1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him.
Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists,” and that “there is no God but one.” Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. “Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.
“knowledge puffs up but love builds up” I picture a balloon in contrast to a baseball. A balloon is puffed up, literally and a baseball is solid all the way through. Paul says of those that “claim to know something” that they do not yet have the necessary knowledge. What is the necessary knowledge? Paul goes on to say that if we love God, then we are “known by him”. I wonder if the necessary knowledge that Paul is talking about is relational knowledge. I can know a lot about someone by reading about them, but that is not the same as knowing them. If I have a relationship with someone and they know me, that is a much different kind of knowing someone than knowing facts about them. It may seem like I know a lot about them but the person that has a friendship, marriage or whatever kind of relationship, knows them in a much different and more intimate way. The one is just knowledge, the other is solid. Perhaps Paul is reassuring us that when we love God, we have that relationship, he knows us back.
So Paul prefaces what is going on in the church in Corinth by laying the groundwork for the difference between what it means to know things and what it means to love. We all know people that seem to be really smart. They seem to know a lot about a lot. But yet they don’t seem to have many friends. And on the contrary, we also know others who don’t seem to have the same knowledge to share but they seem to genuinely love others.
Paul says that loving God is being known by Him. Well we are all “known intimately by God”(Ps 139) but when we respond to God’s love by loving Him back, it is an act of vulnerability. Letting others know who we are is an act of vulnerability.
What I perceive to be the link here in this weeks lectionary is this idea that the old way of things is being replaced with a new way. The old way is just knowledge of things. Knowing the law. Keeping the law. Talking about the law. Memorizing the law. That is the old way of righteousness. The new way of righteousness is loving your neighbor. Loving your neighbor was always a part of the law but it was just one commandment out of 647 commandments. Loving your neighbor is the law now.
In the gospel reading, the act of Jesus teaching in the synagogue and ending it with the casting out of a demon that asks, “Have you come to destroy us?” is symbolic of the old way being cast out, being silenced as the new way has arrived.
Paul is saying yes, the new way has arrived and we know that food sacrificed to idols doesn’t mean anything but you are still missing the point. Just because your “knowledge” allows you to understand that and your conscience is clear, you are not loving your neighbor and that is the point. Knowledge that is born of relationship, knowing and being known, that is the knowing that matters.