If you would turn your Bibles over to 1 Corinthians chapter 8. As many of you guys know, on Thursday night we're covering the book of 1 Corinthians and it's been a quietly awesome study. As you guys turn over there, I want to introduce a little bit. You know, I used to think that the book of 1 Corinthians is just a slap in the face, you know.

If some of you guys are those people, I forget the term, but there are people who like pain. And if you want to get hurt a little bit, you read the book of 1 Corinthians and it just slaps you around, dealing with all sorts of sin and pride and, you know, conflict in the church.

And I always viewed the book of 1 Corinthians like that. It's just rebuke after rebuke. But the fact of the matter is, I think, you know, so much of scripture is so much more. It's the way that it is more is it's a book on wisdom. How you make your decisions.

And it teaches you in areas of your life where you make application, it teaches you how to decide what do I do? How am I supposed to think about this? Okay. And by way of introducing this, I personally think that's a great aspect and character trait of somebody that I really admire.

I like it when I see somebody who's strong mentally and they know how to decide this is what we need to do in this moment. You guys have all seen recent, you know, comic book movies, the Avengers. Okay. Who's the guy who's always telling people what to do? Captain America, right?

Here's this guy who's like a goody two-shoe guy, but he always seems to be like, okay, you, you do this, you do that. And even to Hulk is like, you go do this thing. And everyone's like, and then they just go. And isn't that kind of noble? It's like, wow, he has such clout.

He has such authority, but it's not because he's a mean jerky guy. He's just happens to be a man who knows how to decide in this moment. This is what we as a team needs to do. And I admire that because I'm going to be honest here. I'm not that at all.

You know, even to the smallest decisions when we were like working on the building, working on the other side, pastor Peter would always ask me a question. Does this look good? What do you think? You know, like that's my answer to everything. It's like, well, what do you think?

Because I take a long time to start processing. And also, um, you know, we, sometimes we have really busy weekends, multiple events happening, and then be able to ask me, what should we do? And then she was like, I'll let you get back to me later. Cause I'm just sitting there like, I don't know sometimes how to decide, okay, this is what we're going to do because this is what's important.

And this is our criteria. We wanted to do this. So that's why if you're like me, you want things spelled out crystal clear in the Bible, right? You want things told this is right. This is wrong. This is what you need to do. But truth is the Bible doesn't address every single scenario in our lives.

You know, everything from your personal relationship of dating and all that kind of stuff to school, career, family. It gives you a lot, but it doesn't cover every single scenario. And to those scenarios, we have to practice our discernment. We have to practice our judgment. And to me, the character trait of being able to judge appropriately, that's maturity.

And so when I see veterans of the faith who've lived their lives, they've addressed scenarios, they've experienced certain things and come out of that, not just like, Ooh, I got felt beat up, but they started to learn principles. They know now what to do. They know now what to learn.

They look in hindsight and they're able to discern this was right. This was wrong. Even if it hurt, it was right. I look at that kind of stuff. I'm like, wow, that is normal. Okay. Well, in the book of first Corinthians, apostle Paul, like a spiritual father, initially he is quite upset.

So he starts to point out, starting from chapter one, all the various things that's in the life of the church. You guys are worldly arrogant. You think you're so wise and he rebukes them. Some of you guys are competitive and you compete with each other. I'm of Paul, I'm of a Paulus, you know, I'm of Jesus.

I don't need nobody. And they start competing with each other. Bad. They have, they have immoral acts in the church. Bad. And then they have, you know, they basically wage war on each other and take each other to court. Bad. Paul, Paul starts to rebuke those things. And that's typically what we think of first Corinthians.

But actually the huge chunk of the letter is a response to their questions. If you turn in your Bibles real quickly, look at chapter seven, verse one, he says, now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. Now I only read that passage because I want to show you apostle Paul, again, as a good father and teacher, he's interacting with the church and he's answering some of their questions.

