The whole universe may be waiting for one little lame world called the earth: nobody can tell how fast the universe might get on but for this cripple called the earth. As the bond of Christian unity. How much of themselves men will give for one another, measures the worth in which that other is held. Obedience to conscience is the germ out of which all true morality must grow. Note that he that loves God loves also his neighbour; for the love of God bids us love our neighbour for God"s sake; and the love of God is exhibited and seen in the love of our neighbour ( 1 John 4:20). See thee.. sit at meat in the idol's temple] This was what their boasted liberty had brought them to. Though there may be no open idols, nor meats offered in sacrifice to idols, in the day in which we live and the land where we dwell; yet the stumbling blocks of iniquity which men put up before their face, the errors in doctrines, the customs and pleasurable pursuits of the world, and the profanation of things sacred, in the neglect of the Lord's day, and numberless nameless offences, which distinguish the present Christ-despising, God dishonoring generation; call for great watchfulness among truly awakened, regenerated believers. The answer is to be found in a right view of the grounds on which that decree proceeded, which were grounds of expediency. By self-sacrificing love. Knowledge may be greatest in devils, love makes angels and saints. Christ is the universal Mediator, "by whom are all things." , "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Even that which is right in itself, becomes wrong for any individual when his conscience pronounces it wrong. Concerning things sacrificed to idols and knowledge. Accordingly, the meaning is: meat will in no way affect our relations to God; neither so that we shall lose standing with Him in case we eat not, nor so that we shall be better in His sight in case we eat. [So Alford; though Olsh, Robinson, Hodge, Bloomf, keep to the common rendering. i. Small questions should be solved on great principles. (M. Dods, D. D.), Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.--, I. Idolatrous systems are the works of men energized by the enemy. He must not forget the days when he was himself toilsomely climbing the hill whose top, with its broad horizon of knowledge, he has now reached. to eat of idol-sacrifices, and also by the Third Council of Orleans (cap. qu103, art4, ad3). He does not speak to, hut only of the "weak" brethren who had still conscience of the idol. We must not put a creature into the place of Deity, but we can say, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” for the Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit is God; the Father without the Son and the Holy Spirit would not be God. This is true of the knowledge of God. It may be noticed that St. Paul, in "dealing with inquisitive and argumentative people like the Corinthians and Galatians, takes care to invert the phrase, so as to exclude all glorifying on the part of man." Knowledge is temporal and earthly, ever changing with the fashions of earth; love is Godlike, heavenly, immortal, enduring like the mercy of the Lord for ever. In Philippians 2:7 occurs a word about which there is much controversy. Good, replies the apostle, but if by your participation in such cases the conscience of a weak brother is hurt and his soul endangered, you are not to exercise that liberty, and if you do, you sin,—On the abstract question, whether such entertainments ought to be countenanced by Christians, the apostle does not here enter—reserving that point for chapter 10. IV. But there is a higher criterion of judgment than this. Heart rather than head has given to humanity its noble inheritance; love rather than knowledge. The thing which they were eating was, in its own essence, indifferent or clean, but since they could not help esteeming it unclean, they defied a conscientious doubt, and so their conduct, not being of faith, became sinful (Romans 14:14, Romans 14:23). But the fear of appearing weak and piousthis is what makes truly weak. Not only in meats and drinks, but in many other things. Also the surrender of the interrogative form (on account of οὐχι, and because then εἰς τό should be equivalent to ἐν τῳ is ungrammatical. But this is arbitrary, since γνῶσις, knowledge, is already defined as to its contents in 1 Corinthians 8:1; 1 Corinthians 8:4. They have their several localities and ranks and. The sense is, that the tendency of this course would be to lead the weak brother into sin, to apostasy, and to ruin. p99. Paul here teaches that with regard to a large class of objects, knowledge without feeling is nothing; it supposes the most essential characteristics of the object to be unperceived. This leads the apostle to make some important remarks on knowledge and love. FN#2 - 1 Corinthians 8:2.Rec. No man is beyond salvation since “Christ died” for him. This liberty of yours] i.e. 1. THE CHRISTIAN NOTION OF "GOD" AND "LORD." If any man does not honor the Son, he dishonors the Father. IX:14.—F. It will be a powerful restraint upon lawless liberty, and will bring us into such sympathy with all our fellow men, that, at the sacrifice of our own convenience and rights, it will be a privilege and a pleasure for us to serve them. Their lives are devoted to the Divine service. It has been maintained in our own day (by Mr. Buckle) that moral beliefs have no influence in the development of society, which is due to the advance of scientific knowledge. Every man knows that habits are not so suddenly overcome, that there is no hankering after them or liability to relapse. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. The power to consider the other is only to be found in love. The bible doesn’t need our help. This is the explicit statement of the text: "The same," i.e. Men breathe freely, walk with a new buoyancy, move and work and enjoy, in a world whose atmosphere is filled with the presence of God in Christ.]. This was a hand grenade detonated in the faces of the "knowledge" group in Corinth. The stress and point lie in the question, “What will save this brother whom my liberty might offend. pp268-269) upon Keble. Yet "Lord" is the New Testament appropriation of the LXX. The appeal to Christ's work is to the strongest motives which can compel a Christian: brotherly love and loyalty to Christ. If he had such compassion as to die for them, that they might not perish, we should have so much compassion for them as to deny ourselves, for their sakes, in various instances, and not use our liberty to their hurt, to occasion their stumbling, or hazard their ruin. Don't think that after his conversion the urge for alcohol has disappeared completely. But man is a fallen creature, he has turned away from God; he is dead spiritually, and therefore needs to be quickened into newness of life; and it is only when regenerated, when born again, that he comes into the family of God through redemption.