1 Corinthians 8:13 Commentary and Bible Study

Paul imposed this rule on himself. He careful considered the people he was ministering to. He was aware of all the issues that might need this kind of self-restraint on his part. Especially in dealing with Jews, it was necessary not to do things which offended them unnecessarily, hence the instruction that came in the letter sent from Jerusalem by the elders and apostles, which advised the Gentiles: ‘that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood’ (Acts 15:20). Fornication is obviously a moral sin, but the other matters were about the Jewish conscience. This issue with meat offered to idols was a similar case affecting Gentile converts.And the apostle Paul says in the last verse the chapter, ‘Wherefore, if meat [that is, my buying meat in the open market and eating it without any regard to whether it had been sacrificed or not] make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.’ How carefully love regards the conscience of that weaker brother. How out of place in the church is an insistence on rights that pays no attention to this. Those who insist on their rights, regardless of the effect on others, lack love and also lack knowledge, for true knowledge knows how to love also. Paul loved the converts who came to Christ through his preaching; he loved them more than his rights, and more than the food that he was obliged to go without.