I Corinthians Chapter 8 "Things
Offered to Idols; Knowledge Brings Liberty to
Oneself." This Bible Study is written by Roger
Christopherson, and made available with written
permission by http://www.theseason.org Chapter eight is for the very mature Christian, taught by Paul who declares his credentials to us. This chapter deals with idols as it affects the Christian. You and I know that idols are nothing more than a stick of wood or stone that some man has carved out to represent another object, usually a man, tree, bird or some other beast of some sort. The power of that idol is all in the mind of the person that carved it, and it has no more common sense than a rock. What that idol represents is declared by the man that made it. Let's say it was created and declared to be for the 'god of joy', then all the joy that that man receives from his idol of joy is the joy that he had in making it for himself. An idol takes up a persons attention on one matter and redirects the focus of that persons mind. If your car or house is what keeps your mind and attention all tied up, then that car or house is an idol. If it detracts you from serving God, then it becomes an idol. So what Paul is addressing in this chapter is that if a man carved an idol from a stick then that idol is still nothing but a stick, with all the powers of a stick. That is all the mentality that that idol maintains, absolutely none. So an idol is an image in the mind of the man that made it and nothing more. It has no power within itself, or substance within it for any spiritual sense. Paul is going to talk about an idol here, and the object he is talking about is a stick that has been carved out in the image of some creature. I Corinthians 8:1 "Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge." Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." Paul is saying; now concerning the things that have been offered unto idols. Paul is reminding us that all human beings have some knowledge within ourselves. The knowledge that men and women gain can make them all puffed up to where they think they are a little better then the next guy, however love is not directed toward the one that loves, but is centered on the other person. A lot of People gain just a little knowledge, and they think that the world owes them a living. They get a boastful attitude, and you just can't talk with them. However love brings humility and humbleness to the person that gives it out to others, and the deeper that a person goes into God's Word, the greater this man or woman's love for others will be. The more you study and learn God's Word and gain the understanding that comes from the Holy Spirit, the more concern that Christian will have for the souls of them around him or her. The time will come in your studies when you will realize that the important thing is not to show someone how much you know about the bible, but can you relate your understanding to the next person. That is what is important, be able to help others in their Christian walk. That is true love. The point of edifying in love comes when you can give out the most knowledge of the Word of God to a new convert and bring that soul to maturity in the Word, without sinking them in a maze of confusion. The point is to teach on the level of the listener, and bring them to a higher level in the Scripture because they desire to learn more. This is the charity that edifieth. In God's eyes it is not what you know, but what you are able to convey to the non-believer or babe in Christ. You can't teach on the third lever to one that is a non-believer or who has just accepted Christ. I Corinthians 8:2 "And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." If you don't have that charity or love within yourself to be able to direct your knowledge to others, it is as if you don't have that knowledge in the first place. You must learn to be disciplined in the Word and in your life to where what you learn can be passed on to others in a manner that they can hear with understanding. That is foremost in teaching, that you learn to speak on the level of the one that is doing the listening. This is the most important part of seed planting, and we must remember this in our witnessing. Anytime someone starts to be a show off in the advanced things of God's Word, when the person listening is not equipped with the understanding to receive it, the unbeliever will become closed minded. I Corinthians 8:3 "But if any man love God, the same is known of Him." When you love God, and the Spirit of God is within you, an unbeliever can feel the love of God that is within you. God created us whereby He could have pleasure in us. When you love him and tell Him so He enjoys that. Revelation 4:11 "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." God loves it when you give him pleasure, and those are the ones that will receive the blessing when they do it God's way. Love is the strongest force in this world, and it will bring you more blessings from God when you learn to love others our Father's way. It doesn't mean that there will be no rocks in your path, but those that are there, you will be able to handle. The ones that are to tough for you, God will remove before you get there. I Corinthians 8:4 "As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one." We have knowledge to the fact that the idol is nothing but the stick that it is carved from. It has no mind, nor can it eat nor think, and if it stands on its feet you have to nail it the its platform or it will fall flat on its face. An idol is formed from the figment of the carvers imagination. So what Paul is drawing our attention to here is, why would you offer a piece of meat to a stick of wood that is carved from a man's hands? Even the thought of it sounds stupid. The logical thing to do is to take the idol that is made of wood, and light the fire and burn the idol to roast the meat for dinner. That stick is nothing and the idol is also nothing, however the meat represents a good meal. You can smile about it, laugh about it, but enjoy the stake. Idol food is good eaten, once you understand that all it represents is fantasy time in the mind of the carver and more than likely a prophet in the sale. I Corinthians 8:5 "For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)" Though people think that there are many gods, gods of joy, rain, power stars in the heavens and any other thing that a man can dream up, there is only One God and He is our Heavenly Father. We know that there were over forty thousand gods in ancient Babylon, and the Greeks have a god for everything. The Babylonians even had a council for their gods, and they allowed the sex act to even become one of their gods. We call that god, "grove worship" which was all part of Baal and Ashtorath worship that went as