As our study through 1 Corinthians continues, Paul turns to another question the Corinthian believers had asked: What should Christians do about food sacrificed to idols? At first glance, this may seem like a question that belongs entirely to the ancient world. But Paul uses the issue to address something much deeper: how should Christians use what they know, and how should our freedom affect the people around us?
Knowledge Is Good, But Knowledge Alone Is Not Enough
Paul begins with a statement that is easy to overlook: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”
The Corinthians knew the truth. They understood that an idol was nothing and that there is only one true God and that food itself does not bring someone closer to God or take them farther away from Him. They understood that knowledge was good.
But knowledge can become dangerous when it produces pride rather than love. We can know the right answers and still fail to live righteously. We can become so confident in what we know that we begin judging other believers, ranking ourselves above them, or exercising our freedom without considering how our actions affect someone else.
Knowledge is not the destination: It’s what we do with it that matters.
Knowledge is compared to the wind filling the sails of a boat: The wind can make the boat move faster, but without a rudder, moving faster doesn’t mean the boat is going in the right direction. In the same way, knowledge can give us confidence and freedom, but love must direct how we use it.
What Does It Mean to Be Known by God?
Paul says that “whoever loves God is known by God” (v3).
That changes the way we think about our relationship with God. Our standing before God isn’t based on how much we know, how talented we are, or what we can contribute. God didn’t love us because we had something valuable to offer Him, He loved us when we were unlovable.
The Gospel reminds us that Christianity isn’t a transactional relationship with God. We don’t earn His love by accumulating knowledge, developing abilities, or proving our worth. God loves us, and we respond by loving Him. That truth also removes the need to rank ourselves against one another.
We may have different gifts, abilities, levels of knowledge, and areas of freedom. But none of those things makes one Christian more valuable to God than another.
Our Freedom Is Not Just About Us
Paul then turns his attention to those who don’t have the same understanding about idols.
Some believers in Corinth had come out of a background where idols had been a very real part of their lives. For them, eating food associated with an idol could wound their conscience and draw them back toward something from which they had been delivered.
This is where Christian freedom becomes a question of love. Paul warns the Corinthians not to allow their freedom to become a stumbling block to someone else. If exercising our freedom causes another believer to fall, our freedom has become harmful. And Paul takes this incredibly seriously:
“When you sin against [your brothers and sisters] in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.”
— 1 Corinthians 8:12 (NIV)
The issue is no longer simply food, it’s Jesus!
The Church Is the Body of Christ
One of the important truths in this chapter is that our relationship with God may be personal, but it is not private.
The church is the body of Christ. That means what we do to one another matters. When we wound another believer, we are wounding the body of Christ. When we sin against a brother or sister, we sin against Christ. We can’t separate our relationship with God from our relationship with God’s people.
This is why Paul can move from a discussion about food sacrificed to idols to the much larger principle found at the end of the chapter:
“Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”
— 1 Corinthians 8:13 (NIV)
Love willingly limits freedom when doing so protects someone else.
Knowledge with Love
This chapter of 1 Corinthians is summarized with two simple points:
- First, do no harm.
- Is it good to have knowledge?
While the answer to the second point has been shown to be yes (since a lack of knowledge makes us vulnerable to be devoured by Satan and harmed by our brothers and sisters), the first point demonstrates that possession of knowledge is not the only important thing. In fact, a Scripture in James warns of that:
“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”
— James 2:19 (NIV)
Even the demons possess knowledge, and simply possessing knowledge without love doesn’t make us any better than them! Even greater than the importance of having knowledge is what is done with said knowledge.
And what to do with it? Later on in Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13:2), it is written that knowledge without love makes us nothing. Knowledge without consideration for our brothers and sisters constitutes not only sin against them, but towards Christ, since the church is Christ’s body. And so, we must use that knowledge in love: do no harm.
And how do we do that? One of the simplest (and yet most important) ways to do this is to show up: Show up for our brothers and our sisters, for the people around us that don’t yet know Christ.
Dennis recalls working for a landscape contractor who told him that one of the keys to his success was surprisingly simple: “I show up.” Showing up sounds easy, but anyone who has faced a difficult morning knows that it isn’t always easy to get out of bed and get started.
The same is true spiritually. We can decide each morning to show up for God, to live for Him in whatever we do. Make a decision before the day begins: I am going to do no harm.
That means more than simply being physically present. It means showing up spiritually and emotionally with our hearts pointed in the right direction. Whatever we do—whether we eat or drink, work, spend time with friends, or serve the church—we are called to do it for the glory of God.
Living for the Glory of God
1 Corinthians 8 reminds us that Christian maturity isn’t simply about knowing more. It is about knowing God, being known by God, and allowing what we know to produce love.
Our freedom is not an excuse to ignore others. Our knowledge isn’t a reason to become proud. And our relationship with God isn’t something we can separate from the way we treat His people.
So show up, knowing that God loves you, being ready to love others, being willing to limit your freedom when it will help someone else. And above all, show up determined to live for God’s glory.
Additional Notes
Showing up sounds easy, and is simple: anyone ‘could do it’ if they wanted to. But in practice, it can be difficult. The hard part is wanting to. For instance, showing up for work or for God.
In Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer states:
Scripture tells us the first thought and word of the day belong to God: “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee” (Psalm 5:3). “In the morning shall my prayer prevent thee” (Psalm 88:13). “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early” (Psalm 57:7-8). At dawn, the believer thirsts and yearns for God: “I prevented the dawning of morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word” (Psalm 119:147). “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is” (Psalm 63:1). The Wisdom of Solomon says, “We must prevent the sun to give thee thanks, and at the dayspring pray unto thee” (16:28). Ecclesiasticus says of the Bible student, “He will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him and will pray before the most High” (39:5). The Bible also speaks of morning as a time of special help from God. Of the city of God it is said, “In the morning God shall help her” (Psalm 46:5). God’s mercies “are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:23). (35)
1 Corinthians 8:1 (NIV) states “But knowledge puffs up while love builds up..”
John Newton (1725–1807), one of the great English Christian leaders of the eighteenth century, wrote:
Self-righteousness can feed upon doctrines, as well as upon works; and a man may have the heart of a Pharisee, while his head is stored with orthodox notions of the unworthiness of the creature and the riches of free grace. Yea, I would add, the best of men are not wholly free from this leaven, and therefore are too apt to be pleased with such representations as hold up our adversaries to ridicule, and by consequence flatter our own superior judgments. Controversies, for the most part, are so managed as to indulge rather than to repress this wrong disposition; and therefore, generally speaking, they are productive of little good. They provoke those whom they should convince, and puff up those whom they should edify. I hope your performance will savor of a spirit of true humility, and be a means of promoting it in others.
— John Newton, “Letter XIX: On Controversy”, The Works of John Newton, Volume 1 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2015), 1: 272-273.