And in so answering, he's giving them not just, you know, just the answer, but he's giving them wisdom. This is how you need to decide. This is how you need to think. And you, if you're going to mature, you need to judge appropriately. Okay. So let me give you a sampling of some of those things.

Go to chapter six, verse 12. We just studied this a couple of days ago on Thursday. But in chapter six, verse 12, he'll say, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

Good. When you read the Bible and you see stuff like that, those are principles you need to take in. There are people who think, look, everything is lawful. Everything is fine. But apostle Paul asks, but is it profitable? You need to ask that. In judging and trying to decide, should I do this?

Should I not? In various gray issues of Christian faith, whether, you know, I'm going to bring them up, there's like drinking, smoking, tattoos, going to lounges, going to do all this stuff. I'm not going to tell you my perspective on those now. What I am going to say is you should apply biblical principles, shouldn't you?

Apostle Paul says, all things are lawful, even for me, but not all things are profitable. And I read that in chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians as well. So you know this is a theme. He'll even say, all things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

Is anything in excess? Is it controlling you? Is it dominating? Is it making your life really lopsided? And it's not good for you. Even if it seems like a good thing, even if it's work, if it's completely lopsided and dominating your life, making it, making you its slave, it's absolutely not good for you.

You see how this principles are applied, right? This is the wisdom that you need to exercise in your life. There's more. So just by warning, this is like the longest introduction I've ever given, but there's more. There's like so many principles. Verse 15 of chapter 6, he'll say, do you not know that your body is on the members of Christ?

Verse 19, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? These are spiritual principle truths that never change. Now you need to apply with your discretion. If I am identified with Christ, what should I do with my body? If I am representative of Christ's body, if literally I am one with him and the spirit of God dwells in me and you, in this context, it's not you the church, it's you as an individual, you are the temple of the presence of the Holy Spirit, you got to exercise your own brain to decide what do I do?

See this is what Apostle Paul is a good teacher and good father, is instructing the church. And there's more. The last time I preached here, I believe I preached out of chapter 7, verse 35. This was a crucial one. He says, but I say this for your own benefit.

Again, this is verse 35 of chapter 7. Not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord. When was the last time you were sitting there like, man, should I go with these people or should I not? And you asked, does this contribute to my devotion to God?

Yes or no? Does this make me more committed or less committed to the Lord? Right? I mean, think, if we lived our lives like that, where the vast majority of our decisions were based on is it profitable, is it dominating, is it in line with my identity, is it causing me to be more in love and more devoted to Christ, I mean, we would be wise individuals, right?

But the fact of the matter is, I make it sound easy, but that's not easy. In the moment, perhaps of your own desire, the temptations and lurements, or even in the moment of trying to decide what do I do, you've got to start running in your mind and start discerning these things and it's not easy.

Well, one of the issues, so now we're going to chapter 8. One of the issues in chapter 8 that they come across is the issue of food offered to idols. So take a look here. I'm going to read the whole passage. Chapter 8 reads like this. Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge, but knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.

If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by him. 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.

For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we exist through him.

However, not all men have this knowledge, but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrifice to an idol and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food will not condemn us to God. We are neither the worse if we do not eat it, nor the better if we do eat it.

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 at 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. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. Amen. Let's take a moment to pray and to ask the Lord's blessing on our time in the word.

Father God, we do thank you for your truth. God, it is your truth that enlightens us. It is your truth that gives us our direction and path. But God, grant us this morning humility and acceptance in our hearts that we would not rebel against your word, but God, we'd be fully in submission to your wisdom.

Lord, your scriptures often challenge us to go beyond what is normal, that goes beyond what is comfortable for us. But I pray, Father God, knowing that there is much blessing when we abide in you, help us, Father God, to completely fulfill your word. It's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen. Amen. Okay. So, we look at this scenario, and so I painted this picture for you that we need wisdom and discretion to apply the biblical principles in life areas that aren't explicit in the Bible. But rather, they're life areas where it could be gray, it could go one way or the other.