far back as the time the Israelites were in Egypt. Friend, gods can be formed even in demon worship, as we see becoming very popular today in seers, wizards, and stargazers. However, there is only One God, one Father, and one Son and the Holy Spirit of God. Though there is one God, there are many spirits in the demonic realm, and their actions go to make up false religions. This element of these demonics, or familiar spirits is essential that we become aware of, so that we can stay clear of their activities. They are of Satan, and the meat is sacrificed to demons [devils]. In I Corinthians 10:19-22: I Corinthians 10:19 "What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?" This is what we are talking about in this eighth chapter. Meat offered to a stick is meat offered to the wall, or a tree or any inanimate object: it is nothing. However when it is dealing with demons and evil spirits then it is another matter. I Corinthians 10:20 "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils." The sacrifices are not talking about idols here, but evil spirits that are of Satan the devil. When you stop by a local church and they bring in some new religious belief and say it is of God, when God's Word teaches other wise. Then when they take their communion they are taking it to devil, and to the doctrines of those devils. You have to be on guard when you take communion with a group that does not teach God's Word and hold fast to its teaching. There are some demonic spirits that take captive the minds of those that would listen to false teachings. I Corinthians 10:21 "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils." Friend, you can't sit at both tables at the same time, for once you commit to the false demonic teachings then you automatically have chosen to sit at the table of devils. Christ will not be there with you, and you are walking on dangerous ground. I Corinthians 10:22 "Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than He?" Do you think you can play mind games with God? If you do you are a loser from the start for our God is a jealous God. He gave you the right to chose, and you have just chosen the doctrines of devils over God's Holy Word. This is your eternal soul that you are so carelessly play games with. I Corinthians 8:6 "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by Him." Our heavenly Father created all things and that includes your soul way back in the first earth age. He placed your soul into the embryo when it was conceived in your mother's womb. He created the heavenly bodies in the universe and all forms of life on this earth. He even created the tree that this stick of that the idol was formed from. He created it all for one purpose and that is to give Him pleasure. Jesus Christ is the only Savior, the very begotten Son of the Father. When Jesus spoke nothing became everything. Jesus was there with the Father at creation, for the two are one and the same, with two separate offices of the God head. John addresses the deity of Jesus in his gospel of John. John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Word is Jesus Christ the very Son of God, who was in the beginning with the Father. The Savior, Jesus Christ is one of the offices of the Godhead. John 1:2 "The same was in the beginning with God." John 1:3 "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made." John 1:4 "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." The life that our soul can have is eternal life, and eternal life comes only through the blood of Jesus Christ. John 1:5 "And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." When Jesus walked on this earth in the flesh, those that He was sent to teach had no idea who Jesus really was for they were blinded to the truth. The darkness of this earth age blinded them to where they simply did not comprehend the fact that the promised Messiah was there with them. John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." The key to this verse is in the word "begotten" for that identifies Jesus as the very Son of the Heavenly Father. The "Word" that was in the beginning, that was with the Father, and that made all things was the promised Messiah that came in the flesh exactly as was prophesied thousands of years prior by God Himself. That Son is Jesus Christ. Paul is stating the same fact that John stated in his gospel that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the two offices of God are the same person. This is why we want to worship God the Father and not some stick, and we worship the Father in Jesus name for "Jesus Name" gives us our credentials to approach the throne of God. In stating "in Jesus Name" we are saying that we believe and have faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. That we believe that the shed blood of Christ is the only gift that we receive through our repentance for the covering of all of our sins, and "in Jesus Name", those sins are taken from us. That is the freedom that we have in Christ. The freedom of a clear conscience, free from the gilt of all sin. God intended us to use sticks to correct our little ones when they need correcting, or to burn in the fire to keep ourselves warm. We build houses with sticks, but we do not use them as an idol. There are still other things that people use as their idols and forms of idolatry, such as what is called sodomy, or sex carried on in a filthy manner between like partners. They think that they can create their form of sex practice in their pairing off with like partners, men with men and women with women. They think that they can go through their rituals that defy God's Word and not pay a price for their defiance of God's ways. The price is the diseases that they pick up, and the fact that their forms of practicing this filthy sexual act tares down the protective immune system that is suppose to protect their body from sickness, beside condemning their own souls. Moses refers to these men that are sodomites, and women that act as whores with one another in Deuteronomy 23:17, 18. Deuteronomy 23:17 "There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel." Deuteronomy 23:18 "Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the Lord thy God." Moses is not picking on dogs here when he states "price of a dog" for that is what the "male sodomites" are called here. Nothing that these sodomites can say or do has any part in the worship of God or in the association of God's house. There is no vow or message that can be spoken to defend their ways in any manner. What they are doing is an abomination unto God Himself, and anything that is spoken on their behalf is from Satan. They should not be allowed to enter into the House of God, unless they have confessed their sins to the Lord, and put their abominations against God out of their