Knowledge Vs. Love
Memory Verse: Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58
Sermon Sentence: When considering how I should act in a world that needs to see Jesus followers, knowledge is not the only thing to consider.
1 Corinthians 15:58
Sermon Sentence: When considering how I should act in a world that needs to see Jesus followers, knowledge is not the only thing to consider.
Day 1
Read Galatians 1
I have a growing and developing understanding of Paul. The more I study him, the more I wonder if we would not have enjoyed hanging out together. Paul was a man that was shaped and molded by his past and there were plenty of changes in his present that seemed to fuel his ministry and thoughts. Paul was a Pharisee. According to his own testimony, a Pharisee of Pharisees. It was that religious mindset that he was so steeped in and that sent him running the other direction too. As I study the story of these apostles starting the Gospel around the world, it is fascinating to imagine all of the different backgrounds, jobs, and focuses that each one seemed to approach. Peter was preaching to the Jewish people and so were many of the other disciples. They saw great growth, but they also were constantly battling with the traditions and struggles of where those converts came from religiously. Paul was all about reaching the Gentiles and that seemed to match his persona of being a hardnose against the religious establishment. Did you know that Peter and Paul evne had conflict over this? Paul had a few different conflicts with people over various issues. Which makes me think he really believed what he believed and wrestled with it. Or he was a difficult person. I guess both could be true?
I want to walk us through the struggles that seemed to lead to what we read in 1 Corinthians 8 this week. So let’s get some of the backstory as we head in that direction.
Why do you think Paul comes out in this letter with a stronger approach than his other letters?
Why do you think Paul’s story of his process before becoming an apostle was important for him to share?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
I have a growing and developing understanding of Paul. The more I study him, the more I wonder if we would not have enjoyed hanging out together. Paul was a man that was shaped and molded by his past and there were plenty of changes in his present that seemed to fuel his ministry and thoughts. Paul was a Pharisee. According to his own testimony, a Pharisee of Pharisees. It was that religious mindset that he was so steeped in and that sent him running the other direction too. As I study the story of these apostles starting the Gospel around the world, it is fascinating to imagine all of the different backgrounds, jobs, and focuses that each one seemed to approach. Peter was preaching to the Jewish people and so were many of the other disciples. They saw great growth, but they also were constantly battling with the traditions and struggles of where those converts came from religiously. Paul was all about reaching the Gentiles and that seemed to match his persona of being a hardnose against the religious establishment. Did you know that Peter and Paul evne had conflict over this? Paul had a few different conflicts with people over various issues. Which makes me think he really believed what he believed and wrestled with it. Or he was a difficult person. I guess both could be true?
I want to walk us through the struggles that seemed to lead to what we read in 1 Corinthians 8 this week. So let’s get some of the backstory as we head in that direction.
Why do you think Paul comes out in this letter with a stronger approach than his other letters?
Why do you think Paul’s story of his process before becoming an apostle was important for him to share?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 2
Read Galatians 2
This is the rest of the story from yesterday’s reading. Now you are starting to see what I mean about Paul’s conflict with Peter. I think it is interesting that all of these stories in the Bible seem to happen around food and the idea of sharing a table with others. In 1 Corinthians, Paul will be discussing the Lord’s Supper as well as a meal that needed to be handled correctly. As most of us know, it seems that the family table is probably one of the easiest places to get into conflict and discussion, and I guess that just plays out in the Bible as well! At this meal, Paul felt Peter was giving fear of other people a bit too big of a place in his life. He was worried about how Peter was acting, but he was also worried about how this impacted the young ministry workers that were standing by watching. Namely a man called Barnabus.
