>> Jen: Good morning, faithful listeners. You've tuned into the Bible explained podcast on this lovely Thursday morning. And today we're going to be reading first corinthians, chapter eight. So I actually have a prayer request. Um, my dog, Bandit, who you can see pictures of sometimes if you follow me on Facebook. And also the little pop up that comes up when you click my website. That's Bandit right there. My dog bandit, is quite sick. He is
getting older. He's still twelve years old. He's gonna be 13 soon. But, um, yesterday morning, he woke up and he was vomiting and walking into walls and falling over and just really in a bad state. And I felt so, so horrible for him. So I took him to the vet, and thank God this actually was, like, providential. I'm not even lying because normally my vet isn't open on Wednesdays, but I called anyway, and they happened to be open that Wednesday, and the vet
actually happened to be in, and I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, that was from God, you know? So I was able to call the vet, and I got in within 30 minutes. They gave bandit, like, an iv and some anti nausea medication and anti, like, dizzy medication. So I guess he's got just, like, terrible, terrible dizziness, but we don't know the source of it. So he could either have an inner ear infection, or he could have, like, nerve damage, or he could have a tumor on his brain, which is
very sad. And he's been such a huge part of my life for these past almost 13 years. I've had him since he was a little puppy. And, uh, you know, he's like a member of my family. And so it's very discouraging, you know, when I see him in pain and dizzy and walking into walls and just sick. So if you could keep him and Garett and I in your prayers, that'd be really appreciated. I just really hope that he doesn't have a
brain tumor. And whatever this is resolves very quickly, because the vet did say, if he doesn't have a brain tumor, chances are this will resolve pretty quickly. And so I'm just praying that, um, that it's nothing serious. All right, let's go ahead and read first Corinthians eight today, and we're going to be talking about knowledge versus love. How knowledge, even though it's a good thing, makes us more arrogant, but how love builds other people up. Let's go ahead and read first Corinthians
eight. The entire thing. I'll be reading from the world English Bible today, or the web now. Concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesnt yet know, as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, the same is known
by him. Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that, uh, there is no other God bless but one. For though there are things that are called gods, whether in the heavens or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet to us there is one God, the father, of whom are all things, and we for him, and one lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we
live through him. However, that knowledge isn't in all men, but some with consciousness of the idol, until now, eat of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food will not commend us to God. For neither if we don't eat, are we the worse, or if we eat, are we the better. But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a
stumbling block to the weak. For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idols temple, won't his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols, and through your knowledge, he who is weak perishest the brother for whose sake Christ died, thus sinning against the brothers and wounding their conscience. When it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forevermore, that I don't cause my brother to
stumble. So in this chapter, Paul is addressing some questions or comments that the uh, 1 Corinthians had had. We know that the uh, 1 Corinthians did send a letter to Paul at some point. We don't have the contents of that letter, and we don't have exactly what questions were asked. But apparently, Paul had received a letter from the uh, 1 Corinthians and was now addressing those questions. For example, in the last chapter, Paul addressed a question that they had regarding marriage.
They're probably wondering, is it okay for a Christian to be married, or is it better for a Christian to remain celibate? And Paul answered that question in the last chapter. But now there's a question regarding food offered to idols. And this was a big problem in Paul's day, actually, especially in the city of Corinth and in cities across Rome, because Corinth especially had twelve temples that
were dedicated to different gods. And so what people would do when they went to worship is they would bring a sacrifice to one of these gods. And so the priest of whatever temple this was would slaughter the sheep and cut it up into three different pieces. He would burn one piece on the altar to the gods. Then he would take a piece for himself, and then the third piece he'd give back to the family that brought the. The lamb or whatever it was to the altar.
So the priest's payment almost was kind of the meat that he would get from those sacrifices. So obviously, the priests had a ton of meat, and they couldn't eat all of it. So they would sell it to the meat markets, and it would be like special meat in the meat markets. It'd be like, oh, this meat was blessed by the priest and dedicated to the God Venus or something like that, which in Corinth, I guess it would be the god, uh, Aphrodite, which, by the way, they're
just the same god. Regardless. Uh, the meat markets had so much meat that was blessed by the priests, and people would buy this meat, and they'd take it home and they would eat it. So, obviously, this was a question that the Christians had. Should we be eating this meat? And Paul had actually told them ahead of time that it was okay for them to eat this meat because they had freedom in Christ.
