The holy man noticed people sitting around the table and the people were sickly looking and thin.  The people appeared famished.  They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms, and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful.  But because the handles were longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. 

          The holy man shuddered at the sight of the people’s misery and suffering.   The Lord said, “You have seen hell.”   The Lord opened the door to the second room and it was exactly the same as the first one.  There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man’s mouth water.  The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well-nourished and delighted, laughing and talking.   The holy man said to the Lord, “If this is heaven, I don’t understand.”  “It is simple,” said the Lord.  “It requires but one skill.  These people have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.”  (adapted from Homiletics, vol. 21, no. 1, page 37)

          This parable highlights the problem Paul is facing with the Corinthian congregation.  Certain members of the church are trying to feed themselves with long-handled spoons and in the process are bleeding the rest of the congregation dry.  These long-handled spoons are full of a scrumptious and seductive stew.  It is the stew of knowledge.  At first glance this knowledge is not all bad, and in fact, Paul himself seems to boast that he has this very same knowledge as do many within the Corinthian congregation.

         And again, this knowledge is pretty good stuff.  Paul highlights in the text the contours of this knowledge: it is knowing that “no idol in the world really exists;” it is knowing that “there is no God but one;”  it is the recognition that “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.” 

          We have to step back and acknowledge that this is pretty good knowledge as Paul rounds out the theological depths of this Corinthian knowledge: “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.”

           Does anybody here have any problem with this knowledge?  You shouldn’t.  There is only one God.  There is only one Lord, Jesus Christ.  Idols have no life and therefore have no power.  And sorry to you chocolate lovers out there who would swear that chocolate is divine– food doesn’t bring us any closer to God, nor does food drive us any further away from God.  Good stuff to know.  Great knowledge to have, right?

          Absolutely!  Only, Paul has already played his trump card early, early on in this text.  He warns right up front that we have to be careful with the knowledge we possess.  Barely into the first verse of chapter 8 Paul warns that “knowledge puffs up.”  I love Paul’s terminology here – knowledge puffs up.  It’s a vivid, colorful image – puffing up!

          And we all know what Paul means here.  I was not very good at math growing up in school (some elders in the church here would tell you I’m still not very good at math) but growing up there was this so-called friend of mine who devoured math like it was the air he was breathing.  And when you asked this guy for help with your math homework, the guy who had the knowledge, he would always help in the most puffy, trumped up, arrogant way: why did you do the problem that way?  What were you thinking?  What are you trying to do, look it’s easy!!! 

          We all know how knowledge can puff someone up, make them feel real big and real smart and real, well, knowledgeable!  We all know the person in the school or at work or in the church who always seems to be plugged into things and always wants to say, “Did you know so and so?”  And of course the answer is no, I didn’t know so and so.  And at that moment the know-it-all has a knowledge that you don’t have and puff, puff, puff goes the ego and the power. 

          A majority of the Corinthian congregation, including the Apostle Paul, possess a knowledge that is not all bad: there is only one God.  There is only one Lord, Jesus Christ.  Idols are not alive and therefore have no power.  What we eat or what we don’t eat doesn’t matter in our relationship to God.  Only Paul warns, be careful with knowledge.  Be careful with knowledge.  Because when it comes to true Christian fellowship and community, love is what counts.  Paul would say that knowledge is one thing, but in the end it is love that makes the difference.  In Paul’s words, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (verse 1b).  Knowledge can make for arrogance, but love edifies.  

          At stake in this passage is the issue of meat sacrificed to pagan idols.  Is it okay for Christians to eat this meat which could be bought or consumed at pagan temples following its consecration to pagan gods?  Paul says no problem, eat away.  Why?  Because there is only one God; there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ; idols aren’t alive and do not exist; food sacrificed to them is therefore of no consequence.  This is good, sound, reasonable, right knowledge.  Only, there are those among us in Christian community who have not arrived, in their consciences, at such knowledge.  For them the meat sacrificed to idols is tainted, for them it is the meat dedicated to other gods that Christians should not consume.  What to do, then, when good, sound, reasonable knowledge comes face to face in Christian community with those for whom the knowledge is one thing, the conscience another? 

          Paul says love must prevail.  Paul teaches that knowledge must yield to love.  Paul says all the knowledge in the world will do no good if our knowledge leads to a behavior that causes another to stumble away from the faith.  Paul’s words are strong and deeply bold at this point.  If you eat meat sacrificed to idols in front fellow Christians whose consciences in this matter are weak, then you have destroyed the very people whom Christ died for. 

          Again Paul adds strongly, if your knowledge leads to behaviors that are offensive to fellow Christians with whom you share community, then you have sinned against members of your family, and not just them, but “you sin against Christ” (verse 12).  If knowledge, no matter how reasonable and sound, is used in Christian community in a way that destroys the faith of a fellow Christian, absolutely nothing is gained and everything is lost.  

          What can we say of Paul’s ethic that knowledge must yield to love in Christian community?  Is Paul implying that a sound and reasonable course for a congregation to pursue must be ditched if a few in the community object on grounds of conscience?  Is Paul implying that congregations dare not engage in potentially heated debates over issues when the debate may lead some to fall away?  Absolutely not.  Paul is acknowledging that life in Christian community can get rather interesting from time to time.  Issues arise.  Problems must be confronted.  Pay attention to how you confront them.  Be careful in the process of deciding as a community of faith, Paul warns.  If you lead only with knowledge, knowledge puffs up and knowledge will soon look for winners and losers; knowledge will just as soon divide and conquer and overwhelmingly prevail. 

          Love, on the other hand, builds up.  Love edifies the community.  Love does not shy away from confrontation but seeks the nitty gritty work of listening and discerning and pondering deeply together as a community of faith because in Christian community you are a member of me, one for whom Christ has died, one for whom, like me, Christ is alive to.  Paul believes deeply that for authentic Christian community to prevail in matters of faith and conscience and process, the attitude must be I am not here to best you or beat you or consume you with my knowledge.  I am with you in Christian community and I am obligated to love you with a love, Paul will later write in 1 Corinthians 13, that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”