1st Corinthians ā Wayne Barber/Part 57
By: Dr. Wayne Barber; ©1998 |
Now, what in the world does the word āconscienceā mean? In verse 7, the Greek word is suneidesis. It means to be conscious or inwardly aware of something as to whether or not it was morally right or morally wrong. It comes from the word suneido, which comes from sun, together, and eido, which means see and fully perceive. In other words, there is something inside of all of us, whether lost or saved, that gives us an inner awareness as to what is morally right and what is morally wrong. |
1 Corinthians 8:7-13
Contents
Handling the Grey Areas of Life ā Part 3
Look at verse 7. I want you to think about what the conscience is. Everyone has one. He said, āHowever not all men have this knowledge [speaking of the idols and etc.], but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.ā Paul says, āNow, some of the folks in the body of Christ are weaker than others and they havenāt come to see their freedom under grace. They havenāt come to realize thereās no condemnation to them who are in Christ. They donāt realize that their standing is in Christ, not in what they eat or donāt eat. They havenāt grasped this yet. These who donāt understand feel like theyāre defiling their conscience if they eat this meat.ā
Now, what in the world does the word āconscienceā mean? In verse 7, the Greek word is suneidesis. It means to be conscious or inwardly aware of something as to whether or not it was morally right or morally wrong. It comes from the word suneido, which comes from sun, together, and eido, which means see and fully perceive. In other words, there is something inside of all of us, whether lost or saved, that gives us an inner awareness as to what is morally right and what is morally wrong.
You know you have a conscience when you are forced to make a decision. You come to a situation and have to make a decision and all of a sudden something inside of you says, āYes, do it,ā or āNo, donāt do it.ā Where does that come from? Even people who arenāt saved have a conscience. Immediately this conscience bears witness. Itās like an inner process thatās involved in every choice that we make. But sometimes we just donāt understand that itās even going on. Itās the first thing that comes to our mind when making a decision, that conscience rising up and saying, āThis is morally rightā or āthis is morally wrong.ā
The conscience is affected by what a person knows or has been taught by those around him or his culture. Thatās why a pagan person may not have a conscience that tells him that this is wrong or this is right like we would have in a more moral society, although thatās sort of an oxymoron living in America. A pagan might not have the sensitivity to something that we might have because of the teaching of the culture he grew up in. So, the conscience is going to react according to what is fed to it. The conscience is affected by what one knows and understands.
The believer has the Holy Spirit of God living in him. The Holy Spirit is there to enlighten the conscience by revealing the Word of God and renewing the mind. So the conscience, then, is directly affected by the power of Godās Word. This is the way as we understand truth. The conscience begins to line up with the Holy Spirit, and that moral witness stands up, the Holy Spirit obviously affecting it, and causes us to do whatās right, morally right or morally wrong.
Now, you take a person whoās in the body of Christ who hasnāt yet come to grasp what grace is. That person is still under the law. That person still is trying to obey certain rules like they were in Jerusalem when Paul came to tell them about the message of grace and how it was affecting the Gentile world. In their mind, you still had to obey the Law. They still hadnāt come to grasp the message of grace yet. Their conscience in that area had not been enlightened. They were, in fact, the weaker brother in that area. Whereas, somebody else might have had a full understanding of what grace was all about. Thatās the same way it is today. Thereās the weaker and thereās a stronger brother.
I was in a church years ago where I served in church recreation. When I went there they had some rules for the gymnasium when you would go skating. We had roller skating. It had grand, wood floors. They would stand the pressure of those skates. They had a rule there. Now listen to this, ladies. They had a rule that if the ladies came to church gymnasium and they wanted to skate, they could not wear slacks. They had to wear dresses. Now, let me ask you a question. Maybe Iām off the wall here, but if you were a lady at the church skating, would you rather be in a pair of slacks or would you rather be in a skirt? Which one would you rather fall in?
The first question that went through my mind was, āWho came up with this rule?ā Then I had to back away, because it was one of the senior staff members. He had been there for a long time. He had made the rule that you had to do that. Iām thinking, āI better step back.ā Studying chapter 8 has helped me to realize his conscience had not been enlightened in that area yet. He was still a weaker brother. He still thought thatās the way it ought to be. I wish at that time I had known this Scripture, and maybe I would have treated him a little differently. But we finally did change the rule and nearly lost him in the process. But thatās the way it is in our culture. Itās the same way.
