Chapter 8

Chapter eight introduces an entire section. The subject is doubtful things, things which are not declared to be wrong by the Bible which is our absolute norm and standard. We have to remember that the Word of God is the only standard by which we live and operate, and that the Bible viewpoint with regard to many things is totally different from the human viewpoint. Many times human viewpoint simply says that morality or being good is the same as spirituality. Spirituality is what makes the Christian life work and spirituality is the only basis for executing the commands of the Christian life, and there are four laws of Christian behaviour which are designed only to operate on spirituality.

The first of these laws of Christian behaviour is the law of liberty which operates in the filling of the Spirit. The believer has the freedom to serve the Lord and that is the first meaning of the law of liberty. The law of liberty is always directed toward self.

The second law is the law of love, a law which is directed toward others. It is not only a lww which at times supersedes the law of liberty but it is a law which operates constantly with regard to a relationship with other believers. Basically the law of love is stated in any passage of scripture where you are commanded to love the brethren. There is confusion as to what the law of love is. Many believe that the law of love is some overt manifestation of sweetness or kindness. But the law is a law that operates only in the frontal lobe. It has many overt manifestations but it is what you think, not what you do. The law of love simply says that you do not hate anyone, you are not bitter toward anyone, you are not jealous or envious, etc. The result is that you have a completely relaxed mental attitude toward all other believers regardless of their attitude toward you. We will see that there is actually a time when the law of love actually supersedes the law of liberty in the choice of two good things, neither of which is condemned by the Word of God. Warning: Never when legalism is trying to bully the truth.

The third law is the law of expediency. This is directed toward the unbeliever only. It is a witnessing law, 1 Corinthians 9:16-23; 10:23. Basically it simply says that at any time you are doing something in your life, no matter how right or how good it is, which destroys the issue of the gospel to an unbeliever then it is expedient that you change your modus operandi in order to make an issue of the gospel.

Then there is the law of supreme sacrifice. This has been by anyone who has a trend toward asceticism. The law of supreme sacrifice is for a certain category of believer who has a crash type operation before the Lord. Illustration: the apostle Paul. He did not get married, although he has a right to be married. The reason that Paul was not married and did not have a family was because he was on a crash program before the Lord which involved a great amount of traveling and the great concentration of developing churches — evangelisation, doctrinal teaching, the organisation of a church, and moving on. In this type of operation it would have been absolutely impossible for Paul to have a wife and children without deserting them. The principle is that because of the nature of his service before the Lord it was impossible for him to have a wife. Consequently he operated under the law of supreme sacrifice.

These four laws resolve your modus operandi for anything that not is specifically declared to be wrong in the Bible. Inside of every believer is the Holy Spirit. When He controls the life the believer imitates God, Ephesians 5:1, and the Holy Spirit produces in the believer divine good. When the old sin nature controls the result is personal sin and the production of human good which results in the imitation of the unbeliever and the production of human good. So there is divine good versus human good, the imitation of God versus the imitation of a self-righteous, moral, religious unbeliever. Every Spirit-filled believer will face X number of situations in his life where there is no biblical command, do this or do not do this. The filling of the Spirit is the only way that these laws operate and when we study the operation of these laws it must be understood that always behind these laws is the demand that the believer must be in fellowship, he must be controlled by the Spirit.

Verses 1-6, problem principle: the danger of a little knowledge in the Christian life. There is nothing wrong with having a little knowledge. Basically a little knowledge includes an understanding of basic doctrine, the categories, the plan of God, etc. We all start out as babies in the Christian life experientially. Maturity comes eventually with maximum knowledge of the Word of God, maximum application, maximum use of the techniques of the Christian life, and so. A person who is habitually carnal is, however, a spiritual moron and very useless. Verses 1-6 deal with the adolescent believer who is in the right category of learning doctrine, but there is a trap of knowing a little doctrine. He has a partial understanding of doctrine but the trouble with an immature believer is that they have a knowledge of doctrine but it is coupled with their ego. This is the trap. Whereas the mature believer has a maximum knowledge but that knowledge is coupled with love. But knowledge in any category of life when it is coupled with ego is neutralised. When it is coupled with love and/or the filling of the Spirit it becomes a dynamic whereby you have divine viewpoint applied to life. Mental attitude divine viewpoint is a fantastic dynamic and gives great impact for Christ. We are dealing with sophomore believers, believers who have learned a little and think it is a lot, believers who learning a little bit their ego is stimulated, and in the stimulation of their ego they have failed in certain matters.

Verse 1, knowledge of doctrine without the filling of the Spirit leads to egotism. “Now as touching” is a simple phrase in the Greek often used to introduce a new subject. In other words, it is simply a way of changing the subject, Peri de. The new subject is going to centralise and focus around a problem: things offered to idols.

“things offered unto idols” refers to meat, the best meat you can get in the city of Corinth. All of the animals that were sacrificed to idols in Corinth were sold next door at a place called the shambles.

“we know” is the Greek perfect used as a present tense for doctrine in the frontal lobe; “that we have all knowledge,” this means knowledge of doctrine. This does not mean that they know everything but it is an association for the purpose of developing by ridicule a principle of doctrine. Paul is actually ridiculing the Corinthians because this is one of the few ways in which they would listen. He knows their problem is ego. Their attitude is, yes we have all knowledge. So Paul hits them with …

“Knowledge puffeth up,” and then they stop nodding their heads! It is interesting that Paul starts out by getting them to nod their heads. Oh yes, we know we are smart, we know the score, and so on. But then Paul says that knowledge puffeth up, and he is talking about their knowledge, not his. In other words, it is connected with operation ego. The word ‘puffeth up’ is a present active indicative, it their case it constantly, habitually puffs up, present linear aktionsart. Doctrine should edify but when this doctrine is connected with a believer who now is out of fellowship it becomes a source of ego.

