Knowledge Makes Arrogant, but Love Edifies

I've been wondering what to preach about each week. I start out the week going, what am I going to preach about? And this week, I decided that I would preach from 1 Corinthians, chapter 8. We're actually going to read the whole chapter, but before I read it, I'd like to introduce it to you a little bit. I've often felt, and increasingly so over the last week, that I'm under siege. That I've been, you know, that's sort of what a quarantine is. It's like a siege. It's like you're inside of the castle wall and you can't go out and you can't move and you're restricted. You can't do things that you want. And one of the reasons that sieges work against people in the castles is that they run out of resources. They run out of food. They run out of water. And then eventually it's quite miserable for them. And so what I've found in my own heart, and I trust, I suspect, even though I wish it weren't the case in your heart as well, is that

When you're under siege, there's lots of fighting inside the castle, inside the walls. And we're all kind of frustrated. We're all kind of tired. We're irritated. We're scared. We don't know what tomorrow is going to hold, what's going to happen. And we're waiting with bated breath. When's it all going to go away? And when's it going to go back to normal? And we're wanting things to be done. And what that leads to is... a lot of fighting and arguing amongst us. And I think that I've noticed that myself, me wanting to be more combative. I'm sure that's true of you as well. I've seen it in my house with my kids. Everyone's just kind of out of sorts. And it's one thing to say it's understandable to be out of sorts. But what I want to talk about today is the way that we fight with each other. And we're going to come around, not just generally how we fight with each other, but how this

quarantine and how coronavirus is going to tempt us to fight or has already tempted us to fight. And so really what we're going to be talking about this morning is matters of conscience. Because I think that in a fight, we don't often consider matters of conscience. We consider right and wrong, truth and falsehood. If it's a lie, it doesn't matter. If it's wrong, it's worthless. And that's not actually true. And I know that those of you out there who love your facts and love your truths and have your knowledge, I'm one of them. I'm talking to myself. I'm talking to a camera, but I'm really looking in the mirror. I'm talking to me. I care about the truth. I care about knowledge. I care about what's right. That's what's important to me. But interestingly enough, people's consciences matter. And their consciences matter even when they're wrong. So that's what we're going to be studying this morning. It's kind of a gnarly topic. But I think that this...

the attrition that we're all facing in our hearts and in our souls is going to cause us to discount our brother's consciences. And I don't want us to do that. Because we're all weary and tired. We want anything that we see as an impediment to our will coming to pass. We just want to squash it. We want to get rid of it. We want to just eradicate it. I don't want that anymore. No more hurdles. No more stumbling blocks. No more delays. No more considerations. I want what I want, and I want it now. Because I'm right. Christians ought to conduct themselves, even in the midst of great trial and difficulty and uncertainty and irritation and weariness. That's not how we ought to conduct ourselves. So that's what I want to talk about this morning. The question really is, how does a Christian community live in unity in the midst of their diversity of conscience? Our text is going to be 1 Corinthians 8. I'm going to read the whole chapter. It's 13 verses long, so if you have a Bible, please do follow along. 1 Corinthians 8.

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by him. Therefore 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. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, As indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for him and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through him. However, not all men have this knowledge, 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. But food will not commend us to God.

We are neither the worse if we do not eat nor the better if we do eat. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whom Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Now, normally when I preach, I go through whatever passage we're working on. I try to go through it pretty much verse by verse. This is a whole chapter of Scripture, so unless we want to sit here until...

mid-afternoon. We're not going to take that approach today. We're going to take our text in chunks, because there are different chunks. There's a progression in this chapter, and we're going to study it that way. But before we're able to do that, we need to understand the context of this chapter of Scripture. Paul's writing in response to a question that the Corinthians have asked him. When he starts out the chapter, now concerning things sacrificed to idols, you might wonder, why is Paul talking about where did this come from? Well, where it came from was they wrote him asking this. They had a question. They had a difference of opinion. Some of the people there thought, it's okay to eat this meat. And other people said, no, it's not. And they couldn't be reconciled. And they didn't want to be at each other's throats and having disunity. And so they wrote to Paul saying, Can you help us understand what's going on here and what we should think? Now, it's worth noting that both sides were absolutely convinced of their position and that they could make a reasonable case for their position. On the one hand, those in favor of abstention, of not eating the meat, would argue about the intent of the sacrifice. They would have said, this meat comes from a temple that's set up to worship an idol.

People brought this animal, this goat, this cow, this whatever. They brought this animal here. They killed it to offer a sacrifice, a portion of it as a sacrifice to this false god. And the meat that was left over, they turned around and sold. That's where we got our meat. And that would have been a common practice at that time. That's how they got meat. They didn't have supermarkets. Who has meat? Well, in this community at this time, the people who had meat were the temples. The temples had the meat because they did the sacrificing. And so the question is, the Christian would say, how can we eat meat that we got from an idol, a temple for an idol? How are we not, when we eat the same meat that those idol worshipers are eating, how are we not doing the same thing they're doing? And add to this that this idol worship was for many of them something they had participated in before they became Christians. They used to go to the temple and they used to eat that very same meat as an act of worship.

But now they've come to Christ, now they've believed, and you can understand that they'd have a real problem going back to doing something that they had done before they'd believed in Jesus. They wouldn't be able to distinguish in their minds the difference. This is their case. It's a reasonable one. Those, on the other hand, who were in favor of eating the meat simply didn't take hold of that same association. They would say, yes, the meat came from there. But it's just meat. We can use it for whatever we want. This meat is not sinful. Eating this meat is not sinful. I don't believe in that idol. It's false. It's fake. It's unreal. And so to act like I'm participating in worshiping a false god that does not exist holds no power over me. That is a big pile of stones, that temple that they've got. And this meat that they're killing is foolishness for them. It doesn't do them any good.

And so I'm not worried at all about buying their meat because it's just meat. And so this is what's going on in Corinth. And so they ask Paul, and this chapter of scripture is his answer to that question. And so what I want to do now is go through this passage by chunks and say, how does Paul answer this question? How does he instruct them? Well, the first thing that he does in the first three verses is he warns them. He says, now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he is not yet known as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by him. And so what he's doing in this very beginning is he sets up knowledge. Because both of them are claiming knowledge, you understand. They're both saying, we know we're right. We know what we're talking about. We've reasoned it out. We've made our case. And so he starts off by pulling back on their reins and saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I know you've got your arguments. You've got your thoughts. You've got your knowledge. But knowledge makes arrogant.

And what's being trampled underfoot because of your knowledge is your love for one another. And so what you have is a father coming into a dispute between his children and saying, there's something more important here than whose toy it was or who got the bigger cookie. This is your brother. This is your sister. And they are more important than whatever it is you're fighting about. And so this is a warning to them. That if they take hold of their knowledge and their being right and their truth, what they will sacrifice as a result of that is love. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. This was an intensely personal discussion. It was interpersonal. It had to do with how they related over food. Now, how many of you miss eating with people? Don't we all miss eating with people?

I mean, maybe you like to go out and eat. Do you not miss church cookouts and potlucks? Do you realize it's May and we haven't fired up our grill yet? And that's a bummer. I miss sitting down and eating with you guys. And this is the same context they would have been in. This would have been them eating together. Later on, they talk about communion. It says some of you come and they bring their food and they eat. And some of them are getting drunk and they're letting the poor go without food. These are people who ate together. And so can you imagine the conflict if they came to the meal and some of them brought meat that earlier in the week they were seen to have bought over at the temple. And they put it out and they're sharing it and they're being generous and they're going, here, this is meat. It's good meat. We made it. It tastes great. Eat it. And there's other people going, I can't eat that meat because I'm a Christian and that came from the temple of an idol. It's a real personal question, a real hard question. It's not the sort of thing you just go, eh, well, don't eat it if you don't like it. The question of,

