My Mind’s Musings

This is the continuation of my exegesis on Christian liberty based on 1 Corinthians 8-10. As I previously stated, please feel free to critique and comment. There is more application and refining of thoughts left to come, but this is my initial homiletical interpretation of Paul’s teachings on Christian liberty.

You can find part one here and part two here.

In First Corinthians 10:14-11:1, Paul finishes the passage by delineating 4 principles in using Christian liberty that provide his final thoughts to the Corinthians on this subject. 

In verses 14-22, Paul clearly shows that there is a principle of separation involved in the use of our Christian Liberty.  The separation is to occur from idolatry.  No matter where the other lines are drawn, for the follower of Christ there is to be no hint of idolatry in his life.  Paul explains that as Christians when we participate in Communion, we are partaking in Christ’s sacrificial death (which is one reason I don’t hold to a strict memorial view of the Lord’s Supper, but that is for another post).  He then uses another illustration from Israel, that the ones (priests) eating the meat offerings were those who actually offered the sacrifices in worship to God.  In the same way the pagans who feast on the meat actually used that meat not to worship God, but to worship false gods, which are actually demons.  It is from that Satanic activity that Paul is warning his listeners to separate.  It seems he is also trying to get those who would say that you can eat anything, to think about what activity this meat has actually been used in.  Therefore, as a Christian who participates with Christ in communion, you cannot participate with demons in your eating.

Paul continues in verses 23 and 24 to explain the principle that I call, constructive benefit.  The issue is not one of, “can I do this?”  It is instead, will this activity benefit me (spiritually) and/or will it build up (spiritually) a fellow believer.  This speaks to the strong believer on two levels: one, will it be spiritually destructive or beneficial  for me to eat this food, but secondly, can the use of this liberty build up in a constructive way my fellow believer with the weak conscience.

The third principle is the principle of conscience, and is seen in verses 25-30.  This applies to both your own conscience and your fellow believers.  Paul says when you go to the market, do not look for reasons to be offended.  Just eat what you can get.  The same applies when an unbeliever invites you to dinner, just eat the food.  However, if another believer happens to be at that same meal and he raises the issue that the meat has been offered to idols, then you should not eat it.  Is that because it is wrong or offends your conscience?  No.  It is because by bringing up the issue, it clearly is an issue for his conscience, and therefore out of consideration for his conscience, you refrain.

The fourth and final principle that Paul spells out is the principle of God’s glory in verse 31.  Whatever you choose to do as you act within your liberty as a Christian, ultimately it must be done to bring glory to God.  That is the greatest principle to apply our actions against – will what I am about to do bring glory to God. 

Paul closes his exposition on Christian liberty with verses 32-11:1, by reinforcing his overall theses of not being a stumbling block and  making choices with our liberty that will help us win people to Christ.  He then wraps it up by saying that this is what Christ practiced and as he (Paul) follows Christ’s example, the Corinthians should follow his example in the same way.  

This is the continuation of my exegesis on Christian liberty based on 1 Corinthians 8-10. As I previously stated, please feel free to critique and comment. There is more application and refining of thoughts left to come, but this is my initial homiletical interpretation of Paul’s teachings on Christian liberty.

You can find part one here.

1 Corinthians 10 is where Paul makes one more illustration, this time of the misuse and abuse of Christian liberty, and then puts forth the final principles for using Christian liberty. The first 10 verses of the chapter starts off with Paul using the illustration of Israel and their fall into idolatry and complaining, and warns the reader against both of these sins. The interesting way that Paul sets up the first part of this passage is by pointing out that Israel had everything going for them, with the presence of God, the power of God, and the perfect leader and example in the man of God. Despite all of those things, they turned to idolatry and griping. In every Bible translation, this illustration of Israel seems to be treated as being separate from his dealing with the issue of Christian liberty as seen in the “meat eating” question. The same is true for the majority of commentators that I have access to. The only commentary that I thought made a decent attempt to fit this into the overall passage was “Expositor’s Bible Commentary.” I really do believe, though, that given the fact that this illustration falls between a clear teaching on Christian liberty and the final verses on Christian liberty, it has to relate in some way to that teaching. I believe the answer to how it relates is found in verses 11-13

11These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. 12So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

I think that the illustration from Israel’s history is teaching us that even though God has given us everything in Christ, including liberty, if we use that liberty to indulgence it can go too far and lead us into sin. When Israel was at the height of God’s blessing – Moses was on the mountain receiving God’s law, and they were worshiping God at a feast – their feasting and worshiping turned into a desire for a concrete physical image and the idolatry of the golden calf. The temptation to use our liberty as indulgence in physical pleasure can easily lead us into sin if we are not careful. While the temptation to abuse our liberty and commit sin may be great, God will provide a way out of the temptation without falling into sin. My thought is that a careful use of our liberty will help us to see God’s way out.

I intended to take this post to the end of the chapter, but I will do Paul’s final principles later.

I have been preaching through First Corinthians in our chapel services on the base, and have been extremely challenged and even convicted by my study through chapter 8-10. I grew up with one view of Christian liberty, which was very restrictive, and I have seen some versions of Christian liberty, which seem to make anything allowable for a Christian. However, as I have been studying 1 Corinthians 8-10, I come up with a more complete and purposeful view of Christian liberty. This is only the beginning of my thoughts and I know there will be more to come. I would welcome any comments as I continue to refine my thinking in this area. Today I just want to lay out an initial overview of the total passage.

To start with, I believe from my study that the theme of 1 Corinthians is spiritual maturity. Everything Paul deals with is heading toward encouraging Christians to be completely mature in their faith.

In chapter 8, Paul is answering the question from the Corinthians which was addressed to him in a letter about whether it was right to eat meat which had been sacrificed to idols. He begins his discussion of this subject by saying that knowledge can make a person proud and arrogant, but love will build up the other person and seek their best. This will be important in his discussion. He then goes on to make it clear that an idol is absolutely powerless and worthless, therefore to have anything sacrificed to one of these inanimate objects means nothing. He continues the discussion, however, by saying that there are some Christian brothers and sisters whose faith is not strong and they are unable to eat this meat without it defiling their conscience. I believe Paul is saying with this line of argumentation that these people are immature in their faith. He continues, though, by giving the mature view of Christian liberty – that the mature Christian will set aside his freedom to indulge in that meat for the sake of the weaker (immature) brother. That is the short view of chapter 8.

Chapter 9 is an illustration from Paul’s own life of how he uses his Christian liberty. He starts off with a series of rhetorical questions that show his apostleship and the right he has to expect certain rewards and treatment because of that apostleship. His overall point is that he has the right to have a wife and travel with his family and expect the churches to take care of him and his family financially. Then he begins his example of how he sets aside this liberty he has to expect this treatment. He willingly preaches the gospel and asks for nothing in return, because he does not want anyone to ever get the impression that what he does is for money. He then closes his illustration from his life by making the statement that he would become “all things to all people” in order to present the gospel to them. My interpretation of this is that his use of Christian liberty is not to bring himself pleasure, but to be flexible enough to participate in whatever the activity that did not cross the line into sin. I say this because one of the statements he makes is that he will become a Jew to the Jew and a Gentile to the Gentile in order to see them come to Christ. The way I see this is that when he was with Jewish people, he willingly at Kosher, although he realized that God did not require this of him. When he ate with Gentiles and they served pork, he would utilize his freedom in the opposite direction and eat the pork. Everything he did was for the purpose of forming relationships that would lead to salvation of the individual.

For now, that is all that I am going to discuss, but stay tune to part 2 covering chapter 10.