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Now by way of introduction, there are certain phrases that are
justpatently religious phrases. You don't hear them often in the
world butyou hear them all the time in church. We talked about last
week,"fellowship." But there's one in our text today that is the
grand-daddyof them all. "Glorify"
How many times have do you hear the phrase, "Glorify God."
GiveGod glory.
We make mugs with this slogan.
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We make bumper stickers.
We make t shirts
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That must be made for Idahoans...
It's even at the beginning of our missions statement.
We exist to glorify God...
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And there's a reason this is so common. It's the Bible's most
majortheme. Well, our passage today is going to climax with this
verseyou've probably heard before, "Whatever you do, whether you
eat ordrink, do all for the glory of God."
Our goal today is for you to move that way beyond cliche,
waybeyond just Christian words and embed that deep into your heart
asan operating principle by which you live.
Now believe it or not, that super common Christian phrase is
hardlyever connected to the context. This is Paul's conclusion to
this giantdiscussion he's been having on what Christians should do
aboutmeat sacrificed to idols.
You will remember that the Corinthians came to Paul with a
simpleenough question. Paul can we eat meat sacrificed to idols?
Andinstead of answering like a normal human being, he launches
intothis three chapter dissertation on the conscience and the
history ofthe nation of Israel and her struggle with idolatry and
we even starttalking about a ministers right to receive
compensation as a gospelworker and communion. It's a wild ride.
Well what is the summary? What was his answer? It's not all
thatclear to me. His answer seems to be bipolar fragmented,
disjointedeven paradoxical.
Can I eat meat or not Paul? What are the limits of my
Christianfreedom? That's what's really at stake in the
question.
On the one hand he's saying, "You are free in Christ. Are
youkidding me? You are free from all that idol nonsense. One
person'sact of sacrificing to idols doesn't control you. Eat. You
are free.
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But then on the other hand he seems to say, danger
everywhere!Danger. What might your eating do to a weaker brother?
What mightyour eating do to your own soul? You might get drawn into
idolatry.Careful! How could you ever justify such a careless
act!
And so I could imagine the Corinthians saying, "Thanks for the
non-answer Paul! That helped us precisely zero."
Paul's answer let the Corinthians know they were asking the
wrongquestion. Of course we all want freedom! But true freedom is
aslippery thing to get a-hold of. It's a byproduct of a different
goal.Here's how it works.
Review of the ArgumentPaul said, let me explain for you why this
is a paradox in your mind."You used to do anything you wanted and
it resulted in all sorts ofsin. But you aren't like that any more.
In Christ, you have beenwashed, sanctified, redeemed. And here's
where the paradox began.You used to be able to do anything you want
but now what? Yourrestricted. Your freedom has been taken away. You
don't have theliberty you once did. So you are, in one sense, not
as free.
As believers it's NOT okay to do whatever you want. As
believersyou don't trust your wants. "As believers you recognize
that whatyou want to do and what is best for you are not always
related."
Paul says, one of the strongest, most obvious effects of the
fall isthat our desires are warped. We not desire things that will
heal andrestore us. And we desire other things that will ultimately
hurt anddestroy us. That's very strange.
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Paul has reminded us over and over that one of the
greatestexpressions of pride is the dogged, unquestioning, loyalty
to ourdesire. It's not even brought into question. Perhaps what I
want isnot what is best? Perhaps my desires and passions are not
the bestguide? Pride never asks those questions. It begins and ends
withthe unquestioned assumption that my desire is the prime
meridian,the calibration point, the north star. Pride says to any
challenger,"How in the world can you say that getting what I want
is not goodfor me? Leave me alone. How dare you try to tell me what
will makeme happy? If there's one thing I know, it's what I need
and want."
Paul says, no, you are bound. You are no longer free to do what
youwant. You are not at liberty. Every desire we have needs to
comeunder the lordship of Christ, what we desire to do with our
money,what we desire to do with our time, our sexual desire and
even ourdesire to eat a T-bone steak.
Paul, just like us, was fighting a culture that thought
preciselyopposite of this. There were sayings of his day that
reflected this. Inchapter 6 he said, I know you've all heard the
saying, "All things arelawful for me." That sounds like freedom!
But a Christian can't saythat. Our desires are constrained. We have
to ask the question,"Sure, all things are lawful, but are all those
lawful things helpful?"
Now if you were to just leave it there and ask the question,
"Who ismost free? A Christian or a non-Christian? Well it sure
seems likethe unbeliever is more free. He can do what he wants
while theChristian is bound.