And you saw the scenario here. You saw what they perhaps wrote about to Apostle Paul. Dear Paul, our father in the faith, we've got a big problem. I love meat, but the guy says no. Okay, that's kind of like the scenario that you see. You see a group of people who perhaps, maybe the people who are writing the letter were probably people who were a long time in the church, because they probably had that relationship with Apostle Paul.

Perhaps. I'm just reading into the, behind the lines there, so understand that. But perhaps are the people who know better, because they're sitting here thinking, you know what? I read here, there's people with issues. There's people who are weak. There are people who have problem with me eating, but the fact of the matter is we know there is no other idols.

All that's fake. And so now you have, I'm going to stand here, representative of one group, you have a group of people who are saying, this is not wrong. We should be able to eat. But then there is a pointing at the people who are on this side, no, no, no, no, no.

We can't eat that meat. It's been offered to idols. It's pagan. You know, how dare we? And if they were Jewish, it'd be like, no way. Right? We're going to die if we eat that. So you see this conflict happening. Now, as I was thinking about this, I was trying to think of something that maybe is in corollary to our day and age.

I couldn't think of one. So what I would like you to do is imagine you're in India. Okay. Recently, we just heard Wednesday from a pastor who was out in India. His name is Pastor Ramesh, and he's talking about how if you're an Indian, you're essentially Hindu. Your faith is so tied with your culture.

It's like almost inseparable. And if you tried, the people would attack you. And that's why they're so resistant to Christianity. Because if you go over and you say, oh, you have to convert. And Christianity says, there's only one way, man. Not many guys, not many ways. It's just one.

Then they just get really livid. Right? And the reason being is because they believe, the Hindus believe in just a conglomerate of all kinds of gods. So you can have animal gods. You can have object gods. And Pastor Ramesh was saying his family chose the snake. And to the snake, they would offer fruit.

They would offer sacrifice, basically. And they would have worship services right in front of that thing. But the fact of the matter is, that being the case, if you were to imagine yourself in India, and you can hear stories about this sometimes. So you'll see on the side of the road, you're walking down the road, and you have an individual worshiping a cow.

And if the cow happens to go past your car, you're not going to be like, bam, bam, get out of the way, cow. Why? Because that's someone's god. You know what I mean? So there in India, the practice of sacrifice to idols isn't just like an isolated event. I want to paint for you a picture that this probably affected the life of the church greatly.

Because it wasn't just a few people. It wasn't just one meat lover versus the other guy who wanted to be a vegan. You know what I mean? It wasn't just two guys going at it. It was probably a big portion of the church wondering, what do I do? I go to my sister's wedding, and it's like, do I not eat their food?

Someone invites me to their house, and it's like, maybe I pack my own sandwich. I don't know. Like, what do you do? It would totally mess up the social environment of the church. You see what I'm saying? So that's why actually, Paul the Apostle Paul devotes a huge section of scripture, of his letter to this.

This topic runs from chapter 8 all the way down to the first verse of chapter 11. So it's an important, I'm saying it's an important issue. Because you guys might be reading this and be like, hmm, I don't know if that's relevant here. I don't have a problem eating meat offered to idols, you know?

But he's going to use this as a platform to address a bigger issue. Now, the bigger issue is this. He looks at the people who are writing, you know, kind of metaphorically. He's writing back, and he's addressing them. And take a look at verse 1 through 3. He says, "Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge.

Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by him. Therefore concerning the things sacrificed to idols," and then he goes on. What I'm saying is, Apostle Paul is trying to teach them a principle to make decisions.

And the principle that exists in chapter 8 is not, is it profitable for you? Not how is it controlling you? Are you in control? It's not about you. The criteria by which he wants you to decide now, all the gray areas is, is it loving? Is it loving? And so I've entitled my sermon, "Knowledge that Ends in Love." Knowledge that ends in love.

Because for you, in trying to make a decision about what should I do about this scenario, not just this scenario, but other scenarios in my life that come up, I need to be able to ask the question, is it loving towards my brother? And that question shouldn't be just a passing thought, it should be important enough that it radically changes how you live.

