{"id":392,"date":"2014-07-10T14:38:09","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T18:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/?p=392"},"modified":"2014-07-10T14:38:09","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T18:38:09","slug":"1-corinthians-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/1-corinthians-8\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Corinthians 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Corinthians 8<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

This will be a shorter devotion than chapter seven, because I am preaching on the entire 8th<\/sup> chapter of 1 Corinthians this coming Sunday (you can view it at www.westlakebaptist.org<\/a>, click multimedia).\u00a0 At issue in chapter eight is Christian liberty.\u00a0 Since as Christians we don\u2019t live by the Mosaic Law and the dietary restrictions this is a little harder of a chapter for us to relate to.\u00a0 However, when we understand that what Paul is talking about is not using our freedom in Christ to hurt others, we can begin to relate to it.\u00a0 What about those things that the Bible doesn\u2019t specifically say are ok or specifically say are bad for us?\u00a0 These are areas that I refer to as gray areas in Scripture.\u00a0 Since I don\u2019t want to use my sermon outline here, I will use three words to summarize how we deal with these areas.<\/p>\n

The first word is excess.\u00a0 Before I do something that is in the gray area of Scripture, I need to ask myself the question, is this really necessary?\u00a0 Is doing this absolutely necessary for me to grow closer to Christ?\u00a0 If it\u2019s not, then it is excess and we probably would be better off not doing it.<\/p>\n

The second word is expedient.\u00a0 Is doing this going to be beneficial for me in my walk with Christ or beneficial to someone else learning about Jesus?\u00a0 Again, if it isn\u2019t going to help me grow in my walk with Jesus or it\u2019s not going to be beneficial in displaying the love of Jesus to others than I probably don\u2019t need to do it.<\/p>\n

The final word is emulate.\u00a0 They say the sincerest form of flattery is imitation.\u00a0 So I need to ask myself before I do something, if Jesus was in my exact position, is what I\u2019m going to do what He would do?\u00a0 Remember we are called Christians, that is \u201clittle Christs\u201d and so we are to represent Him to the world.<\/p>\n

Here is the key verse in the chapter is verse 9, \u201cBut take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.\u201d\u00a0 The Bible may not specifically condemn something, but if it affects a weaker brother or sister in Christ then we are to refrain from doing it.\u00a0 We could also say the issue in the chapter deals with keeping unity.\u00a0 As a pastor for nearly 10 years, having served in two different churches I can tell you that the issues that cause the deepest problems and hurts in churches are not doctrinal issues.\u00a0 They are personal preference issues that cause hurt feelings, division, and dissension.\u00a0 Therefore, though we are free in Christ let us use our freedom to promote love and unity within the body of Christ.<\/p>\n

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Corinthians 8 This will be a shorter devotion than chapter seven, because I am preaching on the entire 8th chapter of 1 Corinthians this coming Sunday (you can view it at www.westlakebaptist.org, click multimedia).\u00a0 At issue in chapter eight … Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[164],"tags":[263,60,262,9],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":393,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}