Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20010121.htm

1 CORINTHIANS: MINISTERING TO BELIEVERS WITH DEEP PAGAN BACKGROUNDS
Part XV: Handling Our Brother's Conscience, Legalism And Our Own Conscience
(1 Corinthians 8:1-13)
  1. Introduction
    1. Christians are to live free from the pressures of legalism,' from the extra-biblical codes of men that are imposed on human behavior to gain favor with God falsely (cf. Colossians 2:16-17, 13-14).
    2. Conversely, we are to limit our liberties so as not to harm the weaker conscience of another believer, 1 Cor. 8:13. One hence wonders how he can do both well!
    3. Also, a condition may rise where a weaker brother may think a stronger believer's act is sin, but where the mature believer knows he must do that act or disobey God and wound his own conscience. What then?!
    4. Our study in 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 produces answers to these questions as follows:
  2. Handling Our Brother's Conscience, Legalism And Our Own Conscience, 1 Corinthians 8:1-13.
    1. It is a fact that, in itself, that eating meat offered to idols is acceptable in God's view, 1 Corinthians 8:1-6.
    2. However, the presence of misinformed believers make eating such meat a problem for other believers:
      1. Some believers new to the faith do not understand this supremacy of Christ over such meat, and think that all meat offered to idols has a godless, spiritually harmful spell upon it, 1 Corinthians 8:7a.
      2. They are thus convinced that one's eating such meat amounts to idolatrous sin, 1 Cor. 8:7b.
      3. If one who is a liberty in Christ to eat such meat, and he goes ahead and does so in full knowledge of his weaker brother, such an act harms the weaker one's conscience, 1 Corinthians 8:7c.
      4. Such a harm to the conscience, if not checked, will ruin one's life of faith and cause practical harm to the weaker one's sense of right and wrong, 1 Corinthians 8:7c; compare 1 Timothy 1:18-20.
    3. The Solution is for the stronger believer willfully to inhibit his exercise of liberty for eating meat offered to idols for the greater good of protecting the weaker believer's conscience, 1 Corinthians 8:8-13.
      1. Were the weaker believer not to be present or be aware of the situation, the stronger believer should feel at liberty to go ahead and eat the meat offered to idols, 1 Corinthians 8:8.
      2. However, if a weaker believer becomes aware of the opportunity for another to eat such meat, the stronger brother must refrain from eating this meat. This will keep him from harming the weaker one's conscience and hence from sinning against Christ in the process, 1 Corinthians 8:13.
    4. By way of application, since Paul puts a high priority on the protection of a conscience, when it comes to protecting one's own conscience, the mature believer must do what heeds his own conscience regardless how others view his actions in the process, cf. 1 Corinthians 8:12 with 1 Timothy 1:18-19, 20.
Lesson: Where legalism is opposition to Christ for the sake of elevating one's self, abusing a weaker brother's conscience is also opposition to Christ as it drives a weaker brother to assume the stronger one opposes Christ by eating what he, the weaker believer genuinely views is SINFUL! Though we ought to avoid submitting to legalism, it is more important willingly to avoid using our liberty from legalism in such a way that it wounds the sense of right and wrong in a weaker fellow believer!

Application: Using this guide, we can draw specific guidelines for various situations as follows: (1) Without any other controlling circumstances, we must not allow ourselves to be brought under the yoke of man-made rules formed to create an artificial spirituality. We must not yield to legalism. (2) By the same token, if exercising such liberty in Christ produces an act in us that a weaker, misinformed believer VIEWS as VIOLATING SCRIPTURE itself, we must abstain from exercising that liberty to avoid wounding the weaker brother's sense of right and wrong. (3) There exists an exception regarding protecting the weaker brother's conscience: in the case where the weaker brother BELIEVES that the stronger believer is in SIN to go ahead with an activity, but where the STRONGER knows he MUST do so to heed God HIMSELF, and SIN if he does NOT do so, the stronger one is obliged to go ahead and do even what the weaker brother views is wrong, cf. John 16:1-2; Galatians 1:6-10. In such a case, the weaker party's needs have to be met by divine intervention, for even the STRONG believer must protect his OWN conscience before the Lord, and do what he knows is Biblical, 1 Timothy 1:18-19.