It should. So today, we're actually going to be tackling that, just one aspect of it. So this is actually part one of a two-part sermon. I'm going to be preaching again August 16th, so every single one of you have to come back. Okay? But this is just part one, because he gives an intro almost to the whole thought.

He asks, "Are you loving? Are you loving towards your brother, and are you making decisions based upon this?" He sees the attitude, the attitude of the people writing, and he makes this first point. I'm going to have three points today, and the very first point I'm going to tell you is, admit your ignorance.

Okay? Admit your ignorance. Now, I'm saying we should be loving, and we need to make decisions based on, is it loving? Why start with admit your ignorance? Is because, let me paint for you a scenario here, okay? So number one is admit your ignorance. Here's the one camp of people.

We love meat. This is a daily part of our lifestyle. Stop frustrating us, you know? And you can imagine how frustrating this could be. Because for a Jew, remember how they make sacrifices? They'll have an animal, and a portion of that goes to God, they burn it. A portion of that goes to the priest, and a portion that you take home.

Remember how frequent sacrifices were? Remember, think about how important that portion of the meat is then for the family. So every time you eat meat, it'd be kind of like a family affair. What I'm saying is, this is again, not something easy for the people to give up. It's a part of their culture, it's a part of their family life, it's a part of like routine things.

And it was like that for pagan idolatry worship too. They would sacrifice animals, and a portion goes to the altar, a portion to the priest, and a portion to the family, okay? So you can imagine these people, these people, being very frustrated about this. So this is where I want you to think about what I just said, admit your ignorance.

Because the way that they start off is saying, "Well, we know. We know what's right. We've already decided and judged what's right." An apostle Paul says, "Now concerning the thing, sacrifice to idols," this is verse one, "we know that we have the knowledge." We all have knowledge. And then he almost rebukes it by saying, "But knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies." You can see him responding to their letter, and I'm imagining their letter sounding like this.

Apostle Paul, our father, we've got a big issue. I've got a question for you. It's an important theological one. What are we going to do about those guys? You ever met people like that? Where they're asking you a question, but it's not really a question. They just want to really like you to affirm they've already made a decision.

They're wrong, right? Have you seen that before? You could almost sense that that's probably how they wrote the letter, saying like, "Look, we know what's right here. What's right is, let's eat." There's no such thing as an idol. The idol is an empty vessel. The idol has an empty reference, meaning it's just a piece to symbolize their God, but there's nothing behind it.

So this is nothing. Just eat it, you know? So they're saying, "We know what's right. We know what's right." But Apostle Paul challenged them, and he says, "You think you know what's right, and in your knowledge you've decided what to do in this stance." Maybe they're complaining, "Apostle Paul, can you write a letter to them?

Apostle Paul, can you come and make this right? Apostle Paul, can you jump in and set them straight? Tell them to be quiet and let us see what we want to eat." I don't know if they went that far. I'm just conjecturing, right? But Apostle Paul comes back and says, "Your pride, or your knowledge, has made you proud.

Your decision shows your arrogance." Literally in the Greek it says, "You're so puffed up. You're like inflated." Oh, like, "You think it's right, so now I'll apply everybody. I think it's right. Everybody eat it." I don't know if you've ever felt that way, like as a young person. For me, I remember right when I became Christian, I learned a lot of Christian truths, and then it was, "I know what's right.

How come you're not doing it, man? You don't know?" You know? Have you met those people who are very interested in just revealing what they know? I get that sense, and Apostle Paul is rebuking them, "Knowledge makes you so proud. Knowledge makes you arrogant." See, knowledge in of itself is so insufficient to decide what's right to do, because knowledge simply ends with you.

I mean, think about this. You learn something, and what is it good for when you stop right there? I learn something, I stop. You know what that's good for? It's good for nothing but saying, "Look at what I learned. Look at me. I know this. Be wowed. Be amazed.