But Paul is going to show in this wrap-up that we are all bound.
Thequestion is not if you are bound but do you love what you are
boundto? How much freedom does your binder allow? Freedom is
not
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determined by what you are and are not able to do. Freedom
isactually determined by what you choose to love. The
greatestfreedom comes from choosing the greatest love.
Now let's see this worked out in the text.
Verse 23 begins with the phrase "all things are lawful for me."
Thisis the exact same phrase he used back in chapter 6 but he's got
atwist on it. This functions as bookends for this idea of taking
ourdesires and submitting them to Christ.
Back in chapter 6 he said, "All things are lawful but not all
things arehelpful. All things are lawful but I will not be mastered
by anything.Here he changes it to all things are lawful but not all
things build up.So the Paul begins his summary by saying, You want
freedom?Then love others.
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What's Paul saying? What Paul is doing here is articulating the
truenature of gospel freedom. It begins by seeking the good of
yourneighbor.
Now that may not be convincing just yet. This could very well
just bereaffirming your already held belief that following Christ
just limitsme. Here's another limit. I can't do what's good for me.
I have toseek the good of my neighbor. That seems rather
restricting. How isthat the gateway to freedom? In fact, what does
that have to do withfreedom at all? You just changed the subject on
me.
Right? Isn't that what Paul just did? He changed the subject.
Thequestion before the Corinthians was, "Do I have the FREEDOM
toeat meat?" And Paul says, "Here's your answer: seek the good
ofyour neighbor."
Think about how this answer might feel to us. What are some of
ourChristian liberty questions we ask?
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Are we free to wear whatever clothes we want? I want freedom to
dowhat I want when I want how I want. Paul says, that
questionenslaves you. Paul says the real path to freedom is that in
yourclothing selection you ask, "How can I seek the good of
myneighbor?"
How is that an answer? How is that freedom? Your telling me
thatthe path to freedom is enslaving myself to my neighbor?
It's intended to rock us a bit. We want to be free to DO what
wewant. But in saying that we confuse what freedom really is.
Freedomis ultimately a psychological state of mind. We can all
picture a manwho is totally free to DO what he wants externally,
and is living in amental prison of his own making. And conversely
we can envision aman who unable to DO anything because he is in
prison externallyyet he is whistling a tune free as a bird.
Christians and secular psychologists alike might all concede
thatfreedom is in the mind. But what specifically is the mind doing
thatgives one freedom? Here's the answer: The man who is the
mostfree is the one who loves most correctly. Freedom is
linkedinextricably with what you love. The only way to experience
truefreedom is to love what God tells you to love. That is a
bizarreconcept. But I promise you this is true.
One of the best ways to illustrate this point is to do a little
thoughtexperiment. Okay, let's lift all these perceived
restrictions. Let's justsay you get to do whatever you want. Does
that give you thefreedom you are hoping for? By the way, this is
anything but athought experiment. There are plenty of people living
this way, sojust ask them what they gained by throwing off the
morality ofChristianity? Do they feel free? That might be a good
conversation
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starter. I'd be curious what they would say.
I think one of the most interesting passages in the Bible in
thisregard is 2 Peter 2 which speaks of the character of false
teachers.Listen to the description.
So these false teachers are having a hayday with sin. They are
notpracticing any restraint. Adultery is mentioned. The text says
theyhave insatiable binge-appetites for sin. They are greedy. They
havechecking accounts that are overflowing with cash.
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Again, we see they are driven by unrestrained pride and
promisefreedom through what? They promise freedom through
experiencingsensual pleasure. That seems like the ultimate freedom.
They havecast off all moral restraints. Isn't that what we thought
freedom was?What could be more free than that?
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Whoa! That is interesting. Now what's the point? Here's what we
aresupposed to see. Freedom is directly connected to what you
love.Look really carefully at what this text is saying. They were
overcome.What does that word mean? It means some idea overpowered
themand they bowed the knee to it. Some idea came up to them,
arguedwith them and ultimately convinced them, if you serve me, if
youmake me ultimate, if you worship me, I will give you the desires
ofyour heart. They loved sensual pleasure. They loved money.
Theymade an idol out if it. It overcame them. They loved it. And in
beingovercome by it, they were enslaved to it.
For whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved. This
isn't abad thing. It's just an observation of how the human
machines work.Christians are overcome by Jesus Christ, we love him,
and webecome his servants, his slaves.
So Paul says, the greater the love, the greater the freedom.
Thesmaller the love the smaller the freedom. We are all being
masteredby something.
