1 Corinthians 8:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The harm you inflict is inexcusable for two reasons: because your neighbor is weak, and because he is your brother. But there is also a third reason, the most fearful. What is it? Christ did not refuse to die for him, yet you are unwilling even to show him condescension.

By these words the Apostle reminds the perfect man what he himself once was, and that Christ died for him. He does not say, "for whom you ought to have died," but something far stronger: "for whom Christ died." Your Master did not refuse to die for him, yet you pay him no attention. You are unwilling, for his sake, to abstain even from an unclean table. You allow him to perish after his salvation has thus been accomplished, and what is most grievous, for the sake of food.

Thus your perfection will become the cause of another’s destruction, and of one who is weak, and one for whom Christ died. Chrysostom says: "If Christ did not refuse even to die for him, how can you fail to abstain from foods, so that he may not be scandalized by your eating (epi te se brosei)?"

If we love a weak man less because of the vice that makes him weak, let us remember Him who died for this weak man.

Meanwhile, because of your imprudent and inappropriate eating of food, and because of your conviction not founded on love for your neighbor, "the weak brother will perish, for whom Christ died."

"Thus the harm you inflict is inexcusable for two reasons. First, because your neighbor is weak. Second, because he is your brother. But there is also a third reason, the most fearful. What is it? Christ did not refuse to die for him, yet you are unwilling even to show condescension to your brother.

The Apostle strengthened the accusation in order thereby to stop the harm. For this brother, he says, whom you despise, Christ endured death. Yet you, having received knowledge from Christ, use this gift to slay one whom Christ has saved. Again the Apostle uses the phrase "in knowledge" ironically. He attributes to him not knowledge, but hatred of a brother, gluttony, and the like.

Your knowledge, he says, becomes the cause of your brother’s destruction. You know that an idol is not God, and that what is offered to idols is nothing other than food. Therefore you eat meats offered to idols while despising the idols. But your brother is weak and lacks both your knowledge and your discernment. When he eats what is offered to idols, he becomes a worshiper of idols and perishes, being deprived of his eternal salvation. Jesus Christ died for his salvation. Yet you do not wish to withdraw from eating what is offered to idols. Instead, relying on your knowledge, you eat it and destroy your brother’s soul.

"And through your knowledge, one-sided and arrogant, the weak brother will perish, for whom Christ died. By sinning thus against the brethren, that is, by treating their convictions with contempt and indifference, and by wounding their weak conscience through scandal. You sin against Christ." All these reasonings and instructions of the Apostle about the impropriety and scandal of eating idol-sacrificed food for weak consciences may readily be applied to eating non-fasting food during fasts established by the authority of the Church for moral and educational purposes.

Having shown the unseemliness of eating things offered to idols in relation to the very author of this thoughtless act, the Apostle now shows its harmful effect on others. He means those who do not have a sound view of idols, who are not firm in devotion to Christianity, and generally the weak, who are scandalized by this ambiguous act of the self-styled wise.

He will perish, because by acting against conscience he sins. Perhaps more will happen: by partaking of the table of demons, he may fall away entirely from the faith and return again to idolatry. If he has fallen, he has perished until he repents. If he has fallen away, he has perished altogether.

The cause is your knowledge. You look at things rationally, but you act irrationally while holding rational views. And the brother has perished, the brother for whom Christ died. This is a striking reminder. He has already received the cleansing and sanctifying action of Christ's death. The drops of the Lord's blood are upon him for salvation. Yet you cast him back into his former uncleanness and, together with him, trample upon that saving and priceless blood. Does this not horrify you?