Navigating Knowledge with Love in Community

"So what Paul is not doing is saying, hey, all of us possess this knowledge, but you're incorrect in what you have come to know. He affirms it and says, okay, we've got this knowledge, and our knowledge says that idols aren't real. And our knowledge says that there's no other God but the one true God. All of that's true. The knowledge is true. So what's the problem? If knowledge and the correctness of their knowledge isn't the issue, the problem that Paul brings to bear on it is that at times, right knowledge, knowing the right thing, can lead to the wrong application." [00:00:37] (35 seconds)


"wrongly and the reason for that there's a couple two reasons in this text so right knowledge can lead to wrong application when number one it's incomplete all right so paul says listen you've got this knowledge but but it's not the full picture right we we know that that idols aren't real we know you know verse six down in here we know that there's only one true god all of that's fine all of that's great but you're not looking at the full picture so you'll notice back up in verse two he says that if anyone imagines that he knows something he does not yet know as he ought to know and so right out of the gate paul's saying okay you guys have written to me and you've said hey we have this knowledge and paul's like that's fine but you have you're looking at only part of the picture if you will it would be like if we all had uh telescopes with us right now or we all had telescopes with us right now or we all had telescopes with us right now or we all had binoculars and we were to say, hey, we want to stop and sit in this room. We're going to only look through these binoculars. You're going to see real things, right? You're going to look around the room and you're going to see me probably way more large and close up than you would ever like to see me. But you're going to see Jeremy and you're going to see that Jeremy's wearing a blue shirt. He's got hair. He's got a beard. You're going to..." [00:01:19] (79 seconds)


"see real true things. But when you're only looking through the binoculars, you're not going to see everything else that's going on. You're getting a zoomed in view of the issue. And Paul's saying that's what's going on when we're dealing with food offered to idols. So to give us a little bit of a game, I've found some pictures for us. And the first picture that we're going to put on the screen, it's a little bit hard to see maybe because of the projector and the light. But here's the issue that we're dealing with. And your job is going to be to identify what this is a picture of. And some of you may be able to do that. But you're looking at it right now. I see some really puzzled faces. And I don't want to know what all maybe you're thinking this is. But you're looking at it and you're assessing that there are some things that we know about this picture. We can see that this picture has some sort of an object that is brown." [00:02:38] (54 seconds)


"true facts, things that you can observe. And you're saying, I know those things to be true about this picture. And so you're probably thinking, okay, well, maybe, maybe this is a picture of some sort of a rock formation." [00:03:58] (15 seconds)


"You're looking at it and you're maybe something like, that wasn't even on my radar and that's fine, but maybe this is a rock and this is a big rock and we see some sun shining on it and it's rough. And I could see how, you know, there's a little bit of an overhang and that could be. Some of you are like, maybe this is a piece of dirt. Maybe, I don't know. You're going through your head and if you're thinking any of those things, I'm just going to tell you right now, you're wrong. Okay, it's none of that. This picture is actually a picture of something quite wonderful. Something that may make you just a little bit hungry today. It's a picture of a cupcake." [00:04:14] (36 seconds)


"Okay, but it was very hard to identify the cupcake when you're zoomed in on only parts of the picture. So, I'm going to show you a picture of a cupcake. Part of it. You only saw part of the picture. And for some of you, maybe you guessed that it was a picture or a cupcake. But I'm going to assume that probably most of you didn't even think it was a cupcake. Like that wasn't on your radar. You weren't even thinking about it because you didn't have the whole thing. And there is a danger that can come in that you had right information." [00:05:23] (34 seconds)


"You could make accurate observations, but you were only dealing with a partial picture. And Paul is saying that when it comes to the issue that the Corinthians have brought before him of food offered to idols, they were only looking at the partial picture." [00:05:24] (15 seconds)


"And they made right and accurate assessments. They could see clearly. They're saying, yes, idols are nothing. Yes, there's only one true God. But Paul is going to, over the course of his answer to this, help them see that you're dealing with that first picture." [00:05:38] (15 seconds)


"You're only looking at a little bit of it, which can lead us to a wrong application of right knowledge. Right, when Paul's answer to the Corinthians, just to let you in on where we are headed here, is not summed up in chapter 8." [00:05:54] (20 seconds)


"Chapter 8 of 1 Corinthians is the beginning of Paul's answer to their question about food offered to idols. He's going to spend chapter 8, chapter 9, and all of chapter 10 in the first little verse of chapter 11 to answer their question about food offered to idols. But at the outset of it, he says, listen, if anyone imagines he knows something he doesn't yet know as he ought to know. Right now, this knowledge you have" [00:06:13] (29 seconds)


"It's a partial picture. There's more that meets the eye, and it's leading you maybe to a wrong application. Number two, right knowledge can have a wrong application when it's inconsiderate. So it can lead you to the wrong place when it's incomplete, and it can lead you to the wrong place when it's inconsiderate. Paul says that, listen, it is not enough to be correct if our correctness leads us to cause harm to other people. He says your correctness is of no value. Your knowledge has not helped you at all if living based on your knowledge has caused you to bring harm to a brother or sister in Christ. It's just not worth it at that point. You have brought about no good through this. This is where down in verse nine, we're just snapshotting a couple of things real quick. He says, take care that this right of yours doesn't somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. That if we were to assume that the tidbits of knowledge that they had, that idols aren't real, that there's only one true God. If we were to assume that that is all the requisite information that they needed to assess the situation, technically, they would have the right to eat. But Paul's saying it may not be right to do so." [00:06:55] (75 seconds)