1 Corinthians 8:1-13
I have had many people say to me “I would compliment you, but I don’t want to give you the big head”. They mean that they wish to say good things about you but they fear that you can’t handle it without getting a bit too full of yourself. In most cases, they are just being humorous, but underlying that statement is the mentality that we should police one another as it regards pride and humility.
I encourage people to uplift and edify those around them. You should be known as someone who compliments and blesses, for this marks you as someone who cares. If the people around you seem to be “getting the big head”, don’t worry about it; and certainly don’t stop complimenting. God is able to pop the big head so to speak. He can take care of their issues without your help!
Paul saw the propensity for a swelled sense of self-confidence when he wrote the church at Corinth. Regarding the various dietary laws that many Jews were still hanging on to, Paul was preaching freedom through the finished work of Jesus Christ, and was allowing the newly saved to eat whatever they wanted. However, this message was not easily received among the Jews, many of whom were saved, but could still not eat pig for instance, without a guilty conscience.
Paul said that “Knowledge puffeth up” (1 Corinthians 8:1), meaning that if we are not careful, our knowledge of grace and liberty can make us think that we are mentally superior to those around us who seem to be trapped in various forms of law. The better approach is to love them, for “charity edifieth” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Notice that Paul was concerned with the edification of those who were living under law more than he was with the correction. This is a good lesson for us to learn when we encounter those in our lives who are walking under the burden of the law. Rather than spend all of our time trying to “educate” them, let us love them and show them just how loved that they are by their heavenly Father.
There will always be saints who are weak in conscience and who are strong in conscience (8:7). If you feel that something is wrong for you to do, whether you have biblical basis for that feeling or not, it remains wrong for you to do it, for you cannot do it with faith. Paul said that, “He that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). It was not what he was eating that was wrong; it was HOW he was eating it. With limited knowledge as to how free that he is, the saint can live under a weak conscience which will always condemn him.
If you know that an activity that you are involved in will cause another brother or sister to stumble, distance yourself from that activity while in their presence. This is not hypocrisy, it is wisdom, as Paul said, “Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend” (1 Corinthians 8:13). It is far more important that we be without offense to our family in Christ that that we boast of our liberties in the Lord. Be free, but be encouraging!
I have had many people say to me “I would compliment you, but I don’t want to give you the big head”. They mean that they wish to say good things about you but they fear that you can’t handle it without getting a bit too full of yourself. In most cases, they are just being humorous, but underlying that statement is the mentality that we should police one another as it regards pride and humility.
I encourage people to uplift and edify those around them. You should be known as someone who compliments and blesses, for this marks you as someone who cares. If the people around you seem to be “getting the big head”, don’t worry about it; and certainly don’t stop complimenting. God is able to pop the big head so to speak. He can take care of their issues without your help!
Paul saw the propensity for a swelled sense of self-confidence when he wrote the church at Corinth. Regarding the various dietary laws that many Jews were still hanging on to, Paul was preaching freedom through the finished work of Jesus Christ, and was allowing the newly saved to eat whatever they wanted. However, this message was not easily received among the Jews, many of whom were saved, but could still not eat pig for instance, without a guilty conscience.
Paul said that “Knowledge puffeth up” (1 Corinthians 8:1), meaning that if we are not careful, our knowledge of grace and liberty can make us think that we are mentally superior to those around us who seem to be trapped in various forms of law. The better approach is to love them, for “charity edifieth” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Notice that Paul was concerned with the edification of those who were living under law more than he was with the correction. This is a good lesson for us to learn when we encounter those in our lives who are walking under the burden of the law. Rather than spend all of our time trying to “educate” them, let us love them and show them just how loved that they are by their heavenly Father.
There will always be saints who are weak in conscience and who are strong in conscience (8:7). If you feel that something is wrong for you to do, whether you have biblical basis for that feeling or not, it remains wrong for you to do it, for you cannot do it with faith. Paul said that, “He that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). It was not what he was eating that was wrong; it was HOW he was eating it. With limited knowledge as to how free that he is, the saint can live under a weak conscience which will always condemn him.
If you know that an activity that you are involved in will cause another brother or sister to stumble, distance yourself from that activity while in their presence. This is not hypocrisy, it is wisdom, as Paul said, “Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend” (1 Corinthians 8:13). It is far more important that we be without offense to our family in Christ that that we boast of our liberties in the Lord. Be free, but be encouraging!
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