Agape Love in Action, Chapters 8, 9

 
Paul now changes his tactic from discussing personal or individual problems within the Corinthian church to a much broader discussion that includes the obligations and responsibilities individual believers have to the Church as a whole.  It is in this context that Paul begins his consideration of the believer’s freedom in Christ with the contentious subject of whether or not believers should eat meat offered to idols.  However, the real teaching of these chapters is something else: agape love and what it looks like.

1.  Background:  Meat offered to idols, 8:1—13

In Paul’s day, pagan sacrifices were religious observances that involved the entire family.  Animals were brought to the temple and the priest proceeded to slaughter them to the gods.  The meat offered was divided into three portions:  one portion was burned up, the priest was given a portion, and the rest was given back to the offerer.  If the priest did not use his portion, it was taken to the public market and sold.  As you may imagine, a lot of meat found its way into the market.  With this in mind, it’s easy to see that the population of Corinth could hardly escape coming into contact with this meat; either they were buying it or they were eating it at the table of their families.  This posed a problem for some of the members of the church at Corinth.  Was the meat spiritually contaminated?  Did the pagan god actually have an effect on the meat?   Even if you didn’t believe that, should a believer just avoid this meat just in case?  Christians today do not have to deal with this particular problem, but we do face some serious questions of how to conduct ourselves in a non-Christian society.

2.  Knowledge and love contrasted, 8:1—3

With the first few words of verse one, Paul turns his attention to the next question the church had for him.  When we consider what the Jerusalem Council said in Acts 15:29; 21:25), one could wonder if Paul will challenge the Council, or simply clarify what they said. 

In verse one, Paul suggests that all Christians know the truth—that meat is meat.  But then he implies that there is more to consider than just “knowledge.”  Sometimes knowledge can be exalted, as the Corinthians likely were doing, giving the knowledgeable one a false sense of security and indifference.  Therefore, love—in this case Paul uses agape—is necessary.  This is the essence of agape love:  it takes one beyond oneself to help another; it builds someone else up (W. Harold Mare, p. 238).  Love is never arrogant or self-serving (13:4) but is always constructive. 

With verse two, we get a glimpse into the kind of person Paul is writing about.  This person supposes knowledge is everything.  The word “thinks” also means “supposes” and is a verb that reveals the arrogant, haughty attitude of this person.  Elsewhere in 1 Corinthians Paul says that knowledge is never enough because it is never complete and is therefore imperfect (13:8—10) and passes away.  Love, however, is permanent.  And that’s why love must always temper knowledge.  Without love, a person comes to depend on his own knowledge.  Paul despises this kind of attitude and indicates this by saying, “he doesn’t really know anything.” 

True knowledge, as Calvin noted, begins with a personal knowledge of God (Calvin, p. 172).  True knowledge is evident when we see grace, humility, integrity, and obedience at work in a believer’s life (Kistmaker, p. 263).  True knowledge has a spiritual dimension and is related to a love of God.  It should be noted that Paul never says knowledge is wrong; in fact knowledge is absolutely essential to life.  However, when knowledge is not empowered by love, will always fail.

3.  The meaning behind eating meat offered to idols, 8:4—6

The word translated “meat” is actually a broader word that could also be translated as “food.”  So Paul is being general here, saying that the idol before which this food was offered is really nothing at all, that is, there is no reality or power behind it.  The phrase “there is no God but one” is actually a creedal statement taken from Deuteronomy 6:4;  something that Jews recited twice a day; the early Christian church inherited this creed, although they didn’t say it all the time.

When Paul writes that there are many “so-called gods,” he is not saying they are real, he is acknowledging that in Greek mythology they believed these gods were real.  The they being unbelievers in the community, but also some of the new converts in the church who were still struggling against their old beliefs. 

Is it possible things like this occur in the church today?  The answer is yes, which is why we have this passage of Scripture preserved for us today, even though we don’t have a meat/idol problem. Many Christians carry over their old beliefs into their new faith, and the more mature Christians need to be aware of this and be patient with them as they grow in grace.  This is agape love.

Of course, the believer lives for God, Who is the source of all.  If God is the source of all, why should anybody be concerned with idols?

