Sermon Questions

1. So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all _______   _____  _______   _______   ________.
2. From Pastor Grimm’s summary of 1 Cor 8:1- 11:1, identify which of the following is (1)Principle, (2) Illustration, (3) Exhortation or (4) Conclusion:
3. Flee from idolatry (9:24-1-:22).
4. Strategically do all for God's glory by seeking your neighbors good (10:23-11:1).
5. Paul gave up his rights for the sake of the gospel (9:1-23).
6. Loving your brothers and sisters is more important than enjoying your rights (8:1-13).
7. Where was the glory of God first compromised by man?
8. TRUE or FALSE: We are doer’s of the law according to the flesh.
9. What is the fundamental problem of humanity?
10. YES or NO: The most important thing for our church is for our pastors to preach messages that will attract more people to our church.
11. Christ’s pathway to ______ was actually the descent into ___________. (See Sermon guide)
12. What book and verse(s) of the Bible describe the scene where 24 elders are surrounding a throne, and bow down casting their crowns before God's throne?

Discussion Questions

1. What two qualifications does Paul add to the great principle of Christian liberty (i.e.; the principle that “everything is permissible”)? Reference 1 Cor 10:23
2. What principle underlies these two qualifications?
3. What example does Paul use to show the potential conflict between your freedom vs the principle?
4. Discuss examples in your experience where you have seen conflict between these principles, i.e. have you had to change your behavior due to these two qualifications and principle?
5. Pastor Grimm’s message focuses on another principle within verses 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1 that must govern Christian living.
6. What is this third principle?
7. Discuss how this third principle should motivate our lives?
8. How does this third principle manifest itself in the activities of your day?
9. Discuss any changes that you would consider to align your life with this principle.
10. Read Phil 2:4-11 and discuss the following questions:
11. How are these verses in Philippians the perfect example of our third principle in 1 Cor 10:31?
12. Discuss how Christ shows us the third principle of 1 Cor 10:31. 
13. Discuss examples from scripture of how Jesus lived out this third principle.
14. John Piper says, “God is most glorified in us when we are the most satisfied in him.”
15. Discuss the implications for us being “most satisfied in God”.
16. Illustrate in your discussion of what this statement looks like in the flesh. 

Sermon Outline

As a means of a visual review to lead us into our concluding section of Up and Out, Pastor Matt shares an outline from the ESV Expository Commentary that sums up chapters 8 through 10 regarding eating food offered to idols.

Eating food offered to idols (8:1 – 11:1).

1.      Principle: Loving your brothers and sisters is more important than enjoying your rights (8:1 – 13).

2.      Illustration: Paul gave up his rights for the sake of the gospel (9:1 – 23).

3.      Exhortation: Flee from idolatry (9:24 – 10:22).

4.      Conclusion: Strategically do all for God’s glory by seeking your neighbors good (10:23 – 11:1).

Andrew David Naselli, “1 Corinthians”, ESV Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway 2020), 295.

There is a principle in the first section that governs their decisions that loving your neighbor is more important than enjoying your right. He then illustrates this in his own life, where Paul talks about giving up his rights for the sake of the gospel. Then the exploitation that follows is that we need to flee idolatry. The conclusion which we will be looking at today at the end of 1Corinthians 10 through 11:1, is we strategically do all for God's glory by seeking our neighbors good.

·        Glory, prestige, and fame. These elusive yet desirable words and concepts are things we have all thought about at some point in our life. In each of our hearts and minds at some point we considered what we could do to make our name known. What could we do to be famous or honored, or spoken highly of by others? We all would like to leave a legacy of some kind to be known for something to be recognized for our achievements. In the Bible, glory has a lot to do with the same idea of one's reputation, significance, and importance in society. In the Old Testament, the word can mean weightiness or heaviness, but it is often used in the metaphorical sense of honor and significance that comes from a king in his position in his authority and the glory of him and his Kingdom. Glory has to do with the gravitas of the crown, a phrase we still use, heavy is the head that wears the crown. This is one of the primary ways God reveals himself to us. To the people in scripture, he is the king of all creation, and all creation is for his glory.

Psalm 19:1-2 – ¹The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. ²Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

Psalm 8:1 – ¹O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

·        We see God's name; his reputation and significance are revealed in the works of creation which also includes humanity. We are intended to be an expression of God's glory.

