It has been a long time since I have been able to write. I have struggled over this “lack of writing.” I have just not been able to share my thoughts or studies. To be honest, (I dislike using this phrase because it implies that I am generally not honest but anyway), I have struggled with my study and prayer time. I have just had to push myself to do it some days. It has been a bit dry and dusty lately. But someone told me that when things dried up, the key is to keep digging, so that has been me, and today I found a bit of water that I wanted to share.
My Study Method
The way that I am studying the Bible during this drought has been one chapter in the New Testament at a time until I am compelled to move to the next chapter. It is not the only part of the Bible I am studying. I am also studying Psalms and Proverbs, and eventually, I will start in the Old Testament, but I am in no rush. I will get there when the Holy Spirit nudges me that way.
My goal has just been to make sure I get through each chapter with a better understanding than when I started. It has been slow, but I am convinced that when I study prayerfully, even in this dry spell, the Holy Spirit helps set the tempo. So there is no hurry, and this morning I was surprised.
Liberty
I was reading 1Corinthians 8 for the fourth or fifth time in as many days when I saw something new, or at least in a different light. Chapter eight is about our liberty in the faith and how we should take care of how we exercise that liberty around other believers. Paul explained that not all believers share the same knowledge; the example Paul uses is eating meat sacrificed to idols. He opened the chapter with this caution regarding our liberty.
1Corinthians 8:1-3 LSB
Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone thinks that he has known anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; 3 but if anyone loves God, he has been known by Him.
Paul reminds us that our knowledge tends to puff us up a bit, which is not a good thing. He makes this strong point about knowledge and love in verses two and three. They give me a chill as I reread them.
1Corinthians 8:2-3 LSB
2 If anyone thinks that he has known anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; 3 but if anyone loves God, he has been known by Him.
We cannot hope to understand anything accurately without God. That puffed-up attitude that Paul referred to in verse one of this chapter does not often leave room for learning. Puffed up is just another way to say prideful.
The only way to know how to proceed and adequately care for our liberty is by doing everything in love: This includes considering those around us that our choices and actions may influence. Paul singled out love in this letter to the Corinthians in chapter thirteen, and that gives us an advantage that we can look ahead.
The Excellence of Love
Love is fundamental. It is a crucial piece of our faith and our foundation. If we are going to act, that action must be grounded in love.
1Corinthians 13
1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, does not brag, is not puffed up;
5 it does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered;
6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails, but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now abide faith, hope, love—these three; but the greatest of these is love.
This love is humbling and all-encompassing, but Paul reveals it to us in small pieces, getting back to chapter eight. First, with this example of a brother with a weaker conscience.
Stumbling Block
Paul goes on in chapter eight of 1Corinthinas importance of recognizing that not all brothers in Christ are in the same place in their relationship or walk with Jesus. In verses four through eight, he continues with the example of eating meat sacrificed to idols.
1Corinthians 8:4-8 LSB
Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. 7 However, not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 But food will not commend us to God. We neither lack if we do not eat, nor abound if we do eat.
Many things could take the place of meat in this example, but whatever it might be, if one brother sees it as wrong and it can be a stumbling block to them, that stumble reaches much further than a misunderstanding. The impact can be destructive.
Impact
Paul pulls no punches when he discusses the impact. As I considered what Paul said, my stomach sank a bit.
1Corinthians 8:10-12 LSB
10 For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be built up to eat things sacrificed to idols? 11 For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. 12 And in that way, by sinning against the brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
When you consider these verses a “stumbling block” it is so much more than causing harm to a brother. You are sinning against that brother for whom Christ died. If that is not enough, the sin is not just against the brother; it is also against Christ Jesus… Just let that sink in a bit. It left me with a sick feeling to imagine that this thoughtless action had caused such harm.
Reflections
As I considered all of this, and the responsibilities that God showed me through Paul, I could not help but be shaken by it all. What this has forced me to do this morning is consider my behavior in public. There is no way to know the burdens carried by others unless they have shared them with me, so kindness and humility are essential.
I was reminded that God had a planned order for things. As I was writing this today, this thought kept chiming in… “put others first.” I could not remember where it was in God’s, so I googled it, and if I had not been humbled enough already, this text only added to my humility. I found this passage in Philippians one and two.
Philippians 1:27-2:5
27 Only live your lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear about your circumstances, that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind contending together for the faith of the gospel, 28 in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. 29 For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, 30 having the same struggle which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
1Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 fulfill my joy, that you think the same way, by maintaining the same love, being united in spirit, thinking on one purpose, 3 doing nothing from selfish ambition or vainglory, but with humility of mind regarding one another as more important than yourselves, 4 not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
I could have left this quote simply with, “Only live your lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ,” or just “do nothing out of selfish ambition,” but it was so beautiful I could not stop. So, in fact, I have to include what Paul said about Jesus and His humility…
Philippians 2:6-11
6 who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore, God also highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Like everything else, Jesus is “I am”… When you try to define the word humble, or humility or the phrase “placing others before yourself,” you need only these five verses. First, “I will always be second “…
Closing and Prayer
So, all of that said. I have been humbled to the point that my position is always “to be second.” But, if Jesus could humble himself to the point of death on a cross for me, and Paul could suffer as he did to share the Gospel with me, a gentile, how can I not take care and watch out for my brother in Christ. I know that I will fail, but I know too that God will forgive me when I do.
Father, help me to be a better brother among the body. Help me know my brothers and sisters better so that I may be kinder and closer to them. Father, help me set aside that part of my nature that seeks to be first and follow the example of Paul, who set everything aside so that I might know Jesus… the one who died to pay my debt. Dear Lord, thank you for all that you are. Thank you for your love, and it is in your blessed Son’s name that I pray. Amen.
