Reflections on 1 Corinthians 8

1 Corinthians 08 (Contemporary English Version)
1. In your letter you asked me about food offered to idols. All of us know something about this subject. But knowledge makes us proud of ourselves, while love makes us helpful to others.
   
2. In fact, people who think they know so much don't know anything at all.
   
3. But God has no doubts about who loves him.
   
4. Even though food is offered to idols, we know that none of the idols in this world are alive. After all, there is only one God.
   
5. Many things in heaven and on earth are called gods and lords, but none of them really are gods or lords.
   
6. We have only one God, and he is the Father. He created everything, and we live for him. Jesus Christ is our only Lord. Everything was made by him, and by him life was given to us.
   
7. Not everyone knows these things. In fact, many people have grown up with the belief that idols have life in them. So when they eat meat offered to idols, they are bothered by a weak conscience.
   
8. But food doesn't bring us any closer to God. We are no worse off if we don't eat, and we are no better off if we do.
   
9. Don't cause problems for someone with a weak conscience, just because you have the right to eat anything.
   
10. You know all this, and so it doesn't bother you to eat in the temple of an idol. But suppose a person with a weak conscience sees you and decides to eat food that has been offered to idols.
    
11. Then what you know has destroyed someone Christ died for.
    
12. When you sin by hurting a follower with a weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
    
13. So if I hurt one of the Lord's followers by what I eat, I will never eat meat as long as I live.
    
    

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    Paul moves from the topic of marriage, in chapter 7, to the topic of helping those who are weaker in their faith, in chapter 8. He sets up his discussion of the topic by addressing one's motivation. Will the one stronger in their faith be motivated in their actions toward the weaker brother by their knowledge or their love? If by knowledge, then they are in danger of becoming inflated with pride and of harming the weaker brother. But if motivated by love they can build up the weaker brother. So between the two options, operating out of knowledge is a selfish and ignorant choice while operating out of love is a selfless and informed choice.
    
    The principle of acting out of love toward a Christian brother rather than out of our knowledge can be applied to many situations, but in this instance, Paul applied it to the situation of eating meat offered to idols. Some, if not many, of the Corinthian Christians had come out of the Roman religions that worshipped idols. Although the knowledgeable Christian knew that idols were nothing and that "Food will not make us acceptable to God. We are not inferior if we don't eat, and we are not better if we do eat," (8:8) the conscience of those who had come out of these pagan religions was still troubled by eating this meat offered in worship to idols. The liberty of the knowledgeable Christians to eat the meat without pricking their conscience could ruin their weaker brothers. Therefore, rather than being critical of them they should exercise love and consideration toward them.
    
    Paul did not issue a command not to eat meat offered to idols. The Corinthians were fully within their rights to eat such meat. He did, however, say they were sinning against Christ to "wound their (the brother's) weak conscience" by eating the meat. (8:12) He also stated his own intent: "if food causes my brother to fall, I will never again eat meat, so that I won't cause my brother to fall." (8:13)  It should be pointed out that this giving up of Paul's rights in consideration of another is for the benefit of a weaker brother, not the satisfaction of a religious bigot.