1 Corinthians 8:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Those who still feared idols had not learned to despise them. Seeing that the more perfect did the same, they took part in such suppers and suffered great harm from it.

They touched what was set before them not with the disposition of the perfect, but as idol-offerings. By this idolatry was sustained.

At the same time the perfect themselves fell into no small sin by making use of demonic tables. This was the fault of the Corinthians.

Blessed Paul, wishing to correct this, does not immediately use words of accusation. What was happening among them was the result more of folly than of corruption.

Therefore it was necessary at first to use exhortation rather than a strong and angry rebuke.

See with what prudence he immediately begins the exhortation: "Now concerning things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge."

Leaving aside the weak, as he always does, he first directs his word to the strong. He does the same in the Epistle to the Romans when he says, "But why do you judge your brother?" (Rom 14:10).

Such a person can more easily accept admonition. So he acts here also. First he casts down their pride, noting that the perfect knowledge they considered their special advantage belongs to everyone in common.

"We know," he says, "that we all have knowledge."

If he had ignored their arrogance and first begun proving that their conduct harmed others, he would not have helped so much as harmed.

A vainglorious soul, being proud of something, does not humble itself while vanity possesses it, even if that thing is bound up with harm to others.

Therefore Paul first opens the matter in itself, as he had done earlier with worldly wisdom when he rejected it decisively.

There he could rightly act so, because everything in it deserved complete condemnation. It was very easy to prove that it was not only superfluous, but contrary to the preaching.

Here he could not act in the same way, because the subject of his discourse was knowledge, and indeed perfect knowledge.

It was not safe to reject this knowledge. Yet there was no other way to cast down the pride that came from it.

What, then, does he do? He first shows that this knowledge belongs to everyone in common, and by this humbles their pride.

Those who possess something great and beautiful are more exalted when they alone possess it. But when they discover that others have the same thing, they are no longer so exalted.

Therefore, first, he makes common what the Corinthians had claimed for themselves alone.

Having made it common, he does not present himself as a participant in the knowledge, lest they become still prouder from this.

Just as one who alone has something is exalted, so also is one who has only one or two distinguished companions in it.

Therefore he does not point to himself, but to all. He does not say, "I also have knowledge," but, "we know that we all have knowledge."

By this first argument he struck their pride strongly, and by a second still more strongly.

What was it? He showed that knowledge itself is not only incomplete, but very imperfect. Not only is it imperfect, but it is harmful unless something else is joined to it.

After saying, "that we all have knowledge," he adds, "but knowledge puffs up, while love builds up."

If knowledge is not joined with love, it produces pride.

But you will say that love without knowledge is also of no benefit. He is not speaking about this. Leaving that aside as known to all, he shows that knowledge has great need of love.

He who loves, as one who fulfills the chief of all commandments, can quickly acquire knowledge through love, even if he has certain defects, like Cornelius and many others.

But he who has knowledge without love not only gains nothing, but often loses even what he has by falling into pride.

Thus knowledge does not produce love. On the contrary, it drives love away from the inattentive man by producing pride and arrogance in him.

Pride produces divisions, but love unites and leads to knowledge. The Apostle expresses this when he says, "But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him" (1 Cor 8:3).

I do not forbid, he says, the possession of perfect knowledge, but I command that it be held together with love. Otherwise it is not only useless, but even harmful.

Do you see how he already begins his discourse on love?

Since all the evil came not from perfect knowledge, but from lack of love and condescension toward neighbors, he continually strives to instill love in them as the source of good things.

From this lack came their divisions, arrogance, and all the rest for which he reproached them both before and after.

Why, he says, are you proud of knowledge? If you do not have love, it will harm you. For what is worse than pride?

But if you have love, knowledge too will be secure. When you know more than your neighbor and love him, you will not exalt yourself, but will communicate the same knowledge to him.

Therefore, after saying, "knowledge puffs up," he added, "but love builds up." He did not say, "humbles," but expressed something far greater and more useful.

Knowledge not only puffs up, but also produces division. Therefore he set one against the other.

This stirred Paul to zeal, because it harmed both groups. It harmed the perfect because they took pleasure in demonic foods. It harmed the imperfect because they were inclined toward idolatrous service. Therefore the Apostle hastens to correct this evil. According to his custom, he leaves the imperfect aside and directs his speech to the perfect.

First, he tames their pride in knowledge and says: you are not the only ones who have this knowledge. We all know that an idol is nothing in the world. Yet this knowledge not only brings no benefit, but even harms, if there is not love with it. It puffs up and inflates the one who has it, and thereby separates him from his neighbor. Love, by contrast, can build up. For what knowledge without love destroys, love restores and builds up, doing everything for the benefit of the neighbor.

Then he adds: "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." Love is higher than knowledge. Knowledge often brings those who use it badly to exaltation, while love takes thought for benefiting the neighbor. This is what the Apostle expresses by the word "builds up." This statement accuses the Corinthians of lacking love, because if they had acquired it, they would have cared for the benefit of the weak.

The greatest puffing up is when someone considers himself better and more perfect than Him Who created him, gave him the breath of life, and called this very man into being.

Thus, as I said, it is far better if someone knows nothing and grasps no cause why any created thing was made, yet believes in God and abides in love toward Him.