lives. Any preacher that defends their action is speaking the doctrines of demons or devils. Sodomy is perversion. To practice any form of the idolatrous act of sodomy is to bring "a death suicide wish" upon oneself. This form of idolatry [sodomy] is one of the signs of the end times, and even today our president is defending them, and many church systems are bringing this form of Satanism into their church doors. They are coddling those that would pervert themselves and giving them a false sense of security. Many Church leaders think that because they can vote in such perversion into their midst, that it will change how God will accept these perverts. Yet the only thing that is changed in their church houses is that their churches have become temples to Satan and not to God. God and His holy Word will never change. Jesus told us this in Matthew 24:35; "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." I Corinthians 8:7 "Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled." The new Christian's mind is far more sensitive to idols than the mature Christian that knows exactly what it represents. This new Christian is far more sensitive to the meat that is offered to an idol that a more mature Christian would be. It is what is in your conscience that matters here. It is what you believe to be true that convicts you of sin or defile your mind. If you think that eating that hunk of meat, that large taste steak that has been offered to an idol is sin, then it is a sin to you. However when you have matured in God's Word to the point that you know that the idol is nothing but a stick, and the meat is food to be taken and enjoyed, then the taking and eating of that hunk of meat is not a sin to you. "Defiled" as used here is better translated "troubled". I Corinthians 8:8 "But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse." Our spirit that is within each of us has nothing to do with meat, one way or another. In your mind and spirit it simply doesn't matter if you eat of that meat or just leave it alone. The eating of any meat or food just doesn't increase your spiritual life one bit, for it is your physical body that gains the strength from it when you eat of it. Sin is not in the eating, but how it is taken in the minds of the ones watching you eat. When it causes someone to fall then it is a sin to you. Just a note on the health laws. The health laws are given to help us live a normal healthy life, and when they are broken, it isn't as sin against God, but something that will affect your physical health. When you eat pork, crow or catfish expect the poisons of that animal and creature to be passed on to you, and when you eat any scavenger food, expect that it will affect your health to some degree or another. If you feel no sin is caused from eating of these or any meat, then eat away, but when sickness comes from those foods, don't act like it is God that is doing something to you, for it is your own acts that caused the problem. The health laws are directed to your physical well being, while the eating of meat that is spoken of here by Paul deals directly to your spiritual well being. The down side of the health laws are sickness, while the down side to this eating of meat is sin, and a spiritual matter between you and God. I Corinthians 8:9 "But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak." Paul is telling us to take heed so that the liberty that we have as mature Christians, doesn't become a stumbling block to the weak in immature Christ brother or sister. Some babe in Christ could see a man of God eating a stake that was offered to that stick and in his mind think that this was an evil act. If one simply does not have the entire Word of God in their mind with understanding, they are led to believe what the world thinks. Then the act of just eating a good stake could become a stumbling block to their faith in Christ. I Corinthians 8:10 "For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols?" It isn't a matter of how it will effect you as to whether you eat the meat or not, but what it does to the spiritual life and edification of the babe in Christ. His lack of knowledge of the Word subjects him to confusion and doubt on other matters also. In a way it sounds childish that we should be governed by the weakest Christian in our midst, but that is how that person will grow in the Lord. The new Christian grows by the examples set by the more mature Christians. This is why it is important to instruct and teach the new Christians so that their faith will grow to the point where they are not destroy by thing they know nothing about. The strong Christians are the shepherds that take care of the weak sheep. I Corinthians 8:11 "And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died." Yes, we know in our mind that eating of that stake that is offered to some idol doesn't matter one bit our spiritual life; but if some weak brother and sister is there and sees us doing what he thinks is a sin, then if he does that same thing which goes against his conscience, to him it is sin. This very act may cause him to fall away in other matters and turn from Christ to go back into his sinning ways. Just don't eat that steak that was offered to idols in front of the man, but wait until his is gone before you enjoy it. This just doesn't refer to a hunk of meat, but anything that you know is acceptable in the sight of God, but man's traditions have bound that new Christians to. The whole point here is what is right in your conscience and mind before God, and how your partaking in that act before another Christian, who is not strong enough in conscience, to do the same thing. To you it is right and to him it is not right, for it is what is in your mind that determines if it is sin or not. It becomes sin to you when it causes others to fall in the faith. I Corinthians 8:12 "But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ." Paul is telling you that it then becomes a sin to you, when you cause that weak one to fall away from Christ. The point here again, is to wait until he is gone before you indulge in that steak, then enjoy it. I Corinthians 8:13 "Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend." So Paul is telling us to use caution and good judgment and common sense in all of your actions when people are around you. If in your Christian home you use common sense in all that you do, you will be pretty much lined up biblically speaking. Our Father created us the way we are, and he gave us a natural order to all things. That is natural in the way we worship, what we eat, and even in our sex lives. It is when you start to use natural things in an unnatural way that you get into trouble in the eyes of God. So use common sense in all that you do.
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