They had the same thing in Corinth as we have today. Some peopleās minds have been enlightened by the message of grace, and they absolutely have no restraint in what they do. Others have not yet come to that place so, therefore, the inner witness, the conscience standing up says, āThis is morally wrong,ā when their brother standing right here says, āNo, this is morally right.ā When you get into an area like that, how do you handle stuff?
Itās interesting how the conscience can be seared. It only speaks of a lost person here. I donāt see how a believer can sear his conscience because of the Holy Spirit of God living in him, but that may be true. In 1 Timothy 4:2 he says, āby means of the hypocrisy of liars [talking about false teachers here], seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.ā The word āsearedā there is the word from which we get the word cauterize. The idea is, everybody has a conscience when theyāre born. To some degree they know whatās wrong and right. But the more you go against that conscience, the more you begin to harden that area. Itās like the scars of a burn. It becomes so hardened and so calloused that no longer does it become sensitive. Therefore you have hardened or seared your conscience.
The Indians would say that the conscience is like an arrow in someoneās heart. Itās sharp on the end and it continues to be sharp. As if turns, it begins to prick certain areas. It hurts you. And you realize itās there. But if a person bears up under that and ignores it long enough, finally that will heal over and scar up and the area will not hurt them anymore.
So you can see how a lost person born with a conscience can sear that conscience and come to the place he has no conscience at all. As a matter of fact, itās become hardened and he can do whatever he does without ever being sensitive to anything morally right or morally wrong. The conscience alone, however, is not enough to guarantee, even the enlightened conscience is not enough to guarantee, the right behavior of a believer. This is the whole point of chapter 8. Itās got to be mixed with something. If the love of the Holy Spirit of God is not mixed with the knowledge this person has, then his conscience, that bears witness of what is morally right or morally wrong, is still not enough to guarantee heās going to be sensitive to do what is right.
Let me show you this. Look at 1 Timothy 1:5. This is a key verse and it shows you what Paul says is the most important. Itās not the enlightened conscience that is important. The most important thing is the love out of a pure heart. Thatās the key: God the Holy Spirit producing love in you and through you that you cannot produce yourself. This comes out of a surrendered relationship to Christ. First Timothy 1:5 says, āBut the goal of our instruction [now watch this] is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.ā The first thing that comes to Paulās mind is love from a pure heart.
This is what he said in 1 Corinthians 8 He said in verse 1 that knowledge makes a person arrogant. The word for āarrogantā means heās a big air bag. Thatās all he is. He knows something, but heās no use to anybody because of what he knows. He says also in verse 1 that love edifies. Edifies means builds up. If the love is there, then what you know will build your brother up. But if love is not there, what you know will tear your brother down. Thatās the whole picture.
You may understand the message of grace. Be careful. It is to the group that understood it that Paul addresses chapter 8, because they are the most dangerous if their understanding is not mixed with the love of the Holy Spirit of God.
This is the context of chapter 8. Paul refers to what they know in verse 4. He says, āTherefore, 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.ā Again, he addresses their problem. You know it, but unless the love is there itās no good to know it. They had no sensitivity to their weaker brother. That was the key. This is the group that we have to watch.
Look at verse 9. He clarifies this whole thought. Itās the key verse, to me, of understanding the whole chapter. He said, āBut take care lest this liberty of yours [that you understand youāre right] somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.ā
The damage that knowledge without love causes
He takes you right out of that thought and begins in verse 10 to give you an example of what heās talking about. This relates in so many areas. The narrow context is the eating of meat sacrificed to idols. As we teach through it, think of all the other areas that fit in the same category of those grey areas. There are three things that I want you to see. First of all, is the damage that knowledge without love can cause. Verse 10, āFor if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idolās temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?ā
Letās look at the scenario that Paul develops for us here. Heās given us the principle. He just draws a picture so we can understand it. He says, āFor if someone sees you, who have knowledge.ā The little word āifā is the word ean. Thatās the word that means this is probably going to happen. This is not something so hypothetical it canāt happen. This is probably going to happen. It probably already has happened. In fact, it probably is going on right now.
The man who is eating here is a believer. How do we know? By the context. He has knowledge, gnosis. Paul says, āFor if someone sees you, who have knowledge.ā These are the ones who understand grace. These are the ones who know they have liberty and freedom under grace. He says, āFor if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idolās temple.ā Now, evidently the situation that Paul is presenting is that the believer has been invited to a celebration or a feast of some kind at the idolās temple. These temples were made for this kind of thing. Itās kind of like a fellowship hall. They had huge areas where people could come and eat together, that was already made for it. They had a kitchen. Sometimes they had open-air feasts like this. So this was very easily done, for them to be invited to an area of a temple place and to have an area where they could banquet or celebrate with others. This is exactly what the people were dealing with. Paul was just taking them right to where they are.
From the context, thereās a meal of some kind. Obviously at that meal meat sacrificed to idols is offered. The enlightened believer is just eating away. First Corinthians 8:10 says, āFor if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idolās temple.ā Now, the problem is that someone sees him eating this meat sacrificed to idols. Who is that someone? Well, the verse describes him as one weak in the faith, and then the next verse calls him a brother. So heās a weaker brother. He has to be, by the context. This is not a lost person, although this principle would certainly overlap into the lost people and the testimony we have with them.
Verse 10 again reads, āFor if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idolās temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak,ā now, stop right there. The word āweakā is the word asthenes. It means, basically, without strength, etc. But here it means weak in his understanding of the message that the one eating already knows, one who doesnāt understand his position in Christ, one whose conscience has not yet been enlightened.
Now, note the phrase, āwill not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?ā Listen, when Paul uses this phrase, āwill not⦠be strengthenedā it sounds like it means something good. āOh good; if I understand grace, Iāll go out and find a weaker brother and eat in front of him and if he thinks itās wrong, heāll see me eating and it will make him strong and everything will be fine.ā If you read it that way, it could sound that way. No, sir. This is not something good Paul is saying.
The word for ābeing strengthenedā may surprise you. Itās the little word oikodomeo. Itās the word that means to build a house. You would think it would be the word, something that gives ability to or whatever. But it means to build a house, to build, construct, erect. The verb is always used in a positive sense except here. Here itās not used in a positive sense. The word there is used in a negative sense. As a matter of fact, Paul is not making a statement and saying, āYou who understand grace, go to the temple and eat the meat, because youāll strengthen your weaker brother.ā No, thatās not what heās saying at all. In fact, heās asking a question and is really saying, āIs this the way you think you build up your brother, by flaunting your freedom to eat that meat in front of him if he thinks it defiles oneās conscience? Is this the way you seek to make him strong, by putting that in front of him?ā In reality what Paul is saying is that this is not constructive at all, this is destructive. This is a demolition rather than a construction. Youāre causing them to act against their conscience, which has not yet become enlightened. They may do it because you did it, but they didnāt do it because their conscience bore witness that it was correct; and for that reason theyāre sinning against their own conscience. Youāre asking them to go against what their conscience has said to them. In no way is this building up a brother in Christ.
Some of you have asked me the question many times, āIs it okay to take a glass of wine?ā Quit asking me that question, because this chapter ought to solve it for you. If youāve got a doubt and something inside of you rises up, you listen to it; because that may be the divine sensitivity of God saying, āDonāt do it. Thereās somebody with you that you donāt even know is weak in that area, and you may be flaunting what you know is a freedom under grace. But because of your love for that person, youāre willing to lay that down and not do it.ā Thatās the whole point. The problem with Corinth was they werenāt laying it down.
So he goes on and explains in verse 11 the damage. He says, āFor through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined.ā Letās think about that. Hereās a person whoās come to understand the message of grace. Hereās a person whoās been enlightened by that, and because of that enlightenment has not yet understood thatās not enough. Youāve got to now be surrendered to Christ so that God in you produces through you that love which encases what you say you understand. If itās not there, you have ruined those who are weak, the brother for whose sake Christ died.
The word for āruinedā is the word that means to destroy, apollumi. It doesnāt mean to destroy his soul eternally, we know that from 1:2-9. But the idea of ruined is something thatās become unusable. How could you make a weaker brother unusable by flaunting your strength and freedom under grace in front of him? Well, when you cause him to defile his conscience now, youāve put him under a guilt he does not know how to handle; because until he sees it, until his mind has helped him, until the Holy Spirit has renewed that to him, his conscience is going to be defiled by what you have said was alright for him to do. You see, youāve almost asked him to commit moral suicide in a way, because in his heart of hearts heās not yet where, perhaps, you are in your growth under grace.
