If Eating Meat Offends Your Brother 1 Corinthians 8:13

Paul the apostle asked some of the church members in Corinth if they knew, “through their knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died”? Paul shared what the church members should do in chapter eight and verse thirteen of First Corinthians if “meat makes my brother to offend” where we read:

Wherefore, if meat makes my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh

while the world stands, lest I make my brother to offend.

The verse begins, “Wherefore, if meat makes my brother to offend, ...” Paul began with the word, “Wherefore” which is a conclusion word that means “on which very account”, “if meat” or “whether food, flesh or that which is eaten” “makes” which means “puts in front of” “my brother” which means “Paul's fellow believer who is united to another by the bond of affection” “to offend” or “a stumbling block or impediment in the way upon which another may trip and fall”. Paul considered the possibility that a “fellow believer” might “trip and fall” over his “liberty”.

The verse goes on to say, “ … I will eat no flesh while the world stands, lest I make my brother to offend”. Paul continued with the words, “I will eat” or “Paul would not consume or devour” “no flesh” which means “not any butchered or sacrificed meat” “while the world stands” which means “forever, to the unbroken age, perpetuity of time and eternity”, “lest” or “in order and so that” “I make” or Paul would “put in front of” “my brother” which refers to “Paul's fellow believer who is united to another by the bond of affection” “to offend” which is the Greek word “skandalizō” from which we get our English word “scandalize” and means “to put a stumbling block or impediment in the way, upon which another may trip and fall”. Even if Paul felt at “liberty” to “eat meats offered to idols”, he would not do so if it meant he would “scandalize” his brothers and sisters in Christ.

When we consider these words from Paul, we see how his care for “fellow believers” superseded his own “freedom” in Christ. If they were to be “scandalized” and brought into “sin” because of their “weakness” in the faith, Paul was not going to be guilty of contributing to that state. Jesus Christ desires for His church to “love one another, and so fulfill the love of God”, and by considering one another in our “liberties” in Christ, we represent the “glory of the gospel” to everyone who is watching the way we behave toward each other.

Next time we begin a new chapter as Paul asks the Corinthians four questions concerning himself, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

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