1 Corinthians 10:23-30

Butler's Comments

SECTION 4

Insensitiveness (1 Corinthians 10:23-30)

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. 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 everything in it. 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. 28(But if some one says to you, This has been offered in sacrifice, then out of consideration for the man who informed you, and for conscience-' sake29I mean his conscience, not yoursdo not eat it.) For why should my liberty be determined by another man's scruples? 30If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

1 Corinthians 10:23-24 Carelessness: As mentioned earlier, with Christian liberty there is risk. There is always an ever present danger that the Christian will become selfishly concerned foremost about his liberty and unconcerned about the scruples of his brother. Thus Paul repeats the fundamental principle of Christian liberty, All things are lawful. qualifying it with, but not all things are helpful. The Greek word sumpherei is translated, helpful, but means literally, brought together. It is often translated by the English word expedient, and is more accurately understood by the word advantageous, or, profitable. Paul goes on to say, All things are lawful, but not all things build up. The Greek word oikodomei is a word from the construction trades, oikos, house, and, demo, to build. One might even translate the phrase, ... not all things are constructive.

The liberty of the Christian is not for the sake of self-indulgence. Christ set men free to reach their highest potential. Their highest potential is in the service of othersto be helpful, to build people up to do constructive things for others, so they may be reborn in the image of Christ. He who would be greatest among you must be the slave of all (Mark 10:44).

Actually, Paul is not saying a Christian is free to do anything he wishes, participate in every human behavior, partake of any object on earth, or even think anything he wishes to think. Christian freedom is limited by the revealed (Biblical) word of God. When Paul says, All things are lawful the immediate context must be remembered. The context is the specific discussion of eating meat sacrificed to idols. Paul declared Christ had set all Christians free from the legal restrictions of the Mosaic law concerning foods. If the law of Moses had not been superceded, no Christian could eat meat which had been butchered by a pagan lest he be ceremonially unclean. But the Mosaic restrictions no longer applied. Such food was not contaminated. Paul is saying All foods formerly prohibited by the Mosaic law are lawful (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5). He was not saying, All actions are lawful. But while all foods were lawful, the Christian might sin partaking even of lawful food if he should wound the conscience of a weaker brother by doing so.

Life can never be at a standstill. If it is not growing or developing toward the higherif it is not being constructiveit is declining toward the lower. What is not used for growth will become atrophied and eventually destroy and be destroyed. Christian freedom that is careless and unconcerned about helpfulness and growth, inevitably contributes to destruction. Paul expressed this principle graphically in Romans 14:19 Let us then pursue what makes for peace and mutual up-building or in Romans 15:2, let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to edify him. And now to the Corinthians, the shocking words, so diametrically opposed to modern, worldly me-ism, Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. The Christian is not simply to help his neighbor if the opportunity to do so happens to present itself. The Christian is to seek good for his neighbor. The Greek verb zeteito is present, imperfect, active, meaning the Christian is to go on and on and on seeking good for his neighbor. That is the Christian's job! It may be of significance that Paul does not limit his exhortation to the Christian here to seek the good of a brother. He literally wrote, No one the thing of himself let him go on and on seeking, but the thing of the other. The word other is the Greek word heterou which denotes generic distinction or difference in character. It is translated neighbor. Christians are to put to practice the limits of love on Christian liberty toward all men.

1 Corinthians 10:25-27 Complication: With the issue of Christian liberty and scrupulousness, comes the temptation upon the stronger to implicate the weaker in behavior contrary to the weaker one's conscience. Paul states the principle by which the Christian conducts himself properly and then he illustrates it with an hypothetical situation. First, Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of consciencefor the earth is the Lord'S, and everything in it. The Greek word makello translated meat market is found nowhere else in the New Testament. It is probably a word coined by the Greeks from the Latin word macellum which meant a bench or stall for marketing merchandise, especially, meats; it came to designate a slaughterhouse and since warfare usually turned a town into a slaughterhouse or a shambles that is how the word came to be translated shambles in archaic English. A drawing of archaeological discoveries in the ancient city of Pompeii shows both the slaughterhouse and the meat-shop next to the chapel of Caesar. This confirms the suggestions of our text that there was a very close connection between the meat-market and pagan idolatry. It would have been very difficult for any one, even a Christian, to buy meat in such a market without being immediately associated with worshiping at the temple of the idol.

So, writes Paul, the helpful or constructive (edifying) thing for a Christian to do, should any plate of meat be set before him, would be to refrain from questioning whether the meat came from the pagan meat-market or not. The Greek clause, meden anakrinontes (translated, discerned in 1 Corinthians 2:14-15), translated here do not question, means literally, do not carry on an investigation. It is a legal term. Paul is not, of course, forbiding all questioning of right and wrong. He is not discussing the conscience of the eater at allbut the conscience of the server. The instruction is that the guest is not to implicate the conscience of the host by asking questions about the meat set before them.

Out of pure worldly arrogance, a strong, more sophisticated person may be tempted to implicate a weaker (more scrupulous) person just to elevate his own image of wisdom or sophistication by exposing the scruples of the more conscientious person. Paul says this is not fitting Christian conduct. It is not right for a strong Christian to exploit the scruples of a weaker brother or a pagan intending to display his own knowledge or freedom by agitating for such a comparison.
It is significant that Paul is setting forth proper ethical behavior of the Christian toward the unbeliever. There may be some Christians who think unbelievers do not deserve to be treated ethically. It is also interesting there is an assumption that the Christian would wait to be invited by the unbeliever to his home and would not push himself into the pagan's fellowship uninvited. He says, kai thelete poreuesthai, and if you wish to go.. He does not command them to go, or even encourage them to gobut to go if they wished. And if they accept the invitation, Christian helpfulness, Christian purpose to edify, yes, Christian love, requires that no complicating implications be raised. To do so would be immoral!

