1 Corinthians 8

Notes

Ver. 1. With respect to what has been offered to idols by your heathen neighbours, and is either feasted on by the offerer and his friends or exposed to sale in the public market, I allow you and your new teachers to have a great deal of knowledge, and I know that we apostles have no less; but mere notions in men's heads, and a fond conceit of their superior understanding, do but puff up the pride of their heart, and indispose them to receive further instruction: but love to God and to our brethren is that which alone makes us practically improve our knowledge for promoting our own and others' holiness, peace, and comfort. 2. And if any think their own knowledge of things so perfect that they need not consult the sentiments nor regard the edification of others, it is a sufficient evidence that they know nothing in a truly spiritual and beneficial manner. 3. But if any heartily love God, and from that principle improve their knowledge to his glory and the edification of souls, God takes special notice of and approves them. —4. With respect to the lawfulness of a Christian's eating what has been offered to idols, we all know that the heathen gods have no divine nature or virtue in them to make things either better or worse in themselves, and that there is but one God. 5, 6. For though the heathens have hundreds or thousands whom they esteem and worship as gods, celestial or terrestrial, supreme or subordinate, yet to us Christians there is but one God, from whom, in the person of the Father, all things in creation and providence originally proceed, and in whom we live, move, and have our being; and one Lord Jesus, by whom, as his Father's only begotten Son, all things were created, and by whom, as Mediator, we receive all spiritual blessings, and have our persons and services rendered acceptable to God. 7. There are, however, some professed Christians who do not yet distinctly understand the nullity of all the heathen idols, but continue to eat what is offered to them with a kind of religious regard; and thus their consciences, not being fully instructed in the doctrines of the gospel, are herein defiled by the guilt of idolatry. 8. And however distinct knowledge we or others may have that idols have no divinity in them, it is plain that our eating of food offered to them can never profit our souls or recommend us to God, and our prudent refraining from it can do us no hurt. 9. It is therefore certainly your duty carefully to avoid all use of your freedom, or right to eat of these things, which tends to insnare such as are weak in knowledge or faith, and make them sin in doing that with a doubting or superstitious mind which ye do safely and without any doubt. 10. For if such weak persons see you feasting upon these meats in an idol's temple, will they not be emboldened to eat them with an idolatrous veneration of the idol? 11. And thus, through your knowledge leading you to an imprudent use of your liberty, your weak, mistaken, and doubting brother, for whom you charitably believe Christ laid down his infinitely precious life, is led into damnable sin, or to destroy his own inward peace and comfort. 12. Now, while you thus lead your Christian brethren into sinful and idolatrous practices, and wound, disturb, and defile their tender and unsettled consciences, ye sin not only against them but against Christ, whose members they are; and ye attempt to defeat the designs of his love, in what he suffered for their comfort and salvation. 13. This consideration bears such weight with me, that, if my eating of flesh offered to idols, or even of common flesh, should disturb the conscience of my Christian brother, or occasion his falling into sin, I would never indulge myself in eating any more as long as I live.

Ver. 1. The idol feasts were held in the temples, and the offerers were accustomed to invite their friends to partake with them. To these feasts, it appears, the Corinthian Christians were sometimes invited, and that some went through habit contracted in their heathenism; some, to avoid offence, or retain the favour of idolatrous neighbours; and others, because they knew the idol to be a mere stock or stone, and no god—so that the feast appeared to them no act of religion, but a mere common repast. Still, as this use, or rather abuse, of knowledge might lead the ignorant to conclude that such as attended the festivals venerated the idol, the apostle protests against such compliances of the well-instructed, because they might lead the ignorant into sin. See ver. 10. C.

Ver. 10. See thee who hast knowledge that the idol is a mere stone, or other material substance, and no god. C.

Reflections.—Fine and extensive notions in our head, without love to God and men in our heart, do but puff us up with self-conceit, and render us detestable to God. And nothing more plainly manifests our want of solid knowledge than our contempt of others as weak and foolish. None are more apt to be self-conceited than such as are remarkably ignorant of things important; and that is always the best knowledge which is most useful in practice. It is a great mercy then to have the saving knowledge of Christ as the alone Mediator, and of God in him as the only true God! And yet, alas! many true Christians are too little acquainted with the vanity of idols, or have but confused and unsettled conceptions of things most important. With tender and exact care ought Christians to avoid dubious or even innocent and indifferent practices, which may grieve their fellow-believers, and occasion their stumbling into sin. For it is highly criminal to grieve the spirits, and destroy the peace and edification of them for whom Christ laid down his life.