We Live in Darkness - 1 Corinthians 8 Part 1

I read: 1 Corinthians 8

In 1 Corinthians Paul is addressing questions the church in Corinth had. Paul addresses them with love and truth. Wouldn’t it be exciting today to get a letter from Paul (or God, whom this letter is ultimately authored by) addressing all of our church debates today? Hey, Apostle Paul, what’s the deal with evolution? How are we supposed to read Genesis 1 & 2? Or: Hey Paul, is it really Jesus’ physical body and blood when we take communion?

We’ve seen over the course of church history and even biblical history that there are always theological disputes like in 1 Corinthians 8. The reason why is because often times our questions can’t be answered in black and white – and when we try to answer them in such ways we often end up fighting with brothers and sisters who disagree.

This is exactly the kind of problem Paul is addressing. “Now concerning food offered to idols” (1 Cor. 8:1). To help contextualize this debate let’s change the topic from food offered to idols to drinking, a hot church topic in our time.

Many churches today have different “doctrines” when it comes to alcohol. If you’re a Southern Baptist you can’t drink alcohol at all.

It’s interesting that Paul doesn’t respond to this debate in a similar way. He doesn’t say: “Well, since it’s bad for some it’s evil for all. Don’t do it.” Instead Paul highlights this tension that marks the Christian life. We are not called to cut off everything in the world because then who would hear the gospel? We are supposed to be in the world (which is evil and sinful) but not of it (we must be righteous).

Interestingly, Paul’s answer starts by calling everyone in the debate to look at their motives and their hearts. Paul calls them back to the knowledge we are given through God’s grace: the knowledge that points out sin and folly and God’s greatness. In the case of food offered to idols the wisdom of God reveals:

“an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth – as indeed there are many “gods” and “lords” – yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we all exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Cor. 8:4-6)

Okay, Paul says, we as God’s children have been blessed to see and know the one true God, and consequently, see that there are no other gods. “However,” Paul continues, “not all possess this knowledge” (1 Cor. 8:7). If everybody did, there wouldn’t be any chicken sacrifices or moon worship (this stuff still goes on today, just like always). People would see the one true God and know that there are no other gods before him. But most people don’t see that – in fact none of us can unless God reveals Himself to us.

Let’s take a quick detour (okay, this won’t be quick) and remind ourselves how we have gained this knowledge of God. First, we remember that we are rebels, we re sinners, we are not good. We think and do bad stuff. If we’re honest with ourselves – and we don’t rationalize our goodness by comparing ourselves to people “worse” than us - we’ll see this. We don’t care about God or seek Him even though nature itself is declaring His love to us (“The heavens declare the glory of God, the sky above proclaims his handiwork” Psalm 19:1). Instead, we live our lives, focused on me, me, me, and we try to eek out whatever pleasures we can from this life. We do things that hurt people and we do things that hurt ourselves because either 1) we don’t realize it or 2) we can’t stop.

Please, take a minute and examine yourself: don’t compare yourself to Adolf Hitler and the worst people of our time, compare yourself to Jesus and ask: “Am I as righteous as Him? Am I without sin?” If you answer “yes” then you’ve just lied to yourself, which is a sin and now you’re back with the rest of the human race.

This kind of existence doesn’t lead to joy, it leads to death – “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Think of us as a deaf, dumb, blind people. Our sin has made us this way. We stumble about in darkness, unsure of where we’re going or what we’re doing.

John, the “beloved disciple” who wrote the Gospel of John writes about how we are in darkness and that the light we need is Jesus:

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. (John 1:9)

Buddhism and other religions talk about this need for “enlightenment” – which expresses the idea that we are currently in the dark. This is exactly right. What Buddhism and other religions get wrong is how to get the light to shine on them – we can’t reach “enlightenment” or escape spiritual darkness by “denying ourselves”, by denying our bodily functions, or by thinking and living a certain way, or even doing certain things. No, we are deaf, dumb, and blind.

How can a blind man make himself see or a deaf person make themselves hear? They wouldn’t even have a concept of what sight and sound are! If, hypothetically, a blind person could give himself sight, would he even know what it was? (I’ll return to this in a moment).

Again, can a people who have been in total darkness their whole existence build a fire for some light? They don’t even know what a fire looks like!

We need a second party to 1) tell us about fire and 2) to build one for us. Or, in the case of the blind man, he needs someone to 1) tell him about sight and 2) give it to him. The blind man would only know what sight is if someone else had told him about it. Jesus, the “light of men” (John 1:4) does that for us and more. He gives us eyes to see and tells us what it means. He truly is the light shining in the darkness (John 1:5).

So if we are in darkness it is plain to see that we will never have clarity or spiritual wisdom or truth about the world until it is revealed to us by someone who has sight. Every spiritual teacher or authority who has ever lived cannot offer us insight to that which is not known – Buddha, Aristotle, Plato, they all had to use their brains to speculate about what truth was, or what lies beyond the grave. But ultimately any truth they did discover is marred by their blindness. Picture them in the dark finding objects and feeling them all over – they may be able to tell you quite a lot from all they have to work with but if someone turned the lights on, the truth would be made plain.

Jesus, on the other hand, knows all truth and knows God because He has lived with Him forever.

Let’s say there is a rich man in town you know nothing about because he lives on a hill, very high up beyond your field of sight. You know he lives there but as to his person and character: you have no idea who he is. You try to guess what he does and what he’s like, you discuss it with other people who live around you – but they don’t know either. You have guess but you can never be sure.

Then one day the rich man sends his son down to talk to you and the other people about himself. This son completely destroys your theories and speculations about the man because he has seen him firsthand and knows him intimately. In addition, this isn’t something like the rich man’s garbage collector, this is his son. Not only does the son know the rich man, he is the best authority on how to describe him and explain him, because in a way he is the rich man too, his very flesh.

We can see in this metaphor the value of testimony from one who truly knows. Jesus claims to be the Son sent by God:

“And the Father who has sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.” (John 5:37-38)

Jesus points out that although we have a lot of thoughts and theories about God, we have not seen him. Jesus alone has, and He says that He has been sent to tell everyone just who God is.

You would think if this were true – God’s Son come to earth – that there would be more rejoicing, more excitement. Our eyes would be healed! The darkness will be lifted and we will see! Isn’t that what everyone wants?

The problem is that people are so marred by the darkness that they enjoy it and hate the light.

Jesus says:

“The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed.” (John 3:19-20)

So, to drive home the main point, we are rebels of God reveling in our darkness and Jesus’ light hurts our eyes. But it’s the only thing that will save us – only through Jesus hand we are saved, only through this light can we clearly see who God is.

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

And:

…from his fullness we have all received, grace up on grace. (John 1:16)

This sight, this clarity, this knowledge is a gift of grace. That’s what I’m trying to say. Once we have this gift it’s easy to scoff at those who don’t – once we have the knowledge of the one true God it’s easy to scoff at the person who bows down to the moon – but this is incredibly arrogant of us. The only reason you know there’s nothing in the moon to worship is because God through Jesus revealed it to you. This arrogance in know in the truth leads to problems in the way we interact with non-believers, or those still in darkness.