The Problem With Being Right
Text: 1 Corinthians 8
Proposition: Being right has the inherent danger of becoming proud about being right while losing sight of an empathetic love for others.
Introduction: There’s a key question that we want to ask today. How important is it that you always be right? If we were to ask the people you live with, who know you well, how would they rate you on always needing to be right? Psychologists say that the need to always be right comes from a couple of sources. Our culture is one that is extremely competitive. We always want to win. The other reason psychologists say we do this is as a reaction to our insecurities. The less I feel sure of who I am the more I assert the fact that I’m always right. The reason I bring this up is because it’s nothing new, in fact the Scripture we are going to look at this morning is the response to a letter written by some people who were right but didn’t see the problem with being right. Have a look at 1 Corinthians 8.
I. It Isn’t What You Know, It’s Who Knows You That Counts.
I know that’s a bit of a twist on an old saying and I’ll explain that in a minute but first look at the question that is being asked in verse 1, “Now concerning things offered to idols:”. It was a question about meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Here’s the context, in pagan cultures people would take an animal to be sacrificed to the temple of Zeus or Mars or whatever god they were petitioning. The animal would be sacrificed to the pagan god and a third of the meat would be burned in honor to it. One third would be given to the priests and one third returned to the owner to take home. The priests would have more than they could eat so what developed was a meat market of sorts on the temple grounds and even places where people could purchase a meal in the outer courts of the Temples. The abundance of meat made the price cheaper than anywhere else so people came to the temples for the bargain prices. The issue raised many questions: Can we eat meat purchased at the temple meat market? What if we are served meat purchased at the temple meat market when we are guests in someone's home? Can a Christian eat at the restaurant at the pagan temple? Some of the Corinthians were saying that there was no issue here, it was okay to eat the meat and that they were right in doing so. Paul begins to answer them by speaking to the higher issue, he speaks to them about the difference between knowing and loving. In essence he says, “You may be a ‘know it all’ but in the greater scope of things you really don’t know it like God does. That matter aside, there is a great danger in just being right because of what you think you know. That mindset will puff you up, inflate your ego. It won’t be of use to help you or others grow in faith or maturity. So instead of being puffed up, be built up by cultivating a love for others. Close your mouth and open your heart. That’s what the word edifies means, to build up, like brick upon brick builds up a home. Here’s the kicker, as you love in this way, a love not somehow earned because you are always right but rather a love that really wants to hear others, wants to build them up, then that becomes the very way that you also love God and are known by God for your love. So it really isn’t what you know that matters, it’s Who knows you.
II. Work More on Controlling Yourself Than On Controlling Others.
In verse four Paul gets back to their question, “Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.” It’s like the wizard of Oz, there’s nothing behind the idol except a small man shouting into a megaphone. Since there is no god being represented by the idol the meat is really just meat. There is only one God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are Who He is. The essence of God is that He is One Who is manifested to us in three personhoods, each in direct support of the other. There is only One God, none others exist. So you might think then that these Corinthians were right after all, that it is just meat to be eaten wherever. That’s still not the main point according to Paul. Look at verse 7, “However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.” What he is referring to are people who used to be pagan worshippers and now are Christians. They are still sorting through this and even though the you may be right in what you say you will be wrong in what you do. Paul says the conscience of the new Christian is weak, meaning they are still sensitive to their past sin, still overcoming it, still needing to be built up in their faith in Christ. It would be like saying to a young Christian that it’s okay to take a drink of wine. If they are a recovering alcoholic you may be right in what you say but are wrong in what you do. For them to join you would be like a temptation to revert back to where they have just come from. So the principle emerges in verse 9, “But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak.” The principle is really all about the way we need to work on controlling ourselves more than on getting others to see our view point. You may be absolutely right in what you are saying but it isn’t necessarily the right thing to say. This brings us to Paul’s last point.
III. Don’t Focus On Winning If What You May Lose Is Greater.
Have a look at verse 11, “And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?” Francis Schaeffer once said, “If we do not show love to one another, the world has a right to question whether Christianity is true.” What Shaffer meant about showing our love to one another was that we would lay down the right to be right and choose to love instead. So how do you think the weak brother might perish, as Paul stated? The number of people that perish in churches is astounding, they perish in their call, perish in their gifting, in their obedience, in their serving, even in their own desire to love well. When that happens to a Christian they would have in a very real sense reverted back to what it looked like before they became a Christian. They are still saved but now are living in the isolation that severs them from the love of the body of Christ. But Paul doesn’t stop there, check out verse 11, “But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.” What could this mean? Is it in the same line of thought that when we help the least of these we help Christ? Is it possible to sin against Christ just because I wanted to win an argument, to show some other believer that I was right after all? Does this mean that when I wound another believer in Christ I wound Christ too?
Oh, if that is the case let me win no more, if that is the case regarding this whole eating meat sacrificed to idols thing then I’ll never eat meat again… that was Paul’s conclusion!
We need to be careful about the way our world shapes us, the way our sin seduces us, the way our powerful spiritual enemy tempts us. We need to lay down the need to be heard and pick up the desire to listen. We need to love others in a way that will build them up into what Jesus plans for them to be.
Let me lead you with these words that Paul once wrote to the church, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ill we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;”.