Can Knowledge Be a Bad Thing?

Everyone knows who Jeff Bezos is, right? He's been in the news lately. He's got some issues going on, not only with his health personally, but with his Amazon company and what went on with the New York situation this week. Jeff Bezos is an interesting character. And like all people who have achieved success, and he has been a successful person in the world, there's more to success than just knowing the numbers and the math and the business principles.

People learn some things about life through that. Jeff Bezos has learned some things in life, and he has talked about them in some of the occasions that he's had to speak to people. He's been interviewed, and he's given some commencement speeches at college graduations. And one of the stories that he gives, when I read it, I thought was very interesting, and it's a lesson we can learn from it as well. So let me, in his own words, tell you this story that comes directly from him. He says, as a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents in another ranch in Texas. I helped fix windmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores. My grandparents belonged to a caravan club, a group of Airstream trailer owners who traveled together around the United States and Canada.

Every few summers we'd join the caravan, we'd hitch up the Airstream trailer to my grandfather's car, and off we'd go in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers. I loved my grandparents, and I really look forward to these trips. On one particular trip, I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather was driving, and my grandmother had the passenger seat. She was a chain smoker, and I hated the smell of cigarette smoke.

At that age, I'd take any opportunity to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I'd calculate gas mileage or figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. I'd been hearing an ad campaign about smoking. I can't remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puff of cigarette takes a certain number of minutes off of your life. I think it might have been two minutes per puff. At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother.

I estimated the number of cigarettes per day, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette, and so on. When I was satisfied that I'd come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front of the car, tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, at two minutes per puff, you've taken nine years off your life. I have a vivid memory of what happened next, and it was not what I expected. I expected to be applauded for my cleverness and arithmetic skills. Jeff, you're so smart. You had to make some tricky estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year, and do some division. That's not what happened, as you can imagine. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in the backseat and didn't know what to do. While my grandmother sat crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble? My grandfather was a highly intelligent but quiet man. He had never said a harsh word to me, and maybe this was going to be the first time. Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother. I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge what the consequences might be. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, Jeff, one day you'll understand that it's harder to be kind than clever.

As you hear him talk about this, he says it's a lesson that he's learned that he has kept with him the rest of his life.

You have to be smart. No one can doubt that the man has business acumen and he has a lot going on. But he learned a lesson at a young age that it's not all about the knowledge that we have and how smart we are and how clever we are. You've got to be kind, too. And he learned from that time forward that you have to mix the two in order to be effective in someone's life. And one without the other isn't a very good way to live at all.

You know, Paul says the same thing in the Bible. He makes the same comment to us that knowledge is good, but knowledge can be a bad thing if it's not handled correctly. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians 8.

And in verse 1, you remember 1 Corinthians, those of you who have come to the weekday Bible studies, Paul is addressing many of the problems in the Corinthian church that have been brought to him by people. And he answers them one by one.

And as we move from chapter 7 into chapter 8, he's now going to address a new subject with the church at Corinth. And in verse 1 of chapter 8, he says this. He says, Now concerning things offered to idols. Now here was an issue that in the Corinth church that we might think that we don't have an issue with today. But of course, back in that time, they had idols, statues, we had people steeped in paganism, steeped in idol worship. And so they have these idols that are there. And he says, Now concerning things offered to idols. And they would sacrifice meat to idols, and they would sell it in the marketplace.

So as he's addressing this issue that has become an issue in the church. Concerning things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. So what he's saying, you know, the Jews that are there have knowledge, and the Gentiles that were there in that church had knowledge. And we wouldn't know what that knowledge is about idols. You know, we don't have statues on every corner. We don't have people bowing down in the marketplace and in the streets today. But we have our idols in this society as well, as we've talked about before.

But Paul is saying we have knowledge. We kind of know what idols are. And if we don't know, he kind of starts it and he kind of repeats it here in verse 4.

He says, Therefore, concerning the things offered to idols, we know. We have knowledge about this. We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. You know, we can look at the statues, we can look at the things. And to us that believe in one God, those idols mean nothing to them. We can walk right by them. They won't have an effect on us at all. That wasn't the case for every single person in Corinth, because if it was the case, there wouldn't have been any conflict. You wouldn't have been addressing this.

So concerning the eating of things offered to idols, and we're talking specifically about the meat. Not unclean meats, but clean meats, you know, that were there. Concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and there is no other God but one.

For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods, little g, and many lords, yet for us there is just one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we for Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. This is the God we worship. We know idols are nothing. They may be made of stone, they may be made of wood, they may be in people's imagination, it may be anything that we put before God and that we worship and trust in more than Him.

But He says we know. But in Corinth, it was an issue. We know what idols are, and for some of us, this meat offered to idols is not an issue. But for others, it was. And there were some, like Paul, the Jews who came up through the background, would be able to say, those idols mean nothing to us. We don't even think about them. Today, we might have people who look at a Christmas tree. And in the parts of the time we have a tree in the back of the room, I don't even notice it most of the time. In any places we walk, it just kind of doesn't even have an effect on me.

