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.
The basic sin of the Corinthian church is pride, and they are showing it here by misusing Christian liberty. Paul concedes the larger theological point, which is that eating idol meat purchased in the public square will do no harm in itself, since idols are powerless stones, and idol meat cannot itself transmit impurity to the believer (vv. 1-6). But when someone turns from idols to the gospel, the memories of the old life may still endure; and in such cases, eating such meat will feel to him like an instance of backsliding. From his own subjective point of view, he seems to have relapsed into paganism; and this consequence is, for Paul, the main issue. In these gray areas, no one should act against conscience; and no one should put his own sense of freedom on display in ways that lure others into acting against conscience. The “strong” understand correctly that the boundaries are wider than the “weak” would claim for themselves; but only arrogant person would make a show of his superior “knowledge” (v. 1) through actions that create a moral hazard for ‘recovering idolaters.’