Peter was ina tough spot. He was witnessing to people that were Gentiles, or not Jewish. That was the good part. The bad part came when the Jewish people showed up and the assumption was that Peter would be viewed in a bad light if he was seen eating with Gentiles. That was a cultural issue. If I were guessing, he tried to make this a quiet and unnoticed shift in position, but there was a message that was sent and therefore a problem that came out of that. So Paul uses this example as a time when the traditions of expectations overshadowed the Gospel. This is the beginning of the struggle with legalism in the church. It is the beginning of the struggle with what we do with the Law now that Jesus has come. It's the classic Old Testament vs. New Testament battle.
What do you think Paul’s main point was to Peter in this moment and why do you think it mattered?
How do you see a version of this struggle now?
Why do you think Barnabas being wrapped up in this situation mattered to Paul’s consideration?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
This is the rest of the story from yesterday’s reading. Now you are starting to see what I mean about Paul’s conflict with Peter. I think it is interesting that all of these stories in the Bible seem to happen around food and the idea of sharing a table with others. In 1 Corinthians, Paul will be discussing the Lord’s Supper as well as a meal that needed to be handled correctly. As most of us know, it seems that the family table is probably one of the easiest places to get into conflict and discussion, and I guess that just plays out in the Bible as well! At this meal, Paul felt Peter was giving fear of other people a bit too big of a place in his life. He was worried about how Peter was acting, but he was also worried about how this impacted the young ministry workers that were standing by watching. Namely a man called Barnabus.
Peter was ina tough spot. He was witnessing to people that were Gentiles, or not Jewish. That was the good part. The bad part came when the Jewish people showed up and the assumption was that Peter would be viewed in a bad light if he was seen eating with Gentiles. That was a cultural issue. If I were guessing, he tried to make this a quiet and unnoticed shift in position, but there was a message that was sent and therefore a problem that came out of that. So Paul uses this example as a time when the traditions of expectations overshadowed the Gospel. This is the beginning of the struggle with legalism in the church. It is the beginning of the struggle with what we do with the Law now that Jesus has come. It's the classic Old Testament vs. New Testament battle.
What do you think Paul’s main point was to Peter in this moment and why do you think it mattered?
How do you see a version of this struggle now?
Why do you think Barnabas being wrapped up in this situation mattered to Paul’s consideration?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 3
Read Galatians 5
In America we have a way of doing things. You know, the “American way.” I recently saw a commercial for America's 250th celebration on YouTube from a coffee company. In the commercial, the goal was to make the most American defining display ever. So they got the biggest trucks and the coolest toys and a really loud guitar player and some extreme sports things and then they flew the largest flag to ever be flown behind a moving vehicle and it all ended with huge explosions of red, white, and blue and a Blackhawk helicopter. All of this was filmed in the desert. I kind of didn’t get it. I don’t have any of those vehicles and don’t even really like the coffee that sponsored the whole thing. But it was supposed to be super American!
I have my rights and my freedoms and that means that I am free from anything that you could tell me to do or from any threat you may make to take my rights from me. If we are trying to define freedom the way that we process it as Americans, it would include an unhitched and totally selfish approach of me and my own and how no one has any rights to what is mine. I am exaggerating what most people would say, but you surely understand the mentality that I am making a caricature of. I don’t have any real problems with all of this when it comes to the nationality issues, but when I start to struggle is when this is then equated with the Biblical approach.
The Bible paints a different idea of freedom. It's the idea that you are never really that kind of free. Real freedom is nothing more than the freedom to submit yourself to someone or something. Everyone will do that. There is no way to be totally free from the idea of submitting to someone or something. But you do have the choice to decide who or what that will be. That is the kind of freedom that Paul is describing here and in 1 Corinthians 8. It is the type of freedom that submits to love of other people over parading and declaring my rights and how they are about me.
How do you understand the type of freedom Paul is talking about here?
How is being under the Law different from freedom in Christ?
How does this become your prayer today?
