If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
— Romans 12:18 (NIV)Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God
— 1 Corinthians 10:32 (NIV)
As we continue our study through 1 Corinthians, we come again to Paul’s teaching about Christian freedom and the responsibility that comes with it. The discussion began in chapter 8 with the question of food sacrificed to idols, but Paul’s concern is much larger than the specific issue of what a Christian may or may not eat. Across 1 Corinthians 8-10, the central concern is how believers use their knowledge, freedom, rights, and privileges in relationship to one another.
The principle can be summarized this way: care for others and the glory of God supersede our knowledge, freedoms, rights, and privileges.
When Knowledge Is Not Enough
Paul begins by acknowledging that Christians possess knowledge, but he immediately places a limitation on the value of knowledge by saying that “knowledge puffs up while love builds up.” Knowing that there is one God and one Lord gives the Christian freedom that others may not yet understand or feel comfortable exercising, but knowledge alone does not determine whether exercising that freedom is wise.
The weaker believer in 1 Corinthians 8 is not necessarily rebellious, faithless, or spiritually inferior. A believer may be weak because of a lack of spiritual maturity, because of limited experience, or because circumstances have placed that person in a particularly vulnerable position. New Christians, people experiencing grief, divorce, illness, injury, financial difficulty, career changes, relocation, retirement, or other major disruptions may find themselves spiritually vulnerable even when they are not the source of the problem.
This distinction matters because the church must respond differently to someone who has a problem than to someone who is the problem. The faint-hearted and discouraged need comfort, courage, patience, and care from the body of Christ.
Christian maturity, therefore, is not demonstrated merely by knowing what we are free to do. It is demonstrated by knowing when exercising that freedom would fail to build someone else up.
Accept Those Whom God Has Accepted
Romans 14 provides a parallel discussion. Paul addresses differences concerning food and special days, instructing believers not to pass judgment on one another over matters of conscience. One believer may eat everything, while another may eat only vegetables. One may regard a particular day as special, while another considers every day alike.
The important point is not that every conviction is equally correct or that truth does not matter. Paul is addressing matters in which Scripture does not give a command requiring every believer to practice the same thing.
His instruction is remarkably practical: accept those whom God has accepted.
The believer who exercises greater freedom must not look down on the believer who abstains, while the believer who abstains must not condemn the believer who exercises freedom. Neither should use personal conviction as a means of measuring another Christian’s standing before God.
This requires humility because disagreement can easily become an opportunity for pride. A discussion that begins with the question, “What is true?” can gradually become, “Who is right?” Once our identity becomes attached to winning the argument, the other person can cease to be someone we are trying to love and become someone we are trying to defeat.
Paul warns against this kind of reasoning because an argument can be won while a relationship is destroyed.
Not Every Disagreement Is a Reason to Dispute
Paul’s language concerning “disputable matters” deserves careful attention. These are matters of conscience and conviction in areas where the Bible does not provide a clear, universal command for every Christian. Questions surrounding food, special days, alcohol, worship practices, recreation, dress, and other areas of Christian liberty can become matters of conscience.
Yet there is an important distinction between something being disputable and something being something that Christians ought constantly to dispute about.
The fact that people can argue about something does not mean that arguing about it is spiritually productive. Human beings can turn almost anything into an argument, particularly when the goal shifts from discovering truth to protecting our pride.
Paul’s concern is therefore not simply the subject being discussed, but the manner in which believers approach one another. Even when we are convinced of our position, we must consider whether our manner of expressing it is building up the person standing in front of us.
This becomes especially important when the other person is vulnerable.
Consider something as simple as a phobia. Ridiculing someone who is afraid of flying, spiders, snakes, elevators, or another object does not normally remove the fear. Statistics may demonstrate that flying is safer than driving, but knowing the statistics does not necessarily eliminate the emotional response. Change may take time, patience, and careful exposure.
The same principle applies spiritually. A struggling believer does not become stronger because we shame them for being weak. We do not help people grow by making their vulnerability an opportunity to demonstrate our superiority.
Paul Does Not Demand His Rights
This brings us to 1 Corinthians 9, where Paul gives his own life as an example.
At first glance, chapter 9 can appear to be a departure from the subject of chapter 8. Paul begins talking about his rights as an apostle, his freedom, and his legitimate claim to receive support for his ministry. Yet within the larger argument of chapters 8-10, chapter 9 provides a living example of the principle Paul has been teaching.
Paul possesses rights, but he is willing to surrender those rights for the sake of the Gospel.
He becomes “all things to all people” so that by all possible means he might save some. He becomes weak to the weak, not because he has abandoned truth, but because the Gospel and the spiritual welfare of others are more important than insisting upon his own privileges.
This is why Paul then uses the imagery of an athlete who disciplines himself for a prize. Christian freedom does not eliminate discipline. In fact, genuine Christian maturity requires discipline because love sometimes requires us to restrain ourselves.
The discipline Paul describes is not merely physical discipline. In this context, it includes the discipline to consider another person before acting, the discipline to surrender a legitimate preference, and the discipline to control our speech rather than using our knowledge to establish our superiority.
Who Is the Conversation Really About?
This gives us a practical question to consider in our everyday conversations: When we talk with another believer, what are we trying to accomplish?
Are we trying to demonstrate that we know more? Are we trying to prove that our faith is stronger? Are we trying to establish that our interpretation is better? Are we trying to make sure everyone knows where we stand?
Or are we primarily concerned with building up the other person?
Paul’s challenge is particularly relevant because our words can reveal what matters most to us. A conversation can become an opportunity to love someone, or it can become an opportunity to protect our ego. We can use knowledge to build someone up, or we can use knowledge to establish ourselves as the visionary who sees what everyone else supposedly cannot.
Christian maturity requires a different kind of discipline.
Discipline Your Speech
The Christian life calls for an ongoing examination of not only what we believe, but also how we treat one another. The Lord’s Supper provides a meaningful context for this kind of self-examination, because remembering Christ’s body and sacrifice should also lead us to consider how we are living as members of His body. Yet this principle extends well beyond communion and into the ordinary relationships and conversations of everyday life.
This calls for a kind of self-awareness. We should consider not merely what we intended to say, but what the other person actually heard. We should ask whether our words encouraged or discouraged, whether they built up or tore down, and whether our conduct demonstrated genuine concern for the other person.
The challenge, then, is practical: discipline your speech.
Pay attention to your conversations at church, at home, at work, and among your neighbors. Consider whether you are trying to prove yourself or whether you are trying to serve the person in front of you. Consider whether your freedom is being used primarily for your own benefit or whether you are willing to limit yourself for the good of another.
Paul’s example reminds us that Christian freedom is not ultimately about how much we are allowed to do. It is about how freely we are willing to love.
Our knowledge matters, but love builds up. Our rights matter, but our responsibility toward others matters more. Our freedoms matter, but the glory of God is greater.
The goal is not to become the person who wins every argument. The goal is to become the person whose life consistently builds others up and points them toward Christ.