1 Corinthians 8:8,9 – Food as a stumbling block

Now food will not give us a standing with God, neither, if we should not be eating are we in want, nor if we should be eating are we cloyed. Now beware lest somehow this right of yours may become a stumbling block to the weak.

The saying goes: “a man is what he eats.” Food is a necessity, we can’t live without it. But what a person has on his plate is irrelevant in Paul’s Evangel. It does not give us a position with GOD. In the context of 1 Corinthians 8: he who does not eat meat because it would be idolatrous is no less than the one who does not count with idols and therefore does eat meat. Paul addresses the flesh eaters in particular. Between the lines Paul clearly shows that they took a ‘strong’ position and were right in terms of content. Because they didn’t count with idols.

But… taking a ‘strong’ position does not yet give the right cause the ‘weak’ to stumble. Then you become, with your knowledge and being right (!), you become a stumbling block for the ‘weak’. You don’t count with idols, but you don’t take your brothers into account either. That is puffed up knowledge. Thus unloving.

Delen: