“MEATING” IN THE MIDDLE
1 CORINTHIANS 8:1-13
NASB
1 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge [a]makes arrogant, but love edifies. 2 If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; 3 but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.
4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that [a]there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
7 However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. 8 But food will not [a]commend us to God; we are neither [b]the worse if we do not eat, nor [c]the better if we do eat. 9 But take care that this [a]liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? 11 For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. 12 And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.
8:1 [a]Lit puffs up 8:4 [a]Lit nothing is an idol in the world; i.e. an idol has no real existence 8:8 [a]Or present [b]Lit lacking [c]Lit abounding 8:9 [a]Lit right
NLT
1 Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. 2 Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. 3 But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.[*]
4 So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. 5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. 6 But for us,
There is one God, the Father,
by whom all things were created,
and for whom we live.
And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom all things were created,
and through whom we live.
7 However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. 8 It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do.
9 But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. 10 For if others see you —with your “superior knowledge” —eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? 11 So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer[*] for whom Christ died will be destroyed. 12 And when you sin against other believers[*] by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. 13 So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live —for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.
[8:3] Some manuscripts read the person who loves has full knowledge. [8:11] Greek brother; also in 8:13. [8:12] Greek brothers.
I’ve never completely understood vegetarians. I certainly have nothing against them. In fact, it looks like Adam, Eve, and the other people who lived prior to Noah’s Flood ate only fruits, vegetables, and grains (Gen. 1:29-30; 9:3). If people want to go retro and leave the beef and chicken to me and other carnivores, I’m fine with that. But once in a while, I run into a hyperherbivore. Judgmental as any sour-faced legalist, those fanatics not only avoid all meat and animal products, but they also want to force their personal opinions on everybody they meet. Their opinions go beyond eschewing meat for health reasons; they believe it’s morally wrong for anybody to eat meat. Period.
This question about whether we should eat meat may seem irrelevant to us today. Those who would judge us for biting into a big, juicy burger are few and far between. But what about those who judge us for drinking champagne at a New Year’s Eve party? Or trick-or-treating on Halloween? Or going to a movie, dancing, playing Xbox, or listening to secular music? All of these things find their way onto different people’s lists of Christian “no-nos.”
The hot issue in the Corinthian church wasn’t whether to go to movies, play video games, or drink sparkling champagne. Instead, they fretted about the appropriateness of eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. I don’t know of any Christian vegetarian who opposes eating meat because it might have been offered to a goddess of fertility or a god of wine. Yet the principle Paul employed to settle this question is just as applicable to the debated practices and “gray” areas of our day as it was to this issue in Corinth.
CORINTHIAN IDOLS
1 CORINTHIANS 8:4
Corinth was one of many centers of idol worship in the ancient world. As a part of this worship, an animal was brought before a priest to be sacrificed. Only parts of the animal were burned —usually the legs, fat, and internal organs. The leftovers —usually the best pieces of meat —were often consumed among the participants at a festive meal, taken home to enjoy in private, or sold in public marketplaces.[42]
This posed a problem for believers, because when they ate as invited guests at a person’s home or bought meat at the marketplace, chances were good that some of it came from an animal sacrificed in the worship of a false god. In that worship, consuming the meat sacrificed to the idol was the same as participating in the worship of the idol. One commentator explains this knotty dilemma:
The believers of Corinth and the other Greek cities found themselves in a difficult position in regard to the heathen society around them. On the one hand, they could not absolutely give up their family and friendly relations; the interest of the gospel did not allow them to do so. On the other hand, these relations were full of temptations and might easily draw them into unfaithfulness, which would make them the scandal of the Church and the derision of the heathen.[43]
— 8:1-6 —
In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul abruptly transitions to a completely new topic: “concerning things sacrificed to idols” (8:1). This issue presented a threefold dilemma for Christians because there were three ways a person might end up partaking of the offerings to idols. The first was by actually showing up at a pagan temple and eating of the fellowship meal in honor of the pagan god. The second way a Christian might eat meat sacrificed to idols was by purchasing the meat in the marketplace for eating at home. A third way to partake of sacrificed animal meat was to be invited to a meal at a friend’s home that included meat that came from a pagan temple. Therefore, as Paul begins to answer the Corinthians’ inquiry regarding the appropriateness of eating meat sacrificed to idols, he must address all three layers of this problem.