To others, it does. So we have our things that bother some, but don't bother others. And we know the truth about that. We know the truth about other things. Some people have an issue I just heard this week from someone about Nike. And they found out that Nike was a Greek god.

And actually, when we were over in Greece for the feast a few years ago, it kind of caught my attention. Oh, Nike is a Greek god. I had no idea. And so they said, we're not buying any more Nike shoes. And I said, okay, that's fine. Others I've heard say Starbucks. Starbucks has that little symbol on there that comes from some kind of pagan idol.

I don't know what it is. And some people will say, I'm not going to drink it. I'm not going to go to Starbucks anymore. That's fine. You know, I don't go to Starbucks because they have that symbol on there. You probably may not. But for some, it bothers, and some doesn't.

And that's the same situation that was going on in Corinth. For some, the meat that was offered to idols had an issue. For some, and for others, it didn't. And so some would take the knowledge and say, well, you know, that idols are nothing. And they would use that knowledge and look down, I guess, on people who it did have an issue with.

So Paul is going to address that issue. Let's go because, you know, knowledge, we all have knowledge. We've been in the church for a while. We may have just been coming for a while. But we all have knowledge. And as we grow and as we study, you know, we do build knowledge, Jesus. Peter says, in growing the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

God expects us to grow in knowledge. And the longer we study the Bible, the longer we come to church, we learn more and more and more. And it's just natural if we've been here 20, 30, 40, 50 years in the church that we're going to know more than someone that has been coming for a year or two or five.

It's just kind of the way it is. And we all grow at our own pace, just like a child, you know, that's one year old, isn't going to know as much as the child is five. And the child is ten. We all grow. So let's go back and see how knowledge, you know, was used by the Pharisees back at Jesus' time. John 7. John 7, verse 44. You know, the Jews were well-versed in the Bible, you know, much more so than any of us are versed.

I mean, they would copy it. They would write it. They would memorize large sections of it. If they would hear a couple words, they would be able to tell you exactly where and what book and probably chapter and verse.

If they had chapter and verse back then that Christ was talking about. Right? I mean, Jesus Christ said, you know, before Abraham was, I am, they knew exactly what he was talking about. He didn't have to spell it out because they knew the Scriptures back then.

They had a lot of knowledge. They didn't use that knowledge for the right purpose. They didn't get the understanding of God. And as Jesus Christ tried to teach them, they never learned or picked up on the fact that we have to apply the knowledge we have in a different way. We're not applying it the right way. They never listened to him and indeed wanted to kill him. In verse 44 it says, some of them wanted to take Christ, but no one laid hands on him.

And the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees who said to them, Why haven't you brought him to us? The officers answered, No man ever spoke like this man. How are we going to take him? I mean, with the words he says, he speaks with authority. The words make sense. We've never even heard anyone talk like this before. And the Pharisees answered them and said, Are you also deceived?

Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? How can you be enamored with what he's saying? Did you hear any of us saying, We believe in him? We're not enamored with him. We've closed our minds. We're not listening to what he says at all. Why are you listening to him who is the Messiah? Of course, they didn't want to recognize that instead of us. We've got the knowledge. We've got the power. We're the ones who know what's going on.

Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed. They don't know what they're talking about. They need us to interpret what's going on. They need us to tell us what the law is. They need us to tell us what the Word is in the Bible. They're accursed, and they don't know what they're doing.

We know more than them. Look at how they held themselves up as superior because of what they thought they knew. They had book knowledge. They didn't know how to apply it, which is a whole other sermon. But they had book knowledge, and they saw themselves as superior. For them, the law became an issue of pride. We know when pride enters in, there is a problem that we have. It distorts our thinking, it distorts our perceptions.

It makes us something different than what we are, if we are totally yielded to God. We can see that the Pharisees had that. Back in Matthew 23, Christ addresses this again in Matthew 23. In verse 1, it tells us that he's speaking to the multitudes. Down in verse 5 of Matthew 23, he talks about the Pharisees and the ones who sit in Moses' seat, the supposed ones who have the knowledge, the ones who were the scholars, the ones who everyone looked to and set themselves up.

He says in verse 5, All their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at peace, the best seats in the synagogues. They love greetings in the marketplaces and to be called by men, Rabbi-Rabbi. Ah, that's what they enjoy. They want the notoriety. They want the position. That's what they're looking for. That's why they're in the positions that they're in and why they're in church.

But down in verse 11, he says, He who is greatest among you shall be your servant. He should have a humble attitude. He should be there to serve you, not to lord it over you, not to say, you don't even know what you're talking about. It's only us who knows the answers. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men.

What you're doing, what you're saying, how you position yourself, you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Oh, there's a real problem here. The people who were puffed up with knowledge, the people who had I didn't finish 1 Corinthians 8, we'll go back there in a minute, the people who were puffed up with knowledge.

