Major on the Majors, Minor on the Minors.
Eating Meat Offered To Idols Is Not The Focus Of This Lesson.
1 Corinthians 8:1-6 (NLT)
Food Sacrificed to Idols
1 Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. 2 Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. 3 But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.
4 So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God.5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. 6 But for us,
There is one God, the Father,
by whom all things were created,
and for whom we live.
And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom all things were created,
and through whom we live.
Examine the scriptures:
Eating Meat Offered To Idols Is Not The Focus Of This Lesson.
We need to “Major on the Majors, Minor on the Minors”.
1 Corinthians 8:1-6 (NLT)
Food Sacrificed to Idols
1 Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols.
Food offered to idols.
Only parts of animals were used in sacrifices to pagan gods. Much of the animal could still be eaten.
This food was sold in the marketplace.
The question is, is it o.k. to buy this meat that is being sold in the marketplace.
Paul says it is o.k. to eat meat offered to idols, but …
Romans 14:20 (NLT)
Don’t tear apart the work of God over what you eat. Remember, all foods are acceptable, but it is wrong to eat something if it makes another person stumble.
1 Corinthians 8:9-10 (says the same)
Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue.
“We all have knowledge.” (See verse 4)
We all know a lot of Biblical principles.
However, not all believers know this. (Verse 7)
- Not all believers are at the same place in their understanding of Biblical truths.
But while knowledge makes us feel important,
This “knowledge” puffs up, (ESV & NIV)
It’s good to know Biblical truths but we need to be careful how we handle this knowledge.
We dare not “lord” our knowledge over others.
1 Peter 5:2-3 (NLT)
2 Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. 3 Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example.
it is love that strengthens the church.
- It is love that strengthens the church.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NLT)
Love Is the Greatest
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
- Without love, we are nothing.
2 Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much.
1 Corinthians 13:12 (NLT)
Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
- Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much.
Proverbs 26:12 (NLT)
There is more hope for fools
than for people who think they are wise.
We need to be constantly fed by the scriptures.
John 15:4-5 (NLT)
4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.
5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
3 But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.
Deuteronomy 6, Matthew 22, Mark 12 (similar passages)
Matthew 22:34-40 (NLT)
The Most Important Commandment
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
- You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.’
Philippians 2:4 (NLT)
Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
Philippians 2:3 (NLT)
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.
- It is wrong to eat something if it makes another person stumble.
- It is wrong to do something if it makes another person stumble.
4 So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God.5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords.
- We all know that an idol is not really a god.
An idol is not a god.
Psalm 115:4-8 (NLT)
4 Their idols are merely things of silver and gold,
shaped by human hands.
5 They have mouths but cannot speak,
and eyes but cannot see.
6 They have ears but cannot hear,
and noses but cannot smell.
7 They have hands but cannot feel,
and feet but cannot walk,
and throats but cannot make a sound.
8 And those who make idols are just like them,
as are all who trust in them.
- An idol isn’t much of anything, therefore eating food offered to idols was, in itself, inconsequential.
6 But for us,
There is one God, the Father,
by whom all things were created,
and for whom we live.
And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom all things were created,
and through whom we live.
Deuteronomy 4:35 (NLT)
“He showed you these things so you would know that the Lord is God and there is no other.
Deuteronomy 4:39 (NLT)
“So remember this and keep it firmly in mind: The Lord is God both in heaven and on earth, and there is no other.
Deuteronomy 6:4 (NLT)
“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
Isaiah 44:6 (NLT)
This is what the Lord says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies:
“I am the First and the Last;
there is no other God.
Jeremiah 10:10 (NLT)
10 But the Lord is the only true God.
He is the living God and the everlasting King!
John 17:3 (NLT)
And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.
- We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
