Knowledge that Puffs Up

Have you ever tried blood pudding? I haven't, but I remember that coming up in a conversation. And another believer's initial reaction was, I don't think we should eat that. Because in the Jerusalem Council, in Acts 15, it said that we should abstain from things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood. Or what about if you go into, say, a Chinese restaurant? and there's a statue of Buddha. Is it wrong to eat there? I mean, maybe it's just a decoration, but for all you know, the owners of that restaurant take that very seriously. And they're blessing that food in the name of Buddha. And even if this whole topic of food sacrifice to idols sort of seems otherwise very weird and distant from our culture, I think this may come up more and more in our future. I mean, do you shop in the New Age aisle at Wegmans? Would you have any qualms about doing so? Or, what do you do when you have, say, a family member who's committed to some other faith, and then they're getting married, and you're invited to the wedding? Or there's a funeral, or some other significant event like that. I mean, those ceremonies have significant overtones or even explicit religious components, right? I mean, so is it compromising for a Christian to be there, to eat food there? Or is there a place for a Christian to be present, but not involving himself in the religious part of it? Or the opening prayer for Congress was recently prayed in the name of the monotheistic God, Brahma, and the God known by many names and many face, and then concluded with amen and a woman. So, you know, how will we navigate in a society that is becoming increasingly relativistic and even pagan? How do we navigate during this pandemic during which the government is making regulations that affect the way we worship and even in some places telling churches not to meet at all? And simultaneously, we feel the shifting political tides. We know that there are some, perhaps a growing number, who would call us to render obedience to the government as if it were a god. So of course secularism can become just as idolatrous as any other religion. And more and more businesses are becoming politically aligned and therefore ideologically and religiously bent as well. So what should Christian involvement look like in those cases? Can you work for that business? Can you buy from that business? More and more of us will begin having homosexual friends and family members who will invite us to their weddings and into other significant parts of their lives. We will have transgender friends and even family members who ask us to call them by new names and even new pronouns. And in various other ways, anti-Christian and idolatrous practices will become infused into just the ordinary affairs of life. and you and I will have to make some challenging decisions about what faithfulness to Jesus looks like in that kind of world. And then more than all that, you and I will find ourselves disagreeing about things that we never had to even think about before. I mean, there will be issues where my conscience thinks doing this is fine, and your conscience doesn't. And then it will be vice versa on a different issue. All right, and so friends, the question is, how do we work through that? I mean, what do we do in those kinds of situations? Well, that brings us here to 1 Corinthians chapter eight. And this matter of food sacrifice to idols may seem far removed at first, but I hope what I've said so far has already helped you to see that it's a lot more relevant than you might think. And just briefly, let me remind us where we've been. So the book of 1 Corinthians was written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth. And Paul's writing from Ephesus, where he's both received reports about what's going on in the Corinthian church, and he's also received at least one letter from the Corinthians. And in chapters 1 through 6, Paul is responding to various issues raised by the reports he's heard. And then in chapters 7 through 16, he responds to a number of issues that are raised by the Corinthian letter. In these past three weeks, we've looked at chapter 7, where Paul deals with some matters relating to sex, marriage, divorce, and singleness. And now here in chapter 8, verse 1, we're introduced to a new topic. Paul says, now concerning food, offered to idols. Now, this response here stretches all the way through chapter 11 verse 1. And I've broken that down into four sections, and we're gonna spend the next four sermons working through it. So today we'll be in chapter eight, where Paul talks about the importance of loving fellow believers and caring for their consciences. Then in chapter nine, Paul points to his own example of laying down his rights for the sake of the gospel. Then in chapter 10, verses one through 22, Paul warns the Corinthians about the danger of idolatry. And then in chapter 10 verses 23 through chapter 11 verse 1, Paul returns to the importance of love, and he gives some other clarifying counsel, and then he sort of concludes it all with this wonderful statement that, so then, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. So that's where we're headed. But for today, this is what I want to do. First, I want to provide some context about this issue of idle