In America we have a way of doing things. You know, the “American way.” I recently saw a commercial for America's 250th celebration on YouTube from a coffee company. In the commercial, the goal was to make the most American defining display ever. So they got the biggest trucks and the coolest toys and a really loud guitar player and some extreme sports things and then they flew the largest flag to ever be flown behind a moving vehicle and it all ended with huge explosions of red, white, and blue and a Blackhawk helicopter. All of this was filmed in the desert. I kind of didn’t get it. I don’t have any of those vehicles and don’t even really like the coffee that sponsored the whole thing. But it was supposed to be super American!
I have my rights and my freedoms and that means that I am free from anything that you could tell me to do or from any threat you may make to take my rights from me. If we are trying to define freedom the way that we process it as Americans, it would include an unhitched and totally selfish approach of me and my own and how no one has any rights to what is mine. I am exaggerating what most people would say, but you surely understand the mentality that I am making a caricature of. I don’t have any real problems with all of this when it comes to the nationality issues, but when I start to struggle is when this is then equated with the Biblical approach.
The Bible paints a different idea of freedom. It's the idea that you are never really that kind of free. Real freedom is nothing more than the freedom to submit yourself to someone or something. Everyone will do that. There is no way to be totally free from the idea of submitting to someone or something. But you do have the choice to decide who or what that will be. That is the kind of freedom that Paul is describing here and in 1 Corinthians 8. It is the type of freedom that submits to love of other people over parading and declaring my rights and how they are about me.
How do you understand the type of freedom Paul is talking about here?
How is being under the Law different from freedom in Christ?
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 4
Read Colossians 2:16-23
You may notice the other side of the pendulum that we have been discussing, cropping up in Paul’s writing in this passage. Does he want us to be free from those expectations that come with religion or not? Here he is making the case that you don’t let someone hold you in judgment on any questions about Holy days being specific or about what you should and should not eat because of religious lines in the sand. Which seems strange when you consider that he has spent so much time in 1 Corinthians 8 talking about how we give up those things in consideration of what other people may think. It seems like Paul speaks out of both sides of his mouth!
Paul is here, addressing not a teaching about weaker believers that may need to be guided and considered in what they see you doing, but rather in those arrogant and seemingly overly religious people that demand that you have to be exactly their flavor or way to be right with God. This is a different type of person that is being railed against here. I get the part of them being arrogant from where Paul talks about them being puffed up and full of knowledge. Notice that is the language that he almost always uses in these instances. In 1 Corinthian 8, he started by telling the reader that knowledge is not the answer to everything, but rather seems to cause people to be puffed up.
Walk through verse 23 and explain what Paul means here.
What are some circumstances that you have seen that you would apply these verses to?
Why do you think that religious people make such a big deal out of these type of things?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
You may notice the other side of the pendulum that we have been discussing, cropping up in Paul’s writing in this passage. Does he want us to be free from those expectations that come with religion or not? Here he is making the case that you don’t let someone hold you in judgment on any questions about Holy days being specific or about what you should and should not eat because of religious lines in the sand. Which seems strange when you consider that he has spent so much time in 1 Corinthians 8 talking about how we give up those things in consideration of what other people may think. It seems like Paul speaks out of both sides of his mouth!
Paul is here, addressing not a teaching about weaker believers that may need to be guided and considered in what they see you doing, but rather in those arrogant and seemingly overly religious people that demand that you have to be exactly their flavor or way to be right with God. This is a different type of person that is being railed against here. I get the part of them being arrogant from where Paul talks about them being puffed up and full of knowledge. Notice that is the language that he almost always uses in these instances. In 1 Corinthian 8, he started by telling the reader that knowledge is not the answer to everything, but rather seems to cause people to be puffed up.
Walk through verse 23 and explain what Paul means here.
What are some circumstances that you have seen that you would apply these verses to?
Why do you think that religious people make such a big deal out of these type of things?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 5
Read Romans 14
As we have been exploring the topic of our actions and how they impact the weaker believers around us vs. the world watching us vs. the religious zealots among us, we have bounced around quite a bit. You probably hoped we would land in the place of stating official things that make answers to the questions of “Is this right or wrong?” an easier approach. That is the very thing that 1 Corinthians 8 warned against, in my opinion. Facts do not answer the questions by themselves the way we would really like to declare. Knowledge puffs up. Stop being arrogant. That is the lesson from this week.