Christ says, you're not going in, and the way you position yourself and the things you say, you're preventing other people from going in. You're putting a stumbling block in front of them. You're using knowledge as a weapon against people. Your knowledge, not the knowledge of Jesus Christ, not the knowledge that has to be mixed with other things in order to be beneficial.

You're putting a stumbling block in front of people. You're shutting up the kingdom of heaven. In Luke 11, he says that to a group of lawyers who were skilled in the law and supposedly applying it as well. In Luke 11, verse 45, he says, You kind of interpret the law. You say, this is what you need to do.

You can't do walk this many steps on the Sabbath. You can't carry this much weight. You can't do anything. The Sabbath has become a burden. Everything in God's life has become a burden to you because you load it down with all these requirements that aren't in the Bible. It's all things that you come up with, but you don't do any of them.

Woe to you. Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs. Let's go right down to verse 52. Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You didn't enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.

You've taken away the key to knowledge. You got some book knowledge. You can spit out some orders. You can lord it over people. You can tell them what to do, but you've lost the key to knowledge. You know, Paul says, if we go back to 1 Corinthians 8.

1 Corinthians 8.

Then we read verse 1 again. It says, it's concerning things offered, Iles. We know that we all have knowledge. Then we went off to verse 4. And to finish that verse, knowledge puffs up.

Knowledge puffs up. Now, we know puffs up means pride. And a large part of the problem in the Corinthian church was pride that it entered into. One group thought they knew more than the other group. And whenever pride enters in, we have divisions. We have people who try to lord it over. And he says, some of you with this meat-thried desire, you've got knowledge, but you've allowed it to puff you up. It's become a pride thing to you. With the Pharisees, same thing. With the lawyers, the same thing. And one that we allow, knowledge to puff us up. It could become a hindrance to others, importantly, and a hindrance to us entering the kingdom. What Jesus Christ and God the Father want in us is humility and how we handle what He has given to us. So here in Corinth, He says, knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. But love edifies.

We have to have knowledge. We have to have knowledge. But knowledge with just knowledge can be a dangerous thing if we don't watch what we're doing. You know, last week or the week before, I guess it was the week before, we talked about distractions and how Satan will use anything, anything to take us away from the truth of God. It can even be the knowledge that we have and how we handle it and how we see ourselves and how we present ourselves. If we think we know it all, it could be a dangerous thing. We might have all the answers from the Bible. But if we don't watch it, even that can become a bad thing.

It has to be more than just that. Well, let's go down to verse 7, because we know there was a group of people, the Jews, who, you know, they knew about idols. To them, this meat offered to idols was not anything at all to be concerned about. But there was this other group of Gentiles who were there in Corinth, and they didn't have the same background as the Jews. They didn't have that same knowledge.

Now, they had come to the point where they knew idols were wrong and that they shouldn't worship idols. But there was something to them that was different than what the Jews were. Verse 7 says, However, as Paul talks about for us, there's one God, and an idol is not anything, and it didn't bother Paul. However, there is not in everyone that knowledge. For some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as the thing offered to an idol and their conscience, being weak. And that really is an unfortunate word because when we hear the word weak, it says something that I don't think it wants.

If you look the Greek word up, it means that they weren't fully established in the faith or they were growing in the faith. So they weren't weak. They might have been less established than the Jews who knew the law, who never had this problem in their background because they never grew up worrying about idols and meat sacrifice idols. They never did those things.

It never mattered to them. But there were these groups of Gentiles in the church who it did matter. They used to be steeped in that. It did matter, these idols. It did matter the meat that was sacrificed to them. It didn't mean they were weak. They had not yet become fully established in the truth. For us, it would be the same way.

I gave some examples before. For some of us, I had the advantage, and I will say it was an advantage of growing up in the church from the time I was 10. So some of the things that the world does with Christmas and Easter doesn't bother me at all. I can walk by the things and hear it, and it doesn't even faze me. But I know for others who those holidays were an important thing in their life, when they hear something and they hear a song or they walk by a tree or they see an Easter bunny picture or colored eggs, it harpens back to something that was very important in their life.

We could be on the same thing and say, Why does that bother you? Why does that bother you? That was what was happening in the court. Why does that bother you? We could look down at them and say, What's wrong with you? Don't you know that that means nothing? Don't you know those are pagan holidays? Don't you know that that means you shouldn't let that bother you?

Very easy for us to save, who have been in the church a long time, and it no longer means anything. But for someone less established in the faith, it's a real issue. And such was the case in Corinth. For some of the people that were there, this was an important issue. And when they saw meat, what was entering in their mind was, Was this meat sacrificed to an idol?

Because that was what we used to do. That was what we used to do. And when they saw meat, they saw it differently than the Jews. I need to know, Was this meat sacrificed to idols? Because my conscience is telling me, Don't eat it, if it was. So until now, they eat it as a thing offered to an idol.