can I eat at this place would have arisen? Can I be at this place? Am I supposed to be at this place? Are they sinning? This was a very serious question to them. If they took their Christianity seriously, which I believe that at least a portion of them did, this would have been a very real question to them, depending on which side of the conflict they were on. Is this syncretism? Some of you may be familiar with that word. Are we just doing what the culture at large around us does, and because we're Christians, it makes it holy? It makes it okay. These are the sorts of conflicts they would have been having. And they're very real. They're not the sort of thing that you can just dismiss and say, well, just hush up about that and don't worry. It actually deserves an answer. It needs an answer. And so that's why Paul writes to them. And he writes first warning them to check themselves about their knowledge and say, listen, loving your brother is more important than your knowledge. So Paul argues in this first section that they set aside their objective knowledge and truth and facts in favor of

subjective, how do I love my brother? It's very easy to deal in facts, but they're not the whole, you know, whenever we deal with facts, we always deal with the ones that suit us. You ever notice that? When things that you don't agree with or you don't like facts come up, you're like, yeah, well, but that's wrong. And yet there they sit. We like facts that get us what we want, and we don't like facts that don't get us what we want. And here, one of the facts that's being discounted is that God came and died for them so that they could have unity and have peace and love each other. That's a fact that none of them are considering right now. And so Paul says, set aside your argument and the goal is to love each other. That's more important than your meat. Now, he moves on from the warning and what does he do? He instructs them. He teaches them. I want you to know that, you know, I've just said facts are not the whole ballgame. Knowledge is not the end of the discussion. And yet,

The question still remains, and Paul doesn't dismiss the question and say, it doesn't need to be answered, don't worry about it. That's not what he says. Actually, he answers the question. He says which side is right. Get this. So he goes on in chapter 4, and he says, Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, for whom are all things, and we exist for him in one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through him. And so Paul's aim isn't to just hush everyone up with a thick coat of love. You just need to love everybody. Just love, just shut up and love everybody. That doesn't actually work. And so he actually answers the question here. And so I'd ask you, which side was right?

The people in favor of eating the meat are the people saying we shouldn't eat the meat. Yeah. The couple of people who are here are saying the people who were in favor of eating the meat were right. The people who were in favor of eating the meat were right. And the other people were wrong, as far as the facts go. Because Paul starts out saying, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world. And that word idol could also be translated false god. What he's saying is, there's just one God. And anything that even tries to claim the name or the title or the position of the one true God cannot be a God, is not a God. It's idolatry. It's a rejection of the one true God. It's not the setting up of another legitimate God in competition. And so what Paul is saying is everything that goes on over there, all of their...

and all the rites and all the worship and all the sacrifice and everything they do. It ain't nothing. It's nothing. Because there's only one God. And then he goes on and says, even if there are so-called gods, because he's acknowledging the fact that not everyone believes in the one true God. There's all kinds of people who don't believe in the one true God, so they erect these other things they believe in, these other gods. And sometimes they're in heaven. They're the gods in the heaven. Sometimes they're lords. Sometimes they're Caesars. Sometimes they're men, kings, rulers. He says, whether they're in heaven or whether they're on earth, for us, we're Christians, for us, there's just one God. We exist for him and we exist through him. And the argument he's making is not only do we exist, but everything exists. That meat, those animals were made by God. Those people are using them as a part of their idolatrous rejection of the one true God. But the meat is just meat. And we're Christians, and we know where that meat came from. That meat came from the hand of our good God, and he gave it to us for our nourishment. And we can eat it without doing anything wrong or having any worry that we're sinning against God. That's Paul's answer to the question that they're asking. Now think for a minute. How do you think that would sit with the Corinthians? There'd be a party, at least with some of them. We told you!

We told you. See, stupid? You didn't know what you're talking about. Here, eat some meat. You want some meat? I mean, it just would be gloating and nasty. And that's why the chapter doesn't end right there. That's why the answer to the question doesn't end. In fact, we haven't even gotten halfway through the answer to the question. Because there's more to the answer to the question than simply the knowledge of who's right and who's wrong and how to think about something. So many of us think that if we just knew how to think about something right, we would have it all figured out. And you know, you're wrong. How you think about something is not, the end of it. What you do with that knowledge is what matters. And so being right, having the right knowledge does what? What did Paul say it does? He says it makes you arrogant. So that's why he warns them before he answers the question. Knowledge makes arrogant. So that those who were right would be warned ahead of time against becoming arrogant and proud in their rightness. So the goal is unity. Love amongst the brethren. And the facts.

