Articles
Liberties and Brethren
My Rights Can Destroy My Brother!
I Cor. 8:1-13
“1 Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. 2 And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him. 4 Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. 7 However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. 9 But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? [which would be a sin to him because he believes the idol represents a god, LW]. 11 And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12 But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.”
Here is a brother – A BROTHER! – who did not have the conviction that there is only one God – he believed the idols were standing for other gods. [Should he have been kicked out of the church?] And because of his belief in other gods, his conscience could be defiled by something as “innocent” or “trivial” as eating meat from the market that had been previously used in idol rituals. Now the TRUTH is that there are no other gods, and meat eating doesn’t commend us to God and doesn’t condemn us before God. However, there are circumstances where the weak brother [weak in conscience because of his confusion about other gods], who loves God and is known by God [v. 3], can be made to stumble by the “stronger” brother. He is drawn away from the true God by his association [in his mind] with other gods. In this the stronger brother causes the weaker to perish, and sins against CHRIST [because the weak and strong both belong to the body of Christ]. Even though the stronger is RIGHT doctrinally – he knows the truth [see v. 1-2], he is WRONG with regard to the weaker brother, and he dishonors the Savior.