Can Someone Be Overly Conscientious? 1 Corinthians 8

Concerning Food Sacrificed to Idols

8 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God.

Paul addresses another question asked by the Corinthians regarding food offered to idols in the marketplace, usually meat.  Paul starts out by contrasting love and knowledge.  Though knowledge was important, especially knowledge about God, love was more important.  Just because someone had knowledge didn't mean they should use it in a unloving way that tore people down.  A person with a lot of knowledge has to be careful that their knowledge doesn't lead to pride, or thinking they are better than someone else.  We have all been around people who thought they were so much smarter than anybody else and always looked down their nose at others.  Paul then says that more important than our own knowledge is that fact we are known by God!

4 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.” 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

Guzik says this about food sacrificed to idols, 

'The meat offered on pagan altars was usually divided into three portions. One portion was burnt in honor of the god, one portion was given to the worshipper to take home and eat, and the third portion was given to the priest. If the priest didn’t want to eat his portion, he sold it at the temple restaurant or meat market. The meat served and sold at the temple was generally cheaper. Then, as well as now, people loved a bargain (including Christians).'

Paul is careful to not give too much power or attention to idols.  He says they are worthless and don't waste too much time on them, but instead give your attention to the One, True God, who created the heavens and the earth and to Jesus Christ.  Though idols have no inherent power or authority, they had power over those who worshipped them and offered sacrifices to them. For that person the idols had power over THEM! 

It is the same today.  We have idols which people worship and get addicted to like money, material possessions, sex, power and celebrity status; but their only power is what people choose to give to them as they worship them and give their power over to them.  

7 But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

Paul teaches that there is nothing inherently good or bad in food, but for some they cannot disconnect the meat and what the meat has been used for in pagan sacrifice.  Because they don't understand why the sacrifice in the marketplace is meaningless, they would feel guilty in eating this food.  Ironically Paul says those who cannot eat the meat offered in sacrifice have a weak conscience.

Why is their conscience considered weak? Not because their conscience doesn’t work. Indeed, it does work – in fact, ii overworks. Their conscience is considered weak because it is wrongly informed; their conscience is operating on the idea that there really is something to an idol. (Guzik)

Importantly since there was nothing instrinically moral or immoral about the food, eating food from the marketplace did not affect one's relationship with God! 

9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

Paul then gets to what I think is the most important part of the passage, and the most relevant application for us today.  Though one of the Corinthians, because of their superior "knowledge" could freely eat the meat offered in the marketplace with a clean conscience, it didn't mean it was the right thing to do.  As a Christian, we live in community together and what is good for us might not necessarily be good for another brother or sister in Christ.  Importantly just because the knowledgeable members knew eating meat wasn't a sin for them, if it caused another believer to stumble, they weren't being loving.  Though we have freedom as Christians, if by exercising our freedom we tempt someone to do something they think is wrong, we should refrain from exercising it.   

What are the issues today that are similar to eating meat in the marketplace offered to idols in Paul's day?  What are some practical areas in your life where exercising your freedom might tempt someone to act against their conscience?  What would it mean for you to restrict your freedom for the good of someone else?  If you have knowledge, help others to grow in their understanding of the freedom we have in Christ because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross!