1 Corinthians · chapter 8 of 16
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1 Corinthians 8 answers the question of whether Christians may eat food offered to idols. Paul affirms that idols are nothing and that there is one God and one Lord, but warns that knowledge puffs up while love builds up. So the strong must give up their freedom if it makes a brother with a weak conscience stumble.
In Corinth much of the meat sold and served at banquets had been offered in pagan temples. Christians wondered whether they could eat it. Paul does not answer only with a rule: he gives a principle that goes beyond food and applies to any matter on which believers hold different convictions.
Paul begins with the topic of food sacrificed to idols. He acknowledges that all have knowledge, but knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Anyone who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought; but anyone who loves God is known by him.
On eating food sacrificed to idols, Paul affirms that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no God but one. Even if there are many so-called gods and lords, for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
But not everyone has this knowledge. Some, accustomed until now to idols, eat the food as something sacrificed to an idol, and their weak conscience is defiled. Food does not bring us closer to God: we are no worse if we do not eat and no better if we do. Paul warns that their freedom must not become a stumbling block to the weak. If someone with knowledge is seen eating in an idol's temple, a weak brother might be emboldened to eat against his conscience, and so the one for whom Christ died is destroyed. Sinning against brothers by wounding their weak conscience is sinning against Christ. So Paul concludes that if food makes his brother fall, he will never eat meat, so that he will not make him stumble.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Paul says that knowledge puffs up but love builds up. Knowing what is right is not enough if it is used to feel superior; love is what builds the community.
For believers there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things. Paul affirms faith in one God and places Christ within that confession.
Paul warns that the freedom of the strong must not become a stumbling block to the weak. Having the right to something does not mean it is wise to use it always.
If what I eat makes my brother stumble, says Paul, I will never eat meat. Love is ready to give up a legitimate right to protect another's faith.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. — 1 Corinthians 8:1
Answer: That an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no God but one. — 1 Corinthians 8:4
Answer: One God, the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things. — 1 Corinthians 8:6
Answer: Because it is weak, their conscience is defiled. — 1 Corinthians 8:7
Answer: That the one for whom Christ died will be destroyed. — 1 Corinthians 8:11
Answer: Never to eat meat. — 1 Corinthians 8:13
1 Corinthians 8 is still useful for matters on which Christians think differently: music, entertainment, drink, clothing. Before insisting on our freedom, the chapter asks how it affects believers who are younger in the faith. Love may lead us to give up something permitted.
It also guards against the pride of the one who knows more. In a small group it is worth asking whether our opinions are used to build up or to show off. This principle does not ask us to accept sin: it asks us to protect a brother's conscience and lead him patiently toward a more mature faith.
1 Corinthians 8 ends with Paul's willingness to give up a right out of love for a brother. In chapter 9 he uses his own example to illustrate this principle: he too gave up legitimate rights as an apostle in order to win more people.
Because Paul distinguishes between theological truth and people's consciences. The idol has no divine reality, but some newly converted believers still associated that meat with worship. Acting against their conscience would harm them spiritually.
They are believers whose conscience is still tied to their idolatrous past and who would feel guilt eating that meat. They are not people who simply disapprove of what others do, but brothers who could be drawn into acting against their conscience.
No. The text speaks of not making a brother stumble and fall, not of avoiding every disagreement. Paul himself, elsewhere, defends Christian freedom against those who impose legalistic rules. The criterion is love and the other's spiritual good.