of the answer to the question are not actually what bring unity. In fact, you know as well as I do that the facts don't actually put down the disagreement in most discussions. Even those of us who think they are the most reasonably minded, fair-minded, I will listen to all of the details. No, you actually have a will, you actually have a heart, and you actually have an outcome that you want. And you're inclined to look at a fact and go, no, I don't agree. Paul's wrong. Do you think that nobody in the Corinthian church said Paul was wrong? Have you never been in an argument where someone shows you the facts and you go, I don't believe it. I mean seriously. Facts don't win arguments and they certainly don't breed unity and love. They can help, but they're not the currency of unity. There's more to it. Love is required. So Paul goes on to the remedy. Now you remember, the people in favor of eating meat, they're right. Now I want you to think. We've read the passage, but I want you to think.

What would you expect Paul to say after establishing who was right? What you'd expect him to say is, you guys who are wrong, we understand why, you know, he'd be gracious and he'd be merciful, and we understand that you were wrong and that you misunderstood something, and we understand how you made your case and how you got to where you were going, but you need to come along because you're wrong. That's what we would do, isn't it? That's not what Paul does at all. what he does in verse 7 is he starts out making a making space for people who don't agree with what he said not those who reject the facts but those who have a pang of conscience those who with whom the facts are not settling the dispute for them he says however not all men have this knowledge and he's not saying it in a derogatory way like those stupid men who don't have this knowledge he says what he's saying is somehow some men are not set free their consciences are not

released by this knowledge. There's still an association to them and their former way of life. However, not all men have this knowledge, but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, which is his hat tip to the fact that they used to worship at that temple. This was their life, this was their practice before they came to Christ, and they can't disassociate them. They've been accustomed to this idol until now. They eat food as if it was sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Then in verse 8, he says, you know, the food's nothing. It's not going to make us more pleasing or less pleasing to God. It's food. We all eat food. We all need food, this side of glory. It's just food. It's just meat. It's not the point. And he warns them. He says, to those who are right, who can eat the meat, who have got their conscience, squared around and are strong, he warns them, take care with this liberty of yours. Take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. And he says there's something more important than your liberty. Just because you can do something and enjoy it, and it's not wrong, doesn't mean you should do it. Especially, especially, particularly if it causes your brother to stumble. Now that is not fair. That's not fair.

All of your hearts should be going, that's not fair, that's not right. How are we going to teach them? If we just let their weak consciences be weak consciences, then we'll never get to have what we want. Right. There, now you've said it. We've acknowledged the frustration that wells up in the hearts and minds of those who are right. Yeah, that's right. It's not fair, and you won't get what you want. Not now. Maybe not ever. Certainly not until your brother's conscience is strengthened. And you should be stewing a little bit. If you're engaged in this, your heart's probably going, I don't like where this goes. I don't like my brother's conscience. That's really what you're saying. That's really at the bottom of it. I don't like people's consciences. I don't like when they have disagreements where they think something's sin that I don't. I don't appreciate that because it limits me. And I say, if that's how you're feeling, good. You're starting to get the point of what's going on here. It does limit you.

If you've understood that much, you're tracking. You're doing a good job. Stay clipped in because we're not done yet. Just because you can't eat something, just because you have this liberty, just because your conscience is free does not mean that you are allowed to cause your brother to stumble. You might think, well, my brother shouldn't stumble. But Paul says, by sinning against your brother, and he calls it sin. You eating that meat, you who have a strong conscience, you who eat that meat are sinning against your brothers because of their weak conscience. They are not sinning by having a weak conscience, but you are sinning by eating the meat. And you're going, I don't like this. This is going from bad to worse. And I say, okay, let's keep going because we're not quite through all of the loop-de-loops yet. By sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, You sin against Christ. And so your offense is not only against your brother, but directly against God, all because of meat, all because you want to eat the meat, and the facts are on your side. And you sin if you eat the meat, and by it cause your brother to stumble. Now that's not enjoyable. That's not what any of us would want to hear. But what Paul is telling us is, for the sake of our brother's conscience, we must refrain from eating, even though we would be right to eat.