What does every believer have in order to keep him balanced and stabilised during the intake of doctrine? The answer is found in the last phrase…

“but charity edifieth,” the word for charity is a)gaph which actually means a mental attitude love which in the New Testament is associated with God. In this particular case it is the love which belongs to God. This word is always connected with divine love in the NT and the mechanics are the filling of the Holy Spirit, Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit is love. The filling of the Spirit takes doctrine and builds you up with it. The greatest virtue in the Christian life, apart from the filling of the Spirit, is a maximum knowledge of doctrine. But your knowledge stops when you are out of fellowship and what knowledge you have becomes distorted. Knowledge + ego = rationalisation, but knowledge of doctrine when you are filled with the Spirit edifies in two ways: through application and through adding knowledge to it because the Holy Spirit is the teacher of the Word, as in 1 Corinthians 2:9-16.

Verse 2, a little knowledge is often mistaken for a lot of knowledge. “And if any man thinketh that he knoweth any thing.” ‘If’ introduces a first class condition, these Corinthians really think they know something. The word ‘think’ is present active indicative and is linear aktionsart which means he habitually thinks that he knows. The word ‘anything’ is something. If he thinks he knows something.

“he knoweth nothing,” and the nodding stops again; “yet as he ought to,” these believers in Corinth, while they have some knowledge of doctrine, being out of fellowship they have twisted it and distorted it and are therefore are totally ignorant of the subject which is at hand, the four laws of Christian operation. A little knowledge of doctrine becomes very dangerous when this little knowledge is assumed to be all of the knowledge on the subject. There are two reasons it becomes dangerous: pride and no longer being amenable to teaching and he will not learn any further doctrine.

Verse 3, knowledge of doctrine is the basis of loving God. He is now going to make a great pitch for knowing maximum doctrine because, as he is going to point out, the more doctrine you know the greater your love for God and the less doctrine you know the less chance you have of loving God. The point he is going to make now is that you can’t love someone until you know them. To love God you have to know doctrine.

“But” introduces a conjunction of contrast. We have a contrast between the believer of verse 2 who is out of fellowship and his knowledge is coupled with his ego and the mature believer of this verse.

“if any man love God,” ‘if’ introduces a first class condition, if and it is true. The word ‘love’ here is a verb of the noun we have just seen, a)gapaw. “If any man persistently loves God.”

1. Since this verb connotes a mental attitude love the believer must love God in his mind. This is only possible through a knowledge of God, i.e. doctrine.

2. No believer can love God apart from doctrine in the frontal lobe. For such doctrine shapes his thinking which is the source of his love.

3. Emotional sentimentality is not love of God.

4. Many believers are so busy sucking emotion from inspirational flowers that they do not have time to learn doctrine, and therefore to love God. Spiritually, such believers are in love with love, pouring out emotional phrases they assume will pass for the love of God.

5. But these believers are unstable. Love for God is not measured in terms of emotion and ecstatic experience but in terms of knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Spirit.

6. Very few believers love God because very few believers ever learn enough doctrine to do so.

“the same” refers to the mature believer who fulfills the first two points, knowledge of doctrine leading to love of God; “the same is know by him,” perfect tense means that the same was known by him in the past with results in his life, namely impact results. The word ‘of him’ is literally, ‘by him.’ The verb ‘to know’ plus the prepositional phrase, ‘is known by him,’ is an idiom in the Greek for intimacy, “the same is intimate with God.”

1. The Lord is intimate with those who know doctrine.

2. Intimacy with the Lord in this life is based on the knowledge of doctrine.

3. The analogy to this is that you must know a person to really love a person.

4. Until you really know a person you are simply attracted to them. Once you know that person you are either more attracted or you dislike or separate from them. The Lord is perfect, and the more you get to know the Lord the more wonderful he becomes. But you have to know something about Him.

5. True love is based on mental attitude. Hence, true love is knowing the person.

6. Emotionalism, rationalism, religionism, legalism, are not the basis of loving God.

There are certain laws of Christian behaviour. The primary one is the law of liberty, the normal operation of the Spirit-filled life, and liberty is not a bad word either in Christianity or in life in general. It is only in certain kinds of legalistic institutions, churches, Bible institutes and places where they have pseudo spirituality that liberty is maligned. The law of liberty is a bona fide modus operandi. The law of liberty is directed toward self; the law of love is directed toward believers; the law of expediency is directed toward unbelievers; the law of supreme sacrifice is directed toward God. There are times when the law of liberty is superseded and these times are declared by principle in 1 Corinthians chapters eight, nine, and ten, and also in Romans chapter fourteen. Generally liberty is not superseded, but when it is superseded one must understand the principle. The reason that liberty is generally not superseded is because this caters to legalism and helps it to spread. Furthermore, the legalist is always a bully and it stops spiritual bullying to operate under the law of liberty. Liberty is the filling of the Spirit, orientation to the grace of God and the plan of God. But there are very definite times when the law of liberty must be superseded.

In this first six verses of this chapter we have the subject, the danger of a little knowledge.

