Apostle Paul and the Corinthian church have evidently been exchanging letters back and forth and the Corinthians, unfortunately, seem to be somewhat contrarian in their perspective of how they should be treating certain – let’s say – more sensitive topics.

For example, at one point, the Corinthians wrote to Paul that “We all possess knowledge.”

What are they saying?

It seems that the Corinthians are saying to Paul that they know what he knows. They understand what was written. They are saying that they have the knowledge of the scriptures that Paul has, which in all likelihood is true.

In short, it seems that they are saying that they know their rights. They have the right, in this case, to eat food, specifically meat, that has been sacrificed to idols. Why? Because an idol is nothing. There is no actual god in that idol, so any food that has been sacrificed to that idol is not actually a sacrifice at all.

But Paul explains back to the Corinthians that there is something more that is required. It isn’t just that the Corinthians need to know their rights. They don’t need to just know the law. They need to understand, within the confines of the law, how they can love other people in such a way that those others can come to know Christ. They need to know how they can do that without placing barriers in front of those other people, preventing those others from fully coming to Jesus, giving themselves to him.

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

1 Corinthians 8:1-3

By eating this meat that has been sacrificed to idols, even though these people within the Corinthian church are correct from a lawful perspective and from a spiritually “legal” perspective, Paul is explaining that they are acting wrongly from a loving perspective. Their actions, while based on right understanding, are actually preventing other people from knowing Christ because it looks completely wrong to these other people.

This meat that they are eating has been sacrificed to another god. How could they eat it? That is what the pagans would do!

Paul is saying that this is the thinking of those who are considering coming to follow Christ and yet are seeing the Corinthian Christians eat this meat and find themselves scandalized, or as Paul says, it becomes a stumbling block to them and their young faith is destroyed.

Is their faith destroyed because the Corinthians were wrong to eat the meat? No, they weren’t wrong in their understanding. They weren’t wrong in their knowledge. They were wrong in their love for other people.

They knew that there would controversy by going to eat this meat. They knew that this was a significant issue of their day. And yet, because they knew they were right – or because they knew their “rights” – they went ahead and did it anyway. And they did it despite realizing that other people would fall away from Christ.

Paul explains, though, that if someone would fall away from Christ as a result of the meat he were eating, he would never eat meat again! The important point is not that we are right, or that we are able to exercise our rights. The important point, instead, is that we would show love to others so that they would know Jesus!

Of course, there are fundamental truths upon which we cannot compromise. We cannot remove the foundations of our faith to accommodate people who do not believe in the foundations of that faith.

But there are many different aspects of our faith that are secondary, yet have, because of the knowledge that we have obtained, become primary in our minds such that our insistence that we are right, that we can do this thing or we insist that we cannot do this thing, that it becomes a stumbling block for others to follow Christ.

Here is, in my opinion, a silly example:

I have heard it said that Christians cannot have tattoos. I have also heard it said that Christians are allowed to have tattoos. I understand the argument for why someone would say one or the other, why they would take one position or the other. But are you so sure of your position – for or against – that it is worth arguing about such a statement that you are willing to risk someone falling out of relationship with you, or as I have actually seen happen, with Christ as a result?

There are several examples, I believe, that we could make with this, but I believe Paul, in this case would say that if, by getting a tattoo, you cause another person to stumble, he would never get a tattoo. On the other hand, if criticizing a person for getting a tattoo might cause them to stumble in their relationship with Christ, I believe that he would not voice that criticism, understanding that there are differing views on this topic and that this would be a significant problem for some people.

We must be careful with our knowledge, that it doesn’t puff us up, but instead walk in love, building up one another so that each will know Christ and grow in him.