But I guess they had some extra questions about it, and we don't know exactly what they asked, but it sounds like Paul is kind of berating them here a little bit. We know that the corinthian church struggled with arrogance. We know that because of a couple chapters ago, Paul actually started making fun of how
arrogant the corinthian church had become. The corinthian Christians believed that they were like kings and queens of Christ, that they could do no wrong, basically, and that they had a ton of knowledge and so much understanding about all of these different topics. And Paul actually told them several chapters ago, you understand nothing. And he kind of repeats that
sentiment here. So whatever question the uh, 1 Corinthians asked him, Paul, uh, is addressing here, and he's addressing it rather harshly. He says now, concerning these things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge, but knowledge puffs up, but love builds up, so knowledge makes us more arrogant. You know, when we think we know a lot about a topic, it kind of makes us arrogant, because we want to, like, jump in. If somebody starts talking about that, that topic,
we want to jump in and give our two cent. And we think that, you know, we have everything together about that particular topic. And I'm not going to lie, I do that. But, you know, knowledge makes us arrogant. Puffed up as just an old fashioned word or phrase that means arrogant. Paul says, knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. So whatever the uh, 1 Corinthians were doing, they were not loving their fellow neighbors. They might have had knowledge, you know, that we can eat this food
dedicated to idols because we have freedom in Christ. But Paul is addressing their lack of love for their fellow Christians. He says if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn't yet know as he ought to know, and he's humbling them a little bit with this phrase. You know, you can't possibly know everything about a topic. There's always going to be new information that you can learn about a particular topic. That is why it's always important to continue reading the
Bible. I know some people, uh, don't like to go to church because they think that they already understand everything there is to know about the Bible, and so they don't want to go to church because they don't think that they need it. Paul right here addresses that sentiment. He says, if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn't yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him. Basically, that verse means that God
recognizes those who love him. And so Paul starts out with this because he's about to show how unloving, um, the corinthian church has become. Specifically, regarding the topic of eating food dedicated to idols, verse four. Therefore, concerning the eating of the things sacrificed to idols. We know that no idol is anything in the world and that there is no other God
but one. For though there are things that are called gods, whether in the heavens or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet to us there is one God of whom are all things, and we are for him, and one lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him. We have one God. All of these other idols do not matter to us. They are nothing. They are created by human hands. They can't hear anything. They can't see anything. They can't smell anything. They can't walk.
They can't do anything. People make them. And then the people set them up in their spaces, and the statue does not move after that. And Paul says, all of these idols that people worship, we know that they are nothing and that there is only one God. But then Paul qualifies it, and he says, we do know that there are gods. Like, factually, people make little g gods in the world, but they are nothing to us. They are nothing to us christians. Paul
says here we only have one God. It is God the father and one lord who is Jesus Christ. These are who we worship. We don't worship these other little g gods, but the world does. The world thinks that they are something. He says, the knowledge that Jesus is our LORD and that, the father is our God. that knowledge isn't in all men, verse seven, but some with consciousness of the idol, until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is
defiled. So he says, because not everybody has the same knowledge that us christians have. Other people go and they purchase this food that is dedicated to idols, and they purchase it because maybe it was dedicated to an idol, and their conscience is defiled because they truly believe that there is power with that idol and with that food that was just sacrificed to an idol. They believe that they are going to be blessed or something if they eat food that was blessed by a priestley of an idol
temple. Verse eight. But food will not commend us to God. For neither if we don't eat, are we the worse, nor if we eat, are we the better. Paul says, it doesn't matter to us christians, you know, we have a clean conscience before God. Food is food. It doesn't make us closer with God, but it's our heart behind the food that makes us closer to God. And so some people are sinning when they eat certain foods because they believe that there's power in those foods, power that comes from a
different God. It's not the food itself that defiles them, but it's the heart behind the food. But also the Christian can sin by eating food if they cause another person to stumble. Be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak. For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol's temple, won't his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things
sacrificed to idols. So one person who is sinning from eating these foods, sacrificed to idols because they believe that there's power with that idol might see a Christian who is publicly known for being a christian purchase food that is dedicated to an idol. And so the other person who is not a Christian sees that Christian eating that food, and they think, oh, you know, the christians are okay with
this. This is totally fine. I'm going to eat this food far more often now because that christian over there is buying meat that was dedicated to a god So now I'm going to go buy that same type of meat. But this could also be with, like, weaker christians as well. So say somebody just gets saved, and they were to see, like, a christian buying meat that was dedicated to an idol, they might be like, oh, hmm. Maybe that christian thinks that there's
something to these idols. Maybe I should go have a better understanding of what this idol is. And that could cause a weaker christian in that way to stumble as well. So Paul says, be very careful, even though you have freedom in Christ to eat that meat dedicated to idols, be careful that you don't cause a person to stumble because of it. Because to other people, it isn't nothing. To you, it might be nothing.