Verse 1, Knowledge of doctrine without the filling of the Spirit leads to egotism.

Verse 2, A little knowledge is often mistaken for a lot of knowledge. When people learn a little they assume they know a lot and this is the greatest trap of the new Christian.

Verse 3, Knowledge of doctrine is the basis of loving God, however.

Verses 4-6, the illustration of sophomore knowledge, believers who have a little knowledge but it isn’t the whole bit. They assume that a little knowledge is a lot of knowledge. When this is assumed the tendency is to distort things.

Verse 4, Introduction:

1. Here is the ability to distinguish between the heathenistic practice of idolatry and the true existence of God. This is the illustration of sophomore knowledge of doctrine in Corinth.

2. But this knowledge of doctrine must be accompanied by other principles such as separation from religious idolatry which means separation from demonism and the use of higher laws. These sophomore believers know the difference between the practice of idolatry and the true doctrine of essence, what God is really like. But they have to know something else so their knowledge of doctrine must be accompanied by other principles.

3. The sophomore Christian knows some things but not other doctrines which are related to the situation. He assumes that the few doctrines he knows are the whole bit.

4. Hence, the sophomore Christian has a tendency to go off on a tangent which often hinders further understanding of the Word.

5. This is turn leads to finding false criteria for the Christian life and results in legalism, confusion, misery, and obviously defeat. The great danger for the sophomore is becoming legalistic.

“As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered to idols.” Here is the big problem. The sophomore eats those things which have been offered to idols. He believes there is nothing wrong with eating meat offered to idols, and he is right. But the problem is, along comes some new believer or some confused believer who sees the sophomore eating this meat and he has a guilt complex, and he can’t eat it without getting a guilt complex. So he is all torn up. Therefore the sophomore has a problem: What about all these people who run around with a guilt complex about eating meat offered to an idol.

“we know,” Paul includes himself with the sophomore in order to get his attention and to get him going along in this problem. This is a perfect tense used as a present tense for doctrine in the frontal lobe. Paul identifies himself with the sophomore believers of Corinth to demonstrate the fact that he knows what they know, he wants them to know that he understands what they understand. The additional doctrine which will be given in context will help the sophomore Corinthian to orient in this particular problem to the glory of the Lord.

“that an idol is nothing,” a lot of people do not understand this. Remember that a lot of these Corinthians came out of idolatry and they know that the idols are made out of wood, metal, and stone, and that they are absolutely nothing. Hence food which is offered to idols is not contaminated by the heathenism itself. So this encourages the Corinthians believer to eat in the temple restaurant and to buy his meat at the temple meat market, the shambles, or to go to the home of an unbeliever and to eat meat which has been offered to an idol because this is the best. And he can do this under the law of liberty, and therefore he does it.

“in the world,” literally, “in the sphere of the world.” This phrase is important because it clarifies the one God in the next phrase. While God exists in three separate and distinct persons — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — there is only one God who is revealed to the world and that is the second person of the Trinity.

“and that there is none other God but one,” the key to this phrase is found in the phrase “in the sphere of the world” which clarifies the one God in the next phrase. Here is a phrase that requires interpretation. The corrected translation here is “no one but God is one.” No one is God without the essence of God is what this phrase is saying. To be God you must have the essence of God, and only three persons have the essence of God. Only those persons who possess the essence box are God, and only one of these is revealed in the sphere of the world, Jesus Christ. In other words, this is saying in effect Jesus Christ has the essence box, Jesus Christ is God. In the sphere of the world God is revealed through Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ. The word ‘one’ here refers to what the members of the Godhead have in common — essence. The essence box is invisible. Any smart sophomore believer knew that the statue in the temple did not have the essence box. So if someone comes in and offers something to them idol, goes over the shambles and buys meat offered to the idol and he buys it, he knows that it has been offered to nothing, it is nothing, and when he buys it it is nothing — except that this is the only place in town where you can get good meat. That is why he buys it there. But there is always someone in the congregation in Corinth who is an emotional, legalistic, unstable ignoramus who gets mortally offended when someone goes to the shambles to buy meat.

Verse 5, “For though there be that are [so-called] gods.” The word ‘though’ is ‘even if’ and it is a first class condition, if there are so-called gods and there are so-called gods. The Greek actually says, “For even if there be those being called gods.” They aren’t gods but they are called gods. The word ‘gods’ refers to people as well as statues. First of all, the emperor of the Roman empire was called god, kurioj, which is the Greek word for deity. Then it refers to all the statues.

“in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,),” a little bit of sarcasm here. In other words, there are so many gods you can hardly keep up with them. And the Romans simply copied the Greeks and changed the names.

Verse 6, “But to us” means to us who are believers, sophomores, that is. He identifies himself with the sophomores though he is actually a mature believer.

“there is one God,” in verse 5 we have the word ‘if,’ and when you have the word ‘if’ as a conditional clause verse 5 is the protasis. A protasis is the ‘if clause of a conditional clause. In this case the protasis is the clause which introduces the first class condition. In verse 6 we have the apodasis, the last half of a conditional clause. It is introduced by the word ‘but.’ This is the way that you can tell an antithetical conditional clause. “If there be those being called gods,” and they are called gods but they aren’t really. The word ‘but’ introduces the antithesis, there is a true God but all of this calling these things gods does not make them gods but everyone assumes they are gods. “But,” here is the way we look at it, “there is one God” and one God now refers to one of the personalities in the Godhead. “One God” here refers to the Father. The word ‘one’ simply means that the Father has the same essence as the Son and the Holy Spirit.