Paul is saying, āYou see, without the love of Christ mixed with what you understand about grace, you have ruined your brother. Youāve taken your liberty and literally ruined him. So what if youāre free? What good is that to him? That freedom now has ruined him.ā
Paul goes on to say in verse 11, āFor through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died.ā I was just meditating on that verse, and you know, itās just full of meaning. First of all, you donāt love your brother enough to lay down what you call a freedom and have made a right. You donāt love him enough to lay it down. You donāt love him enough to do that. Secondly, you donāt love Christ enough. Who are you not to love Christ enough? Look what Christ did. Christ died for him. Christ emptied Himself of His divine glory, all of His rights and privileges, and came down to this earth, even chose to use His power never for His own benefit, only for the sake of others. He lived here obedient to His Father, even unto death. Look what He did, and you will not even lay down that right that you think you have for the sake of a weaker brother? This is the damage caused by not having love mixed with knowledge. You become nothing more than an insensitive member of the body of Christ. Instead of building them up, you tear them down.
The danger of giving an offense to the Lord
Secondly, itās an offense even to the Lord Jesus. He brings this out very clearly now. Here comes the danger in verse 12. āAnd thus, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.ā There are three things he says that you do. Actually, he turns it back to this group that understands. Again, please hear me. This is the group that has knowledge. This is the group that says, āWe understand grace. We understand grace.ā Paul says, āYes, and youāre the problem, because understanding it and living under it are two different things.ā Until youāre hooked into the embodiment of that grace, which is Christ, then the love which is a production of that grace is not there and therefore what you understand is not helping. Itās ruining.
First of all, he that youāve sinned against them. Thatās pretty serious stuff. āWait a minute, Iām under grace. What do you mean?ā He says that youāre sinned against them in verse 12. āAnd thus, by sinning against the brethren.ā He puts this in the present tense. Itās not so much that this is what you did as an act, itās an attitude because itās ongoing. This is your whole attitude. Youāre sinning against the brethren. Your whole attitude towards them is wrong. By your belligerent attitude towards them who donāt understand grace, you are, in fact, living in sin against them. Youāre sinning against them.
Now the word āsin, hamartano, means to miss the mark. You take an arrow and you shoot it at a target and you miss it. Thatās what it means. In other words, whatever you think youāre doing to build them up is missing the mark. It is in effect tearing them down, and you might not even know it. Thatās what heās telling them. Youāre missing the mark.
Secondly he says that youāve wounded your brotherās conscience. This really hit me. The word is tupto, and it means to wound. Now listen. It means to strike. It means to smite with the hand or a stick or another instrument. He says it is as if you had taken a stick, a big club, and beaten this manās conscience. What you say should set him free. Youāve beaten him up with your flaunting the message of grace. So youāve sinned against him. Youāve wounded his conscience.
Thirdly, most importantly, youāve sinned against Christ. Now, Iāll tell you what. You get there and that kind of catches your breath. That kind of gets your attention, because you see, when you beat this manās conscience, the blows did not just hit him, they struck Christ who lives in him. So the end result is you have sinned against Christ. Now you see the insensitivity of the heart when a person comes and says, āHey, Iām free. Iām free.ā
I think of this when Paul was writing to the Romans and the antinomians who were there. The antinomians were the party people. They were against all law. āWe can do what we want to do. Weāre under grace. Letās just do go it.ā He had to take that fourteenth chapter and say, āFolks, you donāt seem to understand.ā He talked about the weaker brother, and, as a matter of fact, takes what he does in 1 Corinthians 8 and just lengthens and makes it a whole sermon there about what it means to treat the weaker brother. Itās so important to realize how serious it is to sin against the weaker brethren. Because itās not only sinning against them, itās sinning against Christ. To what degree do they sin against Christ? To what degree are the consequences? This is interesting to me. Paul is strangely quiet. This is hauntingly quiet.
When I study Scripture, I always like to look at whatās said, but I also like to look at whatās not said. He doesnāt tell you the consequences. He doesnāt tell you how much youāve sinned against Christ. He just sort of backs off and gets quiet. When the Scriptures get quiet, I get quiet. He doesnāt tell you the consequences of that. He doesnāt tell you the harm thatās going to be done. He doesnāt tell you how far youāve gone in your Christian walk.
Well, you sin against your brother. You wound their conscience and you sin against God. Heās talking about the Christian brother, but also a person whoās lost, maybe in your family. It works in both arenas. J. Vernon McGee tells a story of a friend of his who was saved out of the Islamic faith. He came over here and became a great speaker, preacher, especially on the message of grace. They were at a conference speaking together, and they had a big celebration for all the speakers. They had a big banquet. There were a lot of people there. They had chicken and beef, pork and everything else.
