1 Corinthians 8:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"Some, even until now, with consciousness of the idol, eat what is offered to idols as an idol sacrifice, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled." Even now, he says, they fear idols. Do not point me to your present condition, in which you received piety from your fathers. Rather, turn your thought to those times when the preaching had only just begun.

Impiety still prevailed then. Altars smoked, sacrifices and libations were offered, and there were still very many pagans. Consider what those must have felt who inherited impiety from their fathers. They came from such fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. They suffered many evils from evil spirits and had only just turned to Christianity. How they must have feared and trembled at the snares of the devil.

The Apostle has them in mind when he says, "Some, even until now, with consciousness of the idol." He does not name them directly, lest he wound them. Nor is he altogether silent, but mentions them indefinitely. "Some," he says, "even until now, with consciousness of the idol, eat what is offered to idols as an idol sacrifice," that is, with the same thoughts with which they ate before.

"And their conscience, being weak, is defiled," because it cannot yet regard these sacrifices as nothing and utterly despise them, but still remains in doubt. It is as if someone, touching a dead body, regarded it as defilement for himself according to the Jewish way of thinking. Then, seeing others touch it with a clean conscience, he also touched it, yet not with the same thought, and so was defiled. So it was then with the Corinthians.

"Some, even until now, with consciousness of the idol." He did not say "even until now" in vain, but to show that without condescension toward one's neighbors no benefit is gained at all. They must be instructed not in that way, but in another, namely by word and teaching.

"And their conscience, being weak, is defiled." Up to this point he does not yet speak of the essence of the matter. He only directs attention in every way to the conscience of the one who eats. He fears that, while correcting the weak, he might wound the strong and make him weak as well. He spares both alike. He does not even allow them to think anything of the kind, but unfolds his thought at length, so that no perplexity may arise.

"With a conscience that recognizes idols" means having the same opinion about idols that they had before conversion, regarding them as something and fearing them as capable of causing harm. Therefore he did not say that idols defile, but that the conscience of those who eat is defiled, since it is weak and cannot understand that idols are nothing. In themselves, idols cannot defile anyone.

Understand, then, that those who eat things sacrificed to idols experience something like this. Suppose someone, according to Jewish custom, considered contact with a dead body a defilement. Seeing others touch it with a pure conscience, he then touched it himself out of shame before them. He would not be defiled, but he would be defiled in conscience, since he would be condemned by it.

By pointing to the harm that can come from this liberty to the less developed, or, as he says, to the weak, he lets us understand two things. First, things exist in themselves and have only material significance. Second, they stand in relation to the people who come into contact with them, and so they can also have moral significance.

Forgetting this, or neglecting it, shows only the one-sidedness and narrowness of the understanding of free-thinking people. Indeed, if one judged an idol only from its material side, and if everyone judged it so, then of course it would be complete nothingness. But, as the Apostle says of his contemporaries, "some, even until now, remain with a conscience that acknowledges idols" (1 Cor 8:7).

In the same way, food can be spoken of either only from its material side, or also from its moral side. In the first case, food considered only as matter entering the mouth solely for the work of the stomach can neither defile nor sanctify a man (Mt 15:11). Or, as the Apostle says, it can neither bring him nearer to God nor remove him from God. In this respect there can be questions only about whether it is harmful or harmless to a person's bodily health.

But man is not merely an animal. He is a morally free being. Therefore all his actions, and consequently the very eating or not eating of food, can have not only physiological but also moral significance. It follows that it cannot always be indifferent and sinless either to eat or not to eat a certain kind of food, such as idol-offerings or non-fasting food at a time when it is forbidden. This is explained by the Apostle as follows.

This thoughtless act produces an especially ruinous effect on the weak and those not established in faith. Such people could see Christians eating idol-offerings as a direct betrayal of Christianity. Following others, they could truly betray Christianity themselves. These unhappy ones perished by following people who ate idol-offerings without the least thought of betraying the Christian faith. Yet these became the chief cause of the destruction of the weak.

Warning such people against eating things offered to idols, the Apostle says: "Take heed, lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak"; "wounding their conscience"; "you sin against Christ."

According to the explanation of St. John Chrysostom, "The Apostle says, 'Take heed,' arousing in the Corinthians fear, shame, and resolve not to do this. He did not say, 'this knowledge of yours,' or 'your perfection,' which would have sounded more like praise, but 'liberty.' By this he expressed rather their shamelessness, boldness, and pride. He did not say, 'to the brethren,' but 'to the weak,' who are of the brethren. He increases their guilt because they do not spare even the weak, and indeed their brethren."

"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 been accomplished, and what is most grievous, for the sake of food."

They sin in this against Christ: first, because He takes to Himself what concerns His servants; second, because those who are wounded are His Body and His members; third, because those who wound the conscience of the weak, through their pride, destroy the work He accomplished by His death.

They thought this formerly. Since they had only recently left idolatry, they had not yet managed to unlearn such convictions about idols and things sacrificed to idols. This is what the Apostle called an idolatrous conscience.

Yet of themselves they do not think of touching anything idolatrous. They rejected all this when they accepted the Christian faith and, with it, acquired a Christian conscience. This conscience forbids them to touch even things sacrificed to idols, since, according to their thoughts, this means sharing in idolatry.

Meanwhile, encountering examples of those strong in reasoning, who regard things sacrificed to idols as any other pure food and eat them with a calm conscience, they are carried away by them. They also eat things sacrificed to idols, but without having the reasoning of the strong. They hold the thought that eating things sacrificed to idols means communion with idolatry, despite the fact that their Christian conscience forbids them to do it.

In this way they act against their Christian conscience and are defiled, staining their conscience. "And their conscience, being weak, is defiled." "It is not the eating that defiles. Rather, the conscience is defiled because it has not received perfect knowledge and is still held by idolatrous delusion" (Theodoret).

"Some," he says, "have not yet understood that an idol is nothing in the world. Therefore they continue to fear idols. Do not point me to the present state in which you find yourself, having received piety from your ancestors. Turn your thought to those times when the preaching had only just begun, when impiety still ruled, when altars smoked, sacrifices and libations were performed, and there were still very many pagans. Imagine what those who inherited impiety from their ancestors, who came from such fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, and had only just turned to Christianity, must have felt. How they must have feared and trembled. The Apostle has them in mind when he says, 'With conscience of the idol even until now they eat things sacrificed to idols,' that is, with the same thoughts with which they ate before. 'And their conscience, being weak, is defiled,' because it cannot yet regard these sacrifices as nothing and completely despise them, but remains still in doubt. It is as if someone, regarding contact with a dead body as defilement according to the Jewish way of thinking, abstained from it, and then, seeing others touch it with a pure conscience, began to touch it himself, but not with the same thoughts. So it was then with the Corinthians. And their conscience was defiled" (Saint Chrysostom).