“of whom” is literally, ‘from whom’; “are all things,” literally, “from whom the all things,” referring to operation grace, the Father’s plan for mankind.

“and we in him” is literally, ‘we to him.’ This means we are related to Him. The first person of the Trinity, the author of the divine plan, is now our Father personally, we are related to Him.

“and one Lord,” in contrast to the lords of the Roman empire; “Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,” this is literally, ‘through the instrumentality of whom are all things.’ The all things here refer to the all things that have become new, the cross.

“and we by him,” literally, ‘we through him.’ We enter into God’s plan through Him. This refers to the fact that Christ is the door and, again, neither is their salvation in any other, there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Verses 7-13, the operation of the law of love and/or the restaurant problem. When does the law of love supersede the law of liberty. Immediately Paul changes from what we know to what we don’t know.

Verse 7, the problem of ignorance among believers. “Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge.” Sophomores understand what an idol is, they understand the doctrine of divine essence, the doctrine of the Trinity, the plan of God. But here is the problem. There are many believers who don’t know this and therefore do not understand that an idol is nothing in the world. The words “that knowledge” is a reference to the doctrine mentioned in verses 4-6. Now if you are ignorant of doctrine how do you handle a problem which requires doctrine you don’t have? What source do you have for solving the problem? You obviously revert to human viewpoint. If you do, then you take up all of the things that you knew about idolatry. And if you start to operate on human viewpoint with regard to food offered to idols, or anything else, you’ve had it. You could either become legalistic or lascivious. Ignorance of doctrine causes the believer to accept a known criterion from his past. That would be his human viewpoint, his prejudice, tradition, and so on. Instead of resolving the problem on the basis of Bible doctrine he resolves the problem on the basis of human prejudice. Any unbeliever can do that.

“for some with conscience,” the Greek word for conscience is suneidhsij, a compound noun. It is a noun composed of a preposition plus a verb. The word e)idhsij means to know. This is the perfect tense, it means to know something in the frontal lobe, it is there. The preposition sun means ‘along with.’ The two together means to have a ruler in the frontal lobe. So this word which is translated ‘conscience’ is simply in your head. You have two rulers. One is the ruler of the soul and the other is the ruler of the spirit. This ruler you hold up to everything and you resolve your problems by it. Conscience is that part of the frontal lobe where the norms exist to determine right and wrong, to determine the solution to problems.

“of the idol,” knowing that idolatry is wrong, certain believers operate on prejudice and they assume that it is wrong to eat meat which was offered to an idol. The sophomore knows that the idol is nothing, that you can eat the meat, it doesn’t make any difference; but the weak believer is all confused.

“unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol,” that means the believer cannot eat meat offered to an idol without violating his conscience. Immediately his human viewpoint sets up a set of signals.

“their conscience being weak,” the spiritual baby has a weak conscience. What is a weak conscience? A weak conscience is simply that the human viewpoint norm is filled up but there is ignorance of the divine viewpoint. A weak conscience is a person who is ignorant of doctrine. ‘Being’ weak is a present active participle, their conscience is always weak. A strong conscience is a conscience which is filled with doctrine. A weak conscience is ignorance of doctrine and therefore you use human viewpoint. The greatest manifestation of a weak conscience is a guilt complex about things that are not really wrong.

“is defiled,” this means contaminated. Human viewpoint contaminates the conscience. Doctrine is what cleanses the contamination.

1. To eat meat offered to an idol is not sin but to indulge in idolatry is sin.

2. Because idolatry is sin the weak believer assumes that to eat meat which comes from an idol temple is sin.

3. The conscience is weak because of ignorance, and the conscience is contaminated by self-reproach and/or a guilt complex.

4. Hence, a believer through ignorance of doctrine has made a criterion out of the soulish part of his conscience. Therefore he has made a criterion out of human viewpoint.

5. The unenlightened conscience has a prejudice and a guilt complex from ignorance of Bible doctrine. This means that the guilt complex of the weak believer is terrible sin.

6. As the next verse points out it is not wrong to eat meat offered to idols.

Verses 7-13, the law of love.

Verse 8, the principle that taboos are not the issue in spirituality. You are not spiritual because you observe taboos, the observation of taboos is about 95% carnality, energy of the flesh type, subtle, legalistic, ego lust, approbation lust type of carnality. There is some bona fide observation of taboos under spirituality but it is rare because you just don’t have enough believers filled with the Spirit. And so we have an overt measuring rod which people love. They love it for two reasons. It satisfies the ego lust to give up something, and so people give up things because of it is very gratifying sand very satisfying to think that you are helping God along, that you are really doing something for the “cause.” There are unbelievers who observe taboos and they are not even saved. We have believers who observe taboos and they are saved but not spiritual. There is a place for taboos which will be revealed in this passage, when the law of love supersedes the law of liberty under certain conditions which have to be carefully outlined.

“But meat [food offered to an idol] commendeth us not to God.” What you do about food, whether it has been offered to an idol or not is not the basis of commendation before God. Commendation is the concept of spirituality.

“for neither of we eat, are we the better; neither if we eat not, are we the worse.” Whether you eat or eat not it doesn’t make you better or worse, and the point is that better and worse simply indicate it is inconsequential whether you observe the meat taboo or not makes no difference.