This is something that was in their mind, And their conscience, being less established in the faith, is defiled. They're going against themselves. And hey, Jews, when you tell them, Don't worry about it. Just eat it anyway. Don't ask the question. You know what? You're not being very attentive to their needs. You're not understanding where they are. You've got the knowledge. It's okay with you. But they don't. And that's okay. They have to grow just like you have to grow. And don't be telling them to go against their conscience and not to worry about it.

Let God work that out. Let Him weed that out, just like He has to weed the things out in us. It may not be Christmas trees. It might not be Nike shoes. It might not be Starbucks coffee. But there are things that God has to weed out in our lives, Because all of us have something, whether we grew up in the church or not, That we have to get rid of.

And God washes us clean through the course of the rest of our lives. In verse 8, He goes on, He says, Food doesn't commend us to God. You know, He gave us food to enjoy. It's not supposed to be an item of dissension here and conversation. Food does not commend us to God for, Neither if we eat are we the better, Nor if we don't eat are we the worse.

I can't tell you, Paul says, I can't tell you you can never eat meat again, clean meat. Let's keep it. You know, everything that Paul talks about is clean meat, In accordance with Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.

I can't tell you, don't eat the meat. Don't ever think about it. Just eat it. And I can't tell you, you know what? You better ask every single time you have that hamburger, Was it offered to Iles? He says, I can't tell you that. That's what God is looking at.

But we all have consciences. This is one of those gray areas that we talk about. Today, you know, we have some of those gray areas, And then it will talk about the doubtful things, The things that the Bible doesn't tell us black and white, Don't do it or do it. That we have to work with our conscience And see what our real motives are here.

Verse 9, he says, But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours, Jews, Somehow this liberty of yours, You're not beholden to this problem. Don't let this liberty of yours become a stumbling block To those who are less established in the faith. Don't let it be a stumbling block. You remember what Christ said about stumbling blocks? Woe to those who put stumbling blocks in front of my children. Woe to you who would cause them to go astray. Because you put something in their minds that they can't get over, That they're just not ready to hear yet.

That you need to understand, you need to use the knowledge you have, But use it the way God does. He doesn't hit us over a hammer, or hit our heads over a hammer. You know, we learn about the Sabbath day, We learn about clean and unclean meats, We learn about holy days, But he doesn't hit us with a hammer, He hits us with a few things, And I say, and I look over my life from, you know, Back when I was a young man to now, If God had opened my eyes to every single thing That I needed to overcome, I would have been overwhelmed and thought, What's the use?

What's the use? There's nothing about me that can do it. How can I possibly become what you want? Because there's just so much. And so he's merciful with us, and little by little, He shows us what we need to do, what we need to overcome. So we become, over the course of our lifetimes, You know what it is? And it's the same with knowledge. He increases our knowledge. There are basic things and commands that we know and we adhere to. There are other things that he helps us come along. You know, not that we compromise and not that we ever tell anyone, It's okay and whatever.

It's okay to do what's wrong. No, not anything like that. But he's saying, don't let... You don't be a stumbling block to these people by the things you say As you kind of lord it over them and say, Don't you get it? How can you not get that? How does that bother you? For if anyone of you... Verse 10. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge, Jews, eating in an idol's temple, won't the conscious of him who is weak, who is less established into faith, be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols?

He'll look at it and say, well, he's doing it. He's doing it. Why can't I just eat those idols? Even though it might bother him. And he would be sitting against his conscience, in a way, as he works through that and as he allows God to renew his mind, transform his mind to the truth that is God's way.

And because of your knowledge, shall the less established brother perish, for whom Christ died? Because you're so callous with it, and you just kind of throw it in his face and don't pay any regard to what may be his issue. And you don't have... You have the knowledge, but you don't have what other part that it takes in order to apply and use that knowledge.

But when you thus... Notice the word that Paul uses here. When you thus sin against the brethren, and when you wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. You may have the knowledge. What you say may be exactly right for you. But if you use it in a way and you're puffed up and think, I know more than them, and I'm going to correct this and whatever...

Again, not clear biblical commands, but in some other areas that may be less clear, and God purposely puts those things in our lives, that we would have the opportunity to learn, to grow with one another, to practice knowledge, to increase in knowledge, but also to be able to work with someone and bring someone along and not use it as a hammer that would drive them away. And he says, when we do that... We all need to go back and look at the spirit of 1 Corinthians 8 to see what Paul is talking about here.

Therefore, he says... And he concludes verse 13 very, very well... or what is now chapter 8, very, very well. He says, therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, if that's an issue with him, I know. To me, it means nothing, Paul says. It means nothing to me. I don't even think about it when I'm eating it.

Where was that meat offered? If food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. Do you see what he's saying there? Do you see what he's saying there? Let's go over to Romans. He's talking about some gray areas here. In Romans 14... He says the same thing to the Roman church. Of course, the Roman church had Jews in it, and it had Gentiles in it as well.