food. What exactly is the nature of the issue that's in debate here? And then second, I'm going to sum up chapter eight under two points. So context, then point one, then point two. So let's look at the context. What do we know about this issue of food sacrificed to idols? Well, first, historically, we know that temples were all over the place in Corinth, and probably most of the meat that was available would have been sacrificed to an idol. Right, so out in front of the temple, they would slaughter the animal, there'd be some sort of ritual, and they would burn some of the meat for the god of that temple. Then other meat would be brought into the temple and would be served and eaten within the temple, and then the leftovers would be sold to vendors who would then resell that in the meat market. And some of the feasts in the temple, you know, they're sort of these pagan religious ceremonies. There's often sexual immorality. But it seems that these temples also sort of functioned as just sort of public venues to host public or even private events such as a coming of age celebration, a birthday, a wedding. a funeral, even perhaps a business lunch with sort of fellow members of your trade guild. Some scholars call the temples the restaurants of the day. So going to temples is very much just part of the life of those living in Corinth. And the religious and the secular are just sort of blended in this way that, as I mentioned in the introduction, could increasingly become the case here. Now, second, in terms of the broader biblical context, when we think about food sacrificed to idols, this comes up a few other places in the New Testament, and it's always viewed negatively. So in Acts 15, I mentioned that food sacrificed to idols is sort of forbidden by the Jerusalem council. It's also mentioned twice in Revelation chapter 2, where false teachers in Pergamum and Thyatira are called out for being like Balaam and Jezebel because they teach others to eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. But by far the longest treatment of the subject is here in 1 Corinthians from chapters 8 through 10. And in chapter 10, Especially verses 19 through 21, Paul gives a very firm warning about the danger of idol food. He says, what do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No. I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Right, so Paul's very clear that there's at least some context in which participating and eating this food is actually to have fellowship with demons. And Paul is saying, you must not do that lest you be like Israel that perished in the wilderness. But on the other hand, just a few verses later in the same chapter, Paul turns around and he makes clear that it's fine to eat the meat that's sold in the meat market. He says you don't have to figure out whether it was previously offered to an idol or not. You can go to an unbeliever's house and just eat whatever's set before you. Now he says if they tell you, by the way, this was sacrificed to an idol, he says don't eat it. For his sake and for the sake of conscience, and then he clarifies, not your conscience but his. So it seems pretty clear that Paul is saying there's nothing wrong with the meat itself. It's not that offering it to an idol contaminates the meat. It's not that there's demons living in the meat. The problem is the context in which you're eating it. Are you participating in this demonic ritual, this demonic thing? Are you at a table with demons? Now, in light of that, you might think Paul's saying, don't eat the meat at the temple, right? If you eat it there, that's inherently sinful, but eating it in a private home is fine. However, chapter eight, verse 10 sort of throws a monkey wrench in that, because there Paul speaks directly of eating in an idol's temple, but verse nine speaks of this as a person's right. And the whole context of chapter eight is talking about sort of the one whose conscience is weak, and then chapter nine is all about how Paul sort of surrenders his rights for the sake of the gospel. So some commentators argue that Paul's using the term right there sort of ironically or sarcastically, and really in chapter 10, he comes around and just says, this isn't really right at all. None of you should be eating in the idol's temple ever. But I actually think it makes more sense to conclude that eating in a temple is a questionable but not necessarily inherently sinful thing. I think perhaps there are some contexts where it's not so obvious that a Christian is participating in anything idolatrous. As I said before, this is not just a place where they have sort of explicit religious things. They have a birthday party. They might have a wedding. And so there's this whole spectrum. To think of a more modern spectrum, imagine going to a mall that has a restaurant in it that in that restaurant there's the Buddha statue. Now imagine you go into the restaurant and you eat in the restaurant that has the Buddha statue. Then you imagine going into the restaurant and you see them sort of offering the food before the Buddha statue and then you go and eat that. Or then there's actually some sort of ritual or, you know, Buddhist ceremony that you sort of participate in in some way. You know, there's this whole spectrum, and I think we can say, okay, there's one line I can draw and say, you know, pretty much things on that side of it seem fine. I don't see any reason that would be inherently sinful. We can draw another line and say, you know what, this is sin. Christians must not do that. But then there's this uncomfortable middle that is sort of highly nuanced by all these situational and motivational factors, and our consciences just don't always agree. And I think that's especially the kind of issue Paul is seeking to speak into here in 1 Corinthians 8. And so with that context in mind, as I said, there's two main points I think Paul wants to get across. And the first is this, your knowledge means nothing without love. Your knowledge means nothing without love. Look with me at verses one through six. Paul writes, now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no God but one. For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Now, first notice what we can infer about the Corinthian position here. The ESV puts three phrases in quotes. Verse one, all of us possess knowledge. Verse four, an idol has no real existence. And then again in verse four, there is no God but one. And those are either direct quotes from the Corinthian letter or they're Paul's representation of the Corinthian position. And basically what the Corinthians are thinking is, look, eating idol food doesn't matter because idols aren't even real. You know, they're saying we know that there's only one God and idols have no real existence. These so-called gods that other people worship, they're nothing but blocks of wood and stone. So why would we tremble before an idol's temple? Why not just go enjoy the good food? I mean, what's the harm? You know, and if there's anybody else in the church who's bothered by that, why should we pander to such silly superstitions? I mean, do they not even know that idols are not even real? And notice in verses five and six that Paul affirms his agreement with that knowledge that God is one and idols have no real existence, right? I mean, he says, yes, regardless of what other people think, we know that there's only one God. And in fact, Paul does this quite emphatically because he does so in a way which echoes the Shema. And the Shema is a very important verse from the Old Testament, from Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, which says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And so Paul takes that foundational truth, and then he applies it. But notice that he splits it between the Father and the Son. All right, the Shema says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God. And Paul writes for us, There is one God, the Father. But the Shema continues, here is the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And Paul says for us there is one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ. And so Paul is emphasizing the oneness of God as well as the deity of the Father and the Son. And just as an aside, this is a wonderful affirmation of the deity of Jesus. that Jesus is Yahweh, and he is one with the Father. And also notice how Paul describes the economy of the Trinity, wherein he says, all things are from and for God the Father, and all things are through God the Son. But all this is really just a way of Paul saying, you have knowledge and I get that. Right, he's just affirming you are absolutely right that God is one and idols have no real existence and I do not want you to think for a minute that anything else I'm about to say is sort of because I don't really believe that. He's saying yes, you have knowledge. But, his point in verses one through three is this. All the knowledge in the world, even the best of knowledge, if it has not love, is nothing. And he gives three reasons why. First, he says this knowledge, this loveless knowledge, it puffs up the knower instead of building up others. And I think Paul means this in a deeply ironic way. He's saying, look, love builds up the church. It accomplishes something useful and lasting. But knowledge by itself just puffs up your head. It just inflates you with pride like a balloon, and it accomplishes nothing beneficial. Second, he says, knowledge without love is nothing because it's actually folly. Look at verse two. He says, if anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. I think there's another way of saying, if your knowledge puffs you up with pride, then it's really just another form of that wisdom of this world, which is foolishness with God, that Paul talked about earlier in this book. In fact, this reminds me of James 2, where James writes, saying, you believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. I mean, the point is don't boast as if your knowledge that God is one were some profound insight. Because if you don't have love, your knowledge is no better than that of demons. It's just folly. Then third, Paul says, knowledge without love is nothing because it's not ultimately about what you know, but who knows you. Look at verse three, he says, but if anyone loves God, he is known by God. I think Paul is connecting two things here. First, he's saying the only kind of knowledge that matters is knowledge that produces love for God. As we just said, otherwise it's no different than the kind of knowledge demons have. But second, when you know and love God, the truly wonderful thing that amazes you, that you would want to boast in, is not how much you know. It's that you know that God knows you. As Romans 8 puts it, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that we might be the firstborn among many brethren and whom he predestined. These he also called and whom he called. These he also justified and whom he justified. These he also glorified. Friends, knowing that doesn't puff us up. That humbles us. before the God of all grace who has loved us with this everlasting love. So the point here is that knowledge without love is nothing. And friends, do we live that way? I mean, we are a pretty heady, theologically driven church. And by the way, that's good. If you're here and you're listening to this kind of cheering, yes, doctrine divides and all you need is love, well, please just read everything else Paul says, and I think you'll see that that's missing the point. Paul is all for knowledge. Knowledge is good, doctrine is good, we need these things. His point is that they're insufficient. Studying theology should give us a reason to love other people. It should stir our hearts to grow in love. But friends, it doesn't always work that way. And the fact is, sometimes, you know, we can study and we can learn and we can have all this knowledge, and instead of provoking greater love, it begins to provoke pride. And so we need to work, we need to make a conscious effort to whatever we are learning, to apply it, to say, I am called to love. It means nothing if I'm not practically living this out in loving my brothers and sisters in Christ. And friends, we need to beware of how pride can sort of subtly begin to work its way in and creep in and we begin to think that because of whatever knowledge we have that we are somehow just a little bit superior. That our church is just a little bit better or that we are just somehow a little bit more important because of what we know. But friends, why should we boast in what we know when the only knowledge we have that's worth boasting in is the knowledge that the only wise God sacrificed himself in apparent weakness and folly so that we might know his love. And friends, just consider, I mean, just think about it for a minute. Jesus, never. You know, in not one time in all the gospels does Jesus seem the slightest bit impressed by what anybody knows or how theologically informed they are. But what Jesus does marvel at is the faith of a man who wasn't even a Jew and probably had far less knowledge of the Torah. And when a woman who was a sinner, a notorious sinner, comes in and interrupts and makes a scene at the dinner party, or when the woman with a flow of blood reaches out in the crowd and just grabs hold of his cloak, women who would not have impressed you with their erudite knowledge Jesus responds to them with the most tender compassion and care. You see, your knowledge isn't impressive to God. It's our hearts that he wants. And if you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, I want you to see very clearly that Christianity isn't for people who have it all figured out. It's not a hierarchy with people who know the most at the top. God is not impressed with that. Friend, what you need to know is simply that there is one true and living God and there is no other. And this God has revealed himself and made a way of salvation through his son, Jesus Christ, who suffered and died on the cross as a substitute for sinners like us. And in order to be saved, you must confess your sins, you must turn away from them, and you must trust in Christ alone for salvation. And friend, you don't have to have all your doubts and fears removed or all your questions answered. It's not salvation by knowledge. It's salvation by personal trust in Jesus Christ. So friends, knowledge means nothing without love. Well, secondly, Paul wants us to see here that if you love others, you will care about their conscience. If you love others, you will care about their conscience. Look at how Paul continues in verse seven. After talking about this knowledge, he says, however, not all possess this knowledge, but some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Now, when Paul says here, not all possess this knowledge, all is actually referring to fellow believers. And that becomes clear if you look ahead to verse 11. And I don't think Paul means that some Christians don't know that there's only one God, or that idols have no real existence. I think what he's saying is that not all Christians have worked out the full implications of that fact. Especially those who were formerly entrenched in idolatry. They cannot so easily just receive idle food like it was any other food. You know, for them, the food is idle food. And therefore, to eat it would feel like a violation of their allegiance to Jesus, and it would defile their conscience. Now, what is a conscience? Well, I think one way to divine it would be your conscience is your awareness of what you think is right or wrong. It's your awareness of what you think is right or wrong. Or to put it another way, your conscience is a God-given internal moral compass. Now it's not an infallible God, right? It's what you think is right or wrong, but it's generally reliable, especially if you've cared for it