The Nugget:
1 Corinthians 8:9 But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.
My Comment:
This is the key reference for what I call the “Stumbling block Doctrine.” Your pastor or Sunday school teacher may never have preached or taught about this specific doctrine, but it is all-important.
The idea is that we are never to do something, say something, or believe something in error (such as mistaken doctrines of false cults or mainline churches). We know a belief is in error when it contradicts the explicit teaching of Scripture.
Jesus was very careful to observe this principle (Matthew 17:27). We should be too.
When it comes to our actions, we must take care that what we do properly represents the God and Christ we serve. This means our demeanor or attitude, our dress, the people we choose for our closest or best friends, the music we listen to, the language we use–it is too easy to fail in our speech–and how we spend our time should all reflect positively upon our testimony for our Lord Jesus Christ. Someone–I seem to recall it was Doctor Bob Jones Senior, noted evangelist and the founder of Bob Jones University–said that we are to live so as to be “show window material for our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is a very high standard to reach, and we will often fall short, but by God’s grace as we grow spiritually we may develop the Christian character such a standard represents.
A very touchy and sensitive application of this principle pertains to the Bible doctrines we choose to believe. Of course, if the doctrines are truly taught by the Bible, we certainly ought to believe them! But some widely believed doctrines are not taught by the Bible itself, but are mistaken understandings of what the Bible actually teaches.
Jesus commanded His disciples in Acts 1:8 that they were to go to the Jew first with the Gospel message. In online discussions with one Jewish person in particular, I learned that the doctrine of Transubstantiation is a very serious stumbling block that makes it most difficult for those who are Jews today and even in the past to possibly consider that Jesus Christ could be the Messiah or that Christianity is true because such a doctrine clearly contradicts what is written in the Hebrew Scriptures so it cannot possibly be true. And the Jews are right.
Jews consider the drinking of the wine, taught in some Christian churches to be the very blood of Jesus Christ, and the eating of the bread, taught in some Christian churches to be the very flesh of Jesus Christ, as nothing short of cannibalism. Jewish Scriptures (our Old Testament) clearly forbid such a practice as drinking blood (Leviticus 17:11, 12) and eating human flesh.
Christian churches that teach Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation–the “actual” or the “real” presence of Christ in the elements of the Lord’s Supper, Communion, or the Eucharist–are guilty of teaching and believing false doctrine, doctrine that serves as a stumbling block to bringing Jews to faith in the true Messiah, Jesus Christ. Belief in such false doctrine stems from the failure to understand some very frequently used figures of speech in the Bible, particularly the figure Metaphor. Jesus frequently employed the figure metaphor, as when He said “I am the door” (John 10:9. Does such a statement mean he has hinges and a door knob? Of course not.
So, when Jesus took bread and said, “Take, eat: this is my body” (Matthew 26:26), the is is metaphor, and means “this represents my body.” The proof is in the very context: they were not eating His actual flesh, for He was standing very much alive right before them; rather, they were eating bread, which symbolized His body.
So, when Jesus took the cup, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink ye all of it” (Matthew 26:27), adding “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28), once again we have the figure metaphor, signaled by the “is,” which therefore means “this represents my blood.” All the blood in the literal body of Jesus remained at that point as literal blood coursing through His veins; none of those present ever drank the actual blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and neither has anyone else done so since.
The claim of some churches to miraculously transform the physical elements of bread and wine during the Eucharist or Communion or Lord’s Supper into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ is a falsehood. This falsehood is a stumbling block, and you may be very sure that Christ did not intend anything He instituted or authorized to be a stumbling block to His own people, the Jews.
The Bible has much to say about stumbling blocks, and the cross references furnished below for 1 Corinthians 8:9 will help you make a careful study from the Bible itself about what I have called the “stumbling block doctrine.”
For those who desire to DIG DEEPER into this subject:
(1) Consult the cross references given in Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible on page 1313 for 1 Corinthians 8:9.
(2) Consult the cross references given in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge on page 1333 or in Logos 5 or 6 Bible software for 1 Corinthians 8:9.
(3) Most people today do not have access to those two resources, so I have posted cross references for this passage as I have developed them even more completely for your study as given below:
1 Corinthians 8:9. take heed. ver. 1 Cor 8:10. 1 Cor 10:23, 24, 29. Mt 18:6, 7, 10. Lk 17:1, 2. Ro 14:20, 21. Ga 5:13. 1 P 2:16. 2 P 2:19. lest by any means. +*Mt 17:27. 2 Cor 6:3. Phil 2:4. +*1 Tim 2:9. liberty. or, power. or, authority, or right. 1 Cor 9:4, 5, 6, 12, 18g. 1 Cor 10:23. Song 7:13. Re 22:14. a stumblingblock. 1 Cor 1:23. 10:32. Le 19:14. 2 K 10:29. Ps 119:165mg. Is 8:14. 57:14. Je 6:21. 13:16. Ezk 3:20. 7:19. 14:3, 7. 44:12mg. Zep 1:3. +Ro 9:32, 33. 11:9. 14:13-15, 20. Ga 5:13. 1 P 2:8. Re 2:14. weak. ver. 1 Cor 8:7, 12. 1 Cor 9:22. Is 35:3. +Ro 14:1, 2. 15:1. 2 Cor 11:21. Ga 2:13.