I.
INTRODUCTION.
A.
Hideyoshi,
a Japanese warlord who ruled over Japan in the late 1500s, commissioned
a colossal statue of Buddha for a shrine in Kyoto.
1.
It took
50,000 men give years to build, but the work had scarcely been
completed when the earthquake of 1596 brought the roof of the shrine
crashing down and wrecked the statue.
2.
In a rage
Hideyoshi shot an arrow at the fallen colossus. He shouted, “I put you
here at great expense, and you can’t even look after your own temple.”
B.
The most
hilarious story of the OT, in my view, is found in 1 Sam 5:1-6.
1.
The
Philistines thought they were going to do a good thing and so they
captured the ark of the covenant.
2.
The
Philistines set up the ark of the covenant in the temple of Dagon.
a.
Twice they go
to find him in the morning, and he is lying prostrate in front of the
ark. On the first morning, there’s no damage to the idol, but on the
second day, the idol’s head and both his hands were severed.
b.
The people
then get tumors.
1)
If you go and
look at the word “tumor” in Hebrew, it refers to hemorrhoids, and it is
likely a far worse case than you can get naturally.
2)
I had a
professor tell me one time that the Philistines really had a problem:
they couldn’t sit down and their god couldn’t stand up!
c.
You
understand why the idol couldn’t stand up: he was no god at all!
C.
Idolatry was
a problem in Corinth, and many of the brethren there had come from
idolatrous backgrounds.
1.
Notice verse
7: “Some, through former association with idols, eat food as really
offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak is defiled.”
2.
Paul, back in
chapter 6, includes idolatry among the sins the Corinthians were once
guilty.
3.
Therefore,
some Christians in Corinth had once been involved in idolatry and
seeing some of their brethren eating in pagan temples was causing a
problem.
a.
As we
mentioned last week, pagan temples served as restaurants in the ancient
world.
1)
The wealthy
would often invite their friends to come to meals in the temples.
Archeologists have found two such invitations: “Chareimon invites you
to dine at the table of the Lord Serapis” and in the other a Roman was
inviting friends to attend an engagement party for his daughter “in the
supper room in the Temple of Apollo.”
2)
What should
these Corinthians do when they got such an invitation? The strong said,
“We know that an idol isn’t real,” but the weak were troubled by such
an attitude.
b.
What’s
interesting in this text is that “weak” and “strong” are used as almost
direct opposite of how we use these terms.
1)
Typically, we
use the word “weak” to refer to a Christian who engage in questionable
activities, while we use the word “strong” to refer to Christians who
do not engage in such activities.
2)
In this text,
however, the words have the opposite meaning and have to do with
knowledge: “strong” is one with more knowledge & “weak” is one with
limited knowledge.
4.
Are there not
many Christians today who fall into these categories?
a.
In some
places, some Christians have a problem with someone mowing his yard on
a Sunday or eating in a place which serves alcohol or a woman’s wearing
pants.
b.
In many such
cases, the problem is quite analogous to what was taking place in
Corinth.
1)
In Corinth,
the weak were having a problem with the strong because eating in an
idolatrous temple was what they did in their former faith.
2)
Sometimes in
our own culture, Christians have a problem with people mowing a yard on
Sunday or eating in a place which serves alcohol or a woman’s wearing
pants because of what he or she was taught in a denominational group.
5. This text speaks of the rationale the “strong” in Corinth were using to justify their eating meat in pagan temples. As we examine this passage in context, we notice: THERE ARE NO IDOLS & THERE IS ONE GOD.
I.
THERE ARE NO
IDOLS, v. 4.
A.
Therefore, as
to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no
real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
B.
Recall that
last week we mentioned the phrase “we know that” was used in Paul’s day
to introduce well-known quotations.
1.
Therefore, it
seems quite certain that the strong were using these two slogans to
justify their behavior.
2.
Thus, the
strong were saying, “Look, guys, when we go to a pagan temple to eat,
we’re just going to have a piece of meat. Yeah, it’s been offered to an
idol, but that idol is just an image of stone or wood—it’s not real.”
C.
Paul here
agrees with the strong.
1.
He goes on to
explain in the rest of this paragraph how that there is not a real idol
and that there is only one God.
2.
Notice how he
begins the next paragraph down in v. 7: “However, not all possess this
knowledge.”
a.
He doesn’t
say, “You strong brothers are wrong in saying that an idol isn’t real
and that there is only one God.”
b.
He says,
“Some of your more immature brethren haven’t arrived at that knowledge
just yet.”
D.
We need to
understand that “an idol has no real existence.”
1.
The Greek is
literally: “an idol is nothing in the world,” and the NIV and KJV are
more literal than the ESV, but however it is translated, Paul’s meaning
is: Idols aren’t real.
2.
The biblical
writers often made clear their conviction that idols are nothing:
a.
Before the
Areopagus, Paul declares, “Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to
think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image
formed by the art and imagination of man” (Acts 17:29).
b.
Concerning
the ancient pagans, Paul writes: “Claiming to be wise, they became
fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images
resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Rm
1:22-23).
1.
What should
we do with this divine revelation?
a.
In my
experience, here’s what we’ve done with it:
1)
“Since none
of us have ever bowed down to idols, let’s talk about spiritual
idolatry—Jesus and Paul, after all, both compared idolatry with greed.”
We spiritualize it and never talk about the reality of idolatry.
2)
That’s good
and right. Many Christians in this country have never bowed down to an
idol, but have problems putting the true God in front of worldly things.
b.
I have no
problem whatsoever in talking about spiritual idolatry, for it’s a
problem. But, I want us to keep these words in their original context
this morning and think about real idolatry.
