I've entitled our study of chapter 8 of 1 Corinthians, My Brother's Keeper. My Brother's Keeper. And that of course comes from a question asked very near the beginning of the Bible in Genesis chapter 4 verse 9. Where Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, in a very arrogant way said to the Lord God, Am I my brother's keeper? And in asking those words, Cain was showing a callous disregard for anyone else but himself. He was saying, I'm interested in me and in what I want. I couldn't care less about anyone else. And sadly, that same spirit is in every single one of us by nature. We are selfish. We are often very careless about other people. And even when we become Christians and are given a new nature by God, we still have to fight a constant battle against our own self-centeredness. our neglect of the needs and rights of other people. And this selfishness was coming out in the Corinthian church in many different ways. And it's one of the issues that lies behind this new section which we have just begun this evening, which will stretch from chapter 8 verse 1 to chapter 11 verse 1. Now Paul is going to be dealing of course with a specific issue of behaviour. But behind that issue there is an attitude, a spirit, and he is more concerned even with that attitude of self-centredness and carelessness for others, which is poisoning the fellowship. As they do today, Christian people in Corinth were thinking and acting as isolated individuals. What suits me, what pleases me. There was little realisation that they were part of a body and they had obligations to their brothers and sisters. Several centuries ago, the Elizabethan poet and preacher, John Donne, wrote, no man is an island. In other words, none of us is a little self-contained individual. We have ties and links to others. Am I my brother's keeper? Yes, says Paul, you are the keeper of your brother and sister. And that's what this chapter is about. We look first at the issue, then the argument, the answer and the application. First of all, the issue, and it's described for us in verses 1 and 3. Paul says now about eating food sacrificed to idols. In every city in the ancient world there were many heathen temples. And these temples were the restaurants of the first century. They were the places where people would gather to eat. If there was a civic event, if the local mayor or leader of the town council was wanting to hold a meal, he would hold it in a temple. All the religious festivals, the equivalent of Christmas and Easter, were held in the temples. If there was some great family occasion, people wouldn't eat so much in their homes. If there was a 50th wedding anniversary or I don't know, some other great birthday or event, people would book a room in a heathen temple and they would have their meal there. There were various trade guilds, trade unions and professional groups of businessmen and they had regular meals in the temples. There were sporting and cultural societies in the ancient world, and they had their meals in the temples. The temple was the community centre of the town, and really all the life of the town took place in the temple. And people met there probably every day of the week, there would be some group meeting for a meal. And because it was the temple of a god or goddess, before they would have their meal, the animal would be killed and sacrificed to the god or goddess of the temple. If it was Apollo's temple, there was a temple of Apollo in Corinth, and the pillars of that are still standing down in the lower city. The lamb or the bullock would be sacrificed to Apollo. And part of the meat would be burned on the altar. and the rest of the meat would be given to the people and they would eat the meat in their meal. That would be the main item in their meal. This meat which had been first of all offered and sacrificed to this heathen god. And the problem which the Christians in Corinth faced was this. Should they be present at gatherings like this? Was it right for a believer to go to a temple and to take part in a temple meal. Supposing you were a member of a non-Christian family and your parents were having their silver wedding anniversary, I don't know if they did those things, but something like that, and they had booked a room in a local temple and you were the only believer. Should you go along to that meal? Would that be alright? Supposing you were a leather worker And the trade union of the leather workers were having their annual dinner. And all the leather workers in Corinth were expected to turn up and take part in the annual dinner which was being held in the temple of Apollo. And you're a believer. Should you go along to that? Should you participate in that? Many of these Christians would have eaten meals like this all their lives before their conversion. But the issue was this, was it right for them now, as Christians, to go into a heathen place of worship and to eat food which had been offered to a pagan god? And it was quite a difficult issue. Because if you decided not to go, you were excluding yourself from much of ancient life. You were probably having to miss a lot of family gatherings. You might be put out of your trade union and be unable to earn your living. You would be regarded as a weird anti-social sort of oddity who couldn't take part in the normal activities of normal people. You would be very much out of it. That was the point. It might even be a barrier to evangelism. It might cut off your friendships with non-Christians. So it was quite a serious matter relating to the world around them. And at some time earlier they had contacted Paul and said, Paul, what should we do about these meals in the temple? Should we go and should we eat this meat or should we not? And Paul seems to have written back at some earlier time and told them that they should not be present at these temple meals. They shouldn't go, they shouldn't participate. So that's the issue. Eating food sacrificed to idols in the temple. Later on, in a later chapter, we'll think about what happens when you get food like that offered to you in a private home. That's another matter. But at the moment, we're thinking about going to this temple and eating this food. And Paul says, I think it would be better for you not to go, to stay away. That brings us secondly to the argument That is the argument of some Christians in Corinth. As usual, there were people who didn't like what Paul said. It seems to have been an exceptionally difficult congregation. There were some very argumentative people. And whatever Paul said, they would say the opposite. And as we read between the lines, we see that there was an argument put up against Paul's advice. And basically, they had two points in their argument. The first point was this, Paul, you know and we know that these heathen gods don't really exist. There is nobody called Apollo. There is nobody called Aphrodite. These have just been made up. These are the creations of the human mind. They're non-entities. They're superstitions. There is no divine person living in that temple. When that animal is sacrificed to Apollo, there is no Apollo. There is no reality. There's nothing there. There is no invisible spirit which is accepting the meat of the sacrifice. We know that these gods don't exist. And their second point was we also know that God doesn't mind what food we eat. All the Old Testament food laws have been fulfilled in Christ. There are no longer clean foods and unclean foods. All food is now acceptable and it makes no difference to our spiritual state what we eat or what kind of food we eat or what we drink. And they said, now Paul, listen, if there are no gods, if they don't exist, and if it doesn't matter what we eat, what is the harm in sitting in a temple eating food offered to idols? What's wrong with that? It's only a fairy story. These superstitious pagans believe in it, but we don't believe in it. It doesn't mean anything to us. It is no reality. It is no relevance. We're sorry for these people. But we laugh inside ourselves. We treat it as a piece of nonsense. What harm could it do us? What possible harm to go to a building dedicated to a God that doesn't exist and to eat food that God is quite happy for us to eat? How could that affect our relationship with God? That's the argument which lies behind this chapter. They say, Paul, you're making a fuss over nothing. You're asking us to cut ourselves off from society in an extreme way, to look odd, out of step, strange. And we're not doing anything wrong. There's no harm in it. It can't cause us any spiritual damage. And so these Corinthians were continuing to eat in the temples and they were encouraging other members of the church to join them, to disregard their scribbles and eat in the temples with them. So that's the argument. First of all the issue. Should we eat food offered to idols in a temple? Paul says, no, you shouldn't go there and you shouldn't eat. Then they argue and they say, but wait a minute, the idols don't exist and the temple doesn't matter. So what's the harm in it? And that brings us thirdly to the answer. The answer. And Paul starts off by agreeing with their theology. Look at verses four to six. We know, he says, that an idol is nothing at all in the work, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and lords, the Greeks had dozens and dozens of gods. Yet for us, there is but one God, the Father, and there is but one Lord Jesus Christ. We know that this is. There are no other gods. I agree with you. These gods don't exist. And then he says in verse 8, food does not bring us near to God. We're no worse if we do not eat, and we're no better if we do. He says your doctrine, your theology, is correct. So where's the problem? If their theology is correct, where's the problem? Well he outlines the problem in verse 7. But not everyone knows this. Not everyone he means in the church. Not every Christian knows this. Now what does Paul mean by that? He means something like this, he means not everyone knows it in their hearts, in their emotions, in their feelings. He says there are believers in your church and in their minds they know that there is only one God. Intellectually they know that those Gods Apollo and Aphrodite and Zeus and Hera and so on. They know they don't exist. Intellectually, that's what they believe. If you were to ask them, does Apollo exist? They would say, no he doesn't exist. They believe that, they know that in their intellect. But the point is this, people are more than intellect. People are more than intellect. And some of these Christians have worshipped in Apollo's temple for years and years and years since they were little children. And before they were converted, they believed in Apollo with all their hearts. They trusted in him. They sacrificed to him. They were afraid of him. For them, Apollo the God was a reality. And those years of pagan worship had left a psychological impact or imprint on their emotions and their conditioning. And when they went into the temple, their minds were telling them one thing, but their feelings were telling them something else. You understand? They would say, well, I know there's no God Apollo, but when they went back into the temple where they'd been dozens of times, they felt as if Apollo was there. Their heart, their emotions took over, even though their minds told them there was nothing there. I know there's nothing there. Their emotions told them there was something there. Now you may say that's ridiculous. That's irrational. Nobody behaves like that. Really? Have you ever looked under the bed? Now you know there's nothing under the bed. Once you think there might be, you have to look. Are you lying in bed on a cold winter night? Your husband or wife says to you, did you lock the front door? You know you locked the front door. You remember locking the front door. What do you do? Well, if you're very strong minded, you say, yes dear, I did lock the front door, and you roll over and go to sleep. But if you're like most of us, you'll say, yes, I know I locked the front door, but I'll go down and check it. You're going away on holiday, into the car. Did you turn off the central heating? Yes. But I'll just go and check. You see, we can know something with our minds, and yet our emotions Our past associations condition us, and that's what was happening with these people. I remember one of the girls who came with us to Ireland from Cyprus after the Turkish invasion in 1974 saying to my wife and me, after she'd been back to Cyprus for a holiday, she said, my parents took me to the Greek Orthodox Church in which I was brought up. Now she says, I know it's teaching is false. I know it's superstition. I know it's idolatry. But when I went in there to the very building in which I had been brought up as a child, and when I smelled the incense and heard the sounds and the prayers, I was affected by it. She was startled by the effect of something that she knew in her mind was superstition. But we're not just minds. Look what Paul says in the rest of verse 7. Some people, some Christian people in your church are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to idols. I can't help it. I just can't help it. It's too recent. The associations are too strong. The memories are too great. And when they eat the food, they cannot help thinking of it as having been sacrificed to an idol. And he says to these Corinthians, when you take these people along to the temple, you Christians. You who have no problem about this, when you take these weaker brothers along, they feel guilty and fearful and wretched and miserable. They feel as if they're betraying their Lord. They feel as if they're going back to their past religion, as if they're sinning against God. That's what happens. Verse 7 again, since their conscience is weak, it is destroyed Paul says it's no good saying people shouldn't be illogical. People are illogical. It's no good saying people shouldn't be influenced by their emotions. People are influenced by their emotions. It's no good saying people shouldn't be influenced by the past. They are influenced by the past. They've worshipped in that temple for 20, 30, 40 years and when they go back All the old associations come flooding in. And they're damaged spiritually. They have a bad conscience. They lose their sense of peace with God. They're shaken in faith. Paul says in verse 11, they're destroyed. So this is his answer to the argument of the strong Corinthian Christians. They say, what's the harm in it? What's wrong with it? Paul says, I'll tell you the harm in it. It hurts your brothers and sisters. And that makes it wrong, even though it may be right. verses 11 and 12, this weak brother for whom Christ died is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. In other words, he says, the strong, as they like to call themselves, they have missed the point altogether. They've ignored the ABC of Christianity. They're proud of what they know. They're proud of their understanding. They're proud of their orthodox doctrine. But knowledge, although it's very important, isn't the most important thing. In verse 1 Paul says, knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The essence of Christianity is caring for other people. It's not enough, says Paul, to be right in theory. It's not enough to be able to prove my case. It's not enough to be able to defend myself. It's not enough to think about myself when deciding what course I will take. I must think about my brother and sister in Christ. Will this help them? Or will it