At the start of his written instructions, Paul appeals to the believer’s liberty in Christ. He has referred to this principle before. In 1 Corinthians 6:12 he writes, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable.” The Corinthians had knowledge of their freedom in Christ, but this knowledge had led some to become arrogant rather than loving toward others (8:1). Their pride caused them to abuse their freedom, overstepping the bounds of wisdom and holiness into the mire of careless folly and sin. This had already occurred in the issue of sexual immorality (5:1-2).
Paul straightens them out by setting up a contrast between arrogant knowledge and edifying love (8:1). The Greek word for “edifies” is oikodomeō [3618], which originally meant “to build a house.” The word for “makes arrogant” is physioō [5448], which means to blow something up with a bellows, to inflate.[44] A good rendering of the last part of the verse could be “knowledge blows up, but love builds up.” Knowledge is a God-given window into reality through which we can view life, but if it is not controlled by edifying love (agapē [26]) it can become a dangerous weapon that destroys rather than builds. Rather than self-inflating knowledge (8:2), Paul argues for a love of God (8:3) that manifests itself in love for others (8:9).
Paul brings this principle to bear on the issue of eating meat sacrificed to idols. All Christians share knowledge of the one true God through their faith in the one Lord, Jesus Christ. Though the foolish pagans may believe that their statues of wood, gold, silver, and stone have divine powers, Christians know they are merely man-made relics of a depraved religious system (8:4-6). Based on this knowledge, the implication is clear: Since idols are merely human creations, and since there is only one true God, eating meat that has been sacrificed to a piece of carved wood or molded silver is really inconsequential. After all, how can meat, in and of itself, be made evil by gods that don’t exist?
The Christian worldview should therefore drive out the superstitions that often surround us. Fear of bad luck over broken mirrors, walking under ladders, black cats, or certain numbers should be driven out by the knowledge believers have of the one true God and how His world works. Yet having this knowledge without love for God and one another can lead to all kinds of problems. Why? Because not all believers have a mature understanding of these things.
— 8:7-13 —
Paul notes that not all people have the same knowledge (gnōsis [1108]) as the mature thinkers (8:7). That is, some new believers who once had been steeped in idolatrous religious cults may take longer to come to grips with a proper view of the world. We might extend this to modern-day examples to illustrate the point. New believers who had been heavily involved in the wild party scene with lots of booze and drugs may balk at Christians who see nothing wrong with meeting a group of friends at a “bar and grill.” Believers who were saved from a life of sex addiction might raise their brows at a believer who has no problem going to see certain movies or visiting the beach. Or those who had been involved in eastern mysticism might believe that Christians who burn incense at home are unwittingly conjuring up demons. Knowledgeable Christians, however, know that in and of themselves, these places and things are harmless. But younger Christians, weak in the faith and early in their discipleship, may still associate these things with the wickedness in which they once participated.
This is why Paul appeals not merely to the Corinthians’ proper knowledge of theology and logic, but also to their responsibility to love weaker believers —those who were saved but untaught and immature. Ignorant of a balanced Christian worldview, they may have been easily offended at others’ exercise of their liberty. Being accustomed to the pagans’ theology of the idol —that it had in and of itself a real mystical power —they still bought into the idea that the meat sacrificed to the idol was contaminated by association and therefore spiritually harmful to them (1 Cor. 8:7).
These believers didn’t realize that the meat issue is amoral —morally neutral. Eating the meat would not affect their relationship with Christ one way or another (8:8). The one who eats is not harmed; the one who abstains is not blessed. In fact, the question of meat should be moot among those who have a mature understanding of the Christian worldview. But because many in Corinth still had a very sensitive conscience toward the issue of meat sacrificed to idols, Paul urges the mature in knowledge to exercise love by putting a lid on their liberty when dealing with the weaker brothers and sisters in Christ (8:9). Maturity includes self-restraint.