well. And as Romans 2.15 says, it either accuses or else excuses you for what you do. So it can sort of feel like a third party. It can either help you feel secure that you acted rightly, even if other people are attacking you for what you did. Your conscience says, no, I acted rightly. Or it can convict you with this deep guilt, even if there is no one else that saw what you did. It can feel like a third party and it either accuses you or it excuses you for what you do. And that's why your conscience can be either clean or defiled. Paul can say in Acts 24, 16, so I always take pains to have a clear or clean conscience toward both God and man. But here he speaks of a defiled or a dirty conscience for those who eat idle food with weak consciences. That means their conscience is accusing them or condemning them for what they do. Now this raises the question, what then is a weak conscience? Well, this is actually the only chapter in Scripture where Paul uses that phrase. And he uses it three times here, here in verse 7, then also in verse 10 and verse 12. However, I think he's getting at the same concept as in Romans 14, which was the scripture reading today, where Paul speaks of one who is weak in faith, or the weaker brother. And just as these Corinthians lacked fully developed knowledge, that person lacks a fully developed faith. And in both cases, the result is a conscience that's unnecessarily restrictive. The weak conscience is sensitive and condemns you for things that are actually within the sphere of legitimate Christian freedom. And that could be due to former association with idols, or as I think is the case in Romans 14, it could be due to formerly practicing the Mosaic law. Right, so a weak conscience is an oversensitivity to some issue, possibly influenced by our past, but based on a present deficiency in our understanding of the full implications of the gospel. And we need to be very clear about the fact that most of us probably have a weak conscience in at least some area. Your conscience can be strong on many issues and then sort of weak on another. So maybe you think that drinking any alcohol whatsoever is sin. Maybe that's in part affected by your past. Well, I think you're wrong. I think your conscience is weak in that area, but there may be another area where your conscience is not weak and mine is weak. Now, another important thing here is I don't think you can know that your own conscience In other words, you can't go down the list of issues and say, okay, I have a strong conscience on this point, and I have a weak conscience on this point, because weak is not fundamentally defined in terms of our relationship to others, but in terms of our relationship to the will of God. Right, so just because your conscience is stricter than most doesn't necessarily mean it's weak. I mean, if everybody else in your church thinks that chattel slavery is fine and you don't, that's not because you have a weak conscience. That's just because they're wrong and your conscience is aligned with scripture. But if you actually do have a weak conscience, then by the time you figure that out, your understanding of whether that thing is inherently sinful has changed. So your conscience isn't going to stay weak anymore. Now I think it's possible to suspect that you may have a weak conscience in a certain area. We can look around and see other Christians that we respect and if they differ, they're sort of less strict on something than we are. Humility should lead me to think maybe I have a weak conscience. Humility should lead me to think I should not judge them and stand in judgment as if I were the judge on the last day. I should, you know, be humble about that. But my point is, none of us walks around thinking, I'm the one with the weak conscience. It's actually only possible to walk around knowing that someone else has a weak conscience. And that's the situation Paul's focusing on here. You know, what do you do when you're convinced that you know what's right or permissible, yet your brother or sister in Christ has some scruples that make them think that's not okay? What do you do? Well first, you have to judge whether or not this is a matter of spiritual significance. Look at verse eight. Paul continues, he says, food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. In other words, what Paul's saying here is, look, it doesn't hurt anything for them to abstain from idle food. This conscientious scruple is not something that needs to be fixed. Those with weak consciences are not spiritually harmed by their abstaining from idle food, and you knowers are no better off by eating it, because food doesn't commend us to God. Similarly, the example of alcohol, if someone has conscientious scruples with alcohol, it's not harming them to abstain. It's not spiritually benefiting you to partake. Abstaining from alcohol just isn't a spiritually significant issue. Now, if they're gonna start judging those who partake, as Romans 14 warns against, well then, maybe that's an issue to work through, but the conviction itself doesn't need to be fixed. However, if it were a spiritually significant issue, I think Paul would give very different counsel. So, for example, in Galatians 2, Paul recounts an incident in Antioch in which some of the Jewish Christians