4.  Freedom: Exercise with extreme care, 8:7—13

With verse 7, Paul uses a very strong adjective; it reveals that not every believer had full knowledge of the doctrines he had just outlines.  As Kistmaker notes, a pastor should be aware be of and is responsible for the entire membership of his congregation.  It’s true that “all believers” possess knowledge, but that’s a general statement.  In every congregation there are some who don’t.  And those are the ones who require the agape love and the extra attention.  But all too often, they are ones who get ignored.

Paul says that these immature, or weak, believers, are ones with weak moral awareness—they are so accustomed to thinking of idols and the meat offered to them that even though they may have been taught the reality, in reality they are unable to understand  it.  And so, in their reality, the meat is defiled.

Paul then makes a statement with a two-fold thrust.  First, he says there is nothing wrong with meat offered to idols and that eating or not eating it has no effect on our standing before God.  Second he says that since eating food is of no spiritual consequence and is therefore a matter of indifference, nobody has a right to insist upon eating it or not eating it.  Some things are a matter of conscience. 

EXCURSUS 

It might not seem like it to the casual reader, but chapters 8 and 9 are connected.  The connection has to do with freedom.  In chapter 8, the issue is one of general Christian freedom.  The issue in chapter 9 is Paul’s freedom as an apostle.

This teaches us two things:  First, there is a difference between those who shepherd a flock and the sheep.  A trend today suggests there is no difference between a pastor and his congregation, but that’s simply not true.  Second, the leader of congregation has rights that need to be respected by that congregation.

5.  The apostle’s rights, 9:1—12a

Paul expands his discussion of Christian freedom to include other things, including himself, and we get an inkling for the first time that his qualifications may have been called into question.  This is a topic Paul will deal with in his next letter to this church. 

All four questions asked in verse 1 are introduced by the Greek negative ou, which demands a positive answer.  As to his apostleship, Paul says that their very existence as a church proves it.

In verses 4—10, Paul says that he has rights that those in authority have.  They include: 

• The right to food and drink at the expense of the church (cf. 1 Cor. 9:9—11)
• The right have his wife accompany him, if he had one
• The right to be supported financially in the ministry.

It was Paul’s practice to support himself so he wouldn’t be a burden to the churches he was starting, but some had taken this to mean that he wasn’t on par with the rest of the apostles.  Paul insists that he has a right to support, but that he hadn’t exercised that right.

This theme is carried on to the end of verse 18. 

6.  Paul: The embodiment of agape love, 9:19—27

Paul now goes beyond his right to financial support to discuss other areas of his life where he had surrendered his rights and freedoms in Christ in order to win others to Christ.  He lists three groups close to his heart: 

• Jews.  When it came to how Paul related to Jews, in matters of “indifference,” he conformed to the practice of Jewish law.  In the parenthetical statement, Paul admits that he is no longer under such laws; his relationship with Christ set him free from those laws.
• Gentiles.  This group had no law; that is, no written revelation from God, as the Jews had.  To this  group, he became like them, he took his place in their culture in order to reach them.  Notice, however, that Paul states that he was still under God’s law.
• The weak.  That is, those who have weak consciences.  In deference to this group, Paul says he became weak.  This means that when around this group, he refrained from exercising his Christian freedom in regards to indifferent, unimportant things.

Verses 24 to 27 constitute Paul’s practical application of what he’s been discussing.  Like every good speaker, Paul knows the importance of the perfect illustration to drive home his point.  Paul knows his audience, this  is evident from the use of “don’t you all know,” in other words, he assumes that they all do, in fact, has this knowledge.  Every one of them knew about the great foot races, and in that context, Paul says every one of them should live their Christian lives the way runners run; with an all-out effort.  The phrase, “strict training” refers to the athlete’s self-control in diet and exercise.  In a remarkable observation, the Apostle notes how hard these men train for a crown that will rot away to nothing in a short time.  But the Christian’s crown is eternal life and fellowship with God that will never end.

The remaining two verses are graphic and very telling.  Paul says that he has had to discipline his body, that is, he had to  work at curbing his desires for the sakes of others.  The very fact that he used the words, “I beat my body and make it my slave” shows how hard it was for him to “practice what he preached.” 

This is the essence of agape love:  putting the needs of others above the needs and desires of ourselves.