1 Corinthians Commentary Chapter 8 (1)

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1 Corinthians Commentary Chapter 8 (1)

Faith must be based on the Bible.

Without the Bible, we can know the Creator God through general revelation, but we cannot know Christ, who is special revelation, so it must be a biblical faith.

At first, we read the Bible, but later the Bible reads me.

I am discovered in it, and the Bible becomes my document of guarantee.

The Bible does not demand a commanding faith.

And the commanding verbs of the bible include the method of doing so.

The Bible does not directly command, “Do not eat anything sacrificed to idols.”

Rather, it says, “Eat food sold in the market without asking questions.”

If it is a commanding faith, it would be quite difficult to keep the Sabbath.

How unreasonable is this in an industrial society?

For example, the blast furnace at Pohang Iron and Steel Company needs to be heated for 7 days to be re-lit and operate normally.

If God still tells us to keep it, it would be a very difficult situation.

The Bible does not want a commanding faith, but demands an autonomous faith.

It is an active love, an active action. It is an organic autonomy that comes from a personal relationship.

For example, in some cases, it is okay to eat food sacrificed to idols, and in some cases, it is not.

The problem with faith is that autonomy is not properly maintained, so it ends up being led by legalistic and dogmatic commands.

Before democracy developed, it was more effective and efficient for a dictator to lead the people.

In this way, the organization, system, and absolute charisma of the church and its leaders can be felt as comfortable by people.

It seems to have contributed to the quantitative growth of the church to some extent, but it is still a child in Christ like the church in Corinth.

This is the current state of the Korean church.

But is it possible to live a dogmatic life that strictly adheres to commands in daily life?

No. The Jewish concept of the Sabbath and the concept of tithing are extremely dogmatic.

However, if an ox or a donkey falls into a pit on the Sabbath, can you not save it?

You have to save it. This is the blind spot of their faith.

They only put forward the justification, but in reality, they find themselves doing nothing, so they become hypocrites.

It is only a nominal faith, not a real faith, and so it does not become a life.

If you watch them during the fasting period of Ramadan, Muslims starve during the day, but at night, they prepare a grand meal and eat until dawn.

We must know the three levels of faith through the Bible

First, there must be an understanding of God's will in giving the law to the Old Testament Israelites and the relationship between God and his people.

Next, you must understand that there is a level where you only receive the forgiveness of sins through the atonement grace of Christ's cross, and finally, there is a level where you achieve God's image and likeness through fellowship (mixing) with God through the word of truth.

So the law was given through Moses, and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)

The era of the new covenant is not a legalistic, dogmatic, and mechanical faith like the Old Testament, but an era of personal and autonomous faith through fellowship with God through grace and truth in Christ. It is an active act.

That is why there are passive, middle, and active voices in the Greek word.

When we become passive and are filled with the Lord’s indwelling work, we actively manifest ourselves outwardly.

Under the law, Korah and his followers were buried in the ground at once, and Ananias and Sapphira were summarily executed, but now, in the time of grace, God does not summarily execute us.

Just leave it alone. It is a choice and abandonment.

This is the era where one side is eternal life and the other side is judgment.

God intervenes and divides people into those who allow them to live a life of faith and those who leave them alone so that they cannot.

Leaving them alone is the current judgment.

The last days are not an era where people live a life of faith under any position or authority.

What is important is how much each person's faith can maintain a relationship with God in the truth and continue to move toward eternity.

Many leaders are confused now because it is a time of paradigm shift in the church.

You should be able to enjoy abundance with just one verse, rather than a lot of Bible knowledge.

It is wrong to say that you have no assurance of salvation because you do not know Genesis or Revelation.

Those who insist that Revelation is the new covenant and talk as if you are eliminated if you do not know it should be ignored. It is like the sound of a dog eating grass.

You should be able to tell the story, or narrative, of what kind of person you have become and what kind of life you are living only through Jesus Christ and God.

Some people say that salvation is only possible if you come to them, and that if you don't come, you will be in trouble. Such people are speaking without knowing the fact that through our Lord Jesus Christ, anyone can come to God the Father.

