Sermon Tone Analysis

Introducing the Passage:

The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts.

And the deadliest appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth.

For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable and almost incurable.

The section that we are walking into deals with apparent questions about whether believers can eat meat at the idol’s temple that is sacrificed to that an idol ().

In this culture, it was a practice that was woven throughout the entire culture.

It was a way to fellowship with others.

It was woven into their politics.

It was part of the fabric of life.

Better, the question coming from these believers was “Why can’t we eat the meat that is sacrificed to idols at the temple?”

For a believer to reject an unbeliever’s invitation to such and occasion could be perceived as a personal rejection.

This could cause an offense.

The temples in Corinth provided private banqueting rooms that could be rented out.

They would be rented out for receptions and occasions similar to what we would celebrate today.

It is very difficult to find a relevant application in a simple fashion today.

When someone, in that time, partook of the meat sacrificed to the idols, they were partaking in the worship of that false god.

There are cultural idols, such as military power, technological progress, and economic prosperity.

The idols of traditional societies include family, hard work, duty, and moral virtue, while those of Western cultures are individual freedom, self-discovery, personal affluence, and fulfillment.

All these good things can and do take on disproportionate size and power within a society.

They promise us safety, peace, and happiness if only we base our lives on them.

We should make a distinction between and this passage...

Keller, Timothy (2009-10-20).

Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters .

Penguin Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

APPLICATION: You must not only see these as a potential threat to you, but you must understand that your selfish knowledge can cause you to be inconsiderate of someone else in the same culture and thereby lead to their destruction rather than their construction.

(1) Pride and love are contrasted

Interpretation:

(a) What is the mark of true Christian love?

(v. 1) a self-denying edification [The Mark of True Christian Love] - This is a Caution for Know-it-Alls (v. 1)

(i) “Now as...” - & 8:1 The Corinthians had written to Paul about this issue.

It would seem that this question existed.

The importance of this needs to be considered in a cultural context.

Culturally, social status was increased by going to these banquetings.

(ii) “things offered to idols” - See The believer in Christ is not free to be an idolator (syncretism, subtle polytheism)

(iii) “knowledge” - -

All Christians possess knowledge, but not all Christians know as they are meant to know.

- Garland

Best explanation:

Garland, David E. (2003-11-01). 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Kindle Locations 8611-8612).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

Paul is probably affirming that all Christians have some knowledge that they share in common, especially the knowledge that the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the one true God.

In the following argument, however, Paul refers to a kind of knowledge that was not shared by all Christians, a knowledge that separated Christians who possessed it from Christians who did not (cf.

vv. 7, 10–11).

That knowledge seems to have been what they incorrectly considered a logical implication of biblical monotheism, namely, that idols and idolatry carried no meaning or significance whatsoever.

Ciampa, R. E., & Rosner, B. S. (2010).

The First Letter to the Corinthians (pp.

374–375).

Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

(iv) “puffeth up” - - to have an exaggerated self-conception

The verb “to puff up” occurs also in 4: 6, 18, 19; 5: 2; 13: 4 (cf. ) and always has a negative connotation.

What puffs up ruptures community and makes for a flimsy basis on which to build anything.

[Garland, David E. (2003-11-01). 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Kindle Locations 8618-8619).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

]

(v) “charity edifieth” -

Love will be further developed in , but its’ usage here is to point out that knowledge that puffs up is destructive, but love is constructive.

What is charity edifying?

It is edifying the faith of others?

Principle:

The Lord does care about how what we know causes us to live towards other believers.

Illustration:

A unique group of experts — those who see the impact of heroin on the community as first responders or treatment providers — shared Friday some of their frustrations and growing concerns about the area’s heroin epidemic.

Heroin is costing taxpayers in communities throughout Butler County millions of dollars annually.

From police, fire and EMS response to court costs and even, in some cases, burials for those who die, communities say their budgets are feeling the impact of heroin.

“Just don’t think that this is just in the inner cities,” Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said Friday during a forum about heroin in West Chester Twp.

“This has shifted out into the county.

It is out everywhere.”

More than 40 percent of the 453 cases handled by the Butler County Coroner’s Office last year were overdose related, and 80 percent of last year’s 192 overdoses were heroin/fentanyl-related overdose deaths, according to Butler County Coroner Dr. Lisa Mannix.

In 2015, firefighters, paramedics and other first responders administered naloxone 19,782 times in Ohio.

Jones is not a fan of naloxone, or Narcan, being used to help revive addicts, he said, because deputies are not armed with it.

Nor is he a supporter of any levy that puts money toward prevention programs.

Officials in Middletown, the Butler County community that saw the highest number of deaths from heroin cut with fentanyl (52) last year, estimates as much as 90 percent of public safety services are connected to fighting the drug.

It is sad how there are ripple affects - others are impacted in a negative manner.

Application:

The test of whether you know the wisdom of the cross as you ought to know is seen in whether that knowledge causes you to build up others in the body of Christ.

(i) We see this in salvation history - Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

(ii) Husbands, how has what you know strengthened the faith of your wife in Jesus Christ?

(iii) Singles, would you consider that what you know is a selfish, self-preserving knowledge or has it been used to strengthen a believer’s faith in devotion to Christ?

(iv) Ladies, has it ever occured to you that the activities are not for you to be entertained but for you to strengthen the faith of other sisters in Christ?

(v) College students, has it ever occurred to you that the knowledge you received in one year of college was for the purpose of strengthening the faith of other believers at your home church?

“If any man...” - This is a Contrast for the Know-It-Alls (v. 2 - 3)

(b) What is true about the Christian who gloats in Christian liberty?

(v. 2) he really does not know Christ as he ought to know Christ [The Man who Gloats in Christian Liberty]

The believer in Christ should

(c) What is true that should keep the Christian humble?

(v. 3) that God knows him [The Marvel that leads to the Christian’s Lowliness] -

The believer in Christ must be perpetually humbled by the knowledge that really matters.

This knowledge leads the believer to single devotion.

Quote:

What makes a person a Christian is not so much your knowing God but His knowing of you.

“To know” in the Bible means more than intellectual awareness.

To know someone is to enter into a personal relationship with him or her.

So then, Paul says, it’s not so much your regard and love for God, but rather His regard and love of you, that really makes you a Christian.

Paul says in that anyone who loves God does so because God knows them.

[Keller, Timothy (2013-02-10).

Galatians For You (God's Word For You) (p.

94).

The Good Book Company.

Kindle Edition.]

Keller, Timothy (2013-02-10).