1 Corinthians 8:7-13 – It’s needful to consider others

Bear in mind that Paul was answering people who justified eating meat sacrificed to idol by saying that there is only one true God and an idol is nothing. Paul had established indeed that there is only one true God. He also made it clear that an idol is not a god even if some made it into a god and therefore it is nothing. This being the case, to eat meat offered to idol should be okay right? Wrong! Why so?
 

Paul said that not every believer in Corinth had this knowledge. They were some who were accustomed in considering an idol as a god. And eating those meat would make them feel as if they had participated in a pagan service. Eating those meat offered to idols would affect their conscience and they would feel defiled.
 

So in verse 8, Paul then imagined someone saying “But food will not commend us to God.” And this statement implies that neither eating nor abstaining would have any effect positively or negatively either way. This again boarders in the realm of knowledge without consideration for others. Paul didn’t argue against them. He just explained what he thought in verses 9-12. He urged them to consider the unenlightened. They should not let their conviction, that they were free to do anything, rule their action without considering the weaker brethren. As this would be a stumbling block to those who had a weaker conscience.
 

In verse 10, he proceeded to show the possible damage when one had scant regard for the weaker brethren and continued to eat food offered to idols. He said that the brethren with a weaker conscience might be influenced and be induced to return to the pagan cult that they had left. When that happened their ill-considered knowledge would have caused fellow believers, whom Christ had died for, to fall. The wounding of weaker brethren would make that person, who practiced his liberty without consideration, an offender against Christ too. So in verse 13 Paul concluded by making known his own resolution. He was totally prepared not only to abstain from food offered to idols but also any kind of meat that would stumble a weaker brother. In a real sense, this was an invitation for them to join him in his position.
 

“Not to be a stumbling block to another’s faith in Christ” is a good motto to adopt in life. Always consider others for whom Christ had paid an awesome price on the cross. The word of the Lord himself should be our constant reminder. He said in Matthew 18:7, “…For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!”