1 Corinthians 8
Lipscomb1 Corinthians 8:1
Now concerning things sacrificed to idols:—Here Paul introduces eating meats offered to idols, and the treatment of idolaters. The style of introducing the subject indicates that the Corinthians had asked him questions concerning what was right in regard to these matters. The Christians at Corinth and throughout the Gentile countries had been reared in idolatry, and revered and worshiped idols. Idols were worshiped by sacrificing animals to them. [When an animal was offered in sacrifice to an idol, or to a false god represented by an idol, only a small part, such as the legs wrapped in fat, or the intestines, was consumed by the fire on the altar. The remainder was eaten by the sacrificer and his friends, or those who were invited to the sacrificial feast, which took place either in the temple or in the adjoining grove, and to these feasts Christians were invited (verse 10); or the remainder of the flesh, after what was burnt in honor of the idol, as their perquisite by the priests, would be sold by them in the markets, and the heathen would partake of it as meat of peculiar sanctity.]
It became a question at once: How shall Christians regard and treat these idols and meats offered to them? In the consultation, held by the apostles at Jerusalem, in reference to the circumcising of the Gentiles, they wrote to the Gentile Christians to “abstain from things sacrificed to idols.” (Acts 15:29). When they were first converted to Christ, it seems that they were commanded to abstain from meats offered to them, because while they were yet fresh from the worship of idols, and their consciences were tender in regard to them, the eating of meats offered would tend to revive their reverence for them, and lead them back into idolatry. So they were commanded to abstain from it. As they grew stronger in Christ, and came to know that an idol was nothing, they might eat without their conscience being defiled by eating. The question arose: Shall those who can eat without defiling their consciences be prohibited in its use?
[At this day we can scarcely realize how closely this question affected the whole life of the early Christians. For not only was the worship of the Gentiles sacrificial, but this worship was not confined to the temple precincts, but extended itself to their social gatherings, and even domestic meals.]
We know that we all have knowledge.—All Christians had knowledge that there is but one God, and that idols are nothing.
Knowledge puffeth up,—Knowledge, without the love of God, puffeth up with pride, makes one conceited, self-sufficient, and disregardful of the rights of others. [As a matter of fact, too well known to be denied, men of keen insight into moral and spiritual truths are sometimes prone to despise the less enlightened that stumble among scruples that constantly come before them. The knowledge that is not guarded by humility and love does harm both to its possessor and to other Christians. It puffs up its possessor with scorn, and it alienates and embitters the less enlightened. Knowledge which does not take into consideration the difficulties and scruples of brethren in Christ cannot be admired or commended, for though in itself a good thing and capable of being used for the advancement of the cause of Christ, divorced from love can do good neither to him who possesses it nor to the cause of Christ. It is too often the case that possessors of such knowledge glory in themselves as the men of deep spiritual insight and valiant soldiers of the cross. It is not by knowledge alone that the church can solidly grow. Such knowledge does sometimes produce an appearance of growth, a puffed up, and unhealthy, mushroom growth.]
but love edifieth.—Love to God makes one strong in faith and Christian character, helpful to others, and leads him to look to the good of others, even at the sacrifice of his own rights. This shows that learning without religion, the only basis of love, is not helpful to the world.
1 Corinthians 8:2
If any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth not yet as he ought to know;—One confident in his own wisdom or knowledge to guide him knows nothing in a loving, helpful way. He does not know anything in its relation to other truths, to man, and to God. The Holy Spirit says: “For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:21). This knowledge helps a man and leads him to look to the good of others, as well as his own good. Knowledge that stops short of this is selfish, and selfishness brings leanness and poverty of spirit.
1 Corinthians 8:3
but if any man loveth God, the same is known by him.— To love God is to so honor and serve him as to seek his will that we may do it. If one properly esteems God as the great source and center of all things, honors him, and acts from a sense of duty to him, he is known and approved by God, for “the Lord knoweth them that are his.” (2 Timothy 2:19). Jesus said: “If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself.” (John 7:17). The man who loves God is the one who rightly solves the question about meat offered to idols, for nothing is viewed by him that does not take into consideration the will of God and the good of his fellow men.