or it would be okay for us to eat. Our brother's conscience is more important than our liberty. Why? Because our eating will put pressure on them. You ever been in a group, and they're doing something you know that you shouldn't do? Maybe it was when you were a kid. Maybe it's because you are a kid still, and somebody's doing something, and you go, that's not right. I shouldn't do that. Maybe it's at work. We all feel these pressures. Other people are doing it and they don't seem to have a problem with it. Maybe I should do it too. To you it's sin. What normally happens in that situation? What normally happens is the person whose conscience is weak goes along with the majority because they don't want to be left out because they feel pressure. But they're not settled about it being right. And what's going on in that interaction is the strong one is leading the weaker one into sin.

They're both sinning now. One's sinning because the oldest strong is sinning because he's not considering his brother's weakness, and the weak one is sinning because he's convinced in his own mind, according to his conscience, that what he's doing is wrong. And so they both end up in sin. One because it's objectively sin, and one because he's not obeying his conscience. He's not doing this by faith, and whatever is not of faith is sin. You might wonder, if you were on the strong side of this argument, strong conscience side of it. You might say, well, how are we going to teach them? How are we going to strengthen their conscience? I will tell you that there's actually hope for people's consciences to be strengthened and for them to change. Okay? There is pressure to let the weak oppress the strong. Oppression can actually go both ways. The strong can oppress the weak by just doing it without regard for the weak. Okay?

And that's oppression. And that's sin. But the weak can also oppress the strong by refusing to see what they are preventing their brothers from having. And you say, well, what do you mean? That's their conscience. You can't say anything to them about their conscience. And I say, well, sure you can. Paul does. He tells them they're wrong. Is that not teaching them and telling them they're wrong? You have this association. This is your conscience. I want you to know, you who have a weak conscience, this isn't a settled matter. I can make room. We will make room because of the love that Jesus has shown to us. We'll make room for your weak conscience. But it is a weak conscience. And we would all hope and pray that it would be strengthened. The weak ought to know that. You say, well, how is that any different than any of the other pressure that's put on to them if we just went ahead and eat? And I say, them knowing that their conscience is weak.

and that their brothers are sacrificing for their sake is different pressure. It is pressure, but it's different pressure than the pressure of everyone eating around them and them feeling like they don't have a choice but to do something that they believe is wrong. They're not actually being made to do something when they're told they're wrong. They're being made to know that there's an area where they need to grow. That's a difference, and it's an important difference. If you're strong, you might be able to think, If we just go ahead and eat, then they'll be strengthened. The way you make someone who's weak, the way you strengthen someone who's weak is you just make them do strong things and they get stronger. And Paul actually addresses that exact thing. He enters into this thought that we have. He says, for if someone sees you who have knowledge, you strong ones, you who are free to eat this meat and don't have any pangs of conscience, for if someone sees you who have knowledge dining in an idol's temple,

Will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat the things sacrificed to idols? Meaning, if they see you doing it and you're not stumbled by it, won't they be strengthened? And the answer is no. They will not be strengthened. They'll be defiled. They will be harmed by you going and doing that, by you exercising your liberty. It will cause them harm. And so pressuring them into participation is not the way. to teach them. Because he says just in the next verse, for through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined. The brother for whose sake Christ died. And so in strong-arming your brother, Paul says what you're doing is you're sinning against God. Think of it this way. Why does he say the brother for whose sake Christ died? Why does he bring that in there? Well, because he's talking about, he's comparing sacrifice for others. He's saying if Christ was willing to give up his life to endure the full wrath of his father against all of the sins that that man committed, if he was willing to endure that level of pain and suffering for that man, if he's willing to do that, if Jesus was willing to do that so his sins could be forgiven, is it too much to ask you not to eat meat for that same man? That's the argument Paul's making. It's a pretty strong one. You say, well, I don't like that argument. And I say, yeah, I know. The reason you don't like that argument is because you can't argue back against it. You're wrong. You're right.

but you're wrong. The facts are on your side, but your actions are wrong. If you think that pressure is the way to strengthen your brother's conscience, bearing with, letting him see you love him is very motivating and very strengthening. Now, that's the text. Paul ends it by saying, I would go without meat for the rest of my life. I would never eat meat again if it caused my brother to stumble. And so he puts himself out there and he says, I know I'm not there. I don't have this issue. For me, all things are lawful. I can do it. But you guys, you live together. So you need to do this thing. He says, but if food caused my brother to stumble, in verse 13, I will never eat meat again. So what is he saying? He's saying, I'm not even there.