hinder them? Will it do them good or will it do them harm? Will it bring them closer to God? Or will it lead them further away from God? If they see me in this temple eating this meat, it may not be doing me any harm. But will it do them harm? Paul says it will do them harm. Because they'll follow your example. And they'll have a bad conscience. And they'll feel guilty. And they'll be shaken in their faith. And they'll be damaged spiritually. It may be all right for you, but it's not all right for them. And you cannot set an example that will harm other younger, weaker, less logical Christians. Verse 9, be careful that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. And as he does before, we'll not take time to develop it, but as he always does, Paul brings them back to the cross. He says in verse 11, Jesus Christ died for his people. He didn't suit himself. He didn't please himself. He did what is good for them. So their argument is, there's nothing wrong in it. Paul's answer is, there may be nothing wrong in it as far as you're concerned, but if it damages other Christians, that makes it wrong, makes it wrong for you to do it. Be careful that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. And that brings us lastly to the application. What has this passage got to do with us today? Firstly, I'd want to say that the passage is often misused due to a misunderstanding of the King James verse in translation of verse 13. The King James reads, If meat make my brother to offend, I will never eat meat again. If meat make my brother to offend. And that verse has been misinterpreted And the suggestion is made that it means that you cannot do anything which may offend me. You can't do anything which may annoy me, or upset me, or of which I may disapprove, or which I may think to be wrong. That I have a right to come to you and say, wait a minute, this is offending me that you do that. And you can't do anything that offends me. And sometimes this verse is misused as a club by what we might call more narrow believers to beat other believers into conformity. I don't agree with what you're doing, it offends me and Paul says here you shouldn't offend me. But that's not what Paul is saying. That's not what Paul is teaching. We need to go to Romans 14 to get teaching on that issue. where Paul commands mutual tolerance. He says to the weak, just don't you be offended. Tolerate your brothers and sisters. The issue here is different. It is of believers being persuaded to do something against their conscience. Being pressurized or encouraged to act in a way that they believe to be wrong. And this is what is strictly forbidden. Paul makes his position emphatically clear in verse 13. If what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall. Paul says, I have my rights, I have my freedoms, there are things that I can do which I know are not wrong in themselves. There's nothing wrong with them, scripturally. But, if there was any possibility of another believer being harmed by my doing that, I won't do it. I won't do it. Even though it's my right. Even though it's my freedom, even though it's not unscriptural, even though there's nothing wrong in it in itself, if anybody could be harmed by it, I won't do it. I am my brother's keeper. What is important is not that I should do what I want to do. What is important is that I should love my brothers and sisters and help them and build them up. If Jesus laid down his life for his people, Paul says, I can lay down my freedoms. And he's reminding us here that what is safe for one Christian may not be safe for another Christian. What is safe for one Christian may not be safe for another Christian. Imagine two Christians living in an African village. and they hear that the witch doctor is going to hold a meeting and everyone's free to come to this meeting. And one of the Christians thinks he's a European, he's a missionary, he's recently come from England or America to this African village. He thinks it'd be great to go to this meeting and to listen and to see what's going on and we'll maybe be able to talk to people afterwards. I think we should go. The other Christian is an African. who has recently been converted, and who previously believed in that witch doctor, and was terribly afraid of him. He says to his friend, but I don't want to go. I'm frightened of going. I don't know what would happen to me. I don't know if I could control my emotions or my thinking. And the American at the end says, oh rubbish, he says, there's nothing in there, it's only a lot of mumbo-jumbo, it can't affect you. We can see that he could go perfectly well, wouldn't affect him. But his friend could be damaged terribly. In other words, we have to keep in mind always the needs and the weaknesses of other people. And while we don't have this problem today of eating meat offered to idols, many, many other applications spring to mind. Take, for example, the question of the drinking of alcohol. Many Christians would point us to the fact that Christians in the New Testament drank wine, and wine is spoken of in the Psalms as a blessing from God. They would say, now scripturally, is there anything that forbids the Christian