Do I Cause Others To Stumble?

A Sermon By Jim Hammond from 1 Corinthians 8

Corinthian Questions Series (part 8)

Have you ever discovered something that seems completely morally unacceptable to you, seems completely acceptable to another Christian?  How do you evaluate that?  Do you assume you are right and that other Christian is wrong?  Have you ever experienced the reverse, where something that seemed completely harmless to you was viewed as sinful by another Christian?  How did you evaluate that?  Did you assume the other Christian was wrong?  How do you decide what is right or wrong when there seems to be no agreement among Christians? 

To get at this issue today,  I want to start with two stories done reader’s theater style, unrehearsed by some volunteers.  Both stories could be true to life but I made them up.  One story’s setting will be in Greece at approximately AD 55, the second story will be in the U.S. in 2001.

A SCENE IN Greece (AD 55)

HERMIOS:          Alexandria, I really think it is important that we go.

ALEXANDRIA:  But Hermios, we are now Christians.  Do you think it would be right to go to their wedding?  You know they will be calling upon the gods, and they will be offering us meat that has been sacrificed to the idols.  The reception will be in the pagan temple courtyard.

HERMIOS:          What could it hurt, Alexandria?  We now know those idols are nothing but wood and stone.  We serve the one and only true God.  We aren’t going to worship, we are going because our old friends invited us.

ALEXANDRIA:  Wouldn’t we be compromising our faith?  Will we defile ourselves by taking in meat that has been offered to these demons?

HERMIOS:           I know I wouldn’t be worshipping demons.  I know the true giver and maker of the meat we will eat.  Besides, what reason would we give Appollonius for NOT coming to his wedding?  I, for one, want to have a chance to tell him about Christ.  Maybe the wedding feast will give us that opportunity.

ALEXANDRIA:  Hermios, what will our new friends think if they see us entering the temple as in the old days?  They would think we have forsaken our Lord.

HERMIOS:          I had not really thought of that.  With some of them it would not matter what they think. But with others, I’d be afraid they would follow our example.  It would be disastrous if Artimidorus saw us go into the temple area, and somehow jumped to conclusions it was okay to participate.  He’d slip right back into his old lifestyle for sure.

ALEXANDRIA:  Hermios, why don’t we go some time before the wedding.  We could spend time with Appollonius that way.

HERMIOS:          Maybe you’ve got something there; we would still have a chance to talk to him.  But there’s still one thing Alexandria, as his guests he is still going to serve us meat.

ALEXANDRIA:  Hermios, I’ll go, but if he serves us meat . . . please don’t ask where he got it.

HERMIOS:          Okay.

A Scene In The U.S.

JOE:                     Pastor Bob, what are your views on social drinking?

PASTOR BOB:         Well, Joe, tell me first why you ask? 

JOE:                      I guess I want to know if it is okay to have an occasional beer, or a margarita with a meal.

PASTOR BOB:   First Joe, tell me whether you think it is okay or not?

JOE:                      What does it matter whether I think it is okay or not, pastor Bob?  Either it is okay or it is not right?  The bible either condemns it or it doesn’t, right?

PASTOR BOB:   Well, it is not quite that simple, Joe.  For some people it would be a sin to drink even without getting drunk, and for others it would not be.

JOE:                     Your kidding me.

PASTOR BOB:   No, I’m not. 

JOE:                     How could it be a sin to drink one drink, said Joe.  From what I read Jesus drank wine in the Bible.  In fact in that letter to the Corinthians it seemed some of them were having a little bit too much of it at their communion services.

PASTOR BOB:   Yes, there was a problem Paul had to address.

JOE:                     So what’s the deal?

PASTOR BOB:   Okay,  Joe.  Let’s start with what we know.  What do we know is wrong about drinking?

JOE:                     You mean, getting drunk.

PASTOR BOB:   Right.  We know that scripture is clear about not getting drunk, but instead to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  The whole point is to be filled with the real instead of the counterfeit.

JOE:                     Okay, I have no problem with that.  I don’t get drunk.

PASTOR BOB:   So why are you asking me these questions, Joe?

JOE:                     Well, I was out at a restaurant the other night, enjoying pizza and beer.  You should have seen the faces of Deacon Jones when he walked in with his family.  You would have thought he caught me with another woman or something.  I could tell he avoided me and shuffled his kids into the back corner booth and tried to block their view of my wife and me.  So what’s the big deal?  Was I doing something wrong?