came to visit and then they were separating from the Gentiles and eating separately. And that was no doubt because they had conscientious scruples about eating with Gentiles. And then, you know, Peter winds up separating with them and Barnabas winds up separating with them. And Paul doesn't look at that situation and think, well, they've just got weak consciences. And we need to protect their conscience. Now Paul looks at that situation and says, the gospel is at stake. And so he says, when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I rebuked Peter before them all. Right? So for instance, if the gospel is at stake, if the witness of the church is at stake, if the glory of God is at stake, then that trumps the need to protect people's consciences. So we gotta start with this judgment, what kind of issue is this? But in this case, Paul's saying it's not a spiritually significant issue. And so then, in light of that, and this is really the main point, at least practically speaking of the whole chapter, Paul says in verse nine, but take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. Now how might this become a stumbling block? He continues. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Now notice what Paul says the result of being a stumbling block could be. In verse 11 he says, by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Now destroyed is a very strong word. It's sometimes translated perished and it often means final ruin. So, for example, early in 1 Corinthians, in chapter 1, verse 18, Paul can say, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, to those who are being destroyed. And so the result Paul's concerned about here isn't just if you trip someone up, they might skin their knee. I think the result Paul's concerned about here is more like, you know, if you're hiking Old Rag and you trip somebody up and there's a cliff nearby and they might fall off the cliff. You know, that's the level of concern. Now second, notice how Paul thinks this could happen. He says, for if anyone sees you have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged or strengthened or emboldened if his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols? So at least here, he's actually not focused on the situation where your brother is offended by what you do. He has in mind your brother being emboldened or perhaps enticed to join you. Now Paul's gonna conclude chapter 10 by saying that we should strive not to give any offense. And love certainly demands that we not unnecessarily offend others. But I think that's a somewhat different concern than what Paul is focused on here. You know, when Paul says here in verse 13, if food makes my brother stumble, I'll never eat meat again. You know, I don't think he has in mind, you know, Brother Bob, you know, saying, well, I think eating meat is inherently sinful because we're all supposed to love animals. I don't think he means that just whatever the weakest conscience in the church is, that that just needs to rule everything. I think Paul has in mind a situation with far more imminent spiritual danger. I think it's more like this. You know, imagine that you have this member of the Corinthian church who's just recently broken free from a life of idolatry to follow Jesus. He used to go to the temple of Aphrodite every day, but now he comes to church. But you, a more mature Christian that he looks up to, decide, I'm going to go to the temple of Aphrodite for a feast. Because you say, you know, I, I have knowledge that there's only one God and that Aphrodite is nothing. So why not go enjoy the good food? But then your fellow church member sees you there and he's all confused because he felt like he had to leave that life to follow Christ. But you insist that no, you don't know what you're talking about. Idols are nothing. It's fine. And thereby emboldened him to go to the temple again. And as time goes by, he bit by bit becomes re-ensnared in that life and is destroyed. You see, I think Paul's saying, you know, by your knowledge, will you risk destroying this weak person? Or will you humbly lay your knowledge aside and love him as a brother for whom Christ died? Now, some of you are probably thinking, wait, wait a second. If what you were doing by eating in the temple wasn't even necessarily sinful, why is that risking such devastating consequences? I mean, is this just putting fences around fences that quickly become legalism? Well, I think the first thing you need to realize is that for that brother with a weak conscience, eating that idle food is sinful for him. It may be fine for you. But in his mind, it's a sin. So if he does it in his heart, he is rebelling against Christ. You know, say you have a teenager that that goes to his friend's house without asking. And you would have said yes. But he didn't ask because he thought you were going to say no. Do you see how that creates a problem? It's not just what he did, it's the fact, it was his heart behind it. It was disobedience because he thought you were gonna say no and he went anyway. And that's why in Romans 14, 23, it says, whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. And it's why Mark Dever put it like this, conscience cannot make a wrong thing right, but it can make a right thing wrong. So friends, the