“But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.”
King James Version (KJV)
8:7 Some eat, with consciousness of the idol - That is, fancying it is something, and that it makes the meat unlawful to be eaten. And their conscience, being weak - Not rightly informed. Is defiled - contracts guilt by doing it.
8:8 But meat commendeth us not to God - Neither by eating, nor by refraining from it. Eating and not eating are in themselves things merely indifferent.
8:10 For if any one see thee who hast knowledge - Whom he believes to have more knowledge than himself, and who really hast this knowledge, that an idol is nothing - sitting down to an entertainment in an idol temple. The heathens frequently made entertainments in their temples, on what hath been sacrificed to their idols. Will not the conscience of him that is weak - Scrupulous. Be encouraged - By thy example. To eat - Though with a doubting conscience.
8:11 And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? - And for whom thou wilt not lose a meal's meat, so far from dying for him! We see, Christ died even for them that perish.
1Co 8:9 Take heed lest . . . this liberty of yours, etc. The meat itself made one neither better nor worse (1Co 8:8), but if those who "had knowledge" (1Co 8:10) ate it, it might prove a stumbling-block, the occasion of the fall of those who were not so well informed and were weaker.