Psalm 8:3-5 – ³When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, ⁴what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? ⁵Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

The biblical framework for human importance rests in a borrowed or a derived glory because we have a crown that is given to us by God. Whatever talents or possessions we have been given, whatever position we become responsible to uphold whatever task we are to do is to be done as a representative of God's Kingdom, and it is to be for his glory. The problem is, humans have taken the glory identified intended to magnify God's glory, and we have become glory hounds wanting it all for ourselves. Who among us, if we are honest, does not desire that recognition approval of not necessarily because of an acknowledgement that we did a decent job, but because we want glory.

·        This privilege of being a reflector of God's glory was first given to Adam and Eve in the Garden temple, where they were given the liberty to eat of any tree in the garden except one. They were to acknowledge and demonstrate God's glory, his sovereign rule over their lives, by submitting to his spoken word his instructions, his law of life, eat of any tree in the garden, just do not eat from the tree of knowledge and evil, and as we know from the story they did not obey. As the apostle Paul writes in Romans 1, he reflects this on to all of humanity who fell along with him.

Romans 1:21-25 – ²¹For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. ²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

·        This is the fundamental problem of humanity.

Romans 3:23-24 – ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

The consequence of this fall is a lifelong bondage to sin and death. It is the very problem that Jesus came to remedy through his gift of redemption. Later in Romans, Paul goes on to state that the redemption we have in Jesus Christ does restore us to a life of liberty.

Romans 8:1-4 - ¹There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

·        We are actually going to be doer’s of the law not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. The spirit sets us free and gives us liberty. This is the good news that Paul preaches everywhere. The problem is some of the people in Corinth have been misusing this liberty. He repeats this slogan that he hears from them in Chapter 10, applied to food offered to idols as he did back in Chapter 6 when it was applied to sexual immorality. The slogan the Corinthians are using is that all things are lawful. He is going to set them straight by doing what he did in Chapter 6, and this time he does so with the ultimate principle that governs the Christian life, which is living to the glory of God. That as Christians, we must use our liberty for God's glory. Back in Chapter 6, Paul urges the Corinthians to glorify God in their bodies, he says governing their sexual behavior, and in Chapter 10 he broadly says whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it to the glory of God.

1Corinthians 10:31 – ³¹So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Paul knows and teaches that food itself is not the issue. The bigger issue is worship. To some commentators it is not the menu, but the venue. Who are you eating with and where are you eating? All those considerations are more than just the meat itself. The concern we need to be thinking about is upholding the greater issue of the law of God, which is loving God and loving neighbor in the context of not our personal rights, but how that love for God can be expressed, among others. We do not live according to our rights, even though we know and can have them. We live according to the glory of God. We live for his reputation, his honor, his name.

So how do we use our liberty for the glory of God.

Live for the good of others

After each time Paul uses the slogan that not all things are lawful, he follows up with a counter statement.

1Corinthians 10:23-24 – ²³“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. ²⁴Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.

He is illustrating how to govern their liberty by asking what this is doing for others? He explicitly states that they are to be concerned for the good of their neighbor. God is glorified when we fulfill the law of God in our love for others. He goes on to give 3 situations for the Corinthians to consider.

1.      1Corinthians 10:25-26 – ²⁵Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. ²⁶For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”

Those that are unsure if they can eat meat without sinning are free to eat meat according to Psalm 24:1, which he quotes in verse 26, saying that the earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof. But does that work in every situation?

2.      1Corinthians 10:27 – ²⁷If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

Paul knows that Pagans would purchase meat that had first been offered to idols in the temple. So, if an unbeliever invites a Corinthian Christian over for a meal, he wants the Corinthian Christian to know you do not need to be concerned about it as long as they are not bringing attention to it. You are free to eat it because it is of the Lord.

3.      But then Paul considers what happens if someone informs a Christian that the meat was sacrificed to idols.

1Corinthians 10:28-29 – ²⁸But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— ²⁹I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience?

The implication is that they think the Christian will object to eating the meat because it would involve participating in idol worship. The Christian must decline to eat the meat for the sake of that person's conscience. In the first two situations, Paul is saying do not bother asking if the meat was sacrificed to idols. It is a theologically moot issue, so your conscience should not condemn you for eating the meat. But the third situation offers an exception to the others for the sake of the host's concerns. The focus is on the love of your neighbor.

What does this mean for us? What we are really concerned about here is God's reputation. Is God going to be glorified in what I am doing? Not am I guilty or not guilty it’s God's name and his reputation being upheld, so once we resolve that issue of our freedom and conscience, we still need to ask what glorifies God in the situation because ultimately, it's about him, then we live up and out, loving him and loving others. As we consider the good of others and where they are in their faith conviction, God is glorified because upholding his reputation is what we should be concerned about.