You see in chapters 1 and 2, where God is speaking to the Gentile world and how they became the depraved society. In chapter 2, to the Jews, who thought they were so much superior to the Gentiles, because they did all these things wrong in their past life, but the Jews thought we've done everything right. But Paul shows them, you are sinners too. You need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ just as much as those Gentiles who did everything that you didn't do in your past life, but you are just as much sinners as they are. Here in chapter 14, it's an interesting chapter because many in the world will use chapter 14 to say the doctrine that is established in the Old Testament, the doctrine that Jesus Christ lived by, was changed.

Paul changed it. They don't really pay attention to the words, because what they do is take a verse out of context and then not look at what Paul is saying. So let's look at chapter 14, because in chapter 14, he's saying basically the same thing he was telling the Corinthian church in chapter 8. Chapter 14, verse 1, Receive one who is, there's that word again, weak, but it's not really weak. Receive one who is less established in the faith, who is less established in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.

Don't get in arguments over things like meat offered to idol. Don't get in arguments over things like Nike. Don't get in arguments over things like Starbucks. Don't get in arguments over halal food or whatever it might be or eating out on the Sabbath, you know, that some have a real conscious issue with, and others don't see it the same way, and there is no clear distinction in the Bible.

You have to let your conscience guide itself. Receive one who is weak. Welcome them. Be with them. Have them in the family. Make them part of it. But don't get into arguments over doubtful things.

So in verse 1 here, he's saying, you know, this is not a chapter that we're talking about the commands of God. This isn't about the commandments of God. They are sure. They are set in stone. They are in place from now until the time, as long as Jesus Christ said, as long as there's a heaven and earth. So whatever we read in chapter 14, it has nothing to do with the commandments of God.

It has nothing to do with the statutes. Nothing to do with the Word of God. It is doubtful things, as in meats offered to idols, and the modern day things that we have today. But not to dispute over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things. It doesn't mean all unclean things. But he may eat meat, and he may eat vegetables.

But he who is less established in the faith, eats only vegetables. For some, it's like, you know what? We shouldn't be eating meat at all. Okay, that's their choice. Others say it's okay to eat meat. And it is. There's no biblical pronounce in the Bible that you can't eat meat. In fact, God gave the laws on what clean and unclean meats are. But if someone wants to be just a vegetarian, that's okay.

Don't hammer it over his head and say that he's sinning. One believes he may eat all things, but he who is less established or has a preference eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats meat and vegetables despise. And look at that word, despise. Because we can look at it and say, you know what? They're just weak. They don't get it. No. That's not at all what the Church of God is about. That's not at all what God is doing.

When he calls us in, he doesn't call us all with exactly the same knowledge base. He hasn't worked with us. If we've been here 30, 40, 50, 60 years, of course we'd better be much farther along than those who God has just called and who is working with. But they are as much a part of the family as you and I. And God is just as interested in them as he is you and I. And we need to be. And we need to be bond together.

And we need to watch out for everyone. Don't let him who eats despise him who doesn't eat. It was happening in Corinth, and it was happening in Rome as well, and it can happen to us today. And let not him who doesn't eat judge him who eats.

So he says, you know what? Those of you who eat everything, clean meats and vegetables, great. But those of you who eat vegetables don't think, hey, I'm so far superior to them. I have all this scriptural stuff and whatever. So now I despise them. For God has received him, and when we see the word received, we can say, welcome them. He has invited. He is the one who has brought them in with us.

Who are you, he says, to judge another servant? Well, we're all servants of God, right? It's not our place to judge. It's God's place to judge. Who are you to judge another servant? To his own master, he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand. For God is able to make him stand. It's not your and my job. It's your and I's job to live the truth, to preach the truth, to explain the truth gently. It's our job to correct when we see things that are going apart, not so much over doubtful disputes, but to be willing to talk about it.

But it's not our job to judge or to make them stand. God is able to make him stand just like he's been able to make you and me stand through his Holy Spirit that he puts in us. Verse 5, this is a verse that a lot of people use in the world today to say, it makes no difference about a Sabbath day. You can keep Sunday, you can keep Wednesday, you can keep any day of the week. One person esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day alike. That was happening in the Roman Church.

He was talking to us in the 21st century, but he was talking here to the Roman Church. This was the same thing that was going on then, that he would say, one person esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day alike. What did he mean by that? Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. Now remember, in Romans 14, when he introduces this, he says, I'm not talking about the law of God. I'm not talking about the Ten Commandments. I'm talking about doubtful things. So we know for a fact that Paul isn't talking about the Sabbath day in verse 5.

He's not talking about the Holy Days in verse 5. He's talking about other days that one person in the Church would say, this is an important day. Why aren't you keeping this day, not the Sabbath, not a Holy Day? Why aren't you keeping this day like I am? And other people would be like, well, I don't need to keep it.

I don't see that day in the Bible. Yes, the Gentile converts, they were keeping the Sabbath. They were keeping the Holy Days. But they would hear these things, and the Jews would be like, they're not doing this. They're not keeping this day. Gentiles would be like, I don't see that in the Bible. Why do I need to do that? Or what are we doing it for?