The question in 1 Corinthians 8:1 is whether it is knowledge or love. Knowledge is subjective, and love is the ability to choose what is righteous, holy, and valuable.

So love is said to build virtue, which means it builds a house.

Knowledge can greatly appeal to others, but its amount is limited.

However, love is a life that springs up like a spring, so it has no limits. It is infinite.

The theme of 1 Corinthians 8 seems to be the issue of food sacrificed to idols, but it is actually a word telling us to use freedom and knowledge with love.

We should neither tell them to eat food sacrificed to idols nor to not eat it.

In simple terms, it is up to you. Tithing and Sunday service observance are all the same.

If you are a person who is tied to a dogmatic life, when you get to heaven later, you will empty the trash can and clean the bathroom when someone tells you to, right? Fortunately, there are no such things in heaven...

In the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, those people are like the goats.

The thing that is most wary in 1 Corinthians is human wisdom and knowledge.

These are the enemies of the cross.

Among Christians, those who hear the word and say it is good or bad are still lacking.

It is because it means that the part they are curious about has been resolved, but it does not mean that their own problems have been resolved.

There must be the labor of childbirth in John 16.

To do that, great confusion must first occur within oneself.

Falsehood, greed, and ugliness must be completely exposed.

If you live a life of faith like a princess, you will never be able to change your life.

Verse 2 Those who truly think they know something cannot help but boast about what they do not know.

The more you know about the Bible, the more insignificant your amount seems to be.

Verse 3 “But if any man loves God, the same is known of him.”

Love is two persons becoming one body.

Love is received, given and received from one another.

It gradually mix.

Love never tries to overcome the other.

Therefore, the church must become a tower of love.

This is the virtue of building a house.

There are churches that seem to have love but are not, and there are churches that seem to have no love but are there.

So is it love or duty? Love is not a matter of discernment of whether one does it well or not.

It is just suffering for that work.

When I see someone cursing at me, it doesn't make me feel bad, but it causes me pain because of the person doing it.

This is love.

The purpose of raising the question of knowledge or love regarding idol-offered food is not a matter of whether you can eat the idol-offered food or not, but a matter of whether or not eating it is edifying to others.

12. To sin against the weak conscience is to sin against Christ.

In the case of Jonah, Jonah turned his back on the city of Nineveh. Jonah hated Nineveh for being the object of God's attention. And he ran away.

This kind of behavior is the very object of God's wrath.

We must always examine whether our faith is only for our own salvation or whether it is a faith that focuses on God's attention.

We can tell by observing the actions of people.

Who can stop us from doing what we want with our mouths, hands, feet, and possessions, but we must not displease God because of it.

However, the church should not try to throw a few coins or money to the lame man sitting at the temple gate in Acts 3.

When I visited the church as a missionary, I hated being treated like this.

This means that since humans need to become complete humans first, the church should not be obsessed with the worldly practice of giving food and relief rather than saving people through words and prayers.

So the Lord tells us to give alms with what is inside of us.

We must think about how we became God's people and help others.

Knowing the principles of faith is understanding God.

The word humility is actually unnecessary. Because humans are proud, the Bible simply tells us to be humble. There is no one proud in heaven.

A person who has met Christ and knows God cannot be proud.

Pride is an act of rejecting God’s mercy, and a person who knows that mercy cannot be proud.

If we turn the Ten Commandments upside down, it says, “Do not have other gods.” This does not mean to serve only God, but to love only God.

Even if you are not to steal, it is not to share with others and live, but to love your neighbors.

God is not satisfied with our praise and service.

God wants us to love Him and to go as far as loving our neighbors.

Therefore, we must ensure that Bible study does not become a rank badge.

We should not make Bible study as if we were sending children on a school trip and asking them what they saw and they only followed the teacher's red hat and flag.

Our lives must be assimilated with nature as we live freely within the truth and love.

While reading 1 Corinthians, there is a feeling that Paul wants to throw it away at any moment, but as he explains it again in detail, we must realize that this is love and mercy.

This is the measure of Paul's concern for the church in Corinth. This is his love.

Written by Ptr. Yohan Kim.

Translated by  Nancy Chung

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