Live for the salvation of others

After declaring that we do all for the glory of God, Paul says that his desire is to give no offense to others, not because he is concerned with his own feelings, but rather his motives are concerned with their salvation and their faith in Jesus Christ.

1Corinthians 10:31-33 - ³¹So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. ³²Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, ³³just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. ¹Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Give no offense does not mean that Christians are always responsible for whether their actions cause others to be upset, annoyed or resentful. Instead, give no offense means to keep others from stumbling in the sense of not harming that person's faith or their pathway to faith. Paul is not a people pleaser. For the purpose of his own reputation, and therefore to better himself, he seeks the good of others to please them for the purpose of God's reputation, that they may know and believe in the one true God who brought salvation in the person and work of Jesus. Paul is focused on the many who do not know Jesus, not himself.

There is a big issue in our church today, not just this church, but the church, especially in the United States. We see people offended by the truth, and we wonder if somehow, we have done something wrong. What is our responsibility not to offend? Should the church not preach certain things so people will come? Should we soften our views for the sake of evangelism? The answer is plainly no, we should not. We need to teach the entire counsel of God. We need to show the glory of the character of God who upholds all these wonderful things. What we need to do is give up of our time of our resources, of our freedoms so that people would be welcomed. That we would take the time to have conversation, give up our rights to do what we want, but rather for them to try to come to an understanding of the greatness of our God and the glory that he has given us in Jesus Christ. We will never compromise on the truth because our God never lies, and our God always loves according to his character.

Live by the example of Christ

If we want to know how to use our liberty for God's glory, we live by the example of Christ. Paul concludes his entire argument from chapters 8 through 10 with these words.

1Corinthians 11:1 – ¹Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Paul spent most of chapter 9 using his own life as an example of how he gave up his right to marry, his right to earn a living from his ministry, his right to live purely by his own conscience. Instead, he prioritized the gospel more than anything else.

·        He reveals that all he is doing is imitating Jesus. He says this because Jesus himself gave up more than you and I, Paul, or anyone else could ever give up. He gave up more than any of us could ever imagine fulfilling the will of God. Paul writes to the Philippians about it in this way...

Philippians 2:1-3 – ¹So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, ²complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

He is reiterating in Philippians what he just talked about in Corinthians but beginning in verse four, he is going to tell us why.

·        Philippians 2:4-11 - ⁴Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The pathway to glory was actually the descent into humanity, doing whatever the father wanted. Jesus did not cling to his position of power and glory as a right he had to protect. He willingly emptied himself for our sake and the will of the father, never sacrificing who he is, only sacrificing the privilege and liberty that came with being God. The second person of the Trinity, very God of very God, completely holy and set apart from sin, willingly chose to enter into a world of sin, yet without compromise. Jesus who also became truly man, lived among sinners. He loved and died for them, yet without sinning himself. He lived giving up his rights so that God would be glorified in him, and we who put our trust in him may be restored to the glory we were intended to have in the first place, that of being able to reflect and show all of creation, God's glory. We follow Jesus’ example by surrendering our wills and our desires to the mind and will of Christ. As we do, he gives us the Holy Spirit who enables and empowers us to be the body of Christ, his visible witness here on earth. It is by and in the spirit that we give God glory as we live a life not of lawlessness, not even of one pursuing our own rights but one where the very law is written on our hearts, where our first concern is love of God and love of neighbor.

There is this picture of the throne room of God in Revelation 4, where the 24 elders are surrounding the throne, bowing down casting their crowns before God's throne. Worthy is our Lord and God to receive glory, honor, and power. That is a picture of the redeemed humanity from both Old and New Testaments living out in symbolic form. What we were always created for and now have been redeemed for in Christ Jesus. Take our crowns of any honor, glory and power given to us and offer them back to God. Our liberty, the crown of liberty, given to us in Jesus Christ and offering it back to God. As we focus our attention and love upon God and the worthiness of Christ, we start to learn what loving others is about as we keep our eyes on his glory, our affection upon his love and faithfulness, our hands and feet directed to his purposes, we will know true liberty of love for neighbor. As we consider how we are to live our Christian life of liberty and the wonderful freedom of the redemption of Christ, we must always seek the good of others. I will seek the salvation of others that they might know Christ Jesus and we do so by looking to Jesus himself as our very example and as we live in this way, we do so with the full understanding that is Jesus himself, who we are united to by the spirit that actually gives us the grace and power to live as these new creations that will give all glory to God.

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