But to other people, it is something. They might truly believe that that meat is special or something. They might truly believe that that idol has power. So be very careful. Be loving towards other people with weaker consciences. And through your knowledge. Verse eleven, he who is weak perishest the brother for whose sake Christ died, thus sinning against the brothers and wounding their conscience. When it is weak, you sin against
Christ. So the Christian can sin, even if they have the freedom to eat something, like food dedicated to idols, they can sin by eating that food when they know that it's causing another person to stumble. That is how the christian sins, and then the weaker person sins, by eating that food and believing that that food has power. So two people can be wrong, even though the food itself, Paul says, is not what defiles a person, once again, it is the heart behind that food, that eating.
Therefore, verse 13, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forevermore. That I don't cause my brother to stumble. Paul says, I would rather give up meat for my entire life if I thought that it was going to cause somebody to stumble. I would rather not eat another piece of meat because I do not want to cause somebody to fall away from God. There's a verse elsewhere in scripture that says, for a piece of bread, a man will transgress, meaning for something as
small as food. As for a small piece of bread, a person will sin. Same goes for meat. Same goes for food. And of course, we don't have the same problem nowadays. So how do we bring this home in today's culture? Well, there's certainly many ways we can apply this scripture if we are doing something that we know we have freedom in Christ. In, for example. I always give the same example. But drinking, I think that's, uh, a good example, because some Christians truly believe it is 100%
fine to drink. Other Christians think, no, I'm not going to touch any amount of alcohol because I think that it is wrong. I think it is against God. I grew up in a church that believed that and actually taught that Jesus did not drink wine, which that's just a, uh, twisting of scripture. Jesus, in fact, did drink wine. But the reason the church taught that was because they didn't want anybody in the congregation drinking wine and thinking it was okay to drink
wine. I'm not saying that that is right. That church had many problems. We got out of that church. Thank God. But that's a big one, though. Some Christians truly believe it is 100% against God to drink wine or any kind of alcohol whatsoever. Personally, I would not drink wine in front of somebody who is like that. And I have actually chosen to do that even though I think it's totally okay, uh, to drink wine as long as it's not in
excess. And I do drink wine, and I drink, um, different alcoholic beverages on occasion. But I would not drink in front of somebody who believes that it is truly wrong to drink. I just wouldn't do it because I don't want to a make them angry at me. And I also don't want them to go against their conscience, if that is what they believe, to possibly sin and drink wine, feeling pressured or something like that, or feeling like, oh, you know,
Jen drinks wine, then it must be okay for me to drink wine. I don't want to do that. Now, once again, this could apply to many situations and many scenarios. As long as it's not a direct sin. By the way, all of this doesn't apply to, like, a Christian going out and sinning and being like, oh, I have freedom in Christ. That's not what this
is talking about. But if anything is in our lives that we truly believe, hey, I have freedom in Christ to go do this thing, but somebody else believes that it is wrong to do. It's better to just not do that thing, at least not in front of that person. It is just better to not do that thing because it might cause that person to sin against God. And we have to be loving, even though in your mind you have this knowledge, I am okay to go do this thing. That's. That's
good. You have that knowledge. That's your freedom in Christ that you have. But love is better than knowledge because once again, knowledge puffs somebody up. It makes them arrogant. But love is better of the two because it builds somebody else up. So we want to be loving toward our neighbors. We want to build them up instead of potentially causing them to sin. Well, faithful listeners, if you want to gain access to tomorrow's show, you gotta click the link and become a ko
fi member. You'll see all that listed in the description of this episode. Faithful listeners, I really hope that this episode today encouraged you and uh, maybe convicted you of something. That's always a good thing. If it did, share it on your social media platforms. Tell people that the Bible explained podcast exists, give it five stars and write a nice little review. And the review that I'm going to read today is from Apple
Podcasts. And this is from Cam 5280 which says awesome show came across the Bible explained while looking for a new christian podcast that explains the Bible. And this is spot on. Jen is great. The Holy Spirit has given her a wonderful revelations and insights. She is well spoken and has a great sense of humor. Also, Jen breaks things down in a way that allows you to paint a picture in your mind
and really understand what you just read. Praying for her and her ministry well, thank you so much for that very, very kind review. I just loved reading that and these reviews really make my day, not gonna lie. And I also appreciate the prayers for my ministry. And speaking of, if you ever have a prayer request, my
email is actually listed in the description below. You can email me and I will write you down in my little prayer journal and I will pray for you for the week if you have a prayer request that you need to talk about. So feel free to reach out if you have any prayers whatsoever for anybody listening. Faithful listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day. I will see you guys all on Monday or if you become members, I'll see you guys tomorrow for an episode
from the Psalms. Happy listening and God bless. Mhm.