We all have masters. And so the question is, "How glorious is
yourmaster?" Paul says, "There are some pretty underwhelming
mastersout there, the least glorious of which is self."
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Love of others is the beginning of true freedom. But there's
aninverse of this as well. Love of self is the destruction of
freedom.And that should make perfect sense given our understanding
ofwhat freedom is. The larger your love, the more free you are.
Whatis larger? Ourselves only or all other people. In ourselves we
are justso limited. Compare your individual knowledge to all the
knowledgeon the collective human mind on the internet. What would
you ratherbe stuck with for the rest of your life? But it's not
just knowledge.
Consider the greatness of thecollective culture of mankind,the
collective human artistic ability, the collective power
ofaccomplishment to build cities, power grids, amphitheaters,
etc.
In and of ourselves we are tiny by comparison. Tiny love =
tinyfreedom.
Now here's how this works itself out in the text. Paul's advice
here isdon't make this about you. If you make it about you, you
will be
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absolutely a slave. But if you make it about your neighbor you
canbe 100 percent free regardless of whether you eat or abstain.
Yourfreedom isn't limited by the mere act. Your freedom exists in a
realmnobody can touch.
Now look at how this works itself out. It's masterful. He gives
ussome real world examples. He starts with going to Costco
foodcourt.
He says, go to Costco and eat a hotdog. God made pigs. Eat
em.Once again, he's laying out the paradox. First off he says, you
arefree. He says, the gospel allows you to eat what ever you want
andhe quotes Psalm 24, "The earth is the Lord's and the
fullnessthereof." This would have shocked any religious Jew of
Paul's day.Paul himself as a zealous Jew would have never in a
million yearseaten any meat unless he were certain it had been
rituallyslaughtered in accordance with kosher laws.
But the gospel transforms everything. Paul said in Romans
14something that would have caused the average Jew to choke on
his
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falafel.
Paul says, don't even ask. Just buy the Tbone steak and pop
openthe BBQ screw open a bottle of A1 steak sauce and enjoy. It's a
giftfrom God. To Jewish sensibilities this would have been a
shockingattitude. But it's totally consistent with Paul's stance
toward otheridentity-marking features of the Law such as
circumcision. In Christ,these mean nothing. Paul says to the
Christians, eat as you please.
But here comes the warning. Here comes the tension that
createsthe paradox. You absolutely have freedom. But, if you love
yourfreedom to eat meat more than you love your brother, if those
lovesget out of order, you've just enslaved yourself again. Don't
love yourfreedom to eat. That's too small of a love. Love your
brother. Lovethe community. When your love of meat collides with
your love foryour brother, choose the greater love. That's it.
So Paul constructs this hypothetical situation to make his
point.
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Now this merits some interpretive work here because Paul is
beingreally unclear to us. I'm quite sure to them it was clear. He
wasprobably answering some very specific questions but we don't
havethose questions in front of us so it takes a bit of
reconstructing work.
I have all sorts of questions when I read this.
Who is the informant?In other words, who is the one telling us
that the meat wassacrificed to idols?Is the informant the host -the
unbeliever?Is it a fellow Christian?How is the other person's
conscience affected by this act of eating?
Now I have always read this text incorrectly up until this week.
Ialways thought that the host in this passage was some pagan
whowanted to make a point that the meat he was serving was
sacrificedto idols and in so doing test the moral character of the
Christian.Something like, "Hey superChrstian. Here's some meat
sacrificed to
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Apollo and then seasoned with a little Zeus worship." Would you
likea slice? And because it was so flagrant, Paul says, don't
participatein that.
But what never really made sense to me was the response of
thehost. He says, "Don't eat for the sake of the informants
conscience."How could a Christian's eating of meat destroy the
conscience ofthe pagan who intended to test the Christian's
willpower? Thatmakes no sense. So that can't possibly be the right
reading.
Without getting into all the details, I think the best way to
understandthis (really the only way) is that the informant is a
weak Christian.Maybe he is one of the other guests or maybe a
household servantbut he's among those that Paul mentions earlier in
chapter 8. So inthis reading, the strong Christian just looks at
the weaker Christianand recognizes the moral dilemma he'd be
placing his brother in if heate and chooses not to eat in
accordance with the principle alreadylaid down in chapter 8.
So here's how you'd paraphrase the text:
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Do you see here what Paul is saying? He's saying if you love
yourbrother you are free. In your freedom you choose to
abstain.Because you care about him, because you love him, you
willingly inyour freedom restrict yourself.
