Chapter # 14 Paragraph # 2 Study # 5
May 16, 2021
Humble, Texas
(122)
1769 KJV Translation:
15 But if thy brother be grieved with [
thy] meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.
16 Let not then your good be evil spoken of:
17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
18 For he that in these things serveth Christ [
is] acceptable to God, and approved of men.
19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.
20 For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed [
are] pure; but [
it is] evil for that man who eateth with offence.
21 [
It is] good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor [
any thing] whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
22 Hast thou faith? have [
it] to thyself before God. Happy [
is] he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because [
he eateth] not of faith: for whatsoever [
is] not of faith is sin.
1901 ASV Translation:
15 For if because of meat thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no longer in love. Destroy not with thy meat him for whom Christ died.
16 Let not then your good be evil spoken of:
17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
18 For he that herein serveth Christ is well-pleasing to God, and approved of men.
19 So then let us follow after things which make for peace, and things whereby we may edify one another.
20 Overthrow not for meat's sake the work of God. All things indeed are clean; howbeit it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
21 It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor [to do anything] whereby thy brother stumbleth.
22 The faith which thou hast, have thou to thyself before God. Happy is he that judgeth not himself in that which he approveth.
23 But he that doubteth is condemned if he eat, because [he eateth] not of faith; and whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
- I. Paul's Major Thesis.
- A. The pattern of his words.
- 14:14 -- Nothing is unclean except to him who thinks it unclean.
- 14:15 -- Do not continue to 'destroy' that one for whom Christ died.
- 14:16 -- Do not continue to allow your good to be blasphemed.
- 14:17 -- The Kingdom of The God is righteousness, peace, and joy.
- 14:18 -- The one who serves pleases God and is approved by men.
- 14:19 -- Pursue peace and the building up of one another.
- 14:20a -- Do not keep on tearing down the work of The God.
- 14:20b -- All things are indeed clean except to the one who eats with offense.
- B. Kingdom people are to live like "Kingdom People" ("...you are to be walking according to Love...").
- II. The Details.
- A. The opening issue: the people of God are not to regard "common" issues as worthy of pursuit or commitment.
- 1. In the first place, there is nothing that is, of itself, "common" so that all pursuits are legitimate from God's perspective [remembering the boundaries of this truth: diet and days].
- 2. In the second place, since people often identify things as "common" in their ignorance, in their ignorance they are constrained to avoid what they have determined to be "common": the issue is the reality that conscience is a/the foundation of all things "relational" in respect to God (violating one's conscience involves enmity against God and, thus, ruins the relational harmony that must exist between man and God for "Life" to be experienced: 1 Timothy 1:19).
- B. The next issue: thinking there is "Life" in the use of God's creation without regard for the reality that "Life" only involves the harmony of "Life" between God and His servant.
- 1. It is this false thinking that moves a person to "grieve" his brother by the use of "food" (for the body and not the soul or spirit). It is also this false thinking that puts a person in the position of being capable of being "grieved".
- 2. At issue is what Paul called "not walking according to the standard of love".
- a. This is the 'value system' issue that determines all decisions that arise: what is the real value here?
- 1) When a person "values" food issues because of one's "freedom" at the expense of a brother in Christ, there is a sharp break with "the Love of The God" involved.
- 2) God's "value system" ("the Love of The God") operates with the true interests of the brother in mind; not the appetites of the body, nor the pride of the spirit which rebels against another's "diseased Faith" problems.
- b. The real value here involves what Paul calls "destroying that one for whom Christ died".
- 1) The use of "destroying" is enormously significant.
- a) The minimal issue of the verb translated "destroy" is physical death (as in 1 Corinthians 10:9).
- b) The maximal issue is the destruction of the quality of the experiential life of the person being "destroyed" (as in 1 Corinthians 1:18) unto the final destruction of being cast into Eternal Death (as in 1 Corinthians 15:18) as the final action of divine judgment.
- c) The typical process is "being destroyed" unto "being cast into the eternal fire".
- 2) Paul's words should not be taken as an expression of the danger of final destruction because he has already said that the Householder will enable his household servants to "stand", in the sense of "survive", in the day of the judgment of the judgment seat of The God.
- 3) Thus, what Paul is warning against is putting a "brother" into a situation where his "diseased Faith" will cause him/her to violate his/her own conscience and, thus, his/her living relationship of peace with God.
- a) In the case of "diseased Faith", the bottom line is the "diseased person's" inability to stand on "conscience" in the face of pressure to conform to another's "example".
- b) Diseased Faith is a "faith" that yet clings to "acceptance by performance" and that moves deeply into the personal realm of human interactions: "acceptance by performance" will invariably cause a person who is in the presence of another to conform to the expectations of that other. Thus, there will be a violation of "conscience", and its corollary break with God, simply for "acceptance" reasons ... "acceptance by man" rather than "acceptance by God" (John 5:44).
- 4) The backdrop of this "destruction" is the identity of the brother as "one for whom Christ died" (Note: 1 Corinthians 8:11 uses this very same terminology).
- a) This description of the brother highlights the perspective to be taken in "Love": the death of Christ was, positively, "intended to bring about blessing in the form of fellowship with God".
- b) Alternatively, this description also highlights the negative reality that any frustration of that intention puts the one generating that frustration into an extremely bad light: he is making himself an "enemy" of God (James 4:4 is a declaration of this type of enmity). This, ironically, means that the "destruction" is actually acting in opposite directions simultaneously: one cannot "destroy" his brother without "destroying" himself. One cannot cease to "walk in Love" without suffering the losses attached to such behavior. In "destroying" the destroyer is being "destroyed" (1 Corinthians 3:17).
- c) The outstanding truth is this: God's beneficent intention can be frustrated, but not with impunity (1 Corinthians 3:17). This raises a high tension issue: how can a mere man "frustrate" the almighty God's beneficent intention? Clearly, the power of God is restrained by God so that evil can accomplish some degree of its goals. Those who "blow off" personal responsibility by falling back on "the sovereignty of The God" are clearly out of line.