Love Builds for God

1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28

Paul writes about being vegetarian, because the churches in the Gentile cities most meats were prepared in a temple in honor of an idol.  Of course Paul and others are quite aware there really are not other gods or idols, and thus the meat is fine to eat.  However, Paul realizes that knowledge does not transfer smoothly to new believers, or believers whose family still worships at the pagan temples.  As they discover the reality of the one true God through Jesus at the table, they may slip as Paul explains again in Galatians:

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again? (4:8-9)

Paul sees this as an issue, but it is not knowledge that ultimately works to keep people focused on Jesus, it is love.  Knowledge puffs, but love builds.  Paul writes latter about maturing in the faith and you will notice knowledge is not mentioned:

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (13:11-13)

Not only is it love that is more important we do not see clearly until face to face.  Which brings me to the Gospel scripture.  If we think we have the correct knowledge, we may be just puffed up.  In this scene with Jesus according to Mark it is not those following Jesus, those listening to Jesus, it is the unclean spirit that recognizes Jesus as the “Holy One of God.”  This is a humbling reminder that Love is what builds up God.