PASTOR BOB:   Oh, now I understand your question.  Joe, let me show you something in the Bible.  It is in 1 Corinthians 8.  This may take a while for you to understand.

The subject for today is not an easy one.  I almost wish “Pastor Bob” was here to explain. 

I.  How to Negotiate the Gray Areas While Living in a Pagan World

I remember when someone approached me about the wickedness of a children’s Disney video that I happened to think was a good show saying they would not let their children watch them.  I was surprised to hear it.  The show was “The Little Mermaid.”

There are many concerns like these where some Christians feel perfectly free to do a thing, and another Christian feels that same thing is off limits.  Does it ever seem to you that all things are not black and white?

Paul lets us know that when we follow Christ in a pagan world, everything is not black and white.  Although there are some things that are always wrong, and there are some things that are always right, in our world there are things that are sometimes wrong, or sometimes right.  There are things that are wrong for some people and okay for someone else.  These are the gray areas.  Can you think of some examples of gray areas.  Usually, they are things that are not expressly addressed by the Bible, but cause problems to people.

Gray areas are these debatable areas, things not explicitly forbidden, but nevertheless many have problems with them.  They are areas that would be wrong for some people to participate in, but you can think of exceptions where it might not be wrong for everyone all the time.  Can you think of some gray areas?

Focus:  In the gray areas of life, voluntarily abstain from expressing your freedom in a way that might damage your brother or sister.

We learn this from Paul in several places.  Today we study from 1 Corinthians 8 when Paul addresses the controversial issue of his day in Corinth, the matter of eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols.  Here was the problem:  In a pagan world, the meat that was sacrificed to idols was sold in the market places.  In a pagan society it was very difficult to avoid this meat.  In order to avoid it, you would have to be careful what you buy, always asking about its source.  You would have to be careful when you ate with a friend.  You would have to be careful when you participated in any kind of social event, whether it be a feast or wedding or eating at a friend’s house.  From Paul’s perspective, since there really is only one God and idols are but wood and stone, he knew the true ultimate source of the meat.  The meat came from God, so he would eat it and simply give thanks to God who provided it.  But Paul taught something more than this.  He taught Christians to be careful with their freedom.  Don’t cause a brother who came out of the pagan rituals who was busy trying not to fall back into it, to take a tumble because you tripped him up. 

1 Corinthians 8:1-13 (NIV)

¹Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ²The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. ³But the man who loves God is known by God.

⁴So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. ⁵For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), ⁶yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

⁷But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. ⁸But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

⁹Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? ¹¹So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. ¹²When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³Therefore, 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.

A.  Learn the Difference between matters of command and matters of freedom

Worshiping an idol is strictly forbidden.  Eating meat offered to you by someone who bought that meat at a market that sold meat that had been offered to an idol is a matter of freedom.  It depends on how it affects you, and others.

Drunkenness is strictly forbidden.  But what about having a drink in a social setting?  Or having a drink at home?  Or taking Nyquil because you are ill?  You see the point.  Whether it is right or wrong depends on how it affects your relationship to God, and how it affects others.

Sexual Immorality is strictly forbidden.  Watching a movie that happens to portray some sexual immorality in it is in the gray area.  It is right or wrong depending upon how it affects your relationship to God, and how it affects others.

Do you get the idea here?   I’m not solving all your issues.  God hasn’t made everything black and white.  I believe he does this on purpose.  He wants us to know and understand his heart not just the rules.  It takes biblical knowledge as well as a personal relationship to know the difference between matters of command and matters of freedom.  The bottom line for me is whether a disputed matter takes me further from God or helps me please God.  We have freedom in areas that are not commanded explicitly but it isn’t freedom to do anything; it is freedom to choose how to please God.

KNOWLEDGE HELPS BUT LOVE IS MORE IMPORTANT

Paul also raises the subject of knowledge versus love.  What God wants from us is love for him, and love for others.  Knowledge helps but knowledge is not the answer in all matters of conscience according to Paul.  Love helps us more than knowledge when it comes to matters of freedom.  It will be love that keeps us from causing someone else to stumble, not our knowledge that puffs us up with pride saying we are right, and “they are wrong.”  Knowledge often feeds our pride, and makes us opinionated.  It is love that keeps us humble, and useful.  Work at knowing, yes, but make sure your heart is right in the area of your love for God and others.

