– Knowledge AND Love
BRD REFLECTIONS:
1 Corinthians 8 and Psalm 136 (NIV)
(Lim Cheng Geok, BRD committee member)
READ:
1 Corinthians 8:1-13 (NIV)
OBSERVE:
In this familiar passage, Paul provides guidance to the Corinthians about an issue they raised: Can they consume food offered to idols?
On one hand, there is a group who believe it isn’t an issue since they believe “all of us possess knowledge” (v1) “that ‘an idol has no real existence’ and that ‘there is no God but one’” (v4).
On the other hand is a group who struggle with the concept of eating food offered to idols. Perhaps they are converts from paganism who are still on a journey to fully trusting in Christ their Saviour (v7).
Paul’s advises the Corinthians to:
- Remember that “‘knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up” v1
- Consider and empathise with the weak in faith, those who haven’t fully grasped this knowledge v7
- Curtail their own rights so they do not “become a stumbling block to the weak” v9, 13
APPLY:
Although I have not personally had to face this situation, several friends whose family members practise other religions have. They have had to decide whether or not to eat food offered to idols, make offerings to ancestors or kow-tow before them, and engage in other marriage and funeral rites.
But I have had to face issues and people that challenge my Christian worldview. For example, how do I engage with brothers and sisters who enjoy a party lifestyle, get tattoos, cohabit, have different views on LGBTQ issues etc? On a personal level, I also have expectations about how I would like to be treated by loved ones, friends, colleagues, service staff, etc. How do I respond when my views and expectations are tested?
God’s Word is a rich resource as to what I should believe and how to behave in these circumstances. There are also many edifying courses available, such as Disciple, Companions in Christ, Bible Study Fellowship, Precepts, and so on, even theological courses at Bible colleges. But Paul warns that all this knowledge without love can make me arrogant and sound like “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor 13:1). Or as Tim Keller puts it, “Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it.”
Sometimes my responses come across as harsh and unloving, not because I’m puffed up with knowledge, but because I’m intimidated by today’s post-Christian world. When confronted with non-Christian ideologies, my knee-jerk response is to opt for a by-the-Book approach. I’m afraid to seem like I’m on a slippery slope to compromising and perhaps denying my Saviour.
DO:
Paul provides me with two principles to follow:
- Develop a deep intimacy with God (v3) so I can love as unconditionally and sacrificially as Christ does for me
- Deny myself so I can be an encouragement to my brother/sister as we journey together with Christ (v9, 10)
PRAY:
Dear Lord and Saviour, forgive my self-centred love. Thank you for the freedom I have gained by your death on the Cross. Draw me to walk more closely with you each day. Enable me to follow your example to choose others’ faith in you before my own rights. Grant me your wisdom to respond with knowledge AND unconditional love when I am confounded by views different to mine. In your powerful and wise name, Amen.
