1st Corinthians 8

Paul here addresses knowledge from men's limited capabilities. He talks about how a man's knowledge, and even the knowledge that God has graciously bestowed upon him, can "puff" the man up causing him to be arrogant if he is not careful, however, he states, "Love builds up." Paul says, "The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God." This shows that even when a man knows something, he still doesn't know the way he is supposed to, or hasn't come to the full realization of his knowledge. Only God knows all, and He reveals bits and pieces to us, not the whole picture at once. But God knows those who love Him and that is their source of knowledge. We are granted knowledge and wisdom through our love for God. This emphasizes the concept that man is nothing if he does not love God; God makes all men what they are.

Now Paul dives into some very interesting stuff in verses 4-6. He says, "So then about eating food sacrificed to idols: we know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), yet for us there is buy one God, the Father, from whom all things came and from whom we live, and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live." Here he gets into some cool concepts. Even if other "gods" exist, which he clearly addresses later that they don't, he says, "Who cares?" (basically) For us there is only one and therefore the others that people believe in are nothing and then should be treated as nothing. Also I love his separation of the "from" in regards to the Father and the "through" in regards to Jesus. Really interesting and awesome things come from this passage.

Verse 7 states, "But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled." Here Paul addresses the fact that because of what we believe, if we are grounded properly in our faith, we can eat anything from the earth even if it were used for a sacrificial service to an idol because we know that the idol is nothing. The idol means nothing and represents nothing (in reality, although it does have earthly related representations), therefore the sacrifice, to us, means nothing for we know it's intended "gods" are not real. He then talks about how our weak consciences, because we lack true understanding in our faith, then lead us not to eat it for worry that it is defiled, but in reality because their "gods" are not real and everything comes from our Father, their sacrifices mean nothing. Everything came from our God, nothing in the world is evil; from the evil in men's hearts comes evil. Nothing God created on earth is evil, not even the food used to sacrifice for other 'gods', only our hearts bring forth evil. Besides, everything on earth is not only from God, it is God's. We give Him nothing that isn't already His, and we eat nothing He hasn't given us.

But now the warning comes in verses 9-13, "Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrifice to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall."

He discusses here how although we may know the truth of the situation due to our strengthened conscience, those with weak consciences may be influenced by our actions and knowledge. Despite the fact that they are not actually sinning, and we know this, if they believe they are sinning our actions have no come to weaken our brother's even further because we have made it easier for them to do things they believe are wrong. We weaken their resolve to live as sin free of a life as possible because we have enabled them into sin without allowing them to experience the wisdom God gave us regarding the topic. If we perform actions that someone views as a sin and then they begin to do them despite believing they are a sin, we have sinned against our brother by making them more prone to sinning (weakening their conscience further). If our actions and knowledge create stumbling blocks for our brothers, it would be better for us to refrain from those actions, even if they are not wrong, so as to strengthen and build up our brothers. When we weaken our brothers we damage the kingdom of Christ, and the body may begin to slip into sin which is, as Paul put it, "...a sin against Christ."