1COR10v14to33: THE BELIEVER'S FREEDOM

(A) Introduction. (Read the reference)

In the second part of chapter 10 Paul deals with a very difficult topic: to what extent is the believer free? If Christianity is too restrictive the end result is a narrow legalism detested by Paul. If it is too liberal the result is a church where anything goes and conduct that is a scandal to the world. The challenge is to get the balance right - knowing where to draw the line. In the next chapter Paul addresses the problem of hair length! If hair length is an issue when is long hair too long and short hair too short? It is to the apostle's credit that he does lay down a few general principles concerning a believer's freedom and also tackles some specific issues. A lot of preachers are good at the former but fight shy of the latter.

(B) Prohibition: where to draw the line.

Paul taught that certain activities were incompatible with what a Christian is.

(1) What a Christian is.

Paul established this first. He illustrated a believer's standing with reference to the Lord's Supper. Participation in this service shows that Christians are:

    (a) Redeemed. Paul wrote: Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? v16. When Christians drink the wine and eat the bread at Communion they confirm their share in the benefit of Christ's sacrifice for sin. We affirm our participation by faith in the redemptive process. We declare an interest in the Saviour's blood.

    (b) United. Because there is one loaf, we who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. v17. Participants in the Lord's Supper celebrate their common dependence upon the sacrificial work of Jesus. We identify with Jesus as Saviour and each other as sinners saved by grace.

The Lord's Supper is a very important meal because at it we make a statement about where our allegiance lies.

In order to drive home this truth Paul reminded his readers that other special meals reinforce a sense of identity. He used an example familiar to many of the Christians at Corinth: Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar. v18. When Jews offered a sacrifice to God most of it was eaten at a sacrificial meal. In this way Jews identified with the intention of the sacrifice, shared in its benefits and displayed a commitment to the old covenant God made with his people.

There is no doubt that eating together still carries a great deal of significance. At a wedding reception the guests participate in the bride and groom's joy - they show their solidarity with the married couple. Even at the annual dinner of the Brockley Cricket Club there is a sense of togetherness and belonging to the same side.

(2) An activity incompatible with what a Christian is.

(a) Paul believed that to attend a sacrificial feast in honour of a pagan deity was entirely incompatible with being a Christian. This was the reason he gave: The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. v20and21.

What did Paul mean by this? He had already been highly dismissive of idols: Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No ... . v19. Yet Paul argued that a sacrifice offered to an idol was actually offered to demons. He seems to be contradicting himself.

Paul knew that an idol was only a lump of wood or stone but, nonetheless, pagans believed it represented a capricious, unpredictable, self-absorbed and possibly mischievous spirit that needed to be acknowledged, appeased and bribed. There was something behind the idol, a dark force, that took these beliefs and produced an exaggerated spirit of fear, superstition, excess and even cruelty.

Unreasonably intense, crippling, superstition did afflict many in the Roman Empire. There was a huge interest in signs, omens, dreams, auguries and mediums. Even people who held high office could be paralysed by superstitious fear. It was an evil spirit invested with demonic power by Satan.

So Paul argued it was wrong to participate in anything that had to do with pagan worship. To do so was to be among that number who were infected by superstition, fear and self-indulgence. It was to sup at the table of the Dark Lord - to come under his influence at great personal risk to oneself. As Jesus pointed out: it is not possible to serve two masters. Eventually one comes to love one and hate the other.

(b) How is this relevant today? We need to ask: What are the modern idols? What displaces God in man's affections? There are more idols that we might think. I will just mention four. We shall see that the tactics of Satan don't change.

    (I) Profit (Corporate success). Many large companies have made this the idol at which they expect their employees to worship. Devotion to this idol is associated with evil spirits, sometimes quite demonic in their intensity: greed, competitiveness, ruthlessness and boastfulness. I am sure that Satan has invested these spirits with malign power, turning them into monsters that quite take people over.

    It is not appropriate for Christians to sup at this table. I am afraid some do. They even introduce the values of big business into the church!! Some churches, particularly in the United States, just cannot get enough money.

    (II) Celebrity (Glamour and fame) I quite enjoy watching a program on ITV entitled, 'Ugly Betty.' It is about a young, unglamorous, honest woman working for a fashion magazine. It is very evident that the employees producing this publication worship celebrity and glamour and are controlled by the evil spirits of shallowness, self-promotion, duplicity, vanity and jealousy. The demonic strength of these spirits is such that the innate goodness of Betty goes unrecognised.

    The believer should avoid worshipping at the shrine to celebrity. It does great harm to a church when the leaders become celebrities. If a congregation worships the leader it sups at the table of Satan and all sorts of bad consequences follow.

    (III) Ideology. During the last 100 years ideologies have replaced religion to devastating effect. Consider all those that worshipped at the Nazis shrine. They were taken over by evil spirits: adulation of the leader, racism, propaganda, conformity, oppression and cruelty. The result was devilish. There can be no doubt about it. Such was the hideous strength of these spirits that many Germans seemed overwhelmed by a collective madness. There was something Satanic about Nazism.

    Britain is being infected by a new ideology. It is all the more sinister because it hasn't really got a name. Those who worship at its shrine are increasingly captive to the evil spirits of political correctness, regulation, legalism, coercion and spite. They know what is good for us! This morning I read in the Daily Telegraph of a headmaster who banned a 10 year old boy from the school canteen because his lunch box contained a packet of crisps and a piece of chocolate cake.

    (IV) Science. There are certainly some who worship at this altar, who afford 'Science' greater reverence than God. The spirits that surround its throne are arrogance, lawlessness, licence and subservience. If these evil spirits get out of hand, as surely Satan intends, then experiments on embryos will increase, designer babies will be created and implants in the brain will increase cognitive functions to produce an elite of supermen.

