The teaching of 1 Corinthians 8 deals with meat sacrificed to idols, but the broader application is that of our guidelines and actions regarding issues where there is liberty in the Christian life. This important chapter teaches us about our foremost responsibility to show love to others.

To Eat or Not to Eat

“Now as touching things offered unto idols…” (1 Cor. 8:1).

In Paul’s day, there were two places to buy meat: the market and the local pagan temples. Animals were sacrificed at these temples and their meat was offered to their gods and idols on pagan altars. Some of this meat was burned completely in honor of the god, and some was sold at the temple, where one could even sit and eat it (v. 10).

There was disagreement in the Corinthian church as to whether it was permissible to buy and eat meat from the pagan temple. There was also the issue of being served meat purchased at the temple as guests in someone else’s home. Some believers were against ever eating meat offered to idols and others did not have any problem with it.

One group of believers in Corinth said, “Don’t eat it! It’s unclean and wrong!” The other group said, “Looks good to me, and it tastes good too!” This might seem like a fight over steak or roast beef, but there was more to it; it was a doctrinal issue. The “unclean-and-wrong” believers thought that any animal offered to a pagan deity bore the taint of wicked idolatry. The “looks-good-and-tastes-good” believers did so knowing that pagan deities were not real, so the meat couldn’t be polluted, and these believers ate it with a clear conscience.

How about you? If you lived back then, would you have eaten meat that had been offered to an idol? Some of you might say yes; others might say no way. What Paul shows in this chapter is that neither answer is wrong, and the apostle’s greater interest was that the Church show love and grace, one to another, and not cause a brother or sister in Christ to stumble.

Knowledge with Love

“Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man love God, the same is known of Him” (1 Cor. 8:1-3).

In verse 1, Paul wrote, “Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge.” The “knowledge” Paul referred to was knowledge about this subject. “Things offered unto idols” was not a subject about which the Corinthians were ignorant, and they each had their opinions and convictions (v. 7).

The Corinthians also had knowledge of their liberty in Christ. Previously, in 1 Corinthians (6:12), Paul had written of this liberty, that “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient,” or profitable. God has granted the Church great liberty in Christ, but that liberty can be misused. As Galatians 5:13 reminds us, “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Paul did not want the knowledge of their liberty to lead the Corinthians to become proud rather than loving toward others. As Paul noted in verse 1 of our text, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.”

Knowledge is important in the Christian life. We need to know God’s Word (Psa. 119:125; Rom. 4:3), but mere intellectual knowledge that stands alone is incomplete. Knowledge without love produces pride because it can delude one into a sense of superiority. The words “puffeth up” mean to inflate, blow up, to cause to swell up with pride.

Knowledge without love can be a weapon that destroys and tears others down. One can be strong and mature in knowledge but weak and immature in love, or vice versa. To have knowledge without love or to have love without knowledge are both problems. Knowledge with love, knowing the Word and applying it to one’s life, is the call for the believer.

Paul’s point in this chapter is that it’s one thing to have knowledge of one’s liberty in Christ and to practice it, but knowledge by itself is not a sufficient guide in this matter of meat offered to idols because love is needed in consideration of the convictions and walk of fellow believers.

Paul added, “And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.” If we think we have mastered the Scriptures or any subject in it, we can count on the fact that they have not. A mature believer is one who recognizes how little he or she does know. And the more we know, the humbler it can make us, because we know that we do not know completely and that there is always more to know, to grow in, and to understand in the depths of the wisdom of God’s Word.

The Apostle Paul tells us that, if one supposes that he knows anything of divine matters without love, he has not yet known and understood as he ought to know. We must subject what we know in God’s Word to love. Knowledge with love opens true understanding.

God knows them that love Him, Paul wrote in verse 3. Our relationship with God is about both knowledge and love. And the person who knows God and loves Him has true knowledge of Him. Likewise, in turn, if we are to treat believers with an edifying love, it stems from knowing God and loving Him and then loving others with the love of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

One True God

“As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by Him” (1 Cor. 8:4-6).

Concerning the eating of foods that were offered in sacrifice to idols, Paul wrote, “we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.” An idol is not real and alive. Since there is one God, then anything else that is called a god is not one. Idols are not competing gods. The stone, precious metal, or wood are real, but they are just a representation of a god that is a myth and the figment of man’s imagination. These fake gods exist only in the minds of their worshippers and not in reality (Isa. 37:19; Jer. 16:20). For example, if meat was offered to Zeus, there was and is no Zeus. Idols are nothing, and the meats offered to them therefore mean nothing and are entirely inconsequential.

There is not a god in or behind any idol; however, there are satanic, spiritual forces at work in idolatry (1 Cor. 10:20). The idols themselves are nothing, but the danger with idolatry lies in the demons working behind the scenes to deceive and to keep people from faith in the one, true, living God.

While there is only one God, Paul wrote there are many “that are called gods” (1 Cor. 8:5). Some of these gods were presumed to live in heaven, and others here on earth. The world then and the world today worship and serve these many fabricated, mythological “gods…and lords.”

“But to us,” Paul contrasted, “there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ.” While the world has its polytheism, we are monotheistic. While “there be gods many, and lords many,” we know that there is one true God and one true Lord. “An idol is nothing” (v. 4), but the one true God is everything, and by Him, the Almighty Creator, everything in creation was made.

For Better or For Worse

“Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse” (1 Cor. 8:7-8).

Some in the Corinthian church felt free to eat the meat that was offered to idols based on their liberty in Christ and their knowledge that idols are nothing. However, others did not have that knowledge and understanding of liberty and the nothingness of idols. They were conscious of the idol. For them, to eat the meat would be done with the thought that it had been sacrificed to the idols, which grated and upset their conscience. It was not just regular meat like any other meat for these believers.

