I Corinthians 8:1-4, 7-8 (NIV) 1Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. 3But the man who loves God is known by God. 4So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. 7But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
II Timothy 2:15-17a (RSV) 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16 Avoid such godless chatter, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17a and their talk will eat its way like gangrene.
Is it possible for truth and tolerance to meet? Can we give expression to our convictions in ways that also show respect for the rights and views of other people? That task requires the skills of a moral artist of the highest caliber. Paul is helping Timothy develop the skill of truth and tolerance when he says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.“ Truth refers to God’s master design for human life, and the moral artist begins here, with the conviction that truth about the way we are to live is found in Scripture as a whole, and in Jesus in particular.
I believe the key to rightly handling the word of truth is to stand under the Word of God. To stand under the word of truth is to discover that the Scriptures do not step politely into our life and sit down where we direct. Rather, we find that Scripture is often “the troubler of Israel,” and we are Israel. When we stand under the word of truth, it can wreak havoc with our comfortable faith, overturning our pet truths, and piecing our best-laid defenses.
If standing under the Word is the key to rightly handling it, how then do we do that? It requires vulnerable listening. We all come to the Word with pieces of armor on. Vulnerable listening is the willingness to let the Word strip that armor from us. The most common piece of armor we wear is sheer “busy-ness.” We become so wrapped up in all the things we have to do that we forget to give first and foremost attention to listening to the voice of God in the Word. Paul himself is an example of truth and tolerance meeting. He could denounce in some of the strongest language found in Scripture those who were vying for personal power and undermining the gospel of grace just as it was beginning to bear fruit in the lives of men and women for years lost to the love of God. At the same time he could call for tolerance of those who ate food offered to idols for the very same reason. Don’t damage the delicate flower with something that is not important.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 27, 1991
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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