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Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and I want to welcome you to Day 5 of our look through 1
Corinthians Chapter 8. We're going to take a broader look today at how do you
know right from wrong in your life, or whether it's right or wrong for you to do
in the moment. How do I decide if something is morally right or wrong?

And when you look at this in the Scripture, you're going to find that the idea
of morality is above just the Ten Commandments, a list of rules and regulations.
It also has to do with relationships. Our relationship with God and our
relationship with other people can decide if something is right or wrong.

We just looked yesterday at the fact that Paul said it's a sin if I hurt another
believer, even though it could be right for me "legally," it's still wrong. It
is a sin if I hurt someone else. So how do I decide?

How do I walk through this? I thought it might be good at the end of this week
of looking at 1 Corinthians 8 just to walk through, based on 1 Corinthians 8 and
some other verses in the Scripture, just ten things in my life, in your life, to
walk through when I'm questioning is something right or something wrong. These
are guidelines from the guidebook.

I've always thought the Bible is one of the greatest guidebooks that you can
imagine. It's the map for life, how to get through life. There's a lot of
people, as we walk through these principles, who are a little uncomfortable with
what we're going to be talking about, because they want the Bible to be the kind
of book that is a rule book.

Just give me the list. I look to section 13, paragraph 5, subparagraph 3, and
then I know what I'm supposed to do. That's not the way the Scripture talks to
us.

God speaks to us relationally. So we're going to talk about priorities. We're
going to talk about how to do what God wants us to do.

How do I know right from wrong in a certain situation? How do I decide? Most of
these are going to be fairly obvious, and then we're going to see the depth of
God's Word as we walk through these.

How do I know right from wrong? Ten questions. If the answer to any of these is
yes, then that activity for you is morally wrong.

Question number one, does the Bible specifically say no? If the Bible
specifically says not to do it, then it's wrong for me to do. That's an obvious
one.

It may not be obvious in some of the areas of life that we think about, because
we haven't studied God's Word. Obviously, we're not supposed to kill. Thou shalt
not kill.

But how about other things like moral choices, like gambling? Proverbs 13 and 11
says, "Money that comes easily disappears quickly, but money that's gathered
little by little will grow. " There are principles in God's Word with some of
these habits that help us to realize, if I can win it all, it's going to
disappear just as quickly.

So why would I want to invest one moment in that? Or we talked yesterday about
drinking. The Bible says in Proverbs 23, 20, "Don't drink too much wine or eat
too much food.

" Don't drink too much. Ephesians 5 says, "Don't get drunk on wine. " That's
pretty clear.

There are a lot of verses about drinking in the Bible. What to drink, what not
to drink. Yeah, Jesus and his disciples drank.

They drank wine, but they could not be right and get drunk. The scripture is
very clear about that. There's all kinds of things in this, whether the Bible
says yes or no, that have to do with our lives today and how we live.

What does the Bible have to say about television? What does the Bible have to
say about movies? What does the Bible have to say about smoking, about drugs?

The truth is you have to go to the principles of God's Word there. And we're
going to see some of those principles exhibited as we walk through this list.
But as you walk through this list, realize that it's really not so much about
your list as living out God's Word in your life.

The legalist always wants to give you their list, but the one who wants to love
is always looking for, "How can I live out God's will? " And the first part of
living out God's will is, as I read through God's Word, am I seeing someplace
where God's specifically telling me, "No, don't do this. " He might be telling
everybody, "No," or he might come across a verse where he specifically says,
"No" to you about a certain activity.

Well, don't do that. That's how you know right from wrong. Does it give the
appearance of evil?

First Thessalonians 5, 22 talks about this. Don't do anything that has the
appearance of evil. Ephesians 5 says, "Don't even have the hint of immorality.

" As believers, I know that sometimes we play a game of what I call spiritual
chicken. We see how close we can get to the line of sin without really sinning.
And the Scripture says to know right from wrong, you don't try to get close to
the line.

You don't even get a hint of the line of right from wrong. You stay away from
that line. You don't even get close if you know that it's wrong.

So how do I know if it's right or wrong? If I'm getting close to that line, it's
wrong. It's wrong for me.

It's wrong for you. It's wrong according to God's Word because he says don't
even have an appearance of evil in your life. Third question, does it cause me
to associate with the wrong people?

Is this right or wrong for me? Well, if it causes me to associate with the wrong
people, then I'm going to be in trouble in my life. You're going to see later in
1 Corinthians chapter 15, don't be misled.

Bad company corrupts good character. If I associate with the wrong partners, if
I let other people into my life in such a way that they become an influence on
my life or go in the wrong direction, it's going to hurt me. I've got to realize
I influence others, but others also influence me.

That does not mean that you're not salt and light to a world who doesn't have
Jesus. You don't go places where there are unbelievers. It does mean that those
who are not following Jesus don't become your best friends.

That you don't spend the most of your time with those who have different values
than those of Christ because you realize how strongly you can be influenced by
others. Does it cause me to associate with the wrong people? Question number
four, does it control my life?

If it controls my life, then it's wrong for me. We look at this back in 1
Corinthians chapter 6. If something controls my life, then it's wrong for me.

So is smoking wrong? Well, if it becomes an addiction and it controls your life,
yes. And the chances, if you look at the statistics about this, that a
first-time smoker would become addicted is 9 in 10.