Well, as it turns out, the Jews had a lot of days that they would esteem better than other days, right? You look at the court incordances and some of the things. They had fast days that they would establish, not just a day of atonement, but fast days.

And they would eat. They would not eat sometimes for a couple days a week. That was just kind of their way of showing we are so spiritual and we are so close to God. We just won't eat for two days a week or one day a week. Or we will take this day, it's a fast day, not the day of atonement, but this day is a fast day, this day is a fast day, and the Jewish community would do that. Well, the Gentile community never heard of such a thing. We are not going to eat for two days every week.

That seems ridiculous, they might say, and they didn't understand why. But it was something that the Jews did, one of those things they added to the law that they kept that they thought was very important. Now back in Luke 18, we kind of see this played out. Luke 18 and verse 12, this is the story where the Pharisee and then the tax collector are praying.

And you remember the Pharisee? As he prays to God, he's got this kind of attitude. You know, I'm better than everyone else. I've got knowledge, and boy, the knowledge in what I do has puffed me up. Look what it says here in verse 10. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I know so much more and I do so much more. Verse 12, I fast twice a week. I've got these days that, you know, every Tuesday and Thursday, I fast. I'm so righteous, I fast. This tax collector doesn't. This Gentile doesn't. But I fast twice a week because it was something that occurred in the Jewish community. They would have fast days that they considered important. And so as Gentiles and Jews came together in the New Testament Church, they would look at the Jews and say, they're not keeping that day. Why aren't they fasting on Tuesday like the rest of us? Why aren't they keeping? Why aren't they fasting on Thursday? Why aren't they doing this? Why aren't they doing that? But it's not a biblical command. It is a biblical command to fast on the day of atonement. It is a biblical command to keep the Sabbath day. It is a biblical command to keep the Holy Days. It is not a biblical command to fast two days every week. But the Jews had established it. So this is what was happening as we go over and look at chapter 14 of Romans. The same type thing that was happening in 1 Corinthians 8. People with knowledge were saying, why aren't you doing it like we are doing it? He's not talking about the Sabbath day here. He's not talking about Christmas here. He's not talking about those things. He's talking about these fast days that the Jews had had. And the people with knowledge are saying, why aren't you doing this? One person esteems, and you can see from the context too, what he's talking about here is food.

The context of what he's writing about food is not about the commandments. It's not about Sabbath days, Holy days. One person esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day alike. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. If you believe in your mind that you need to fast one day every single week, and it's wrong not to, do it. But if you don't think that you need to fast two days every single week, don't do it. But don't do it because it's your personal preference, and you want to lord it over everyone, and you want to think that you have so much more knowledge, do it to God.

Verse 6, He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord. Do it with the right thought and attitude in mind. And he who doesn't observe that fast day, to the Lord he does not observe it.

He who eats, notice the context, he's not talking about holy days, he's not talking about Sabbaths, he's not talking about those things, he who eats, eats to the Lord. For he gives God thanks, and he who does not eat, who is fasting, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. So he's dealing with the same stuff in Rome that he was in Corinth, the same things that we can deal with today, if we don't watch what we're doing. For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.

God didn't call us to be isolated little islands, it's just him and us. It is him and us, but he puts us in a body, and he puts us in a group that we are to learn to live with, grow with, communicate with, know each other, come to love in agape, just like Jesus Christ loved us, and was able to give himself for us.

And sometimes that means we might have to sacrifice some of what we want for the benefit of others, just like Jesus Christ did, even in terms of this knowledge that is really liberty in some of these eating things and maybe some other things that we might not have an issue with, but someone else does. For if we live, he says in verse 8, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are to the Lord's.

For to this end, Christ died and rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother? Why are you having this dispute? Why are there even people despising one another? Why are you talking down to one another? Why are you having these arguments? Why do you show contempt for your brother? We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ for it is written, as I live, says the Eternal, every knee will bow to me and every tongue will confess to God.

So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore, he says, all preceding twelve verses, here's what my conclusion is, therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. And then I'll let you read chapter or verse 14. He's talking about clean and unclean there.

Some people will say that's saying there is no unclean foods anymore. Paul changed it all. And that isn't what it's talking about. He's talking about, as we read in Acts, you know, about clean and unclean people. We know the Jews. Some would not even sit down with Gentiles because they considered them common and unclean. And that was all changing.

No respect to persons. God calls who he will. Of all races, of all ethnicities, of all backgrounds. And not one of us can say, I'm better than you. And the Jews who wanted to say that, you know, they could no longer say it. And it was a hard thing for them to come to grips with because for all their time they had thought, we are the people of God.

And all these Gentiles are apart from God. So it was a learning process for them. Not so much for us today. I think we all understand. God calls whoever he wills and we are all equal in his sight and that's what we practice. Verse 23, he who doubts is condemned if he eats.

