1Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know. 3But anyone who loves God is known by him.
4Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one. 5For though there are things that are called “gods”, whether in the heavens or on earth—as there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6yet to 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 we live through him.
7However, that knowledge isn’t in all men. But some, with consciousness of an idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don’t eat are we the worse, nor if we eat are we the better. 9But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak. 10For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol’s temple, won’t his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols? 11And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died. 12Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble.
So serious is sin in the life of Christ's followers that eliminating its cause is worth taking the most drastic action. However, Jesus uses deliberate exaggeration (hyperbole) to stress the gravity of sin, not to prescribe literal amputation. Verses 9-10 emphasize the priority of a person's vigilance in regard to stumbling blocks in his own life. Only when a one has dealt with personal causes of stumbling can he exercise appropriate care for others in spiritual jeopardy. At risk are the spiritually immature ("little ones") of verses 6-7, and the stray sheep ("little ones") of verses 12-14. The whole discussion is bounded by an emphasis upon humbling oneself as a child, and receiving the child of God as one receives Jesus (v. 4-5); and sharing the Father's concern that none of them perishes (v. 14).
Appropriate discipline for causing a fledgling believer to stumble is described in verse 6 in terms of certain physical death by drowning. No one could swim with a grinding stone weighing several hundred pounds around his neck! In verses 8-9, however, the warning is against exclusion from the future Messianic kingdom. (See 7:14; 19:16-17, 29; 25:46 for other examples where ζωή (zoe) refers to life in the kingdom). The present tense of causes, in verse 9, may indicate that the warning is against an ongoing practice or habit of setting up others to fail doctrinally or morally. The application of the principle in Paul's epistles involves presenting the members of one's body as instruments of righteousness to God (Rom 6:3-4; Col 3:5); and limiting the use of one's liberty so as not to lead a fellow believer to defile his conscience (Rom 14:13, 21; 1 Cor 8:9, 13).