Well, Father, it has been a crazy full week, but these are the last hours of it. With a little less on my plate, may this next week be profitable in other ways You deem essential. Amen.
1 Corinthians 8:1-13 (<<click here to read the passage)
This whole chapter speaks of food sacrificed to idols, which may cause many of us to ask, “What in the world does that have to do with me?” The act itself is not a part of our culture and really has nothing to do with us…but…the attitudes surrounding these events most assuredly do!
I think a majority of us would agree that knowledge is important. It helps us accomplish what needs to be accomplished in our world. And we must acknowledge the fact that we can obtain knowledge in many different ways on many different fronts. College degrees enable us to acquire knowledge, but knowledge can also be acquired in trades and blue-collar positions. You can’t be a good farmer without knowledge. You can’t be a good jeweler, nurse, or diesel mechanic without knowledge. Insert any vocation in that blank, and it will require knowledge. In fact, you can’t play a good ol’ game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” with the kids on my bus without knowing the rules of the game.
In this particular passage of Scripture, believers had acquired knowledge that enabled them to be at liberty not to be concerned with where the meat came from that they ate. To them, it made no difference if it had been offered to idols. They knew that idols represented gods that really were not gods at all – so that gave them the liberty to eat what they wanted.
But it wasn’t so simple for inexperienced believers; they still struggled to separate from their old ways. They struggled with the mixed feelings and guilt of doing something they thought was wrong, or at least a little too close to wrong.
So, here is where their knowledge had to be tempered. There is power acquired with knowledge, but knowledge and the power that comes with it are not what is ultimately important to God. What is ultimately important to God…is love.
The Apostle Paul, at the end of verse 1, states,
But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church.
Exerting our knowledge may lift us up, but if we aren’t conscientiously careful, it could easily tear someone else down. Thinking along those lines in love is what makes the difference. Paul continues in verses 2-3.
Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes. NLT
We can obtain all the knowledge, even of Godly things, but without love, it equals nothing. I’m skipping ahead a few chapters, but a portion of 1 Corinthians 13:2 reads,
And if I…[possess] all knowledge; and if I have all [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love [reaching out to others], I am nothing. AMP
As followers of Jesus, love has to be at the heart of everything. Love must be at the center of the world, and if that is the case, we can’t be. Amen.
Nov 5th, 2023, Sun, 8:29 pm