Gray areas are important not unimportant.  Paul is not just focusing on peripheral issues here.  How we deal with some of these gray areas may end up being absolutely essential.  Paul was concerned that if we don’t handle our freedom properly we might destroy someone else.  Paul says that trying to correct someone with knowledge alone can destroy a person.

1 Corinthians 8:11 (NIV) ¹¹So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.

In the idol example, someone might try to convince a weak brother that there is nothing to idols, so eating that meat or going to that temple can’t really harm you.  The information though technically correct, can be lethal to the brother who is not yet strong enough to resist the pagan influences he came out of.

Someone told me about a friend who when he was a new Christian asked the question about whether social drinking was okay.  Though it could be okay, for this new Christian it proved to be disastrous.  He took a technically correct answer with regard to freedom, began drinking again, became an alcoholic, destroyed his family, and then committed suicide.

Different “freedoms” can prove to be destructive for different people. Don’t try to convince someone something is okay when his conscience tells him it is not.  It is actually the more knowledgeable and sophisticated Christian that needs to heed this warning.  He is the one who is in danger of sinning on this matter.

The use of knowledge without the use of love can end up using knowledge as a club.  It can be damaging in many ways.  Always combine love with knowledge.  Just like in parenting, sometimes that love says, let them grow some more before you try to teach them that.

My children live in a black and white world compared to me.  It was really black and white when they were young.  It had to be to protect them.  Going in the street was off limits without holding my hand when they were little.  Protect those new in the faith.

B.  On disputable matters cultivate your own convictions

Romans 14 (NIV) ¹Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. ²One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. ³The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. ⁴Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

⁵One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. ⁷For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. ⁸If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

⁹For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. ¹⁰You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. ¹¹It is written:

     “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,

     ‘every knee will bow before me;

       every tongue will confess to God.’”^£

¹²So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

¹³Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. ¹⁴As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food^£ is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. ¹⁵If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. ¹⁶Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, ¹⁸because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

¹⁹Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. ²⁰Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. ²¹It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.

²²So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. ²³But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

Look at 14:5 again

Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

God wants us to cultivate our own convictions, and he doesn’t expect us to all come up with the same convictions on everything.  There are some things that are subject to interpretation.  Why?  Because part of obedience is the heart.  Our past experience affects our present obedience.  We understand this.  We understand that a former alcoholic who has become a Christian would see drinking just one drink as a compromise that represents disobedience to his commitment to the Lord and to stay sober.  We might also understand why someone who had come out of some other experience might have different convictions than us regarding many things, from playing cards, to music, and what one reads, or watches for entertainment.  Each one needs to know himself and know God, and cultivate convictions that helps him love God, and also protects his fellow believers.  Don’t let what you approve of condemn you or someone else.

The freedom of faith carries with it the obligation not to force that freedom upon others.  Just because you are free to do a certain thing, doesn’t mean another should be forced to be just like you.  And just because you restrain yourself from a certain disputed matter, doesn’t mean you should force others to restrain themselves in that disputed area either.  That is what Paul is getting at here. 

I will give you an example of a personal conviction.  It is my conviction that I am more effective as a pastor that chooses not to drink.  Because I choose not to drink, I don’t have to worry about being misunderstood.   Having convictions like this actually free me up.  I feel free, not constrained.  I am more free to minister not less.  I don’t try to tell you to have the same conviction.  The “higher” you are on the leadership continuum, perhaps, the more carefully you have to consider areas of freedom and how they affect others.  The range of freedom becomes smaller not greater, as you have more influence.

C.  Allow your brother the freedom to determine his own convictions

On disputable matters don’t pass judgment on someone else’s convictions (Rom 14:1, 3, 4, 13)

¹Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. . . .

³The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him.

⁴Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. . . .

¹³Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another.

D.  Let your liberty be limited, when necessary, by love

If you are truly free, you are free not to do something that you are free to do.  Some people argue for their freedom to continue in areas under which they are in bondage.  If you are in bondage and cannot limit your freedom, you aren’t free.  We can all see this of someone who leans upon alcohol as a crutch, using it every day to feel okay.  That person ought not be the person arguing for their freedom to do so.  They are in a bondage.  If you are truly free you are free not to do a thing.