I don't want word to get back to my brothers that I did something and have that cause them to stumble. That's how much I care. It's not just that I can do it while I'm off by myself and as long as they're not with me observing me doing it, then that's okay. He says, no, I would never eat meat again in my life if it would cause my brother to stumble. If word of hearing that Paul did it and them going, well, what am I supposed to do? If that were to get back to them, he says, I'll never eat meat again in my life so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. So you see how important it is. Now, Our issue is not food. Now, there is issue of food in the church. Gluten, alcohol, GMOs, and all the rest. That's a talk. We could have that talk, but that's not the need of the day. We can talk about that some other time. There's plenty to say about it, particularly applying everything we've just learned to that situation. But that's not the greatest need of the day.

The greatest need of the day is our consciences with regard to the coronavirus. Okay? Every one of us has an opinion, a deeply held, strong conviction about what is right and what is wrong and why. Okay? All of us have it. All of us have it. My kids ask me, Daddy, Daddy, what do you think? Why do they ask me what I think? Because they want to have a strong opinion about it. And it drives them nuts that I don't encourage them to have a strong opinion because what do my kids need to have a strong opinion about coronavirus for? Other than they can disagree with somebody or look down on somebody who differs. And I'm just using my kids as an example. They're just like us. Now, we could sit and sort out all of the details. Was it a virus? Is it a flu or is it a pandemic? Is there government overreach or is there not?

What should a lockdown look like? And what should a quarantine look like? And how should it be done? And how should churches be affected by it? And are the church's constitutional rights being infringed upon? Those are just some of the things people are fighting about with their brothers. Fighting about. And I know personally that in our church, there's a good bit of disagreement about the answers to all those questions. And it shouldn't surprise you for me to say that. So do you think we should just sit down, have a big roundtable virtual meeting, and sort it all out and figure out what God really said about all this? I don't think we do because I think Paul just told us what God really said about it. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. And in seasons of unrest, we all cling to knowledge like it's going to save us and it's going to vindicate us. And it's going to make all of our anger and all of our frustration and all of our fears justified.

And my contention is that's not the point. It's not even close to the point. The point is that at some point, we are going to be able to get back together. And I say that. I just want you to know. I say that knowing that some of you listening to me think we should have never stopped meeting at all. And I know that others of you don't have a clue when we should start getting back together, but you don't think it should be right now and probably not soon. And then there's a bunch of people in the middle. Now, you just think for a minute. Let's just look out into the future a little bit. At some point, we're going to be able to get back together, right? And some of us are going to want to get back to normal, which is close standing, hugging, and all the rest. And others of us are going to say, that's not what the recommendations were, and I don't want this to become worse, and I certainly don't want to be the one that communicates it. I'm not even worried about my own life, per se, but I don't want to have contributed to the harm or even to the death of someone else. And for that reason, I'm not comfortable hugging you. So what are you going to do then? Are you going to write to the Apostle Paul and say, a dispute arose amongst us as to whether we could hug each other?