(4) Conclusion.

Christians should have nothing to do with idols of any description. Paul wrote: You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. Christians cannot serve two masters.

Paul taught two general principles about the believer's freedom:

    (a) "Everything is permissible" - but not everything is beneficial. v23. We have to ask whether an association or activity benefits us as a Christian. We do have to be careful about where we work, our political involvement and the science we study. I don't think the Christian is free to work for businesses that make a god out of profit or to worship at the idol of celebrity. Christians cannot be Nazis or Communists without compromising their faith. There are certain scientific disciplines that Christians would do well to avoid.

    (b) "Everything is permissible" but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good but the good of others. v24.

    We have to decide whether what we do will build up or weaken the church. Is our behaviour going to benefit other Christians or not? It is a pity that Christians do not consider the good of others. Last week I talked to an elderly lady about the evening service at her church. She finds it an ordeal to attend - the music is too loud and she has to stand so long for repetitive singing that her legs ache. Nobody seems concerned for her good! The only people who matter are the young. 'Yuuff' is another of the world's lesser idols!

(C) Proportion: Don't go looking for problems.

Paul wasn't going to let the legalists have it all their own way. He undertook a difficult balancing act between permissiveness on the one hand and excessive control on the other. The apostle encouraged his readers to have a sense of proportion. The uptight faction at Corinth was:

(a) Not to go looking for problems. Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience for, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." v25. This is sound common sense. A customer in the butcher's shop should treat lamb chops as one of God's gifts.

Christians shouldn't take issue over trivialities. It is a pity some get so worked up about what is permissible on Sunday. Although I consider gambling is a curse when I attend the Brockley Cricket Club Cheese and Wine evening I will buy a few raffle tickets and play a couple of games of Bingo. I find it difficult to understand why Christians do not attend a united service if Roman Catholics are going to be present. Paul recognises it is possible to be too particular.

(b) Told to be courteous. If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. v27.

Christians are not to be anti-social. Jesus wasn't! He came eating and drinking and was criticised for dining with prostitutes and collaborators. At a party we shouldn't be awkward and an embarrassment to our hosts. Christians should be easy to entertain. Eat what you are given - good advice to vegetarians!! Don't make a fuss about non-essentials. Fit in. Don't make others feel uncomfortable.

(c) To be tolerant. If I take part in a meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? v30.

It is highly likely that the legalists in the church at Corinth criticised Paul for eating with non-Christians. This was one of the ways the apostle carried out his calling of bringing the gospel to Gentiles. So he defended himself.

It is dangerous to condemn our brothers for mixing with unbelievers. There were probably several Jews who censured Esther, the Jewess, for being a member of King Xerxes' harem. But her uncle, Mordecai, was able to say to her when the very existence of the Jews was threatened: "And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" Esther4v14.

(D) Placatory: Respect the conscience of others.

But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for consciences' sake - the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours. v28and29.

According to Paul, if I was about to tuck into a juicy barbecued steak and someone said, "Do you realise that all the meat has been dedicated to Aphrodite?", I would be duty bound not to eat the steak to avoid giving offence and causing distress to the Christian with a tender conscience. This doesn't go down too well does it?

Let us try and bring it a bit more up to date. Suppose I was being entertained during the war and being served with lashings of roast beef and the person sitting next to me whispered, "Are you aware the joint was bought on the black market?" Would it be easy to turn to the host and say? "I'm sorry but I cannot eat this meat." Or, imagine that you played golf with a charming, wealthy man who offered your family a holiday free of charge in his luxury overseas apartment and an acquaintance tells you, "Your friend bought that apartment using the proceeds from his Internet porn site."

Followers of Jesus need to be very careful not to give offence where Christianity is a minority religion. I read an interesting article about Christianity in Gambia which is a 95% Muslim country. Pastor M, a convert from Islam to Christianity, tries to make the services in his church as culturally familiar as possible. Women and men sit on opposite sides of the church and kick of their sandals at the door. A new convert was expelled from the fellowship for smoking. It is outrageous for a woman from the Fula tribe to smoke and Pastor M wanted to emphasise that although Christians are free, we are called to 'be all things to all men.' As a Fula, that means not smoking. Pastor M knows that their behaviour is one of their key evangelistic tools.

Insisting that shoes are removed before entering church and banning smoking seem very legalistic to me. However, Paul would be in sympathy with Pastor M who is accommodating those with a conscience about these matters - the weak Christian.

I think Christian women in the West should be careful what they wear. Revealing clothes or very expensive outfits can be an offence to some Christians. It is wrong to flaunt your wealth - or your body.

Conclusion.

Paul concludes this section of his epistle with some excellent advice:

(1) Do everything to God's glory. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. v31. The best way to assess the appropriateness of our behaviour is to ask, "Is this to the glory of God."

(2) Seek the good of others. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many. v33. This is just so different from the values of the world.

(3) Seek the salvation of others: Even as I try to please everybody in every way ..... so that they may be saved. v33. Paul's overriding priority, something he put before his own reputation, was to win souls for Christ. Very few have pursued this ambition as single-mindedly as the apostle to the Gentiles. He puts me to shame.

(4) Live in such a way that we can tell new Christians to follow our example. A master craftsman can probably urge his apprentice to follow his example. I felt fully entitled to encourage my pupils to follow my example so far as hard work and good working practices were concerned. But I am afraid I cannot say with Paul: Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. Ch11v1. I genuinely hope most Christians are better than I am.

ANY COMMENTS FOR JOHN REED: E-mail jfmreed@talktalk.net

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