I know." So, Apostle Paul says, "But what you need to seek is to edify." But the first step, but the first step is to acknowledge at least you don't know. So look at what he says. He says in verse two, "If anyone supposes he knows anything, he has not yet known as he should." You think you know, and you claim you know, but you don't really know.

You don't know in the way that you should. Right? You don't know the scenario. You don't understand the environment. You think you know, but you don't, and you have to admit that. You know what the crazy thing is? If you, you know, have ever gotten into conflict with anybody, typically the best way to resolve that is to first be open, isn't it?

Well, let me be open to why you're upset. Well, let me be open to why this happened. But if you're sitting here, "I'm right, why don't you understand why I'm right?" You're just going to fight and fight and fight. You're going to have marathon fights, and it's never going to end.

You're just going to be bitter. And so in this moment of conflict in the church, Apostle Paul says, "You need to admit your ignorance." Pride, or knowledge, makes arrogant. And then he says, the second part, so first was admit your ignorance, and the second part he says, "Seek to understand people." Why do I say that?

It's because he says love edifies. And then he starts talking about how love is edifying, and he starts bringing up how people are, because Apostle Paul is loving like a father. He understands the rest of the people. So what am I saying? In the second part to that instruction, take a look at some of the stuff he says here, right?

Look at how he describes, yes, so verse four through six, he describes and affirms, this is what we know to be true. This is spiritual reality, right? We know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and there is no God but one. So this is the theological truth.

But then look at verse seven, "However, not all men have this knowledge." Look, guys, you write me this long letter, you want me to make it right, and you want me to jump in, you want me to get involved in your business, but here's something you think you know.

But here's something you don't realize. What about these people who don't know? So that's why I say you have to seek to understand people, because that's an aspect of you loving people. If you seek to edify, if you seek to encourage, you first need to understand. You see, there are people who don't realize that truth is always given in context.

There are people who think truth is objective truth, everybody should just take it, here it is, take it. No, that's not right. As a young man, I don't speak to a younger person the same way as I speak to an equal or as I speak to an elder. If I, right now, I'm preaching so I'm getting animated, my voice is getting loud, I'm not going to say that exact same thing in the exact same way to somebody in front of me.

Am I going to say the exact same thing to somebody who's hurting, say the exact same thing to somebody who's weak? No, I'm not. Apostle Paul says, "Do you realize some of these people, they don't know. Some of these people are accustomed to living with idols until now, and they eat their food as if it were sacrifice to idols, and then their conscience being weak, it's getting defiled." See, a person who is loving will seek to understand that.

Question to you guys. Guys, categorically, we do that a lot. Categorically meaning, we like putting people into categories. And I like addressing people that way sometimes, because it's just faster. It just makes life easy. I talk about dating a lot because I work with the high school, college, and young adult people.

I talk about dating a lot. And somebody once teased me and said, "Oh, I think you're like a dating guru." And I'm like, "No." But there are times when I make a bunch of good guesses and a bunch of times when I make really bad ones. So, here's a good example.

If I'm counseling this one couple, and this guy is like, "Oh my gosh, I need to talk to you about something." I'm like, "Okay." He's like, "I don't even know if you're going to understand." I'm like, "Try me." I talk about this a lot. He's like, "Man, you know, it's just kind of crazy.

I don't even know other people struggle with this." And then it's like, "What is it?" And it's like, "Man, we had this fight." I'm like, "Other people fight." And he's like, "We fought about..." And then it goes on. It's like, sometimes the girl just feels like she's not considered and not cared for.

The guy feels like, "I am." And, "How come you're doing this?" And then they fight. And then it escalates. And then they get into this and they threaten breakup. And they're like, "I don't know what to do." And I'm sitting there looking at them and I'm like, "Well, let me guess.

You said this." And he's like, "Oh yeah, I did." And she said this. And he's like, "Oh yeah." And I said this. And he's like, "Whoa, how do you know?" Because I'm a guru. But the thing is, categorically, you can sometimes do that because, yeah, we're the same people and we go through a lot of the same life experiences.