first thing that you need to realize is that encouraging the weaker brother to go against his conscience is encouraging him to sin and to live as if Jesus is not the Lord of his life. And that's why it's so serious. But secondly, It also risks such devastating consequences because you're wounding his conscience. Look at what Paul says in verse 12. He says, thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Now, if a defiled conscience is one that's guilty, I think a wounded conscience is one that's ignored. And at first, when you ignore your conscience, it will provoke this intense guilt and pain But if you keep ignoring it, eventually it so damages your conscience that it becomes seared and insensitive. And friends, our conscience is one of the most precious gifts God gives us. It keeps us from sin. But when you wound it and eventually sear it, I mean, it's like when you go to the dentist and they have to numb your mouth and you come out and it's still numb and you bite your tongue, you bite your cheek, you just chew everything up because you can't feel. For him to go through life with a seared conscience is like that, but morally so. It's spiritually devastating. And this is why Paul's whole point is that love demands careful concern for the health of other people's consciences. If we love people, we will want to protect their conscience. And that's why Paul says, if you're being reckless with your brother's conscience, it's to sin against him and to sin against Christ. In fact, I think this is even one of the ways we could be guilty of what Jesus warns about in Matthew 18. When he says, whoever receives one such child, just think weak one, in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. And Paul uses that exact same word here in verse 13 when he says, therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble. So friends, the point here is, you know, Your knowledge without love means nothing. And if you love others, you will care about their conscience. Now, before we close that, let me just sum this up with a few final applications. Number one, protect your own conscience. We see here just how dangerous it is to go against conscience or to wound it by recklessness or neglect. So be thankful for the conscience that God has given you this this God given moral compass and obey it even when it's hard. Consider what Martin Luther said with his own life on the line. Unless I am convinced by scripture and plain reason. My conscience is captive to the word of God, I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience. is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen. Protect your own conscience. Number two, protect the consciences of others. Unless by obeying their conscience they are disobeying God, never encourage someone else to go against their conscience. And that not only means don't do that explicitly, but be considerate of how your actions and example may influence them. I think this is especially important as we think about new believers, of those with different cultural backgrounds, as we consider as parents nurturing our children, and also for all of us as we just consider navigating this changing America. Now that doesn't mean that we don't have conversations to help better inform one another's consciences, but one of the ways we love people is by encouraging them to listen to their conscience. Number three. Don't believe the lie that the key to navigating the various issues I mentioned in the introduction is having a superior intellect. Being the one with the most knowledge is not, in and of itself, the way to please God. Knowledge is good, knowledge is important, but knowledge is not enough. The right application of that knowledge must be guided by love. As Paul will later say in chapter 13, though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and have all knowledge, but have not love, I am nothing. Number four, love the weak. Love the brother or sister with a weak conscience. Love the one who is weak in faith. Love the little ones who believe in Jesus. Friends, we are to bear with the failings of the weak rather than pleasing ourselves. We're told not to set our mind on high things, but to associate with the humble. And we should remember that the aim of our charge is love, that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. And then fifth and finally, we should treasure the gift of a cleansed conscience and encourage others to do the same. You know, one of the wonderful ways that the New Testament talks about the gospel is in terms of a cleansed conscience. In Hebrews 10, 22, it says, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Friends, the grace of the gospel sprinkles clean the conscience, the guilt of a defiled evil conscience. The grace of the gospel brings healing to a wounded conscience that has been too long ignored. And it purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Friends, the wonderful news of the gospel is that our sins, which are like scarlet, are now white as snow. And we now have the opportunity, the joy of living before our God and Savior with a clean, cleansed conscience through the blood of Christ. And so what an opportunity we have to walk in that and to encourage fellow believers to do the same. May God give us grace to do so. Amen. Let's pray.