to consume alcohol? And in one respect, we would have to say, no, there isn't. No, there isn't. Paul urged Timothy to take wine, a little wine, for his stomach's sake. There isn't in one sense. But what about this passage and other passages? What about the thousands of lives, the millions of lives, that are utterly destroyed by alcohol? What about the fact that it's possible for any of us that we could have an addiction to alcohol that we don't know about and that we anticipate that we can't anticipate. Supposing another Christian was led by your example to drink alcohol and that person became a drunkard. How could you live with yourself? How could you live with yourself? You have put them in a position. where they have fallen and been damaged. Paul says if there's any possibility that my behavior might harm another Christian, I lay those things aside. They don't matter. I remember making a bad mistake years ago. I'd been reading a very famous novel which was poking fun at an American evangelist And although the writer of the novel, as far as I know, wasn't a Christian, it was a very, very penetrating and humorous and accurate dissection of this immoral fraud who pretended to be a Christian preacher. And I lent the book to a young Christian lad and recommended that he read it. And he brought it back to me. He was deeply upset. He was shaken in his faith. The whole book shook him, made him question the Bible, upset his whole spiritual life. I could read the book. It didn't do me any harm. I found it very stimulating. I learned a lot from it. But I unwisely encouraged him to read it. He couldn't handle it. Or another incident I heard of, a young man who had spent his life in competitive sport. And this young man was ultra, ultra competitive. And he was known for losing his temper on the football field. He just had really no control of his temper at all. And then he became a Christian. And he stopped playing football. And sometime later a friend said, oh come on back, it's a good healthy sport, you'll make friends, you'll contact people, and he went back. And once again, he lost the head. And he found that he himself, nothing wrong at all in the game, there's nothing wrong in playing the game, but for him, it was wrong. He couldn't get involved in it without sinning. And I'm sure we can think of other examples and applications. What is vital here is that we grasp the great principle which Paul is setting out. Think not just of yourself, but others. Think of your children, the example you want to set to them. Think of your friends. Think of the young Christian. Think of the weak Christian. And when you go somewhere, and when you do something, when you engage in some activity, it's not just enough to say, there's no harm in it for me. You've got to say, could it harm anyone else? Love is more important than knowledge. We're to give our lives to building up our brothers and sisters in the faith. These Corinthians were selfish, they were self-centered, they were boasting about their theological orthodoxy, and at the same time they were hurting and damaging young Christians. There are so many ways in which we can do it. We need to be so careful. There are so many ways. Sometimes we may be critical of other Christians and our children are listening. Now you and I, we may know that we love those people, that we esteem those people, that these are minor flaws, yet your child is sitting drinking all this in. So and so must be a bad man. So and so must be a bad woman. What is that doing to Sometimes we share doubts that we may have, or difficulties about some part of the Bible, or some doctrine, and a young Christian's listening, and it really shakes them. Paul says, whatever you do, you're your brother's keeper. It's a lonely, dangerous world. What I want you to do, he says, is not just to look out for yourselves. but to give yourselves to building up your brothers and your sisters in the faith. And we'll see in our next study, which won't be for a couple of weeks, but as we move into chapter 9, we'll see how Paul put that into practice in his own life. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, open our hearts to give us a constant sensitivity and concern for other people and for the effect which our words and actions and behavior may have on others. Help us to really have a deep concern for the well-being of all our fellow Christians, that above all we may do nothing to harm them, to cause them to stumble, to do something which while right for us might be wrong for them. O Lord, if there are any things in our lives at this moment which could cause others to stumble, we pray that you will show them to us. Everything about our lifestyle, O God, the way we spend our money, the way we furnish our homes, our amusements, our pastimes, our speech together, Lord, whatever it may be, grant that we may so live in love that no one could come to harm by following our example. That we may learn that it is not enough to have knowledge, but we must have that love which builds up. That it is not enough to be right, but there are times when we have to lay aside our rights. Help us to do so and to follow our Savior. For His name's sake. Amen.