1 Corinthians8chapter 8

1 Corinthians 8:1-3

Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge: Paul opens the question by echoing the Corinthians' own boast back to them, knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth, the same puffing word Paul has diagnosed since 4:6, the church proud of a settled answer while short on the love that should govern how the answer gets used. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know humbles the boast further, correct information about idols being no substitute for a right disposition in using it. But if any man love God, the same is known of him turns the whole question from knowing about God to being known by him, the bench reading the reversal as Paul's answer to knowledge as status, the relationship running from God's knowledge of the believer rather than from the believer's mastery of a doctrine.

1 Corinthians 8:4-6

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: Paul grants the Corinthians' premise, an idol carrying no divine reality corresponding to the image, and the bench reads it beside 10:20, where the sacrifices offered to false gods are offered to devils, the idol nothing as a god while something demonic operates behind the worship, the two verses held together rather than set against each other. 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 states the confession in language drawn from the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4 and applies it to Jesus in the same breath, one Lord placed beside one God without division. The bench treats verse 6 as among the New Testament's clearest early confessions of Christ's deity, the Father named as source and the Lord Jesus Christ as agent of the same all things.

1 Corinthians 8:7-8

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: the weak brother in view is likely a recent convert out of idolatry whose conscience still reads the meat as a religious act rather than an ordinary meal, his eating defiling him precisely because his own conscience has not caught up to the knowledge the stronger believer already holds. 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 states the matter's true indifference before God, the question one of conscience and love rather than of merit gained or lost. The bench reads the pairing as Paul agreeing with the strong on the doctrine while turning at once to what the doctrine does to a brother who does not yet share it.

1 Corinthians 8:9-10

But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak: Paul names the danger plainly, a true liberty that still wounds when used without regard for who is watching. 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 pictures the actual social setting, Corinth's pagan temples commonly housing dining rooms where a meal in the god's honor was eaten in full view, so that a knowledgeable believer reclining there could draw a weaker one back into an act his own conscience still called worship. The bench reads the scene as historically concrete rather than hypothetical, the strong believer's freedom becoming, in that particular room, an invitation the weak brother is not yet equipped to refuse.

1 Corinthians 8:11-12

for whom Christ died: And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died: Paul weighs the stronger believer's correct doctrine against the price Christ paid for the very brother that doctrine, used without love, may destroy, the brother's worth measured by the cross rather than by his theological maturity. But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ identifies the offense's true object, an injury done to a fellow believer landing on the Lord himself, the same logic Acts 9:4 states to Saul on the Damascus road. The bench treats the pair as the chapter's climax, knowledge answerable to love because the person it might wound is one Christ died for and one Christ counts as his own.

1 Corinthians 8:13

Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend: Paul closes the chapter by applying its whole argument to himself first, a personal resolve rather than a rule laid on every believer, choosing total abstinence from meat over any risk to a brother's conscience. The bench reads the vow as Paul's own example of the very principle he has just taught, the strong believer's liberty voluntarily set aside for love's sake, the pattern chapter 9 develops at length through Paul's own forfeited rights as an apostle.