Principles

Meat which was offered to idols, the meat of verse 8, could be procured in three different ways. First it was offered in sacrifice to an idol. often this meant simply that they led in a beast, slaughtered it. Often they didn’t even slaughter it there, they just led it by the altar and said, “This is offered to Jupiter,” and then led it to the meat market where it was properly butchered. You could get meat which hadn’t been offered to an idol in Corinth but it was very difficult and it was slaughtered under very horrible conditions. Other meat, a beast, was taken into the temple and was simply walked by the idol in offering, after which it was taken to the shambles where it was slaughtered. You could get the meat in restaurants or you get purchase it over the counter at the shambles which was the idol temple meat market. It was also served as an entree when you went to a dinner party. These are the three ways that you could get this meat.

There was a big taboo among believers throughout the ancient world: “Thou shalt not eat meat offered to an idol.” This was strictly a taboo. There was nothing in the Bible that said not to eat meat offered to an idol. A taboo is something that a segment of society forbids. It might be an unbelieving segment and it might be a believing segment but it is not forbidden by a commandment of scripture. Anything the Bible forbids is wrong, obviously. To observe a taboo in order to get points with God is out. God is not impressed with that. What God wants you to observe and what not to observe He clearly defines in the Word. There are many things that are neither commended nor forbidden by the Word.

How the principle is resolved, meat offered to an idol, will also resolve taboos at any time. You have to remember in the interpretation of this passage that meat offered to an idol was a problem that existed 2000 years ago. We don’t have that problem today. But the point is, out of their problem comes a principle — a set of principles actually. These principles are the basis of resolving those which are not specifically forbidden by scripture. There are two laws in focus at this point, liberty and love, both of which are bona fide laws.

1. The ignorant believer with a weak conscience made meat a taboo. The people who make the taboos are the legalists. Taboos are made by weak believers who cannot control other believers except through taboos. Taboos are the weapon of the weak to control the strong. It is a means of bullying.

2. From the taboo came the false criterion of spirituality which is mentioned in this passage, i.e., believers who eat meat offered to an idol are carnal; believers who refrain from eating meat offered to an idol are spiritual. This is a false criterion. The taboo is man’s instrument and therefore the authority of the Word of God is weakened in that Christian group and it becomes the authority of a man who sets up a criterion rather than the authority of the Word of God. So a false criterion leading to a pseudo spirituality establishes that which discredits the authority of God’s Word.

3. Such is not the case. Spirituality is determined by the filling of the Spirit, not by the observation of a taboo.

4. Hence, a weak conscience is a conscience which takes the place of Bible doctrine and determines right and wrong on the basis of personal prejudice.

5. But the weak conscience is no substitute for Bible doctrine.

6. Paul now applies Bible doctrine to a specific situation. Is eating meat which has been offered to idols a basis for determining spirituality? Paul says so, it isn’t .And from this specific case comes the principle that the observation of taboos or failure to observe taboos is a criterion for determining who is spiritual and who is carnal.

That is the background for verse eight. What you do with meat offered to an idol is not the basis of spirituality.

“But meat commendeth us not to God,” commendeth us not is a future plus the negative. In the future God is not impressed. The word ‘commend’ means to provide approbation. Whether the Corinthian believers abstained or ate meat offered to an idol did not give them the approbation of God. This means that divine approbation does not depend on who and what the believer is but who and what God is. God can only approve of what God does, God can never approve of what man does.

The doctrine of divine approbation

1. Divine approbation begins at salvation. In salvation God approves of what God has done, the doctrine of propitiation applied. God the Father is the one who planned it. God the Son is the one who executed it. So God the Father approves of the work of God the Son. This is the doctrine of propitiation. That is why the only way that you can be saved is to believe on God the Son, because faith is non-meritorious. What is the basis of salvation? God the Father approves of the work of the Son on the cross, so salvation depends on who and what Christ is, not who and what we are.

2. Approbation in the Christian life depends on the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Spirituality depends on who and what the Spirit is. When the Holy Spirit is controlling your life then the Holy Spirit is doing the work and providing the power, and God the Father approves of God the Holy Spirit because it is God approving of God.

3. Divine approbation depends upon relationship with the Word. The Word, the Bible, is the work of God and God approves of what God does. Divine viewpoint is found in the Word of God and only in the Word of God, and the Father approves of His own thinking. Furthermore, the scriptures came from the Holy Spirit who directed the authors of scripture. So God approves of doctrine in the Word of God and the transfer of doctrine from the Bible to our frontal lobe is again the ministry of the Holy Spirit. God provides everything for spiritual perception and understanding of doctrine. The Holy Spirit teaches the human spirit the Word of God.

4. Divine approbation in eternity depends upon the plan of God and the work of God. In eternity human works are condemned. The unbeliever’s human works are the basis of his indictment at the last judgment, the believer’s human works are burned. Everything we will receive in eternity will be provided by God.

We have the word “if” twice in this verse. Each ‘if’ is a third class condition. When you have two third class conditions in one sentence it expresses the alternatives of a given situation. The given situation: meat offered to an idle. The alternatives: to abstain or to eat. The legalist, the person who is all mixed up, says, to abstain makes you spiritual and to eat makes you carnal. But actually it isn’t an issue in spirituality and carnality.

“are we the better” is a present active indicative, and “are we the worse is a present middle indicative, and the middle voice is quite an interesting change. In the Greek middle voice the subject is benefited by the action of the verb. The middle voice in “are we the worse” means that if you abstain you are not worse. The legalist says that if you abstain you are better, and you are benefited through a system of human gimmicks. But Paul says, “for neither are we the better if we eat [We are not better because we eat]; neither of we abstain are we the worse.” The middle voice simply means that you are benefited by not being approved of God on the basis of your own good deeds. We are not approved of God or disapproved of God on the basis of taboos. This means that approbation comes from grace, and that is beneficial to all.

This section of scripture actually disposes of two things, that which we have in verses 2-4 which disposes of the pride of knowledge as well as the prejudice of ignorance which is the taboo problem. All legalism comes from ignorance of doctrine.

Verse 9, we operate under liberty generally when we are filled with the Spirit and understand some doctrine, but there are some dangers. So in verse 9 we now have to look at the trap.

1. In any geographical area there are both ignorant and enlightened believers, believers who understand doctrine and believers who do not. Generally speaking the ignorant believers are always the ones who think they are spiritual and they are always the ones who look down their nose at other believers.

2. The enlightened believer operating under the law of liberty may cause the ignorant and weak believer to stumble. This is the trap.

3. Hence, the Bible declares that the enlightened believer has a responsibility to the ignorant believer.

4. The enlightened believer must not cater to legalism or spiritual bullying. Do not abstain from harmless things because of legalistic criticism and persecution. This simply promotes more legalism. That is one side of the coin but when you flip it over you have something a little different, and yet it is a part of the same issue. On the other hand, if harmless things cause the weak and ignorant believer to sin then it becomes necessary to abstain on the basis of the operation of higher laws.

5. This rule does not apply to sin and what the Bible clearly prohibits. E.g. it is not wrong to marry but it is wrong to marry an unbeliever of you happen to be a believer. This rule only applies to harmless things or doubtful things. In this case meat offered to an idol is harmless. In fact, from the standpoint of hygiene it is much better than the meat that was handled in other ways.

“But take heed,” present active imperative. This means keep on taking heed to this principle; “the this liberty,” this liberty is the right to eat meat offered to an idol. It isn’t wrong. There is a taboo against it but a taboo doesn’t make it wrong.

“of yours” is addressed to the enlightened believer. We are talking about a different category here. Since spirituality is not the issue we are not using spirituality and carnality, it is not the issue here. But we have the ignorant and the enlightened, two believers. The ignorant believer says abstain, the enlightened believer says eat. It is the enlightened believer’s liberty that is the trap to him at this point. This enlightened believer is free to eat meat that is offered to an idol, there is nothing wrong with it but he must become aware of the fact that it can become a stumbling block.

“become” is an aorist active subjunctive. The aorist tense: the point of time when the issue is involved with a legalist, the point of time when an ignorant believer stumbles. The subjunctive mood is very important here, it means that this will not always be. There will be times when you can eat meat offered to an idol and it isn’t an issue but there will be times when it becomes an issue. The subjunctive mood means that when it becomes an issue, where the responsibility to the ignorant believer is more important than eating meat, then you must fulfill your responsibility to the ignorant believer and operate under a new law.

“to them that are weak” is a dative case, and it is dative of disadvantage. It is to the disadvantage of any believer to be weak and/or ignorant. In other words, you have to carry along the babies, as it were.

Principles

1. The weak believer is a believer who is ignorant of doctrine and uses prejudice for his conscience. In this case he is prejudiced against meat offered to an idol.

2. Ignorance plus conscience, soulless type, equals legalism.

3. The legalist is a proud, critical person. He will either sin by maligning you with his tongue or he will use a harmless eating pattern as an excuse to involve himself in idolatry.

4. How can you spot a weak believer? Minimum understanding of doctrine, maximum operation of prejudice and guilt complex.

5. Legalism must not be encouraged. This requires Bible teaching as the only solution, often Bible teaching in the form of exhortation. In other words, eventually they must become an enlightened believer. But they will not listen to Bible teaching at times because of something you do. If they associate you with Bible teaching then they say, “I won’t listen to it.”

6. This requires the enlightened believer to refrain from harmless things under a higher law.

7. Hence, there comes a time when the law of liberty must be superseded by the law of love. The enlightened believer must look after the welfare of the ignorant.

8. The law of liberty of the enlightened believer must not become a stumbling block for the ignorant.

9. This does not mean that liberty is always superseded, liberty must never be superseded to encourage legalism but it must be superseded to edify, to cause an ignorant believer to grow up.

The four laws which we are studying have to do with the operation of the filling of the Holy Spirit, and these four laws operate only under the Spirit-controlled life. The first is the law of liberty which is a combination of the filling of the Holy Spirit plus the some knowledge of doctrine. The law of liberty is a bona fide law, however it is superseded under certain conditions. The law of liberty is directed toward self. The law of love is directed toward other believers. The law of expediency is directed toward the unbeliever. Finally, we have the law of supreme sacrifice which is directed toward God.

We have no three test cases in Corinth where these laws are used. The first is the restaurant problem which is found in chapter 8:10-13. This one will deal with the problems of the law of love when the law of love supersedes the law of liberty. Secondly we will have the shambles problem, found in chapter 10:23-26, again a case of the law of liberty being superseded by, in this case, both the law of love and the law of expediency. Finally, there is the dinner party problem which is the use of the law of expediency and it is found in chapter 10:27ff.

Verse 10 — “For if any man see thee which hast knowledge.” We have a believer who has some knowledge of doctrine. At least he understands he understands the principles of doctrine which were given in the first nine verses of chapter eight. The word “if” introduces a third class condition, and it means maybe yes and maybe no. The problem connected with this ‘if’ is very simple. On any given occasion there is a time when every man must make the decision to take his family out to dinner. Here is a case when the man decides it is time for the family to go out to dinner and so he does so, and there is only one place to go. Consequently, away they go to the temple where the restaurant was located which had the best food in town. Here you have food which has been offered to idols and it includes not only meat but also vegetables, any type of produce. Actually there was only one place to eat in the city and that was at any good temple restaurant. The person who is going to the temple is the person who understands the first nine verses, and obviously he is going to the restaurant, and he does. Now “any man” is the stupid believer and he is always a villain. He is the ignoramus, the one who doesn’t know doctrine.

What is a weak believer?

1. Any believer with a guilt complex. A guilt complex is the greatest of all weakness.

2. Emotionally unstable.

3. Very sensitive. The type that wears the feelings on the sleeve, demands attention and is easily moved to self-pity.

4. Not interested in doctrine.

5. Very interested in special experiences.

6. Full of taboos, full of human prejudice, emphasis on the externals of legalism.

7. Very nosy. Guilty of the long proboscis.

The word “see” is an aorist active subjunctive. The aorist tense means at the right point of time when the believer with some doctrine plus his family enter the temple restaurant. He is seen. They can see you in church, out witnessing, doing all sorts of nice and wonderful things, but they just see you once going into the temple restaurant, and that’s it! The active voice: the weak believer does the seeing. Seeing with the nose, intrusion into the privacy of others. There is nothing as obnoxious as a nosy Christian. This verb suggests the violation of privacy, and it indicates in this case that the weak believer has a long proboscis, he constantly sticks his nose in the affairs of others, he is always trying to cast believers into the same mould of legalism and this is why he runs everyone else’s business. So the verb here suggests prying or snooping, being meddlesome.

“thee” is the enlightened believer who understands the first nine verses; “which hast knowledge,” the hast [have] is present linear aktionsart, which means you keep on having this knowledge. Knowledge is the understanding of doctrine, verses 1-9.

“sit at meat,” a poor translation. It means to recline at a table. This was the way the Romans ate, and one of the primary styles of eating in the ancient world.

“in the idol’s temple” means the temple restaurant, which was the best place in Corinth to eat. It was the best food in town and it isn’t sinful to eat good food. But the person who sees all of this an gets upset is weak believer. He lacks doctrinal discernment to realise that there is nothing wrong with this food. Consequently he has two choices to make as a weak believer. Remember that the word ‘weak’ is always used in the New Testament for a believer who is stupid and/or ignorant of doctrine. The weak believer is a believer who doesn’t know doctrine and lives by his emotion or by his past prejudice. He has two choices. One is found in Romans 14:4,10. The first thing he can do is be critical of others and/or judge them. The second thing that the weak believer can do is use the liberty of the strong believer as a patsy. Liberty is a bona fide operation but the weak believer uses the bona fide activity of the strong believer as an excuse to go back into his sinful activities in the temple.

“shall not the conscience of him,” the conscience of the weak believer. The weak believer has a soul which is filled with human viewpoint. He also has a human spirit but he is minus doctrine and therefore has not developed a ruler. Therefore he goes back to his prejudice, his taboos, his distortion, and since he leans on someone else he says if they go into the temple I can go into the temple. Minus doctrine means minus discernment. This means you cannot operate under the law of liberty or understand anyone who does. And if you are minus doctrine you cannot operate under the power of the Spirit. One who is minus doctrine operates on the basis of human morality and human good. Human morality has no restraints, it is not a restrainer. The restrainer of human morality is law and the disapprobation of society. So when you operate on human morality it is very easy to take the discernment of a strong believer or the liberty of a strong believer and use it as an excuse to do something that is wrong. That is exactly what the weak believer does. He is not operating under the power of the Spirit and therefore when he sees the strong believer, controlled by the Spirit, walk into the temple restaurant, he uses that as an excuse to go into the temple, not to eat but to sin. This is the situation. We have a strong believer operating under the law of liberty and the weak believer isn’t operating under any of the laws. A weak believer is ignorant of these laws.

“which is weak” or literally, “who keeps on being weak.” He is not only weak but he keeps on being weak. This person is emotionally unstable as well.

“be emboldened,” this means ‘encouraged.’ This is a future tense which means he has to go home and think about it. That’s bad. He can’t operate instinctively on doctrine because he doesn’t know any doctrine. So the future tense means that the weak believer will go home and kick it around and come up with this distortion. The future tense indicates he will distort the action of the strong believer in liberty. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb. From his distortion he will develop the nerve to go back into the temple. The indicative mood: the reality of the distortion being developed out of the bona fide operation — law of liberty.

“to eat those things which are offered to idols,” the present tense ‘to eat’ means he will keep on eating. This is an infinitive and the infinitive modifies the verb. The verb is to ‘be encouraged,’ the infinitive is ‘to eat.’ Every part of the infinitive must be tied into the verb, to ‘be encouraged.’ So the present tense means he will keep on eating until he gets the nerve to go across to the bar, and then he will go further. This means that even though he has distorted this thing in his mind, and even though he has twisted it, he really has to talk to himself. He has to work himself up. The active voice means that he will do it, he will actually step over the line. The infinitive indicates it is his purpose to step over the line, all he needs to do is to find an excuse and talk himself into it.