1 Corinthians 8:4
Concerning therefore the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world,—All Christians know that an idol is nothing, and that there are no such gods. Hence the things sacrificed to idols are as though they had never been sacrificed.
and that there is no God but one.—This is the foundation truth of the Christian life. Without it no one can live the Christian life or form a godlike character that suffers to help others.
1 Corinthians 8:5
For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth;—The heathen made the distinction of the superior gods who ruled in the heavens, and the inferior ones that dwelt upon earth, presiding over seas, rivers, fountains, forests, and local places.
as there are gods many, and lords many;—In the minds of the heathen there were many of each of these classes. [The heathen mythology, especially in its Greek development, may be regarded as the religious expression of national ideals and civilization. The Greek conception of every conception of the independence of every unit in nature and society was embodied in the mythology. Every city had its guardian deity; every spring was haunted; every crop of corn was under the protection of a goddess; every movement of the elements and every human action might assume a sacred character and become, the one a prayer, the other the answer.]
1 Corinthians 8:6
yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things,—In contrast with these false gods, to the Christian, there is one true and living God, the Originator, Creator, and Founder of the universe; hence possessed of all the wisdom, power, and authority that dwell in the universe.
and we unto him;—This is given as an evidence of his nearness to man, “for in him we live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts 17:28). From him all blessings come; by his strength and power we live and are upheld by him daily.
and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things,— The “all things” in this clause must be co-extensive with the “all things” in the preceding one—that is, the universe. The universe was created through Jesus Christ. The energy of the one God was exercised through the Word, who “became flesh, and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14). Of him it is said: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.” (John 1:1-3). The following passages teach the same thing: “Through whom also he made the worlds.” (Hebrews 1:2). “For in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible,… all things have been created through him, and unto him.” (Colossians 1:16).
and we through him.—Jesus Christ performs the same act of creating in the spiritual world that he did in the material. In this God, the Father, originated and provided the great scheme of redemption. Jesus Christ came into the world. Through his mission; his teaching in precept and example; his suffering, death, burial, his struggle in the grave with the powers of death, and hell (in the grave the battle for man’s redemption was fought and the victory won); his resurrection and his ascent to his Father, he created the material for the new spiritual kingdom. The apostles and their fellow disciples constituted this nucleus for the new creation. Christ completed his work and left them with the command: “Tarry ye in the city [Jerusalem], until ye be clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49). No step could be taken in the procreation of disciples or in the establishment and development of the kingdom of which they constituted the beginning until the Spirit should come to guide them into all the truth.
[The divinity of Christ can no more be denied because the Father is here called the one God, than the dominion of the Father can be denied because the Son is called the one Lord. By this mode of expression it is intimated that Father and Son are one God and one Lord in the unity of the godhead. (Acts 17:29; Colossians 2:9).]
[It is consideration of these great truths that makes idolatry ridiculous, and the eating of food sacrificed to idols a matter of indifference. Such was the conclusion of the Corinthians, and such, but for the weaker brethren, would have been Paul’s conclusion.]
1 Corinthians 8:7
Howbeit there is not in all men that knowledge:—While all men should know that there is but one true and living God, even all Christians did not possess the knowledge that enabled them to be independent of these idols.
but some, being used until now to the idol, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol;—Some who had been converted to Christ had a lingering reverence for the idols they had long worshiped, [and therefore they regarded the meat as offered to some kind of reality.]
and their conscience being weak is defiled.—While one completely free from reverence for an idol might eat of things sacrificed to it without any feeling of reverence for it, others could not eat of them without having their reverence aroused for the idol, and, their conscience being so weak as to reverence the idol, would be defiled.