Paul explained that “their conscience being weak is defiled.” Their conscience was weak, not because their conscience didn’t work, but because it overworked, and they put stipulations on themselves that were not necessary. Their conscience was still operating with the knowledge that there was something to idol worship that contaminated the meat and made eating it to be wrong. Thus, their weak conscience was defiled, and a defiled conscience is one that has been disregarded and transgressed, resulting in guilt and shame.

Paul added, “But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by Him.” 1 Corinthians 8:6 the worse.” In other words, you aren’t more spiritual if you know idols are nothing and you know you have the personal freedom to eat meat sacrificed to idols, and you do it. But also, you are not less spiritual for abstaining from eating meat sacrificed to idols. One didn’t gain or lose anything by eating the idol meat, and one didn’t gain or lose anything by refusing it.

What we do or do not choose to eat, does not make us more or less pleasing to God. Food is spiritually neutral. Those who enjoyed their liberty in Christ and ate meat sacrificed to idols did not make God more pleased with them. Those who abstained from it, thinking it unclean, did not make God less pleased with them. Before God, we are no better or worse if we partake or abstain from eating certain foods.

As the writer of Hebrews put it, “Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein” (Heb. 13:9).

Love Limits Liberty

“But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak. For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend” (1 Cor. 8:9-13).

Under grace, it is not wrong for a believer to eat pork. With the change in dispensations, Paul tells the Church, “For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving” (1 Tim. 4:4). However, eating pork was wrong under the law of Moses, which prohibited it. Today, a believer is at perfect liberty to partake of pork chops, pulled pork, barbecued ribs, ham, pork roast, and
best of all, bacon.

However, suppose a Jewish person gets saved under grace and comes out of Judaism. He or she might still struggle with this liberty and might feel that it is still wrong to eat pork. It may take time to understand and come to live in the full enjoyment of the liberty that is in Christ, or the person may never eat pork.

A believer could possibly hinder the spiritual growth of one like this by flaunting the liberty today under grace and purposely eating pork in front of them. That’s the sort of thing Paul is teaching
about here.

Paul goes on to show that while there is nothing to gain with God by eating meat sacrificed to idols, there might be much to lose. There was nothing wrong with eating the meat offered to idols, and there was also nothing wrong with refusing to eat the meat offered to idols. However, a believer does wrong if he understands his liberty but, by practicing it, causes someone whose conscience is against it to stumble in his or her faith.

The practice of one’s liberty under grace can trip others up in life, and God does not want members of His church to cause other believers to stumble in their walk due to insensitive actions. Instead, in love, we are called to edify and build each other up (1 Cor. 8:1).

Those “which hast knowledge” (v. 10) that idols and the meat sacrificed to them were nothing were eating the meat hot off the altars and sitting at the temple to eat it. They saw idolatry for what it was. They did not participate in the pagan practices of the temple, but in their liberty and faith, they could associate with pagan people and eat a juicy steak at the temple with a completely clear conscience. And this was not wrong.

Where this became a problem, however, was “if any man see thee…sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols…?” These brethren had not yet come to a place where they could say, “This is just meat, and it tastes good!” In their minds, it was still connected to the false worship of false gods, and it violated their conscience to eat it.

The trouble with a brother with a weak conscience seeing another Christian dining at a pagan temple, Paul says, was that the brother might be “emboldened” to join in and eat meat offered to idols and be encouraged to do what his conscience condemned. The believer who has a firm grasp on his liberty but does not use that liberty with care and love may give the weaker believer the boldness to run the red light of their conscience. And this was wrong.

The knowledge of one’s liberty was not to be the only factor that determined whether one ate idol meat or not. Love for a brother in Christ was an additional and significant factor to consider. Thus, love limits our liberty. In love, we are to always consider what effect our actions might have on others in the church.

Paul asked, “And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?” The word “perish” means to destroy another’s well-being and peace or render useless. This is not speaking of the loss of one’s salvation, but rather the ruination or destruction of the working of God in one’s life. Our actions can impede the spiritual progress of other believer’s or even cause them to slip back into a lifestyle they had left when they got saved.

Paul reaches for the heart when he adds, “for whom Christ died.” That is how we are to view our brothers and sisters in Christ, as those who are deeply loved by Christ, for whom He shed His precious blood. And if Christ loved that brother enough to die for him, then we are to show him love by not putting any stumbling block in his way and not doing anything that might hinder his walk with the Lord. Paul further stated in verse 12 that causing a brother to stumble is more than just an offense against him; it is an offense against Christ and a sin against Him.

In light of these things, Paul concluded by putting himself in the place of the person who might cause another brother to stumble. Paul shows how far he would go, out of love, for the sake of not harming someone’s spiritual growth. And he said that if eating meat would harm a brother’s spiritual life, he would never eat meat again as long as the world stands! He would choose to abstain from eating meat forever if doing so would set a fellow believer back in his walk. In this matter of meat offered to idols, the spiritual well-being of other believers was the most important thing to Paul.

Although the subject of meats offered to idols is not a problem for most believers today, the principles that the Holy Spirit gives us in this section are valuable for this entire age. There are many things in our current world today which, while not expressly forbidden in God’s Word, might still cause believers with a weak conscience to be offended.

Our culture in the United States strongly promotes our personal rights. However, we need to remember that there is something more important than exercising our rights in the liberty we have under grace, and that is the work of God in the life of other believers.

Our actions in the Christian life are never to be based solely on what we know to be permissible for ourselves. Out of love, we also need to take the important, additional step of carefully considering how our actions will affect others in the Church, and then do what is best for them, not us.