And now that we have learned that lesson, here comes Paul with one of the best chapters for working through things and teaching behavior. Why did we not start here? Because it is not the best place to start. It is the best place to land, but you first have to get rid of the arrogance that fueled you to want to be right and them wrong. You have to first search your heart and ask why you are doing or thinking what you are thinking. If it is tradition, that is great! If it is upbringing, that is great! If it is obscure verses that seem to lean your direction, that is great! All of those things are valuable and worth considering in your approach to understanding what you think. But not everyone has your tradition, upbringing, or understands that obscure verse the way that you did. So sit with a person that disagrees with you and listen to what they have to say. The Bible is plenty strong and complete in its revelation to give us what is needed. God desires to give wisdom to those who seek it, so humbly seek it.
And then, last of all: don’t be right for the sake of winning. Consider other people, and certainly consider those that need to grow in the faith. No you do not have to pattern your life after the religious zealot that demands that you act like them. But it certainly doesn’t hurt to give them an ear and find some value in what they are saying, if you can get past all of the bitter and condescending comments! But you certainly should be humble enough to look around and wonder what message you are sending to those that are around you.
Do you feel you have a good handle on understanding how to approach issues like we have talked about in a communal setting?
Paul comes back to the issues of 1 Corinthians 5, 6, 7, and 8 in chapter 10. He doubles down on the idea that sexual immorality is sin, just in case the reader would try to twist his words to what they are not. We will be getting there. But for now, do you think that you could articulate how to find the lines of sin versus disagreements?
How would you walk through these things with a new Christian and what are the dangers of what you could say?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
As we have been exploring the topic of our actions and how they impact the weaker believers around us vs. the world watching us vs. the religious zealots among us, we have bounced around quite a bit. You probably hoped we would land in the place of stating official things that make answers to the questions of “Is this right or wrong?” an easier approach. That is the very thing that 1 Corinthians 8 warned against, in my opinion. Facts do not answer the questions by themselves the way we would really like to declare. Knowledge puffs up. Stop being arrogant. That is the lesson from this week.
And now that we have learned that lesson, here comes Paul with one of the best chapters for working through things and teaching behavior. Why did we not start here? Because it is not the best place to start. It is the best place to land, but you first have to get rid of the arrogance that fueled you to want to be right and them wrong. You have to first search your heart and ask why you are doing or thinking what you are thinking. If it is tradition, that is great! If it is upbringing, that is great! If it is obscure verses that seem to lean your direction, that is great! All of those things are valuable and worth considering in your approach to understanding what you think. But not everyone has your tradition, upbringing, or understands that obscure verse the way that you did. So sit with a person that disagrees with you and listen to what they have to say. The Bible is plenty strong and complete in its revelation to give us what is needed. God desires to give wisdom to those who seek it, so humbly seek it.
And then, last of all: don’t be right for the sake of winning. Consider other people, and certainly consider those that need to grow in the faith. No you do not have to pattern your life after the religious zealot that demands that you act like them. But it certainly doesn’t hurt to give them an ear and find some value in what they are saying, if you can get past all of the bitter and condescending comments! But you certainly should be humble enough to look around and wonder what message you are sending to those that are around you.
Do you feel you have a good handle on understanding how to approach issues like we have talked about in a communal setting?
Paul comes back to the issues of 1 Corinthians 5, 6, 7, and 8 in chapter 10. He doubles down on the idea that sexual immorality is sin, just in case the reader would try to twist his words to what they are not. We will be getting there. But for now, do you think that you could articulate how to find the lines of sin versus disagreements?
How would you walk through these things with a new Christian and what are the dangers of what you could say?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
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