Paul reveals the folly that results from the arrogant application of knowledge (8:10). Those who were mature in knowledge felt so sure that the meat sacrificed to idols was nothing that they rushed straight into the temples to eat the meat hot off the altars (8:10). These bold but insensitive carnal believers had overstepped their liberty, failing to temper their decisions with love and self-control. As a result, they careened headlong into licentiousness and brought a number of weaker believers with them. Those weaker brothers had not yet come to a place where they could say, “This is just a piece of meat.” For them, it was still a means of worshiping false gods, resulting in a violation of their conscience and a corruption of their simple faith (8:11).
Romans 14 treats this same issue, addressing how to wisely and lovingly adjust the application of our knowledge to the spiritual needs of weaker believers. There Paul writes words of mature wisdom: “I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died” (Rom. 14:14-15). Returning to 1 Corinthians, the implications of causing fellow believers to stumble in their conscience is serious: “By sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ” (1 Cor. 8:12).
The heart of the problem is a failure of knowledgeable believers to look out not only for their own interests but also for the interests of others (Phil. 2:4). By imprudently flaunting their liberty in Christ to eat any kind of meat they wanted, whenever they pleased, those believers weakened the fellowship of the church. Paul attacks this foolish flaunting of freedom in the presence of a weaker believer with an extreme solution: “If food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again” (1 Cor. 8:13). The Greek text is even more explicit, using the phrase ou mē [3364]. . . eis [1519] ton aiōna [165], literally “never, ever . . . unto the age.” That is, if enjoying a piece of meat meant causing a brother in Christ to be dragged back into a lifestyle he had just escaped, Paul would rather abstain from eating meat forever!
Paul isn’t talking about tiptoeing around the legalistic scruples of sanctimonious believers —those who have made Christianity a meticulous system of dos and don’ts. Paul takes a strong stand against the religious legalism of self-proclaimed experts in the Law who, for theological reasons, want to drag every Christian under the yoke of Judaism (Gal. 5:1; 1 Tim. 1:7). This is not about that. Here, Paul is talking about protecting the tender conscience of a weak believer. In a nutshell, he’s telling us that Christian love must wisely temper Christian liberty.
APPLICATION: 1 CORINTHIANS 8:1-13
Tempering Liberty with Love
You meet a younger Christian at church, you strike up a friendship, and suddenly you realize this person really looks up to you for spiritual guidance. You detect right away that this person has not been discipled well. They don’t have the signs of mature knowledge.
You are a well-tuned marathon runner; your new friend is just getting into jogging. Paul refers to such a person as a weaker brother in the faith. Do you slow your pace to help this believer develop, or pass him off to somebody else more at that level? To use a different example: You’re a concert pianist; she’s in her first year of piano lessons. Do you reduce your tempo and skill level to play duets together, or pair her up with a teacher who has patience for novices?
Now, let’s take this a step further. Let’s assume this new believer is a recovering alcoholic, saved out of a twenty-year battle with alcohol and slowly learning how to live a life that doesn’t revolve around bars and nightclubs. On the other hand, you come from a family that occasionally enjoyed a glass of wine with a nice meal, served champagne at special occasions, or used alcohol in cooking or desserts. In other words, alcohol has been just a neutral part of your world. What do you do when this new believer comes around? Do you cook the same recipes and serve the same beverages? Do you surrender your own freedom in Christ for the sake of the weaker believer? Or do you avoid the hassle and not invite that person into your life?
These types of situations reveal our real attitudes. Even though today we don’t have to battle the issue of eating meat sacrificed to idols, our world is strewn with controversial gray areas that can trip up those who are not yet skilled enough to nimbly navigate them. When you face these issues, you need to quickly determine the proper priority. Do you exercise your Christian liberty or practice Jesus’ love? Do you view weaker believers as nuisances or embrace them as those who need to be discipled in the faith?
Regardless of our differing stances on the gray issues of life, we all have been called to obey one black-and-white command in Scripture: “Love one another” (John 13:34). In each situation, we are to wisely apply love and self-control, not always seeking ways to live out our own freedom in Christ, but looking for opportunities to show patience and extend grace toward others.