1 Corinthians 8:8
But food will not commend us to God: neither, if we eat not, are we the worse;—The flesh offered in sacrifice to idols was eaten as food by the people. Some ate it as worship to idols; others, having knowledge of these things, ate it as food. God was willing for them to eat it if they could do so without leading others to sin. The danger was that those not fully taught, seeing others eat it as food, would be encouraged to eat it as worship, and so be defiled.
nor, if we eat, are we the better.—Eating meat is not service to God, and eating or failing to eat would not commend them to God. So far as their relation to God was concerned, eating would not affect their spiritual interests. [By showing that the eating is a matter of indifference, Paul introduces his reason for yielding to the weakness of another. If the weakness involved a matter of our vital relation to God, then to yield would be wrong.]
1 Corinthians 8:9
But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to the weak,—While the eating and the not eating did not affect the one having knowledge, there was danger that, in exercising the liberty to eat, the example might lead a weak brother to eat the flesh as worship to an idol. So the liberty to eat would become the cause of his being led into idolatry and ruin. No Christian can put a stumbling block in his brother’s way and be guiltless.
1 Corinthians 8:10
For if a man see thee who hast knowledge sitting at meat in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols?—Those who have not freed themselves from conscience of the idol, who cannot eat of the meat sacrificed to it, without worshiping it, seeing one who has knowledge sitting at meat in the idol’s temple, would suppose that the strong brother was worshiping the idol, and be led by the example to eat in worship to the idol. [The fact of his example being avowedly advanced in the knowledge of the faith would make his example the more dangerous, because more effective.]
1 Corinthians 8:11
For through thy knowledge he that is weak perisheth, the brother for whose sake Christ died.—Through their knowledge that they might eat the flesh offered to an idol the weak brother perisheth. This shows that a thing not a sin in itself becomes sin when so done as to lead the weak ones into sin. We are held accountable for leading others into that which, in their ignorance and weakness, will prove their ruin.
Speaking more fully on this same subject, Paul says: “If one of them that believe not biddeth you to a feast, and ye are disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience’ sake. But if any man say unto you, This hath been offered in sacrifice, eat not, for his sake that showed it, and for conscience’ sake: conscience, I say, not thine own, but the other’s; for why is my liberty judged by another conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give no occasion of stumbling, either to Jews, or to Greeks, or to the church of God: even as I also please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved.” (1 Corinthians 10:27-33). We are to do nothing that will lead others into sin; we are to do nothing that will defile the conscience of others; we are not to assert our rights when to do so will injure others; and we must deny ourselves things that would please us, to profit and save others. This is an important principle, far-reaching in its results, and embodies the essential principle of the Christian religion.
1 Corinthians 8:12
And thus, sinning against the brethren, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, ye sin against Christ.—To sin against the weakest of the brethren in Christ, and wound the weakest conscience by drawing it into sin, is to sin against Christ, for he said: “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40). Jesus here personifies himself in the poorest of his brethren in want, so that what is done to them is done to him. Here Paul tells us that he who causes that brother to stumble sins against Christ.
1 Corinthians 8:13
Wherefore, if meat causeth my brother to stumble, I will eat no flesh for evermore,—Paul’s own welfare for the good of his brethren was such that he would forego many privileges and lay aside many liberties to save them from temptation to do wrong.
that I cause not my brother to stumble.—-To cause a brother to sin is a fearful wrong to the brother and a sin against Christ. So in this our conscience is ruled by the conscience of the weak brother. In all the relations of life we should act on this principle and seek the good of others as we seek our own good. This is to love others as we do ourselves. This should be our aim in all that we do and say. Paul says: “It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby thy brother stumbleth.” (Romans 14:21). “Now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” (Romans 15:1). This is the true spirit of Christ, ruling the life of a Christian.
When we sin against a weak brother, we sin against Christ who died for him. Christ denied himself all the honors and all the enjoyments of the Father’s throne and his glories in order to help and bless man. If we are God’s children, we are to drink into the same spirit, so as to make us forego pleasures, honors, privileges, and enjoyments in order to help and benefit the weak brethren. The weaker they are, the more they are entitled to consideration and help at our hands. Jesus Christ is our perfect example.