Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.

John Farley
Pastor-Teacher
Sunday,
July 21, 2019

 

Summer break:
Monday August 5th through
Sunday August 11th

No Bible study that Thursday August 8th
No service Sunday August 11th

 

Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies

1Co 8:1-13

Knowledge puffs up; love builds up

the eating of things sacrificed to idols.

It can be misleading to read chapter 8 in a vacuum.

I encourage you to read chapters 8, 9, and 10, as well as verse 1 of chapter 11.

Paul is completely opposed to the eating of food knowingly sacrificed to idols.

Idolatry is the worship of idols, the worship of false gods.

1Co 10:20-21

But he would rather convince them to change their minds and freely adopt the teaching.

Love for their weaker brethren, to be sure. But foremost, love for God the Father and love for their Lord who died for them.

1Co 8:1-6

1. There is no such thing as an idol in the world.

2. There is no God but one.

No matter how much we think we know, our knowledge is still incomplete.

There is knowledge, and then there is true knowledge – the full assurance of understanding. (Col 2:2)

1Co 13:2

Knowledge without love is useless. In fact, it is dangerous.

Arrogant people hurt other people.
They wield their knowledge as a weapon.

1Co 8:2-3

You can know God is one, but have you come to understand that God is love?

And His knowledge is the only knowledge that is perfect.

True, there is no such thing as an idol.

But there IS such a thing as idol-atry!

Think about the effect your behavior can have on other brothers and sisters for whom Christ died.

Demons use idols to promote idolatry in order to rob God of the worship He deserves.

Rom 1:21-25

Idolatry is exchanging the truth of God for a lie, and worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator.

1Co 8:6

Christ sacrificed His rights for our benefit. That’s love.

1Co 8:7-13

They believed that eating the food meant that they were honoring the gods.

“So I guess it’s OK to worship Christ and also worship idols?”

The conscience is the human faculty that decides what is right and what is wrong on the basis of standards.

A weak conscience is a Christian conscience that is still under construction.

Are you using your freedom to serve one another through love, or to indulge your flesh? (Gal 5:13)

The pit here is the deep dark sewer of demon-inspired idol worship. Christ died to rescue them from this pit.

If he sees you having dinner in an idol’s temple, he will think you are worshipping the idol in that temple.

His delicate Christian conscience could collapse under the combined weight of his past associations and your bad example.

In no time at all he would be devoured by the seductions of pagan idol worship.

Paul does NOT say that it is OK for those with knowledge to dine in an idol’s temple either!

When we strike a brother in Christ, we are really striking Christ.

You can avoid great sins by acting with great love.

Phi 2:3-4

Our rights must give way to the needs of others.