens the case of idolatry. Verse 14 is a reminder, it is easy for Christians to fall into idolatry without even realizing how far they have slipped. The solution is to flea. The Corinthians need to remember that

Those who follow Christ are part of something much bigger than themselves. (14-17)

As followers of Christ we are joined together as the body of Christ. Last week we celebrated the Lord's Supper together. In celebrating the Lord's supper we are reminded that we are individually and corporately bound together with Christ. We are a community and the thing that unites us is the the death of Christ. The word that the NIV translates as Participation is the greek word κοινωνία. This Greek word carries the idea of fellowship, brotherly unity, a deep bond. At our church we don't call the Lord's Supper communion because there is some baggage associated with the term communion, but I want us also to realize that in making that choice we are also losing something. In the Lord's supper we are we should have κοινωνία. Why, because we are part of something far bigger than just our individual preferences or desires. Paul will deal more thoroughly with the Lord's Supper later, but for now Paul wants us to remember that the Lord's Supper is a visible reminder of the fellowship to which we belong.

With this in mind Paul moves onto a truth that deserves some special attention.

There is a reality sitting behind our version of reality that must always be considered. (18-20)

Paul begins with an important principle. We join ourselves together when we do things together. Maybe this is obvious to you, but I think it is a little more profound than we sometimes consider. When you participate in something you identify with that something. Verse 18 reminds us that when the Israelites made sacrifice at the alter they were participating and identifying with whatever the alter represented. In the case of Corinth, the people who in their knowledge that an idol was not a real God, opted to join together with an activity that was idol worship, were in fact participating in idol worship. More than that, while the idol was in fact nothing, there is a spiritual reality that sits behind the idol and the people were becoming participants in that very reality. I really think this is a deep idea that is pretty simple. Our knowledge can get us into a lot of trouble because even though something may be nothing, that does not mean that participation with that nothing is safe.

Let me give you an immediate application. In two days many people are going to celebrate Halloween. Some of us will dress up and go Trick or Treating and have a grand time. However, we need to be careful that as we participate we ensure that at no point are we in fact participating in that which is occult. We may know that ghosts, goblins, etc are nothing but that does not mean that there is not great evil sitting behind that nothing! Be careful!

In fact, in general, we need to make sure that we realize that

Those who follow Christ need to choose Christ. (21-22)

The issue is not a contrast between pagan and Christian meals (that is what it looks like on the surface). No, what Paul is pointing out is that sitting behind that surface level issue, the issue is a contrast between the Lord and demons. The issue is not an issue of being strong enough that you can be part of something evil without falling. The issue is allowing any part of your allegiance to be to anything that is opposed to God. We must be discerning!

Image: Hidden Agenda

Have you ever worked with someone who has a hidden agenda? Sometimes it can be good, sometimes it can be bad, I guess it depends on the agenda. Once you start working with someone who has a hidden agenda you begin to realize that there are all sorts of seemingly innocent things that are not so innocent but actually part of the agenda. We need to realize that the devil has an agenda.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 states "13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve."

Satan wants to destroy you, to trick you into worshipping him instead of Christ. I am convinced that Satan is clever enough he can trick you into practices that in fact bring no honor to Christ at all. In Corinth, Satan had tricked Christians into what was essentially demon worship convincing them that they were demonstrating spiritual strength by showing that they could eat food offered to an idol because they were so spiritually strong. Think about it for just a moment. Satan had literally tricked the Corinthians into worshipping demons thinking they were in fact demonstrating spiritual maturity!

The call to follow Christ is a call to ask the right questions. (23-24)

Image: There are bad questions

Sometimes Emily asks the wrong question, a bad question if you will. I will be sitting on the couch, watching the Huskers, and relaxed. Then Emily come up to me an will ask "do you want to take out the trash at commercial." I usually respond, "no, I don't really want to." I will let that sit for a few seconds and then tell her, "but I will do it anyway." I just like giving Emily a hard time for asking me to do something by asking if I want to, a bad question if you will. Actually, there are much worse bad questions. One example that I am convinced of is the question "is this behavior allowed for a Christian?" I am convinced this is a bad question. We need to

Stop asking the question "is this behavior allowed?" (23)

The phrase "I have the right to do anything," may have seemed like a wise truism. After all, grace is real and we are no bound by the Old Testament Law. The phrase "I have the right to do anything," is really an answer to the question "is this behavior allowed?" The question is not a good question and the answer lacks all the nuance of a good answer. When I taught at the university there was a big difference between an answer that was technically a correct answer, and a right answer. When this happened the problem was often that I was asking the wrong question. I was getting an answer that lacked insight because my question was bad. We need to make sure we are asking the right question and Paul really tells us exactly what the right questions are here in verse 23. We need to

Start asking the question "is this beneficial?" (23)

Now before you ask the question I want you to understand a key component of the question. Within the context, we are talking about the community of believers. The question is not merely "is this beneficial to me?" The question is "is this beneficial to the community of believers?" Actually, we can even more insight by looking at the verb συμφέρει that we translate as beneficial. This verb can mean what we typically think of as beneficial, to be advantageous, help, confer a benefit, be profitable/useful" but it can also mean "to bring together into a heap." We really could think of beneficial as a consideration of how does this act bring people together into a closer relationship with Christ.

The second question that should be ask is "is this constructive?" We need to

Start asking the question "is this constructive?" (23)

In First Corinthians 8:11 Paul was concerned about misuse of knowledge that would result in a "weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge." The opposite of construction is destruction and it is a real possibility in the Christian life. We must be careful about our actions because they can destroy a brother or sister in Christ. If an action is not constructive for a brother or sister in Christ then it is off limits. What does constructive activity look like? Constructive activity looks to demonstrate Christ to others, it looks helping others to be more like Christ, the key here is asking if It will result in spiritual growth.

Start looking out for others. (24)

Matthew 22:38-40 states "38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

This is the whole idea of being otherish. The call to follow Christ is a call to ask the right questions and the right questions are otherish.

Three basic principles can be used to guide the Christ Follower in their decision-making process. (25-33)

Image: When to use a checklist

There are times in life when you can have a set of explicit directions or a checklist to follow. Most people seem to desire a checklist. They want a set of rules that they can follow or choose to disobey but at least they know exactly what they can do.

For example, when you start an airplane you follow a checklist. Why? Because you do it the same every time. You can confidently follow a set of steps because it is always the same. However, most pilots will complete a before-landing checklist and an after-landing checklist but there really isn't a landing checklist. Why? Because there are really a lot of small nuanced factors that you are constantly weighing. The wind is blowing me to the left today, I need to adjust there. I am landing on a shorter runway, I need to adjust my landing point, etc. The key to landing an airplane well is to set up properly with a before landing checklist, and then apply some basic principles well. those basic principles are really pretty simple 1) land in the center of the runway and make sure you are not drifting off the center, 2) slow down your vertical descent prior to letting the wheels touch down, 3) make sure that you touch down on the runway with enough space to stop before the end of the runway.

I fully believe landing an airplane is the hardest part of flying but really it comes down to three basic principles. Similarly, knowing how to behave as a Christ follower is one of the hardest aspects of Christian living but there are three basic principles that we can apply.

Principle 1: You are not free to do whatever you want but you are free to enjoy your service to Christ. (25-27)

Paul has earlier argued that a Christian should not be eating food in a pagan temple as part of an idol feast. Even though the idol is nothing, participating in the feast makes the Christian a participant in idolatry and Paul says you should not have anything to do with that. With one thou shalt not in hand the next question is, what about food sold at the market that may have been offered to an idol at some point but we just don't know?

Paul's answer here is very enlightening into the first principle. Quoting Psalm 24:1 Paul begins by arguing that we are made to enjoy creation and part of enjoying creation is enjoying the food that God has given us to eat. You do not have to go through all sorts of effort to find out exactly what origin the food has.

Image: Butterfly Effect in time travel.

I enjoy stories of time travel where an individual goes back in time, makes one tiny error and the whole future changes. The principle is simple, if you ever go back in time, you must never do anything because you might step on a spider and your mom will never be born... there are people who treat the Christian walk like this. I don't drink alcohol, never have, never will. However, this does not mean that when I go to Olive Garden I ask whether or not there was any wine put in the sauce before it was cooked. I don't need to worry about that.

Principle 2: You may need to give up some pretty obvious freedoms for the sake of others. (28-30)

Paul uses what is called a third-class condition in Greek to introduce his second principle. The third class condition tells us that this is hypothetical. Actually, if I were translating the text I probably would include the phrase "but if hypothetically someone says to you..." Hypothetically you are in a situation where someone comes to you and lets you know that there is a potential problem in their mind with what you are about to do. What should you do then? Remember, Paul has already argued in principle one that you have the right to enjoy life. However, now, Paul comes down pretty hard.

A key here is the notion of conscience. Remember that conscience is not so much moral conscience as much as one's self-awareness as a member of the community of Christ. Really there are two ways we can think of this passage commentators debate which is correct but I propose we should adopt both practices.

You are at dinner, the food has been offered to an idol and someone says to you... I am not sure we should be eating this, it has been offered to an idol. To protect this person you would decide to pass on the food. We don't want them to walk away thinking they have violated their relationship with Christ.

Option 2

You are at dinner, the food has been offered to an idol and someone says to you... isn't it great that because we know better than those other Christians we can partake of this when they in their weak conscience still think they are not free. In an effort to show that knowledge is not the be all end all you choose to pass on the meal.

The key is, my freedom does not trump others! And guess what, it may seem crazy but we must remember, we are not free, we are free to serve Christ.

Principle 3: The glory of God, the good of many, and the salvation of others are your guiding principles. (31-33)

Let me just read verses 31-32 to you.

31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— 33 even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

I am convinced that these three principles are key. So what do we do? We

Our aim is to be able to say "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. (11:1)

Here is what it all comes down to. If you want to know if a particular activity is allowed you really can ask yourself this question. Can/should others follow me as I participate. If the answer is no, then we have a problem.