This is better than to fall away from the love that gives life to man by being puffed up with such knowledge.

It is better if he pursues no other knowledge than the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified for us.

This is better than to fall into impiety through crafty questions and subtle speeches.

For what if someone, becoming proud through attempts of this kind, wished carefully to learn the number of hairs on each head, because the Lord said that "the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Mt 10:30)?

What if he investigated why one person has so many hairs and another so many? Not all have the same number.

Many thousands of people have different numbers, since some have large heads, others smaller, some thick hair, others sparse hair, and some very little.

Then suppose those who imagined that they had found the number of hairs tried to present this as proof of the teaching they had invented.

Or again, what if someone, on the basis of the Gospel words, "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father" (Mt 10:29), wished to count the sparrows caught daily throughout the whole earth, or in some region of it?

What if he investigated why yesterday so many were caught, formerly so many, and today so many, and then applied the number of sparrows to his teaching?

Is such a man not utterly deceived? Does he not draw those who agree with him into great folly?

For people are always ready, in matters of this sort, to think that they have discovered something greater than their teachers.

If someone asked me whether God knows every number of all things created and still being created, and whether each of them received its proper magnitude by His providence, I would affirm it.

I would say that nothing among all things created in the past, present, or future escapes the knowledge of God.

By His providence each thing received and receives its own form, order, number, and magnitude.

Nothing has existed or comes to be in vain or by chance, but with great proportion and excellent knowledge.

Only a wondrous and truly divine intelligence can discern and show the proper causes of such an order of things.

But suppose that, after receiving such testimony and agreement from me, he then proceeded to count the sand and stones of the earth, the waves of the sea, and the stars of heaven.

Suppose he investigated the causes of the number he imagines he has found. Would not all sound-minded people rightly call such a man idle, absurd, and foolish?

And the more he occupies himself with such questions compared with others, and the more he thinks himself to have discovered something special, the more senseless and foolish he is.

He calls other men unskilled, ignorant, and merely natural because they do not undertake his empty labor.

He is as though stunned by lightning, because he yields nothing to God. Through the knowledge he imagines himself to have discovered, he even changes God Himself.

He exalts his own thought above the greatness of the Creator.

But there are people who try to correct their own life according to the knowledge they have acquired. Here love already edifies. There are others who care about communicating their knowledge to their neighbors and about edifying the ignorant. Here too love edifies.

Sacrifices offered to idols were not wholly burned, but only some part. The rest partly went to the priests and partly returned to those who offered it.

From this they would arrange a meal, either there at the temples or at home.

The better educated Christians knew that an idol is nothing, and therefore cannot impart either harm or sin to food.

When invited by kinship, acquaintance, or some other reason, they approached such a meal without fear. But the simpler Christians were scandalized by this.

The leaders of the Church probably asked: We know that eating idol-offerings is nothing, but some are being scandalized. What should be done?

The Apostle explains below what should be done. For now he takes from their letter only the first words, "we know," and exposes the conceit of knowledge and its inability to act usefully for others.

"We know that we all have knowledge." The Corinthians say of themselves that they understand very well what idol sacrifices mean.

The Apostle says nothing against this, and leaves this advantage to them. Later he will say that not everyone has knowledge (1 Cor 8:7). But now he yields, as though saying: let it be so.

Theodoret remarks that the Apostle here testified to their knowledge with a certain irony. This is clear from the reproach to knowledge that follows: "if anyone thinks that he knows anything."

Chrysostom says: "Leaving aside the weak, as he always does, he first directs his word to the strong, and first casts down their pride.

He does not reject knowledge, but strikes at the pride that arises from it. He presents knowledge itself not only as incomplete, but as very imperfect.

And not only as imperfect, but also as harmful, if something else is not joined to it."

"Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." The word "therefore" is not in the original. There is no particle there at all.

This gives freedom to connect this saying with the preceding words as one judges best.

Let it be, he says, that you have understanding and knowledge. But knowledge alone is an unreliable guide of life.

It stirs up conceit, and from conceit comes division. Only love builds up, οικοδομει, arranging all Christians into one whole and harmonious building, the house of the living God.

Therefore, if love is not present with knowledge, knowledge is more harmful than useful.

Chrysostom explains it this way: "If knowledge is not joined with love, it produces pride. Knowledge needs love.

He who loves, as one who fulfills the chief of all commandments, can quickly acquire knowledge with the help of love, even if he has certain defects.

But he who has knowledge without love not only gains nothing, but often loses even what he has.

Knowledge drives love away from the inattentive man by producing in him pride and arrogance. Pride produces division, but love unites.

I do not forbid, he says, the possession of perfect knowledge, but I command that it be held together with love. Otherwise it is not only useless, but harmful.

Why are you proud of knowledge? If you do not have love, it will harm you, for what is worse than pride?

But if you have love, knowledge too will be secure. For one who knows more than his neighbor and loves him will not exalt himself, but will communicate the same knowledge to him.

Therefore, after saying, 'knowledge puffs up,' he added, 'but love builds up.' He did not say, 'humbles,' but expressed something far greater and more useful.

Just as knowledge not only inflates but also produces division, so the opposite actions belong to love" (Chrysostom).