But sometimes we do that too much. And then we assume we know. So there are other times where I'm like, "Let me guess. You said something stupid." And then she said this. And he's like, "No. Why do you think I always say something stupid?" And it's like, "Oh shoot.

Okay, fine. Why don't you tell me what you said?" And you realize, if you're going to help, assuming always is bad. I have to, even if I've asked the same question to a thousand people, I have to ask questions to that person. Why? Because that person is a different person, perhaps in the same similar context, but it's him.

And I have to understand him. What are your thoughts? What do you think? How did you respond? And if I don't know that, I can't help him. So pause, so pause. And I'm like, "Look at these people. They're weak." And in that circumstance, there's different types of people who are weak.

They're the people who are sitting there who are weak because, "I don't know what to do. I don't even know what to think about this. Is this right? Is it wrong? It's meek, but they're sacrificing and all these people." And they need instruction. But do you realize in this scenario, there's other people?

There are people who are weak because they don't know what to do, but there are people who are weak because they know what to do, but they have a hard time doing it. Do you notice that in that past, there's the person who is weak? It's not the person who just doesn't know what to do.

He knows it's wrong or he thinks it's wrong. He thinks in his mind, "This is compromise to God." But there's social pressure. He's at a wedding. He's going to look bad. What is he going to do? What is he going to say? He doesn't have other food. He should just eat it.

So he says, "Oh, maybe I'll just eat it and no one will know." And then he defiles his conscience. He's going against his what? Belief system. That is a different kind of person that needs a different kind of advice. That is a different kind of person that needs something else.

But we tend to judge that in just one lump category and be like, "Bah, you're just weak." That's the kind of attitude Apostle Paul is attacking in this first three verses. You think you know, but you don't really know as you should. You think you know and you judge so quickly.

Do you ever judge people and their intentions so quickly? Like, "Gah, you're just weak." Are these people actually weak? They're trying to do what's right. You're trying to decide, "Is this right for me to do?" I actually don't think the people who are weak are actually that weak when their heart intent is, "I don't want to compromise my faith." But these other people, "But if you go against my meat eating, you're weak." There's an attitude of arrogance that Apostle Paul is attacking and we need to realize that.

And we need to admit our ignorance. But second, we need to seek to understand people. Be people who ask good questions. Be people who listen and understand. Be people who appropriately speak truth in love. Before you ever give advice, before you ever speak, and before you ever say, "This is what it is," make sure you understand.

Otherwise there's a huge danger, isn't there? There is a huge danger of being completely useless. Remember 1 Corinthians chapter 13? You've got all this head knowledge, you're a teacher, you go preaching but you have not love, then you're what? You're useless. You speak in tongues, you do all this stuff, what are you?

You're just noise if you don't have love. You run the risk of being absolutely useless. But also you run the risk of being hurtful to the relationship and the relationship in the church. Have you ever thought about this? If you speak without understanding, you actually not only are not helpful, you become destructive.

You know, sometimes I don't like to use these examples of my kids but they're so good examples. My son is really developing and he's becoming really good at Legos. And I'm really impressed. He can put together little Legos. You know the ones that, like I got fat, shabby fingers so I can't even do it, you know?

It's just like, I start doing it and it gets really frustrating, I'm like, "Gah, I can't do this," you know? Like, "I'm not physically meant for this." He's got these nimble little hands and he's doing all this stuff. I can actually give him a Lego instruction booklet. He'll flip through the pages and make it.

I'm like, "Dang," you know? And then sometimes he'll invite me over and be like, "Appa, look what I made." I'm like, "That's awesome." And he'll say, "Come over and make it with me." And sure enough, I go over and I'm making it with him and obviously, he's four, okay?

If you guys don't know, my son is four, right? So he's four and he's doing the Lego stuff and I'm impressed. But then obviously there's times when it's like, he does a fat piece, he's looking at the picture and he's just like, "Bleh." He doesn't know where to put it so he's just like jabbing it into somewhere, you know?

