Passage: 1 Corinthians 8

The Big Idea

Knowing the truth isn’t the same as living it well. The Corinthians “knew” idols were nothing, so they felt free to eat meat offered to idols, even when it hurt weaker believers. Paul’s principle: knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. We’re free in Christ, but the love that freed us now flows through us, and it puts others first.

The Truth

There’s a famous movie line where a colonel on the witness stand shouts, “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”

The way you handle the truth matters. That’s what this chapter is about.

Meat Offered to Idols (1 Corinthians 8:1)

Now about food sacrificed to idols, which in that culture meant food dedicated to demons (1 Corinthians 10:20).

Meat offered at pagan altars was usually divided into three portions. One was burned in honor of the idol, one was given to the worshiper to take home, and one went to the priest. If the priest didn’t want his portion, it was sold at the temple restaurant or the meat market.

And the idol meat was cheaper. People love a bargain, Christians included.

So the questions piled up:

Are these idols really gods?
Can we buy the cheap meat if we know it’s just meat?
What if someone serves it to us?
Can we eat at the restaurant attached to a pagan temple?
And why does any of this matter to us today?

“We all have knowledge.” Paul is quoting them, probably with a bit of sarcasm. “We all know the truth. This isn’t worth my time, because I already know.” Maybe that’s true. But it’s how you handle the truth that’s the point of this chapter.

Just knowing what’s right and wrong isn’t the definition of success as God’s child.
Just knowing what we should or shouldn’t do isn’t the good news or the freedom we’ve been called to.

We All Know…

Let’s put some names on it that might hit closer to home. We all know the rules. We’ve all got opinions.

We all know cursing is bad.
We all know getting drunk is bad.
We all know gossip is bad.
We all know pornography is bad.
We all know hating people is bad.
We all know greed is bad.
We all know sex outside of marriage is bad.
We all know cheating on your spouse is bad.
We all know ______ is bad.
We all know it’s good to save money and be frugal.
We all know it’s good to give generously.
We all know it’s good to work hard and be dedicated.
We all know it’s good to avoid this or that.

We’ve got so many opinions about how we should live and how other people should live! (And an opinion without pi is just an onion.)

But just because we know the truth doesn’t mean we can treat others without love.

Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up (1 Corinthians 8:1-3)

That’s the principle of the chapter. It doesn’t matter if you know all the rules and how to apply them if you choose not to love.

Knowledge can lead to pride and arrogance.
When we rely only on what we know, we can become self-centered, focused on our rights and freedoms without considering how our choices affect others.
That kind of knowledge creates a sense of superiority and division in the church.
Love, on the other hand, puts other people first.
That’s what matters most. Without love, it doesn’t matter how much you know (1 Corinthians 13:2).
Pride and self-focus will ruin our kingdom impact. We can’t serve God in a self-focused way. Those self-focused choices are the only things we’ll regret in heaven: times we could have invested in God’s kingdom but invested in our own instead.

Anyone who thinks he knows something doesn’t yet know as he ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God.

It doesn’t matter what you know. It matters who you know, or really, who knows you.
This points us to our relationship with God. It’s about being connected to God through Jesus.
God loved us first, and God connected us to Himself through Jesus.
“Knowing” someone in Scripture describes intimacy and relationship. You personally connect with God through faith in Jesus.
It wasn’t your good choices that led you to God. It wasn’t your rule-keeping. It was grace and love that saved you and are transforming you.
Knowing that is the foundation of humility.

Our confidence isn’t in our works, our wisdom, our opinions or our rules. We walk in humility and consider others more important than ourselves, and that reveals that our lives are controlled by God’s love.

Peter tells all of us to clothe ourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). Humility affects all our relationships. It’s the only way we can truly love people.

The Truth About Idols (1 Corinthians 8:4-6)

So, about eating food offered to idols: we know an idol is nothing in the world, and there’s no God but one. Even if there are so-called gods in heaven or on earth (and there are many “gods” and “lords”), for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live.

Here’s the truth: idols are pointless, because they represent “gods” that don’t exist.
Behind idol worship are often demons, and demons are real. But they aren’t gods at all. They can’t truly help anyone.
So the whole system of worshiping false gods is pointless.
And even if there were powerful gods, it wouldn’t matter to us, because we have One who’s stronger and more loving than all of them.
He’s everything to us. We need nothing else. He’s our source, our life and our whole purpose.
We live for Him alone. He is our God.
And more than that, He’s our Father. Our love for Him isn’t just slave to master. It’s child to Father.

Not Everyone Knows This (1 Corinthians 8:7-8)

But not everyone has this knowledge. Some are so used to idols that when they eat this food, they still think of it as sacrificed to an idol, and their weak conscience is defiled.

Not everyone understood that God is the only God.
Many people grew up believing in competing gods, and thought of Jesus as one god among many.
So they reasoned: “If I eat food offered to an idol, that’s worshiping it. Then Jesus will be angry with me for being disloyal.”

But food doesn’t bring us closer to God. We’re no worse if we don’t eat, and no better if we do.

We should all understand that we aren’t in danger. Jesus has completely saved us, and no one can snatch us out of His hand (John 10:28), not even our own bad decisions.
Notice: neither choice makes you more spiritual.
This is exactly where most people stumble when it comes to questions of Christian liberty, like movies, drinking, music or entertainment. They assume one position or the other proves greater or lesser spirituality.

Don’t Make Them Stumble (1 Corinthians 8:9-13)

But be careful that your freedom doesn’t become a stumbling block to the weak.

Yes, we’re all free.
But some are weak. They need some temporary support until they grow in their confidence in Jesus.
So love has to matter more to us than our freedom.
Instead of mocking them for their “silly” scruples, we come alongside them and show them God’s love.

If someone with a weak conscience sees you, who “know better,” eating in an idol’s temple, won’t they be encouraged to go against their conscience and eat food offered to idols? Then the weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers and sisters this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. So if food causes my brother to stumble, I’ll never eat meat again, so I won’t make him stumble.

Here’s the practical application:

If you know the truth, that we’re free because we’re loved, you need to apply it to how you treat others.
You can’t just know the truth and then focus on yourself.
Yes, you’re free. But the love that loved you now needs to flow out of you to others who are weak and still learning.
You’ve been loved, so love others.
God was patient with you, so be patient with others.
What you do matters to other people. Your life matters so much!
God has placed you in this time, in this town, with these people, to be His love letter to them (2 Corinthians 3:2-3).
Don’t be a letter that tells people God cares more about their rule-keeping than their hearts.

You can cause a brother or sister to stumble:

by focusing on yourself instead of how your actions affect them,
by treating them as less important,
by not coming alongside to teach them the way of freedom and why we’re free, and just throwing your freedom in their face instead.

“But I don’t want my life restricted by always thinking about others first.”

Jesus taught that we won’t find life by serving ourselves. If you try to hang on to your life, you’ll lose it. But if you give up your life for His sake, you’ll save it (Matthew 16:25).

Prove What You Believe

Do you know the love and grace God has lavished on you? Here’s how you can show it: live your life to love others and lift them up, instead of living a self-centered life of pride and self-pleasing.

If you’re filled with the truth, let your life show that you handle the truth with love. The truth is, His love lives in you. And you get to let Him live His life through you (Galatians 2:20).

Grace Takeaway

Knowing you’re free is good. Using your freedom to love is better. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Let the love that set you free flow out to the weaker brother or sister, because Christ died for them too.

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You Can’t Handle the Truth