To an Islamic person and to a Jew, pork is a very filthy animal. Neither one of them eat pork. But heās saved and he teaches the message of grace. He was walking through the line and when he got up to the table, she said, āWe donāt have anything left but pork, but weāve got some great looking ham here. Let me give you some.ā He said, āNo. You donāt have any beef?ā āNoā āNo chicken or lamb?ā āNo.ā āWell, I just donāt think Iāll eat any of that. Iāll just eat some vegetables.ā
She said, āThat surprises me. Youāre here teaching on the message of grace. I thought if anybody understood that it was okay to eat it, you would understand.ā He said, āExcuse me. I do understand. But you donāt understand something that I understand. My parents are still alive. I go to see them once a year. My parents have never asked me anything about the Christian faith at all, but the one question they ask me when I walk in the door, my father, every time, meets me there and says, āHave the infidels in America got you eating the filthy hog?āā
He said, āUp until now Iāve been able to say no. If I were to eat this today, I would go home and my father would ask me that question and if I said, āYesā, he would slam the door in my face, and every bit of witness for all these years that Iāve tried to be to him would absolutely be crushed. So I give up my rights to eat pork for the sake of the salvation of my father.ā
That is exactly what Paulās talking about, learning to know when to die to what you say is your privilege, learning to know when it becomes insensitive to a brother to do it and be willing not to do it.
I want to say this before I finish my last point. Thatās this. You canāt wake up every morning and say, āOh, God, what can I do today that wonāt offend somebody?ā Thereās a balance in every truth. If youāre going to do that, would you write me and let me know how you do it? Because there are some people in the body of Christ who have the gift of being offended. They live to be offended. Theyāre offended if you go to a movie and theyāre offended if you donāt go to the movies. Whatever it is that youāre trying to deal with, theyāre going to be offended either side youāre on.
So hereās the key. The key is not to make a list, āThis offends; this doesnāt offend.ā Hook yourself up to Christ. Attach yourself to Him. Surrender to Him and let God the Holy Spirit give evidence of the fact that youāre surrendered by producing a love within you. Then the love will take your knowledge and make you sensitive. Sometimes you donāt even know why you say no to something. You wonāt know until eternity, until one day you see Christ and Heāll say, āBy the way, remember that day you didnāt do that and couldnāt understand why? Let Me explain it to you, because heās right over there, and it made an eternal difference in his life. You never knew it. You were just being obedient and sensitive to the Holy Spirit of God.ā
The desire of one whose knowledge is mixed with love
Well, the damage, the danger, and thirdly I want you to see the desire of one whose knowledge now is mixed with love. God puts a desire in your heart. And the apostle Paul is going to put in the first person. Heās going to say, āIām going to give you my conviction in this matter. I know where you are. I want to give you my conviction.ā He says in verse 13, āTherefore [of course, always look to see what the āthereforeā is there for], if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, that I might not cause my brother to stumble.ā
Now, even though Paul uses himself here as an example to them, he also opens up an eternal principle that is just so precious when you put other areas into it. He first gives his own conviction. āTherefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again.ā The word for āfoodā is broma, that which you have to chew. Itās translated food; itās also translated meat; itās also translated solid food. So the idea is meat here, because thatās his context. I would personally feel that he means meat sacrificed to idolsāwhy would the other even be an issue? ābut meat sacrificed to idols, yes, thatās an issue. If thatās going to cause my brother to stumble, he says, āI will never eat that kind of meat again.ā
The word for āstumbleā is skandalizo. When you have a mousetrap, donāt use cheese. They figured that out a long time ago. Put peanut butter on it. It messes them up. You have that little trigger that comes back and hooks on the trap and if you set the trap down wrong it will get your finger. Have you ever had your finger snapped on a mousetrap like that? You know exactly what Iām talking about. That little thing that comes back, thatās the word scandalon. Itās not the trap itself, itās the trigger that springs the trap.
Thatās a key understanding here. The trap is already there. The trap is already set. But if you decide to flaunt what you understand about grace in the face of one who doesnāt understand it, the trapās already set. It just causes it to come shut. And when it does, thatās a death trap to him. Thatās a destructive thing in his life. Paul said, āIf I eat that meat thatās been sacrificed to idols and itās going to cause my brother to be ensnared by his own conscience, I refuse to eat it. I refuse to eat it.ā
Well, giving his own person example, he opens up a principle for all of us. Now we get down to, how do you deal with the grey areas of your life. āWell, I think itās okay to drink.ā Fine, but are you willing to say, āIf it causes my brother to stumble, Iāll never touch another dropā? Do you understand now why it says of elders to be able to sit right along beside it and never even notice that itās there? If you donāt have that ability, you canāt be a leader in the church. You see, itās not that the Bible says you canāt do this or you canāt do that, it puts it in bigger perspective. It says that if youāre going to cause your brother to stumble, some of the things that you can do, you canāt do because of your sensitivity to the one whoās around you.