Hey Romans, hey Corinthians, if it bothers you to eat that meat that you might think is then offered to idols, don't eat it. Don't eat it. It goes to sin against your conscience no matter what your friend says because he does not eat from faith.

Verse 23 of Romans 14, for whatever is not from faith is sin. Is sin. So we know, and we can see here, that in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8, he's dealing with the same thing. Let me read from one of the commentaries, Barnes, on Romans 14.

He says, the leading idea here, which all Christians should remember, is that a harsh and angry denunciation of a man in relation to things not, and I'm going to say lawfully wrong, he says morally wrong, to things not morally wrong, but where he may have honest scruples will not only tend to confirm him more and more, will only tend to confirm him more and more in his doubts. To denounce and abuse him will be to confirm him.

What he's saying is, if someone has that opinion, and they are of that opinion, the old saying is, a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. Sometimes we have to let God work things out in people's minds, and not sit as Lord and Master and say, this shouldn't be that important to you. Let God work it out.

It's the same thing when we criticize each other. I learned this with one of my children who is, well, I'll say who it was, my oldest son. He was not like me. In fact, school just wasn't that important to him. He liked talking. He liked the social aspect and the grades. If they're there, that's fine. Just enough to get by. I would have an issue with him. What your hand has to do, do it with your might. I expect, and I know your mind. I know your grade. I know what you're capable of. You should be doing all A's and B's and nothing else and whatever. We would get into these things. I would criticize, and you know what? It didn't make one bit of difference. He got worse and worse and worse. I was right in what I said. He should have applied himself. He had a sister who was a few years younger who did exactly what I wanted her to do. That didn't help matters either, but it never made him change. Until later, when he grew older, and he got a job, and he began to realize, oh, I've got to do. This stuff has to be important. It just can't be personality. It just can't be jokes. It just can't be social. I have to actually work at things. To his credit, he has turned that around, and he's still very sociable and still very gregarious, but he does very well in his job. It never worked. When I criticized, and Paul was saying, you know what? If you think you're going to change him and convince them, you're only going to drive him away. You're going to drive a wedge. Let God work with it, and let everything develop in the way that he wants it to. Now, if we go back to 1 Corinthians 8, 1 Corinthians 8, we'll read verses 1 through 3 again. Now, concerning things offered to idols, or whatever the issue might be, concerning things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up. It can make us think we have the answers, and the rest of these people, or whoever we're addressing our concerns with, or looking down on, they just don't get it. They should be like us. They should have the same knowledge that we do, just like that Pharisee who was praying had. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. Now, isn't that an interesting verse? If anyone thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. You know, the God's Word translation of the Bible, it puts this verse that way. Those who think they know something, those who think they know something, still have a lot to learn. The New Living translation says, anyone who claims to have all the answers really doesn't know very much. Doesn't really know very much. And Matthew Henry, in his commentary, he says this, Those who think they know anything and grow vain thereon are the least likely to make good use of their knowledge. Satan hurts some as much by tempting them to be proud of mental powers as others by alluring to sensuality. Knowledge, which puffs up the possessor and renders him confident or judgmental, is as dangerous as self-righteous pride, though what he knows may be right.

And he finishes that, Without holy affections, all knowledge is worthless.

Isn't that interesting? Without holy affections, all knowledge is worthless. Paul says, knowledge alone can puff up.

But love edifies. Love builds up.

Knowledge alone isn't the answer to everything. It takes love to be there as well. Let's go back to 1 Peter. 1 Peter.

I'm sorry, 2 Peter. 2 Peter 1.

And verse 5.

Peter addresses the same issue. It's a constant theme throughout the Scriptures. 2 Peter 1 verse 5. He writes, Also for this very reason, giving all diligence, work hard at your calling, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue.

Add to your virtue knowledge.

Add to knowledge self-control.

Add to self-control perseverance.

Add to perseverance godliness. Add to godliness brotherly kindness. And add to brotherly kindness love or agape.

You have to have all those things. You've got to have knowledge. You've got to have it. But if all you have is that, then you haven't built in these other qualities, character traits that Peter talks about here. We're missing something.

We can't get to sleep by just the things that we can say and what the things that we know. It's got to all be the whole package of what God is looking for. And verse 8, he says, For if these things are yours, all of them, from virtue to knowledge to love, for if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You've got to have the knowledge. But God's looking for more than knowledge. He's looking for the fruits to be produced. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul sets the standard there in the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 8. For the next three chapters, that's what he talks about. He says what the premise is. We have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up. Love builds up. Without the knowledge of God, or without the love of God, that's who he looks to, the person that has love. In chapter 13, as he concludes that section, in chapter 12, he talks about some fruits of the Spirit, or some talents or gifts of the Spirit.

But in chapter 13, the Agape chapter, he says this in verse 1, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, if I don't have Agape, if I don't have love, I become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, though I may understand all mysteries and all knowledge, if I'm a walking encyclopedia, if I can recite everything, chapter and verse, though I have all those things, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, if I don't have love, I'm nothing.