Verses 11 and 12 tell us what happens: the fall of the weak believer.

Verse 11, “And through thy knowledge,” a bona fide knowledge of doctrine leading to the bona fide operation of the law of liberty. It is very easy for the legalistic believer to slip into sinfulness because he operates on the basis of morality and human good. This comes from the old sin nature. One of the easiest things for the old sin nature to do is to slip from the area of strength to the area of weakness and come back to area of strength. There are two roads of sin for the legalist. The subtle road for this weak believer is that he stays away from the temple and he is very proud of the fact. He is still out of fellowship because he is very proud of what he has done — energy of the flesh achievement. There is also an obvious road which is to set up a taboo, observe it in the energy of the flesh, and once this is done all that is necessary is find some good excuse to break the energy of the flesh and move into the sin. It is always a strong believer operating in the field of harmless things that provides the excuse for the weak believer to jump back into some sin that he wants to get into.

“shall the weak brother perish,” the ignorant, unstable, legalistic believer who has no real power to resist temptation because he is never filled with the Spirit. He is either ignorant of or he refuses to use rebound. The word ‘perish’ doesn’t mean to perish in the sense of losing salvation, it means to be ruined as a believer as far as being successful is concerned. It means lack of success in the Christian life. It is a present middle indicative. The present tense: he keeps on being non-successful, because he is never filled with the Spirit. The middle voice: this is reflexive which means he does it himself. He is his own worst enemy. The middle voice says that he makes the decision himself and he ruins himself. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that believers ruin themselves by ignorance of doctrine. Therefore they go from ignorance to legalism, from legalism to operation, patsy, from operation patsy to sin, from sin to human good, and then back to sin again.

1. This believer is already out of fellowship. The believer is ruined by returning to his area of weakness but he is already out of fellowship.

2. Carnality is ruin until rebound is utilised.

3. In the case of the ignorant believer he does not understand or will not accept the principle of grace in rebound. You are going to be weak until you start using rebound every time you sin. There is no other way to be filled with the Spirit.

4. The legalist will not use rebound, resulting in continuous carnality which makes him weak.

“for whom Christ died,” ‘for whom’ is a reference to the legalistic, weak believer; ‘for whom Christ died’ simply means he hasn’t lost his salvation. The Greek of this passage paints a horrible picture of the legalist but he is still saved.

Verse 12, “But when ye sin.” There comes a time when liberty becomes the sin. The word ‘but’ is a conjunction to show that it is possible for liberty to become a sin. Liberty is not a sin when it is the object of spiritual bullying. Many legalists are bullies. Apart from that there comes a time when the law of liberty becomes sin. Obviously, when liberty cause another believer to stumble then liberty becomes a sin. This is not liberty in offending another believer but causing him to sin.

“so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.” Ultimately all sin is against Christ. The word ‘wound’ is a present active participle and the Greek word is not wound at all, it says to ‘punch’ their weak conscience, or to ‘bruise’ it. Sometimes the word is used to whip, to slug.

1. The inhibitor in the frontal lobe must operate on the basis of doctrine rather than pre-salvation prejudice.

2. The weak believer is ignorant of doctrine, especially in the field of hamartiology which is the doctrine of sin. This is why the weak believer is so tangled up with taboos.

3. The weak believer has no understanding of the old sin nature with its various categories, nor how to cope with the old sin nature through rebound. Therefore it is quite obvious that he can only revert to pre-salvation taboos or taboos that he has picked up since and legalism. Legalism gives him a weak conscience.

4. The strong believer has a clear understanding of the sin nature, personal sin, and how to cope with it. That’s why he is strong.

5. The results in the exercise of the law of liberty in harmless things which become the means of temptation to sin to others are obvious.

6. The strong believer operating under liberty can whip or punch the conscience of a weak, ignorant believer resulting in that weak believer’s persistent carnality or ruin. This, then, becomes the sin of stumblingblock which is called a sin against Christ. By using liberty as a stumblingblock for a weaker believer the strong believer, who is enlightened, can sin against Christ.

Verse 13, love takes precedence over liberty. We are dealing with another believer and so we have the law of love superseding the law of liberty.

“Wherefore [literally, ‘therefore’],” in conclusion. Remember there are two types of weak believer: legalist — operation bully; weak believer, operation patsy — then you move to the law of love.

“if meat makes my brother to offend,” something that is harmless in itself but it is always something that is harmless somehow identified with the unbeliever. There are many harmless things that are in no way identified with the unbeliever which do not come into this at all. It is always something that is harmless, that is permissible, that is somehow identified with an unbeliever. Who goes to the temple? The unbeliever. ‘My brother’ is the weak believer who is still saved; ‘make … to offend’ means to stumble.

“I will eat no flesh,” this is a double negative plus the aorist active subjunctive, and a double negative in the Greek is not a positive but a twice-as-strong negative.

“while the world standeth,’ incorrect. It is ‘because of the age [dispensation].’ It should be, “I will eat no flesh because of the dispensation.” The Church Age is the dispensation in which every believer represents Jesus Christ on the earth and there comes a time when liberty is superseded by other higher laws. In other words, Paul is saying that if he is guilty of this particular sin he will stop eating meat because his job is to represent Christ. Because of the dispensation every believer represents Christ. It wasn’t true before.

“lest” is correctly translated “that” and it introduces a purpose clause. “ … that I cause not my brother to stumble.” So for the sake of the weaker believer in his ignorance the law of love prevails.