Can You Take Freedom

I was visiting at a church out of town a few weeks ago, after “big church” we walked down the woodchip path in the warm Sunday morning sun to the College House for Sunday school. The lesson for the day had a evangelistic appeal with the text being 1 Corinthians 8:9-12. I felt the lesson for the day, although the teacher meant well (and is a really nice guy), did no justice to the text; moreover, missed the whole principle of the text altogether. However, this is commonplace when we pull text for our topic rather than looking to the text to give us the topic. At this point if my first college mentor was reading along he would tell us both a story of a young seminary student who failed a presentation for the same reason. During Sunday school I leaned over to my beautiful girlfriend and mentioned my disappointment with the missed principle, which was followed by her sliding away from my critical whisper (Yes I am too critical). Therefore, I will depart from the means of which the remainder of this post found it’s beginning and turn to some observations on freedom, discipline and the avenue.

In 1 Corinthians 8, the apostle of the heart set free, sets out to answer questions concerning food offered to idols much like he sets out to answer questions on marriage in chapter 7. The issue was: what should Christians do with about buying, eating, and the location of the consumption of meat that had been “consecrated to a pagan god.” According to Blomberg, Paul provides a “two-pronged” solution: freedom and voluntary abstention. Both solutions flow from the overarching principle and motivation of love. This is the principle that was omitted or simply not addressed or mentioned during the Sunday school lesson and the heart of my disappointment.

We have freedom within absolutes (vs. 4-6 provide the foundation for freedom); the freedom can and should be restricted or limited by love. Some reasons include:

“Love, not knowledge, must form the foundation of Christian behavior.” (vs. 1) Blomberg

“Love, by contrast, builds solidly, and does not pretend to be what it is not. If [love] gives stature to a person or to a community, that enlargement remains solid and genuine.” Thiselton

“True Christian knowledge is inseparable from love, which can be produced only by God’s prior choice to love us (vs. 3).” Blomberg

Ryrie says this about 8:13, “here is the great principle that regulates conduct in morally indifferent matters. It is the principle of love voluntarily regulating liberty.” There is much more that has been and could be said about 1 Corinthian 8, such as the presupposition of election and initiative expressed in vs. 3. I also think that at first consideration the restriction appears to make the freedom “stuffy.” However, I think restriction can be a joy producer. What do you think?