Christians will not try to destroy weaker, even unbelieving, persons by irritating or ventilating consciences, without positive instruction in what is right and wrong so that edification will result. Conscience is a functioning characteristicnot a diagnosing or circumscribing characteristic. The conscience functions on the basis of what the mind diagnoses as right and wrong. The conscience does not tell a person what is right and wrong, its function is to judge the heart for having done either the right or the wrong. Information as to what is right and wrong comes from revelationfrom the word of God, the Bible. For the Christian to go into a home and begin to fuss and cross-examine an unbeliever as to how abominable it is to serve meat purchased in an idol-market, is to proceed to destroy the unbeliever. No Christian is to use his knowledge or his liberty to destroy another.

1 Corinthians 10:28-30 Callousness: The questions arise, What if a Christian conscientiously believes it is not wrong for him to eat meat from the pagan meat-markets and there is an unbeliever present who believes it is wrong for the Christian to do so? And, what if the unbeliever says to the Christian, -This has been offered in sacrifice-'? Is the Christian to reply, callously, If my eating offends you or bothers you, that is your problem, not mine. I know it is not wrong so I am going to eat it!? Paul says an emphatic, No! The Christian must sacrifice his liberty of conscience to the scruples of even an unbeliever. Out of consideration for the possible salvation of the unbeliever, and even for the sake of the unbeliever's over-scrupulousness, the Christian is not to eat.

With all the freedom in Christ and with the liberated conscience of the believer comes the danger of callousness on the part of the person who knows an idol is not a god. It is often true that the non-Christian has a much stricter opinion of the proper behavior of a Christian than a fellow-Christian has. So the Christian must be willing to sacrifice his rights even when the unbeliever is excessively scrupulous. If a Christian is insensitive and disregards the scruples of an unbelieving friend, he almost inevitably damages his influence for Christ with that friend.

The final sentence of 1 Corinthians 10:29, For why should my liberty be determined by another man's scruples? is not a cry of rebellion on the part of the stronger brother. 1 Corinthians 10:29 b and 1 Corinthians 10:30 are rhetorical questions from the apostle Paul, in anticipation of the answer in 1 Corinthians 10:31-33. The Greek expression, hinati gar he eleutheria mou krinetai. . is stronger than the most English translations present it. It might be translated, To what end or purpose is my liberty to be determined by another man's scruples? J. B. Phillips has it correctly translated in The New Testament In Modern English, Now why should my freedom to eat be at the mercy of someone else's conscience? Or why should any evil be said of me when I have eaten meat with thankfulness, and have thanked God for it? Because, whatever you do, eating or drinking or anything else, everything should be done to bring glory to God. Why should the strong Christian brother be willing to make such sacrifices as to surrender his freedom to someone else's conscience? Or, conversely, if what the strong Christian eats is something for which he is able to thank God, and he is slandered for it, why is it proper that evil has been spoken of him? Because, any action that violates another man's conscience does not bring glory to God; and that includes even an action for which a strong Christian may give thanks to God.

1 Corinthians 10:31-33 Conclusion: Paul is ready to move on to another problem that is plaguing the saints but before he does he wants to sum up what he has said about Christian liberty. The Greek verb poieite (English, do) is used twice in 1 Corinthians 10:31. In that Greek form it may be either present indicative or present imperative. It appears Paul uses it both ways in this verse. It might be paraphrased, So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you are continuing to do, I command you to do all to the glory of God. The application of the actions of a Christian is as wide as the total sphere of the Christian's movement in society. The actions of a Christian will have influence on everyone who sees him, hears him, or makes contact with him in any other way (see Romans 14:7-9). And this is particularly true of the influence a Christian may have on unbelievers. In the Christian, the unbelieving world is seeing an attempt to live out in the flesh the personality or character of God and Christ. God is glorified when Christians live according to the principles of self-sacrifice and love enunciated by Paul in these Chapter s (8, 9, 10).

Strange as it may seem, there are Christians who, while being careful not to offend an unbeliever, are careless about offending a brother in Christ. That is somewhat like the behavior of certain persons toward their immediate family membersshowing deference and politeness to strangers while being rude and insensitive toward father, mother, brothers and sisters. So, Paul makes a point of saying, Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church (Gr. ekklesia, congregation) of God.

Paul never compromised on matters that were essential to one's belief in Jesus. He never compromised on matters of moral behavior clearly delineated in the scriptures. He would not even compromise on a matter of indifference (circumcision) when the Jews insisted that it was a matter of covenant relationship to Christ. So, those areas are not in the scope of his statement, ... just as I try to please all men in everything I do.. He did accommodate himself to the scruples of others in matters that were opinions and not essential to covenant terms with Christ. Paul did not curry the favor of men. His primary goal in life was to please God (Galatians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:5-6). A better translation of the Greek word aresko would be seems proper. Paul is saying, ... just as I try to behave as seems proper toward all men in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Paul would do anything, short of apostasy and immorality, to save a man. He would sacrifice any of his privileges or rights to win men to Christ. He imitated Christ. He commands (Gr. ginesthe, imperative mood, Be!) all Christians to be imitators of him as he is of Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:1 of chapter 11 should be considered the closing statement of the discussion of chapter 10. May God grant us the power and the motivation to do everything possible to win men to Christ!