Iāve always thought a person is pretty well known by what he defends. Have you ever thought about that? How much time he spends defending whatever it is heās defending will tell you where heās coming from. If heās defending Christ and grace, youāre alright. But if heās going to defend what he can or canāt do, being under grace, you better watch out. Heās in 1 Corinthians 8. Thatās the one Paulās nailing.
James 3 says, speaking of the tongue, that we all offend in many ways. So there are so many ways we offend every day and donāt even know it. But when youāre aware of a weaker brother, immediately you have to step back and become very sensitive; because whatever you do needs to be carefully done so that not to offend him, to tear him down, but to build him up.
Well, you know all this is covered in the book of Romans, as I said earlier. Let me just read two verses out of the book of Romans and it might fill in some blanks for you as to what Paul was talking about when we studied that epistle. It says in Romans 14:2, āOne man has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.ā That puts the blame now on both sides. So for the person whoās weaker in the faith, donāt go around trying to be offended. Be careful. Accept the fact you might not understand what he understands. But also the one who understands should be sensitive to that weaker brother. He puts the responsibility on both of them. We who are strong in knowledge must be equally strong in love. Thatās the key.
The 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians just nails that one down, doesnāt it? He says you can preach in all the tongues of men and angels. You can do all that stuff. But if you have not love, youāre nothing. Youāre like a sounding cymbal. The next time you get before a mirror take out some cymbals and just start making noise as loud as you can and remember thatās what it sounds like when youāre telling somebody what you understand about Scripture but you have no love in you which surrounds what youāre saying. Knowledge alone is nothing. Knowledge mixed with love is everything. We must protect the weak until they too become strong. Negatively we must not offend their conscience. Positively, we must bear with them and instruct them. Lead them on to where they can understand what the message of grace really is. The bottom line is to be attached to Christ as you live daily that His Spirit might be working in you.
Many people you think are strong in this area or that area may be weak in another area. I know one of the biggest weaknesses I have, for instance, is when somebody makes curt remarks in my face. Iāve always smiled and acted like it didnāt bother me. It dug to my heart but I just never told anybody that. You see, in that instance Iām the weaker brother. I love for somebody to walk up beside me and put his arm around me and say, āBrother, Iāve been praying for you.ā That just means a lot to me. But when somebody comes on and accuses me, thinking Iām strong and can take it, thereās no sensitivity there because I canāt. Thatās one of the weakest areas in my life.
So just because you think somebodyās strong in this area doesnāt mean theyāre strong in every area. Therefore, you better be filled with the Spirit. Iād better be filled with the Spirit because we donāt know but the Spirit does, and the Spirit of God gives us a sensitivity to each other that we couldnāt have any other way.
Years ago a fellow came to me and said, āIām a believer.ā He give me his testimony. It was precious. The man had been an alcoholic. He had been delivered from any desire of alcoholism, and for years had lived that way and God was using him. He said, āIāve gone back to drinking and Iām dying inside.ā I had to know why. If God took the desire away from him, why would he go back? He came from another religion and said, āMy priest had me over to his house and said, āHey, wouldnāt you like to have a glass of wine?āā And he said, āSir, you donāt understand. I would rather not, because Iāve come out of that.ā The priest said, āOh, come on! Youāre under grace. Whatās the matter with you?ā He said, āI drank it, and from that point on it was straight downhill. Iām trying to get help now to get back where I ought to be.ā
Because somebody who understood grace was insensitive to the weakness of his brother, he ruined him. He not only sinned against him, beat up his conscience, but he sinned against God in doing it. So itās not just the knowledge. Itās the love mixed with the knowledge. Iām the first one to want to get on my knees and say, āGod, make me sensitive to who I donāt even know is there so I donāt offend them and destroy their conscience.ā The body of Christ has a lot of people in it and they are not all in the same place. Attach yourself to Jesus is the message of 1 Corinthians. Donāt attach yourself to anything but Him. He will make you sensitive to those He cares for.