Gamblers and Anonymous estimates 12 million compulsive gamblers in this country.
The potential for the addiction of something like gambling or smoking is very
high. So why would I want to get involved in something like that when the
scripture says don't let anything become the leader, the master of your life,
except for Jesus Christ?

Now I could give you, I sort of did already, and I'm a little bit nervous about
the fact that I mentioned a couple things because I could give you a list of
things that we become addicted to, enslaved by, and then you just say I'll stay
away from that little list. The truth is, you can get addicted to just about
anything. You can get enslaved by just about anything.

You could be watching TV, it could be exercise, it could be your pet, your
goldfish, it could be some hobby, it could be just about anything that begins to
control your life. When you realize you're thinking about something all the
time, it's leading your life. So does it control my life?

If the answer is yes, you say no to it. Number five, and we looked at this in 1
Corinthians 6 also, does it violate God's temple? God's temple is your body.

God's temple is that Spirit of Christ living in you. And some people have made
of the cathedral of God an ashtray, of the temple of God a garbage dump, of the
residence of the presence of God just a biological machine, a sexual machine. If
it violates God's temple, the answer is no.

Even if you can't find a specific verse about it, if you know it's violating
God's temple, what you're going to eat, what you're going to put in your mouth,
what you're going to do with your body, the answer is no, I'm not going to do
that because I want to do what's right in God's sight because I know He loves
me. He made me to do what's right. That's where I best connect with Him and the
world around me.

Question number six, and it's the one that we're focusing on this week, is does
it cause a weaker brother or sister to stumble? It's morally wrong to hurt a
brother and sister in Christ for whom Christ died. And we've focused on that one
this week.

Question number seven, is it being done apart from faith? Anything that is done
without believing it is right is a sin, Romans 14-23 says. If I believe it's
wrong, if I can't have faith that it's the right thing to do, then don't do it.

Now, I'm not talking about false guilt. Some people go on guilt trips and make
even good things wrong, like your sexual relationship with your spouse. They
make it even wrong because of things that other people have put into their head.

I'm not talking about what the world might tell you is wrong or your conscience
tells you is wrong. Faith comes from hearing God's word, not listening to your
conscience. So it's faith based on God's word that tells you some things that
you can't do, and it tells you some things that you can do.

And if based on God's word, as you're reading His word, your faith says don't do
that, you don't do that. In fact, not only do you not do that, you realize that
would be morally wrong for me to do. Question number eight, is it against the
law?

Is it against the law of the land? Question 13 tells us that we have to obey the
government. God's put the government in place for a reason.

So if it breaks a law, then I don't do it. Now, you don't agree with the law,
then get the law changed. You have that right here in America at least, other
places, then you're going to have to live with that law.

Is it against the law of God? The early apostles taught us that they preached
even though there was a law against it. Then you realize you're going to need to
take the consequences of the law.

But you know you always are living under the authority of that law. Most of the
time it's not about preaching, it's about drugs, or it's about some other thing
that people say, "Well, I don't believe in that law, so I'm going to do what I
think is right. " Well, the scripture says if there's a law against it, then
it's wrong for me to do.

Number nine is have I fallen into legalism? We talked about this yesterday. You
can be doing the right thing for the wrong reason, and so it's morally wrong.

Some people, this might shock you, some people going to church are morally
wrong. They're going to church to buy God off. They're going to church to get
God to get their business in a better situation.

They're going to church to get God to save them. They're going to church to make
up for some past wrong. They're morally wrong because the only way you can
become right with God is through Jesus Christ.

So if there's some legalism behind it, I feel like I'm living this list of rules
and now God has to love me, then that's wrong. Have I fallen into legalism? And
then there's a tenth question, and this might be the only one many of us need.

Number ten, does it draw me away from Jesus? Just a basic rule in my life, if
there's something I'm doing that makes me feel further from the Lord as I do it,
don't do it. Why would I do that?

If it makes me feel further from who Jesus wants to be in my life, who I need
Him, the strength that I need from Him in my daily life. If it makes you feel
further from Jesus, then you don't do it. If it caused you to feel closer to
Jesus, then you do it.

You act on that. Does it draw me away from Jesus? And when we talk about right
and wrong and deciding that, we prayed yesterday for God's wisdom.

I want to pray today together for God's strength in that, that we can live out
the strength of our character of convictions. Lord, as you give us wisdom, I
pray you'd give us strength. And I pray as followers of Jesus Christ, you would
help me, help us together to be people of conviction.

People who are living out who you've made us to be, not based on some fearful
attitude that somehow you're going to punish us if we don't do this or do do
that in the wrong way, but instead based on love, a conviction that's based on
love that the world around us can look at and see those are people who are
shining brightly because of Jesus Christ in them. Jesus, give us that strength.
Give us that ability in this world today because we want people to be drawn to
you.

We humble ourselves and ask that even through our lives, as imperfect as we are,
that you would grow us and you'd change us and give us new convictions so people
can see who you are, Jesus. Let your love shine through us, we pray. In your
name, amen.

Next week, we look at chapter 9 together. Paul continues to talk about the
powerful impact that God can make through your life when you understand how
freedom and rights and sacrifice and love work together.