Fanning the Flames

Today we continue the theme of “love trumps knowledge” with a stop in I Corinthians chapter 8.  “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge.  Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies” (I Cor 8:1).  In other words, while knowledge puffs up, love builds up.

In I Corinthians chapters 8 to 10, the apostle Paul writes about the “gray areas” of life in a Christian community, areas where sincere believers disagree about participation in certain events or practices.  A particular challenge to Corinthian believers was whether or not to eat meat sold in the market that was previously used as a sacrifice to idols.  Paul summarizes the knowledge argument for eating the meat in question saying, “Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one” (I Cor 8:4).  Basically, because idols have no intrinsic meaning (they are merely wood, stone, metal, etc.), eating meat sacrificed to idols is acceptable.  We are free to participate based on our knowledge about idols.

But knowledge is not the end of the story.  In verse 7, Paul continues, “However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled” (I Cor 8:7).  These believers, coming from an idol worship background, are sinning against their conscience by their participation.  What is the knowledgeable brother who is not harmed by participation to do?

“But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.  For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?  For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died.  And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ” (I Cor 8:9-12).

The word “strengthened” does not mean that your participation as a “brother with knowledge” gives your weaker brother the freedom to join in.  Rather it means that your example has emboldened or empowered your brother to sin against his conscience.  In this way, the strong have become a stumbling block and sinned against their brother.

So how does Paul handle this challenge?  He concludes, “Therefore if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble” (I Cor 8:13).  This is what love does.  Love limits its freedom for the greater good of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  “Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor” (I Cor 10:24).  Knowledge puffs up.  Love builds up.  Both are “up”.  But the lesser is focused on what we know and the greater on serving and edifying the body of Christ.  Truly, love trumps knowledge.

As someone who enjoys studying the Bible, enjoys putting the big picture together, and enjoys connecting the dots, knowledge is important to me.  Not some gossippy knowledge of “who hit who” or a superior knowledge compared to the guy next to me.  No, my interest is in a knowledge of God, His creation, His purposes, and how He intended life to work for us; humans created in His image.

God values knowledge.  God values the mind.  He instructs us to study to show ourselves approved, to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, and to love God with all our mind.  But as valuable as knowledge is, it pales in comparison to love.  The great chapter on love, I Corinthians 13, makes this point clear.  If I possess great speech, great giftedness, great knowledge, or great faith, but do not have love, it is useless.  It is that simple.  Giftedness, work, knowledge; they all are of no value without love.  Love trumps them all.

This issue is important because in our effort to be knowledgable, truthful, honest, and exact in our Christianity, love is often pushed aside.  Roberta Bondi writes, “How often do we injure another person in small or great ways because, remembering that it is important to be truthful, we forget that truthfulness is only a virtue on the road to love, not an end in itself.”

Has this been your experience in your marriage, your family, your Christian community?  You have blurted something out in an effort to be truthful, without intentional ill-will, only to realize then or later the harm it caused.  Of course, maybe ill-will was your intention, hiding it under a cloak of “speaking truthfully”.  Or maybe you have been on the receiving end of such action.  Paul writes, “And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity” (Col 3:14).

Love is the bond of unity.  Love is the bond of peace.  Love is the bond of service.  Not just in the church, but in all our personal relationships.  Let your love be without hypocrisy (Rom 12:9), and remember the practice of love supersedes making a point about what you know.

“Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (I Cor 13:13).  At the center of the supernatural Christian life is the desire and ability to love as God loves.  In His essence, God is love (I Jn 4:8).  And as His children, love should be our essence as well.  The apostle, John, describes the connection between God’s love toward us and our love toward one another in I John chapter 4.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (I Jn 4:7-11).

John brackets this passage with the command to love one another.  In between, he explains the foundation for our expressive love is the love of God Himself.  The clearest demonstration of God’s love for us is mentioned twice in this short passage; God sent His Son to be the payment for our sins that we might live through Him.  Love of that magnitude is the model for us to love as God loves.

This is all well and good, but in a culture that thrives on measures of success, how do we measure love?  In reference to the desert mothers and fathers (circa 300 AD), Roberta Bondi writes in To Love as God Loves, “It is true that the distinction between having perfect love as the real goal of the Christian life and the disciplines designed to foster that love was sometimes lost.  Some brothers and sisters probably never knew any better; others did what human beings of all periods do: they simply forgot their goal, confusing their means with their ends…No amount of pious behavior or Christian discipline can replace love.”

I can measure pious behavior.  I can measure Christian disciplines.  I cannot measure love.  But our call is to embrace and practice a love that is beyond measure.  So set the yard stick aside and dive into the vast love of God.  Enjoy it deeply.  Distribute it widely.  “And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity” (Col 3:14).  This is the supremacy of love.

In the Old Testament, God’s presence was largely geographic.  Think about these titles, some of which we still use today:  Holy Land, Holy City (Jerusalem), Holy of Holies in the Holy Temple.  These specific locales were holy because they represented the dwelling place of God Himself.

Where does God reside today?  In one of the most incredible concepts in the New Testament and the supernatural Christian life, God Himself lives in us by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.  Titus 3:5-7 says, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”  At the time we were justified, God’s Holy Spirit took up residence in our new heart.

One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit that we touched upon in our last post is His assurance that we are loved by God.  “And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom 5:5).  It is interesting to note a few verses later when it was that God first loved us.  “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).

God’s unconditional love was “demonstrated” to us when?  “While we were yet sinners”; while we were God’s enemies really.  Had we done any “good works” at that point in our enemyship to “earn” God’s love?  Of course not.  We were His enemies.  Based on the time line for this act of sacrificial love – “we were yet sinners” – it is clear that God’s love for us is not based on performance.  We don’t have to perform to earn God’s love.

What does this have to do with extending God’s love to others?  It works like this.  When I believe that God really loves me; when I live in the full assurance of His love and acceptance – independent of what I bring to the table – as promised in Romans 5 and elsewhere, I have a tremendous freedom to give myself away in service to others.  I am not a prisoner of or overly concerned about others thoughts and opinions about me.  I am not looking to others to satisfy my need for self-worth, love, or acceptance.  In short, our interactions become driven by ministry, not by manipulation.

Dwight Edwards writes in Revolution Within, “Only grace-soaked saints can become grace-dispensing servants.”  I would contend that it is the same with love.  Only love-soaked saints can become love-dispensing servants.