And I'll reach over and I'll try to grab him. So if you look at the picture and then what you do is, and then before I finish my sentence, like, "I know, Appa, I know." You know what I mean? It's like, "Whoa," okay? Now, so that's the example of the people earlier I mentioned who claim to know everything.

You're like, "Ahh," you know? And I'm like, "Look at this instruction. Do you see what's there?" He's like, "No, Appa, I'll do it." You know? Okay, so what happens is when I get to the point of not loving him but I'm like, "No, this is how you do the Lego, okay?" And I start getting in his face, I'm like, "This is how you do Lego," right?

Tell me, is that constructive or destructive? That's destructive, right? And not only that, but like, there's this childish, like, rage that comes inside of me because he's like, "No, Appa, I'll do it." I'm like, "Oh yeah?" And I just want to like, like, blow it up, you know? Like, "Try to do it now," and then like ruin all his Legos.

You know? Yeah, it's really bad. And I have to step away, it's like, "It's just Legos, it's just Legos." But my point is, if you don't understand the child, but you're so insistent, "But this is right. Apostle Paul, this is right." And you don't realize you have to speak truth in context and with people, what happens?

You start getting destructive. Yeah. And that's the point I'm making is that Apostle Paul here, he hasn't really even like told them what to do yet, but only to challenge their attitude and challenge their perspective and say, "I want you to make decisions about what to do here, but first, submit your ignorance.

Second, seek to understand the people," right? So that you can love them. And then third, as we move on, this is the main point of the sermon really, is to end all your efforts in love. End all your efforts in love. There is an important facet of what they're doing in their context, which is they have to maintain the unity of the church, the body of Christ.

And this was really confusing to me, but if you look at verse three, it reads funny. But if anyone loves God, he is known by him. Okay? So take a look at verse two. It's like if anyone supposes he knows anything, he doesn't know nothing yet. Okay? You claim you have knowledge, but you don't really know.

But if you love God, you're known by him. So I was like, "What?" So one is knowledge. If you claim to have knowledge and you're all arrogant, that's bad. So contrast that with you got to love God and then God knows you. It all just reads, does it read funny to you a little bit?

It should sound more like, you know, if you claim to have knowledge, you're all wrong. You should love God and then you should seek to know God and you're going to know God if you love God or something like that, you know? But I think there's this aspect that there's a gospel truth in here.

I think there's an aspect of our humility in here. There's an aspect of the relationship that we have with God. That what's more important here is not like just the factual knowledge of God, but the relational aspect of knowing one another. You see what I'm saying here? Because enemies of God know God is powerful.

Satan knows God is powerful. Satan knows God has a church. Satan knows a lot about God. Satan knows God loves us. Satan knows he loves Jesus Christ. Satan knows facts about God. Satan does not know God in the way that he's using and God knows you, right? When it says here that God knows you, there's an element of Apostle Paul humbling them.

Apostle Paul might be looking at them like, "So do they frustrate you?" It's like, "Yes, they're really frustrating. I love me, you know? We go to all you can eat buffets." They don't go to all you can eat buffets. That's a modern day phenomenon, okay? Anyway. "Yes, you know?

We're frustrated." And then he kind of brings this idea of God knows you, you know? Are you not frustrating? Is your knowledge really that complete? But God knows you, right? And he talks about this love relationship with God that needs to be maintained in this whole endeavor of trying to rectify one situation.

And I think there's a sense in which for the people, they need to understand this too. That their knowledge by itself is so insufficient to make a decision of what's right, you know? They can't just come into a scenario, "Let me evaluate. Is A, B, C? Okay, then we do D." You can't do that.

Because applied in the circumstance, they need to understand not just the facts, but they need to know the people. They need to understand their context. They need to see what's best. Is this in love? So you know what? There's going to be a scenario in your life, "Should I do this or should I do this?" Now option A, it's going to be comfortable for you.