And whether that was appropriate or whether we're sinning by not communicating our affection to one another? Are we going to despise one another if someone decides that when we are able to open back up that their consciences are such that they're not comfortable coming back just yet? Will we despise them? What if your small group starts meeting and all of a sudden somebody says, I want to come to small group. Can I say that? Am I allowed to say that? Will I be despised? Am I not a real Christian? These are the things people think. This is what the Corinthians would have thought. And I promise you, those are the thoughts that you and I and our brothers and sisters will have. And all I'm trying to do is acknowledge it before it gets too far out of control and prepare you to say, loving your brothers and honoring their consciences, especially if they're weak and even if you're right, is more important than getting what you want. I don't want our response as a church.

to this coronavirus and all of the things that surround it to be what marks us and divides us ultimately as a church, saying, well, those are the people who, well, those are the people who. Different of us will have different convictions about it. Some of us have never been worried about it. I mean, some of us are all up in a tizzy about the constitutionality of everything the governors are doing. Just been angry about it the whole time. Some of us think this is a flu and that it's not as big of a deal as everyone's made it out to be and that the reaction has been way over the top. And others of us think that that person is worse than stupid. Some of us are afraid of getting it. Some of us are afraid of communicating it. Some of us are so tired of having our lives disrupted that we don't even think about what it could do to us or to our brothers if we meet.

We just want it in the rearview mirror. And we're willing to take whatever unknown potential risks there are in the future. We're willing to have them. We don't care. You don't have to tell me about it. I'll just hit that speed bump when it comes. And this is us. So the danger is that because this is us, we would bite and devour each other. But I don't want that to be the case. What I want is for us to love each other and to honor and to respect each other's consciences. You can rest assured that if everything just kind of moves back to normal over the course of the next couple of months and we're able to be back worshiping together during that time, that if somebody is still staying home six or eight months from now because they're worried about it, you can trust that they have elders and pastor who love them and who will help them. Your despising of them won't help. We'll work on it.

We all love each other and we all trust God. And that's what we have to keep paramount in this issue. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do something, especially if it causes your brothers to stumble. And I realize that in whatever way we open back up, in whatever time frame we open back up, it will make some of you frustrated because it took so long and it will make others of you frustrated because it's happening so soon. And the rest of you will be going, who's right? Who am I supposed to, like, which side do I belong on? I don't want there to be sides. I want us to trust God. I want you to pray for the elders as we talk about this. And I want you to rely on your elders and on me to help you if you're having trouble. I'm not going to despise you if you call me and want to talk to me. None of our elders are going to be upset or your small group leaders aren't going to be upset if you call them and you say, this is what I got going on. Nobody's going to be upset. They're not allowed to be, okay?

There, I'll say it. They're not allowed to be upset at you for disagreeing with them. How's that? I want us to love each other. I want us to be free of this. And I want us to minimize the potential for disunity. The beauty of a church ought to be her diversity. Okay? And there's a difference between unity. It's a weird thing. You can have unity and diversity. And you might think, well, how's that possible? And the reason that... You ask the question, how is that possible? I think because you've confused unity with uniformity. You've been around groups of people where everyone's the same. And there's lots of pressure to be just the same. Whatever the issue is, this is how it is. And if you're going to come here, that's what it's going to be. What can it be in churches? Homeschool? Covenant renewal worship? Weekly communion? Baptism? Special certain types of music? King James only Bibles?

No gluten, social justice, intersectionality, right? There's all kinds of stuff that churches say, this is who we are. Women don't say this is who we are, but you come in and you're like, I know who they are. I know what they're like. I can smell it. I can see it. Everyone's the same. That's uniformity. That's not the same thing as unity. Our unity comes through Jesus Christ. He's what unifies us. Because you're a sinner and I'm a sinner. And everyone else in our church is a sinner. And we're unified and made brothers and sisters in Christ. And just like in your family, you have kids that look different, that have different gifts, that have different talents, that have different weaknesses. That's good. That's as it should be. Okay? So, if that's true in our houses, because we see that God gives families to us in this manner. You have boys and you have girls and you have light skin and dark skin and tall and short and skinny and fat.

All kinds of stuff. Good at sports. Not good at sports. Liking to read. Bookish. Musical. Artistic. Construction. Build it. Great diversity. And yet unity because they're all one family. Same is true in the church. Unity, not uniformity, and diversity. Diversity of gifting and diversity of conscience. Love over all of it. Because Christ died for you just like he died for your brother. so that you could have peace with God and with one another. That's the point. So as we go forward and as we consider how to position ourselves and what to do as a church, I want you to remember love over knowledge. Let's pray.