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Scott's Reference Library
1 Corinthians 8:1 through 1 Corinthians 8:13 (NIV)
1Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge.
Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2The man who thinks he knows something
does not yet know as he ought to know. 3But the man who loves God is known by
God.
4So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing
at all in the world and that there is no God but one. 5For even if there are
so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods”
and many “lords”), 6yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all
things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom all things came and through whom we live.
7But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that
when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol,
and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8But food does not bring us
near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
9Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a
stumbling block to the weak. 10For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who
have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat
what has been sacrificed to idols? 11So this weak brother, for whom Christ died,
is destroyed by your knowledge. 12When you sin against your brothers in this way
and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13Therefore, if what I
eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I
will not cause him to fall.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 1-6
There is no proof of ignorance more common than conceit of knowledge. Much may
be known, when nothing is known to good purpose. And those who think they know
any thing, and grow vain thereon, are the least likely to make good use of their
knowledge. Satan hurts some as much by tempting them to be proud of mental
powers, as others, by alluring to sensuality. Knowledge which puffs up the
possessor, and renders him confident, is as dangerous as self-righteous pride,
though what he knows may be right. Without holy affections all human knowledge
is worthless. The heathens had gods of higher and lower degree; gods many, and
lords many; so called, but not such in truth. Christians know better. One God
made all, and has power over all. The one God, even the Father, signifies the
Godhead as the sole object of all religious worship; and the Lord Jesus Christ
denotes the person of Emmanuel, God manifest in the flesh, One with the Father,
and with us; the appointed Mediator, and Lord of all; through whom we come to
the Father, and through whom the Father sends all blessings to us, by the
influence and working of the Holy Spirit. While we refuse all worship to the
many who are called gods and lords, and to saints and angels, let us try whether
we really come to God by faith in Christ.
VERSES 7-13
Eating one kind of food, and abstaining from another, have nothing in them to
recommend a person to God. But the apostle cautions against putting a
stumbling-block in the way of the weak; lest they be made bold to eat what was
offered to the idol, not as common food, but as a sacrifice, and thereby be
guilty of idolatry. He who has the Spirit of Christ in him, will love those whom
Christ loved so as to die for them. Injuries done to Christians, are done to
Christ; but most of all, the entangling them in guilt: wounding their
consciences, is wounding him. We should be very tender of doing any thing that
may occasion stumbling to others, though it may be innocent in itself. And if we
must not endanger other men’s souls, how much should we take care not to destroy
our own! Let Christians beware of approaching the brink of evil, or the
appearance of it, though many do this in public matters, for which perhaps they
plead plausibly. Men cannot thus sin against their brethren, without offending
Christ, and endangering their own souls.