Ray Stedman recalls the following story he hear from Dr. Harry Ironside.[i]

Dr. H. A. Ironside, tells of an incident that is illustrative of this. On one occasion he was at a picnic of Christians, and there was present a man who had been converted from Mohammedanism. . . .  A girl brought a basket of sandwiches up to this man and asked if he would like some. He said, "What kind do you have?" "Oh," she said, "I'm afraid all we have left are ham or pork." He said, "Don't you have any beef?" She replied, "No, they are all gone." "Well," he said, "then I won't have any." She, knowing that he was a Christian, said to him, "Well, sir, I am really surprised. Don't you know that, as a Christian, you are freed from all these food restrictions, and that you can eat pork or ham or whatever, if you like?" He said, "Yes, I know that. I know I am free to eat pork, but I am also free not to eat it. I'm still involved with my family back in the Near East, and I know that when I go home once a year, and I come up to my father's door, the first question he will ask me is, 'Have those infidels taught you to eat the filthy hog meat yet?' If I have to say to him, 'Yes, father,' I will be banished from that home and have no further witness in it. But if I can say, as I have always been able to say, 'No, father, no pork has ever passed my lips,' then I have admittance to the family circle and I am free to tell them of the joy I have found in Jesus Christ. Therefore I am free to eat, or I am free not to eat, as the case may be."

That little story sets this whole problem in proper perspective. We do not have to have our rights. We are free to give them up anytime the situation warrants it. Though we have the rights, we also have the right not to exercise them for the sake of love.

E.  Follow Christ as the model and motivator of servant hood

The reason we finish with this statement is that if we let it be the rule that we never do something that offends anybody else, we would find ourselves so restricted we might not be able to breathe!  Soon the so called “weak” would be running roughshod over the “strong.”  The church would be reduced quickly to the strictest of legalism.  Perhaps you have heard of churches like this where they major on the minors, or peripheries.  They become known not for the freedom from sin found in Christ, but for bondage to rules, rules like: 

No cards,

no dancing,

no movies,

no TV.,

no playing pool,

no swimming parties with mixed groups,

no shorts, no makeup, no jewelry,

no playing guitars in church,

no short hair for women, no long hair for men,

no pants for women, no shorts at church for anyone,

no eating out on Sunday, no mowing the lawn or shopping on Sunday,

no translation but the King James,

no eating in the church, no running in the church, no clapping in the church,

even laughing in church is suspect, no fun allowed!

Narrowness, and legalism like this can ruin a church.  If this should happen, the command to evangelize and reach the lost would be damaged dramatically.  So what is one to do?  The church will need to review the truths we have just discussed points A through E, and teach these truths.  But we can go even further than this.

We learn from Christ that some offenses are unavoidable while we do God’s work.  The Pharisees took offense at Jesus.  Does this contradict Paul’s teaching here?  Not at all.  Paul concludes these ideas later with

1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 (NIV) ³¹So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. ³²Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—³³even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. ^11:1Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

The Pharisees didn’t have a weak conscience.  The difference here is that the Pharisees were fully convinced, proud, and wrong.  So let’s add a few clarifying categories as Gary Friesen has done.[ii]

There is a difference between offending someone to there detriment and someone taking offense.  Some people will take offense for things we do that are morally correct. 

Also, we need to make a distinction between the weaker brother, and the fully convinced brother.  Paul urges everyone to be fully convinced.  Why?  Because when I am fully convinced we are no longer weak and vulnerable to your influence in matters of freedom.

The following chart will be helpful.  It is adapted from similar charts in the book Decision Making and the Will of God by Gary Friesen.[iii]

Dear Lord,

     Help us to know the difference between matters you commanded and the areas where you have given freedom.  Lord, help us also to be people of conviction.  Help us as we cultivate our convictions that we not condemn ourselves in the things we approve of, or hurt others.  Lord, we want to love you above all else.   And we want our love for you to restrain us from evil.  We also want our love for you to restrain us in areas of our freedom from hurting others.  Help us to love the weaker brother or sister, and be of help to them.  Lord, help us also to restrain from judging others in matters that are not clear.  We ask you to protect our church from the dangers of legalism on one side, and the dangers of the loss of integrity on the other side.  We pledge ourselves to stay in a close relationship to you.  As we draw near to you, draw near to us in the protection we need.  Lord Jesus, help us as we attempt to follow your example, to be lights in our dark world.

In Jesus Name,

Amen