Option B, it's going to be hard for you. Option B might even entail sacrifice. But it isn't in love. Then sometimes a lot of that knowledge, a lot of that factual accounting knowledge, it goes out the window. You see what I'm saying? So that's, I think that's kind of what he's pointing at here.

And the reason why I'm saying this is because even your knowledge, again, knowledge is crucial, it's necessary, it's foundational, it's insufficient. It's insufficient to do what's right in this scenario. You need to have love, a love that's seeking to edify. So what am I saying? Even your knowledge, your truth, it needs to be spoken in love, meaning it needs to be conditioned by love.

Why is that important? Because in this context, they have to deal with their liberty. I have a liberty to eat meat. I have a liberty to do what I want to do with my life. But the thing about it is, that's not noble. Even your liberty has to be conditioned by love.

Right? The freedom that you have, it has to exist in the context of love. What you exercise, the things that is obligated and right to you, it has to be, as a Christian, as a follower of Christ, modeled and emulated after that of Christ. What right did Christ say, "That's my right, so I'm not going to do it." You know what the scripture says?

Do you know what the scripture says about Christ? What God, what Christ had in equality with God. His divine nature, his authority, he did not consider it as something to be grasped. I'm not letting go of this, because it's mine. That's not our Lord Jesus Christ. This is my liberty, this is my right.

That's not our forefathers, and that's not apostle Paul. Look at chapter 9, verse 1. "Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus the Lord? Are you not my work and the Lord?" You see what he's getting at? Don't I have the right? I'm free, just like you're free.

Not only that, but I'm a worker above you. I'm an apostle. I've seen Christ. I'm a messenger of the Lord. I've been handpicked by God. But look at the stuff he says later. Go to chapter 10, verse 23. Chapter 10, verse 23. "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.

All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor." Look at chapter, verse 31. "Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved." Wow, what a challenge.

That's crazy stuff. You think about what he's saying there, and that is crazy challenge. Now, there is a place for direct confrontation, direct speech, rebuking somebody, exhorting somebody. There's another place for saying, "Hey, here's the truth," and bam, you need to do it. But the fact of the matter is, you see what he's saying here.

In love, we are not to define strength like, "I am who I am. That's who I'm going to be, and everybody just has to deal with it." That's not strength. The kind of strength Apostle Paul is seeking here is also not strength of intellect and knowledge where like some of us do, right?

Somebody has a question, "Here's the truth." So you have a conflict, "Well, I know better." There it is. Don't you know? The kind of strength he's asking for here is the kind of strength that enables you to be all things to all men. The kind of strength that presses the degree to which you will sacrifice.

I mean, seriously, if you guys know me, I love food, and I've confessed this sometimes that when I'm stressed, I'm like a stress eater even, and it makes me happy. It's just one of those things that's hard for me to give up, to give up food. But for Apostle Paul to say, "Even if it's meat, I will never eat meat again," that's a degree of showing to what extent will I go to love you.

So let's be wise. In our decision-making process, we can be caught up with, "Is this profitable for me? Is this right? Is this good? Is this controlling? Is it not? Is it excess for me? Is it not excess for me?" But there is another question Apostle Paul is challenging the church.

Is this loving? And your standard and your limit to which you've set, "I'm willing to go that far." Let's challenge that. To what degree are we willing to go? What a great example for us. We'll complete on the next time. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Father God, we thank you so much.

We thank you, God. Lord, so many times we act like we know, but we know that we know so little. God, thank you that you did not leave us in our ignorance. Thank you that you did not leave us to our own destructive devices. But God, you reason with us.

You give us truth. You give us example. And in Christ, you show us the ultimate example of one who is willing to go at length to seek the love and benefit of the brethren. We thank you so much, Lord. I pray, Father God, that we be all challenged today.

If we have arrogance in our heart, deal with that, Lord. Convict us to the Spirit. If we have a habit of acting like we know, speaking first before we understand, help us to change that. God, help us in our week really to practice love. To practice the kind of love that you have shown us.

We thank you, Lord, it's in Christ and we pray. Amen.