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But if you love your freedom to eat meat, you have stopped
lovingyour brother and started loving yourself. The second you say,
"Iwon't give up my rights, you become a slave." The second you
makeit about you, which is another way of saying, the second you
startworshiping you, the second you are overcome by you, the
secondyou love you, your world collapses into this tiny prison of
self.
You see ultimately real freedom is found in ordering your loves
theway God intends. And you can see what Paul does here. The
wholething climaxes in putting God at the very top of those
loves.
If the greatest freedom comes from loving the greatest thing.
Thenthe most free person would be the person who loves God
thegreatest.
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Do you see what Paul is trying to do? He's trying to free us
byreleasing us from the slavery of focus on self. Eating meat to
theglory of self means I'll always eat meat because it tastes good
to meno matter how much I hurt and destroy the community around me.
Iwill do what's best for me because I love me and I worship me and
Iam overcome by me. That person is in a me monster shackled to
theprison of self.
On the other hand, eating meat to the glory of God
meanssometimes I'll eat meat and sometimes I won't. It's not about
me. Ilove something greater than me that frees me to enjoy things
largerthan me.
If I make it about my rights, I'm a slave. An absolute slave.
But if Imake it about loving my brother which is really an outflow
of an evenlarger love of God, wow, the freedom just starts rolling
down insheets (does freedom come in sheets?)
The larger your love the more free you are. Doing everything to
the
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glory of God really then becomes not so much an attitude but
theoutflow of a love. I want God to be glorified.
I've mentioned this many times but it's worth mentioning again.
Whatdoes it mean to do something for the glory of God. That word
glory issuch an abstract word. But let's make it concrete.
The word simply means weight. Remember in the OT David's
sonAbsolom? He was said to have some pretty magnificent hair. In
fact,his hair is said to be glorious. It's the same word that is
used to talkabout God's glory. And it's not an abstract term. It
simply meansweight. You could take that hair and put it on a scale
and weigh it.And the text said they did that. They put it on a
scale and it weighedit and the text says it weighed 5 pounds.
That's some serious hair.
So when we say that we are to glorify God, what we mean is that
weare to make him weighty in our minds and the minds of
peoplearound us. We look at the world and acknowledge him as
theweight, the cause, the reason, the purpose of all things.
I kind of jokingly put that t-shirt at the beginning, God, guns
glory.But it helps to understand what the word glory means. A gun
has alot of glory. You respect a gun. You fear a gun.
And God, in someways like a gun, and in someways very unlike
agun, but the principle is there to see. He has a lot of weight, a
lot ofsignificance, a lot of force. The gravitational mass of who
he is,alters the orbits of other things in our minds. It pushes
aside lesserthings to make room for the greatest thing.
Every time God grows in importance in our mind, you give him
moreglory
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If you think about him more times in a day, his glory has
grownIf you attribute causes to him more frequently, his glory
hasincreasedIf you pray to him as the source of all good things.If
you love him more you glorify him more.
This is why an unbeliever can do nothing that pleases God
becausethey don't include him in anything. Nothing they do
glorifies him. Itdoesn't mean they can't do kind things or nice
things or be greatparents but they are doing it for some other
reason.
This concept applies to everything. We need to approach
everythingwith the glory of God in the very center of our
minds.
What movie can I watch, TV, media, music. I want freedom. I
wantdon't want to fret about what is right vs wrong. I want to do
what Iwant when I want how I want.What about food choices. I want
freedom.What about schooling choices. I want freedom.What about
working moms. The Bible doesn't prohibit this. I wantfreedom to do
what I want when I want.What about how I spend my money? I don't
want to be restricted. Iwant to spend how I want when I want.
These are the kinds of questions that the Corithians were
askingand they were the wrong questions.
The question is how can I glorify God in everything I do? And
whatyou do depends on the situation. Sometimes it will be by
justenjoying the gifts that he gives. Just truly sinking your teeth
into thesteak and just praising him for it! What a wonderful giver
you are ohGod. The earth and it's fullness are all his.
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We need to recapture this exhilarating sense of thanksgiving for
the"earth and its fullness." We never want to get into this
crampedfearful posture distrusting the tastes and smells and sights
of God'sworld and draw ourselves inward to avoid contamination.
Jesus says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good!"
So sometimes it will be this and other times we will limit
ourselvesbecause a greater love for God's people has collided with
a lesserlove of eating in freedom and so we gladly give it up to
the GLORYOF GOD.
We've talked a lot about the theme gospel priorities. What is
thepriority of the gospel? The very highest one? It's to glorify
God in ourbodies.
Review of the Argument