1 Corinthians 8:13

8:7-13 Eating one kind of food, and abstaining from another, have nothing in them to recommend a person to God. But the apostle cautions against putting a stumbling-block in the way of the weak; lest they be made bold to eat what was offered to the idol, not as common food, but as a sacrifice, and thereby be guilty of idolatry. He who has the Spirit of Christ in him, will love those whom Christ loved so as to die for them. Injuries done to Christians, are done to Christ; but most of all, the entangling them in guilt: wounding their consciences, is wounding him. We should be very tender of doing any thing that may occasion stumbling to others, though it may be innocent in itself. And if we must not endanger other men's souls, how much should we take care not to destroy our own! Let Christians beware of approaching the brink of evil, or the appearance of it, though many do this in public matters, for which perhaps they plead plausibly. Men cannot thus sin against their brethren, without offending Christ, and endangering their own souls.

Make to offend (σκανδαλίζει) See on Matthew 5:29. Rev., maketh to stumble. Meat - flesh (βρῶμα - κρέα) The former food in general, the latter the special food which causes stumbling. Dr. South draws the distinction between a tender and a weak conscience. "Tenderness, applied to the conscience, properly imports quickness and exactness of sense, which is the perfection of this faculty .... Though the eye is naturally the most tender and delicate part of the body, yet is it not therefore called weak, so long as the sight is quick and strong.... A weak conscience is opposed to a strong; which very strength, we shew, consisted in the tenderness or quickness of its discerning or perceptive power" (Sermon 29, "A True State and Account of the Plea of a Tender Conscience").

{9} Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. (9) The conclusion, which Paul conceives in his own person, that he might not seem to exact that of others which he will not be first subject to himself. I had rather (he says) abstain forever from all types of flesh, then give occasion of sin to any of my brethren. And on a smaller scale, in any certain place or time, I would refuse to eat flesh offered to idols, for my brother's sake.

13 . I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend ] “This abridgment of their liberty is a duty more especially incumbent on all who are possessed of influence.” Robertson. And Estius remarks how St Paul in his ardour for the conversion of souls, was ready not only to abstain from meats offered to idols, but from meat altogether, rather than be a stumbling-block in another’s way. Cf. St Matthew 18:6 ; St Mark 9:42 ; St Luke 17:1-2 .

(13) Wherefore. —He states his own solemn determination, arising from the considerations which have just been urged. If a matter of food cause a brother to fall in his Christian course, I will certainly never again eat any kind of flesh, lest I should be the cause of so making him to fall. It is noticeable that St. Paul in discussing this question makes no reference whatever to the decision of the Council at Jerusalem (see Acts 15:29), that the Christians should abstain from “meats offered to idols, and from things strangled, and from blood.” Probably, the Apostle felt the importance of maintaining his own apostolic authority in a Church where it was questioned by some, and he felt that to base his instruction upon the decision of the Church at Jerusalem might have seemed to imply that he had obtained authority from them, and not directly from the Lord. It was also more in accordance with St. Paul’s usual style of instruction to base the smallest details of conduct upon that highest of all principles—our union as Christians with Christ. An appeal to the letter sent from Jerusalem would have been no step in the ascending argument, which reaches its great climax in the 11th and 12th verses, and which, in 1Corinthians 8:13, the Apostle enunciates as the guide of his own life.

Verse 13. - Make my brother to offend. "Make to offend" is, in the original, the verb "scandalize." The word for "meat" means any kind of food. Flesh . The particular subject of discussion here. "I will," says St, Paul, "abstain from flesh altogether rather than by eating it lead a weaker brother into sin." While the world standeth . The same expression is elsewhere rendered "forever." Literally it means to the aeon. St. Paul is often led into these impetuous expressions of the depth of his feelings. The reader will find the whole question argued in s similar spirit in Romans 14:19-22 . Lest; namely, in the case supposed. In reality there was no need for taking so severe a pledge of abstinence. 1 Corinthians 8:13

If meat make my brother to offend; suppose therefore it were lawful for me to eat flesh offered to idols, yet if I cannot do it but I shall make my brother sin, I will forbear. Others understand it more generally, not of the meat before mentioned, but of all flesh: I will rather live upon bread and herbs; by which expression the apostle doth not suppose, that there can ever be such a case when there shall be any such need, but only declares how much a good Christian should do, to prevent his brother’s sinning against God. I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend: those expressions, Mark 5:29 , of plucking out the right eye, and cutting off the right hand, are much of the same nature; both those phrases and this phrase signify only, that we ought to do any thing, and to deny ourselves in any thing, rather than ourselves to sin, or be wilful occasions to others of sin.

From this discourse of the apostle it is very plain, that it is the duty of Christians, in any matters where they are by the law of God at liberty whether they will do a thing or not, to take that part which they see will give least occasion of sin unto their brethren, and to avoid that part which, if they will take, they see they shall by taking it give occasion to others to sin, though they be themselves never so well satisfied as to the lawfulness of their action (provided the action be only lawful, not necessary, and what by the law of God they are bound to do, or to avoid). But here two grave questions arise: 1. Whether the command of superiors doth not here alter the case? Admit a thing be in itself by us judged lawful, what by God’s law we may do, or let alone; and our superiors command us to do, or to avoid that thing: we on the other side see, that if we do it, or avoid it, we shall very probably be occasion to make our brethren sin, who doubt of the lawfulness of the thing. The question is: What is to be done in this case? That the law of God commanding love to our brethren equally concerneth high and low, is out of doubt; so that no superior ought more to command any to do what it is evident he cannot do without making his brother to offend, than the inferior ought to do it: but the question is: What is the inferior’s duty, if commanded? 2.

1 Corinthians 8:13 sums up the debate in the language of personal conviction: “Wherefore verily”—for this last reason above all—“if (a matter of) food ( βρῶμα , indef.) is stumbling my brother, I will eat no flesh-meats for evermore, that I may not stumble my brother”.— κρέα (pl[1269] of κρέας ) signifies the kinds of βρῶμα in question, including probably beside the idolothyta other animal foods which might scandalise men of narrow views, such as the vegetarians of Romans 14:13-21 (see notes ad loc [1270]).—Four times in 1 Corinthians 8:11-13 P. repeats the word ἀδελφός , seeking to elicit the love which was needed to control Cor[1271] knowledge ( cf. 1 Corinthians 8:2 f.). For “ σκανδαλίζω , to put a σκάνδαλον (cl[1272] σκανδάληθρον , trap-stick = πρόσκομμα , 9) in another’s way,” cf. Romans 14:21 and parls. The strong negation οὐ μή (“no fear lest”: see Wr[1273], p. 634 ff.) is further heightened by εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα , “to eternity”. The rendering “while the world standeth” is based on the use of αἰῶν ( perpetuity ) in such passages as 1 Corinthians 1:20 , where the context narrows its meaning; in this phrase the noun has its full sense, but used rhetorically. [1269] plural. [1270] ad locum , on this passage. [1271] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians. [1272] classical. [1273] Winer-Moulton’s Grammar of N.T. Greek (8th ed., 1877).