I'm nothing. Knowledge puffs up. Love builds up. That's why Christ says, you know, by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. It'll be a foregone conclusion that you will have knowledge. It's a foregone conclusion that you will be preaching truth. It'll be a foregone conclusion that you should be living it and applying it, but this is how they will know. They'll see you in agape with one another.

They'll see how you treat with one another and live with one another, just like in Acts 2, when they were of one spirit in one accord, Jew and the others that God was calling. And when people looked at that church in the early New Testament, they said, you know what? This has to be. The church, look how they treat one another.

Look at the love that's there. Look at the agape. Look how they do it. They have knowledge, but they have something more. They're willing to sacrifice for one another. And we know what love, the love of God is. That is keeping His commandments. Jesus Christ says that in His parting comments to the disciples on that night He was arrested. He says that in 1 John. He says that throughout the Bible.

This is the love of God that you keep My commandments. We show Him we love Him by sacrificing our will for His and doing His way and living His way of life, not our way of life. If we don't do that, if we choose our own way and are like, I'm going to see Him this day better and God's okay with it, it's not. That's not showing Jesus Christ the love or appreciation for what He did. That's not showing God that you're following Him. If you love Him, do what He says.

And He's saying to His church, if you love each other, watch out for one another. Be willing to give a little. If it doesn't bother you to eat my little to eat offered to idols, but it bothers your brother and they don't want to see you doing that. If it bothers you to go to Starbucks, but you insist I'm going to meet you at Starbucks because there's nothing wrong with it, He says don't do that.

Show them the love. What does He conclude chapter 8 with? If it bothers my brother what I will eat, I will never eat meat again. Isn't that showing the love for one another? I will sacrifice meat. If it's a problem to him, you know what? He'll never see me eat meat again because my interest is that He will grow. And I will not be a stumbling block to Him, but I will do what it takes to help Him or her come along in the face.

Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 9. Here, 1 Corinthians 9, in this 3 and 4 chapter part where Paul is talking about the same thing. He says this in verse 19. As he explains what he wants the Jews and the Gentiles in that church to do. Work with one another. Be cognizant of one another. Help one another. Be willing to sacrifice to one another in these doubtful areas. Not in the commandments, not in the law, not in the Word. There's black and white, and then there's gray.

1 Corinthians 9, verse 19. Though I am free, Paul writes, from all men I've made myself a servant to all. I will do whatever it takes. I will serve them that I might win the more. My interest is they will be in the Kingdom. They will find God. They will be encouraged to follow God. The same thing that you and I should pray for in the way we should live with one another.

And as we work with one another, and as we love one another. To those who are without law, as without law. Not being without law toward God, he says, but under law toward Christ. I understand that they didn't grow up with it, so I have to be patient and teach that. But I'll try to understand it from their standpoint and bring them along. Why? That I might win those who are without law. That's the Gentiles who are the weak, or the less established. I became as less established that I might help them win them and not be a stumbling block to them. I've become all things to all men that I might by all means save some.

I do this for the Gospel's sake that I may be partaker of it with you. Do you see the love in what he's saying? Paul had knowledge. We look at his words that God inspired, and we see what he has done. Chapter 10, verse 23. He writes, all things are lawful for me. You know, it's not wrong for me to eat this clean meat offered to idols.

There's nothing in the Bible that says it. I hope things are lawful for me. I can do it. But not all things are helpful. It's not helpful for my brother to do it. It's not helpful for some of the things for us to do, right? All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.

All things are lawful for me. Ah! But not all things build up. Not all things edify. Knowledge puffs up. Love. Concern for the other. That's what builds up. Verse 32. Give no offense, he says, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the Church of God. Just as I please all men and all things, not seeking my own prophet, but the prophet of many, that they may be saved.

I love them enough to sacrifice what I want, even though I think it's right and there's nothing wrong with it. I will do it because I'm here to reach everyone. That's the same attitude I need. That's the same attitude we all need. That's what we need to build in. And when Paul talks about knowledge puffs up, we all have it at different levels. Love builds up. And love, knowledge without love, means nothing. We have to work on both. We have to work on both, and we can't do that all by ourselves.

We need each other. We need to be with one another. We need to take the opportunities to be with one another so that we can build that in to our lives. We can't overlook it. We can't forsake it. We can't think that we're pleasing God if we do it, just like Paul tells us.

You know, Jeff Bezos, when he was a young man, he learned a lesson that all of us would have been good for us to learn. He learned he had all the knowledge as a smart kid. He could do that arithmetic puzzle. He could tell Grandma, you know what?

And he was absolutely right. But he learned a lesson just being right. It doesn't have the effect that you want. People can break into tears. And he learned, you've got to be kind. You've got to have love. You've got to see where people are coming from, just like God wants for you and me. May we all grow in knowledge, and may that knowledge be missed with the love that God is looking to build in us.