1)
You might be
thinking, “Justin, why? We don’t have a problem with idolatry here in
the twenty-first century.”
2)
If by “we”
you mean the brethren here assembled this morning, I’d wholeheartedly
agree, but if by “we” you mean culture, I’d wholeheartedly disagree.
a)
When our
brethren started spiritualizing idolatry, they did so because real
idolatry wasn’t a problem in their culture.
b)
Today things
are vastly different.
·
We are now
being taught that we should be tolerant of all religions—from Islam to
Buddhism to the New Age Movement. Those who follow such error are made
in God’s image and as precious to God as you and I, but the gods they
follow aren’t real gods.
·
Television
and the Internet bring idolatry into our homes—how many of us know of
Shirley MacLaine’s New Age philosophy and Phil Jackson’s dabbling
Buddhism?
·
How many
students and faculty at state schools are Buddhists or Muslims or
followers of the New Age?
·
I recall that
in high school, we had an exchange student from Japan, and he was an
adherent of Shintoism, the main religion in Japan.
2.
As we talk
with such individuals, we need to understand that these “gods” aren’t
gods at all.
E.
Why are these
idols not real? “There is no God but one.”
1.
Again,
biblical texts make obvious that the “I AM” is the only true God: “Hear
O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deut 6:4).
2. We serve one God, for only one God lives.
II.
THERE IS ONLY
ONE GOD, vv. 5-6.
A.
In these two
verses, Paul expounds on what he has just written and declares:
“Although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed
there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’—yet for us there is one God, the
Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord,
Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”
B.
There are
so-called gods in heaven and on earth.
1.
Paul
literally writes here: “There are many things called gods in heaven and
upon the earth.”
2.
What are
these things called gods? Obviously in context Paul is speaking of
idols as called gods. They are things people refer to or call gods.
C.
As a
parenthetical statement, Paul adds that there are indeed many “gods”
and many “lords.”
1.
What are
these “gods” and “lords”?
a.
It certainly
seems that Paul refers to demons as “gods” and “lords.”
1)
In chapter
10, Paul refers to idols as demons: “I imply that what pagans sacrifice
they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be
participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the
cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the
table of demons” (20-21).
2)
We understand
that we battle against demonic forces: “We do not wrestle against flesh
and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the
cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces
of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12).
3)
It also seems
likely that Paul writes of these gods and lords as demons, for he
contrasts them with the true God and true Lord in this same sentence.
b.
Idolatry,
then, is not simply following some false god (as horrible as that would
be) but following a demonic force.
2.
Therefore,
Buddha, Allah, and every other false god is a force of Satan seeking to
entrap people away from the true and living God.
D.
While there
are a variety of idols and demonic forces in this world, for us there
is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist,
v. 6.
1.
Paul is
contrasting the variety of idols throughout the ancient world and the
God whom Christians worship.
a.
The KJV does
a slightly better job than either the ESV or NIV, as “to us” is really
better than “for us.”
b.
“For us” is
better because here’s what Paul’s saying: “People in the world worship
this god and that god and every other type of god you can imagine. But,
for us, there is one God the One who made everything that is.”
c.
In our own
culture, there are a variety of gods individuals follow—Buddha, Allah,
or some other “Higher Power”—but those gods are not our God: We only
have one God.
2.
The God we
serve is the One from are all things.
a.
I’m convinced
the reason Paul emphasizes that all things are from God is that the
idols themselves are from God—the wood, the gold, the bronze, or
whatever else is used was made by God himself. Why serve something made
from wood or stone when the true and living God made the stone and wood?
b.
We know
without any doubt that God made all things:
1)
“In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gn 1:1).
2)
Paul declares
to the pagans at the Areopagus, “The God who made the world and
everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in
temples built by hands” (Acts 17:24).
3.
The God who
made the world made us for him.
a.
The Greek
term “for” designates purpose or intent.
1)
For example,
it is used in Acts 2:38 as Peter explains baptism: Baptism is for the
purpose of receiving the remission of sins.
2)
We were
created, then, for the purpose of God—with the idea being to serve and
honor him.
b.
We need to be
people who serve God. That is, after all, what designates us from those
who serve Allah or Buddha—We serve the true God.
1)
“Now, O
Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD
your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your
God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the
LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own
good?” (Deut 10:12-13).
2)
How well do
we serve the Lord God? Do we speak a word for him when we can, do we
offer service to others (knowing that in serving our fellow man, we
serve God), do we seek to serve the Lord as best we can?
E.
For us there
is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom
we exist.
1.
All things
are through Jesus Christ.
a.
We understand
not only that God made all that is, but that the Father made all that
is through Jesus Christ.
b.
Speaking of
Christ, John writes, “All things were made through him, and without him
was not any thing made that was made” (Jn 1:3).
2.
Through
Christ we exist.
a.
I really do
not think that Paul is attempting to say that our physical existence is
through Jesus Christ, for he has summed that up in declaring “through
whom are all things.” If all things which exist were made through
Christ, then the apostle doesn’t need to single us out again as
existing through Christ.
b.
While it is
possible that Paul is doing that to keep his writing parallel with what
he has just written about the Father, it is also possible that Paul
speaks of our existence as a church. Our existence as a church, in
other words, is through Christ.
1)
In Rm 16:16
Paul says, “All the churches of Christ greet you.”
a)
It is quite
possible that “churches of Christ” there means the congregations which
belong to Christ.
b)
It is also
quite possible that Paul means “congregations that Christ formed” or
“churches that Christ died for.”
c)
It’s likely
that Paul has both ideas in this passage—churches which belong to
Christ because he died for them.
2)
Eph 2:13-16.
3.
Are you a
part of that body created because of the sacrifice of Jesus?