In Chapters 8 and 10 of the First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul dealt with the question of eating meat offered to idols. Father George Montague S.M. explained: “Missionaries know what a struggle it is to wean recent converts from their former habits or lifestyles, which might involve superstition or idolatry. Converts would like to be Christians, but the old ways still have their attractions.”
In a similar way, Father Montague wrote, our culture offers “a dazzling array of alternatives to the Christian faith, options to which poorly instructed faithful are vulnerable, often because some of those alternatives are a hybrid with some Christian elements.”
In Corinth, he said, some converts “even found a theological rationale for participating in the sacrificial banquets of pagans. Others, perhaps the Jewish converts, are shocked that Christians would even accept an invitation to a nonbeliever’s meal at home, since the meat served may have been offered to an idol.”
The “theological rationale” was expressed in two mottos: “all of us possess knowledge” (8:1) and “an idol has no real existence” (8:4).
St. Paul responded to the first motto by stating: “This ‘knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up” (8:1). He responded to the second by pointing out that demonic forces were behind the idol images (1 Cor. 10:14–22).
Catholic author Stephen K. Ray comments: “The arrogant Corinthians were claiming to have knowledge, but a little knowledge can often be more dangerous than none at all. The ignorant man is usually not proud. On the other hand, a man who imagines he has great knowledge can become proud and arrogant.”
But, Ray says, “a man who has full knowledge is again humble since he understands that everything comes from God—even the knowledge he possesses. True knowledge is not the accumulation of facts and information alone; it is the humble acknowledgment that we only know because God first knew us, and in God’s mind love is the most important.”
St. John Chrysostom said, “The source of all the Corinthians’ problems was not their lack of knowledge but their lack of charity and lack of concern for their neighbour. This was the cause of the divisions in that church, the cause of the vanity which was blinding them and of all the disorder for which the Apostle has censured them and will censure them. He will often speak to them about charity, and try to clarify, so to speak, the fount of all good things.”
St. Paul wrote, “Not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled” (1 Cor. 8:7).
Preaching to the faithful in the 4th century, St. John Chrysostom invited them to consider the historical context of the Letter to the Corinthians: “They still tremble before idols, Paul says. Don’t think of the present situation, where several generations of your forebears were Christians. Carry your mind back to those earlier times. Imagine a time when the Christian gospel was just beginning to be proclaimed, when pagan impiety still held sway, fires burned on the altars, sacrifices and libations were being performed, and the pagans were in the majority. Imagine people who had inherited paganism from their ancestors and were descendants of pagan fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, people on whom these demons had inflicted much suffering. Consider what their situation would be when all at once they converted, how they would tremble in fear at the demons’ designs. … Suppose someone who follows Jewish custom considers himself unclean if he touches a corpse. If he should see others touching a corpse with a clear conscience and then do the same without sharing their understanding, he would be defiled. This is what these people [the “weak” in Corinth] were experiencing at that time.”
St. Paul declared: “If food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble” (1 Cor. 8:13).
A Bible commentator wrote, “The exercise of Christian love is more important than the exercise of Christian liberty. To assert our freedoms in a way that puts others in danger is to sin against charity.”
St. Augustine said, “It is the very law of Christ that we bear one another’s burdens. Moreover, by loving Christ we easily bear the weakness of another, even him whom we do not yet love for the sake of his own good qualities, for we realize that the one whom we love is someone for whom the Lord has died.”
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「知識」使人傲慢自大，愛德纔能立人
在格林多前書第8章和第10章中，聖保祿處理了關於吃祭邪神的肉的問題。George Montague神父解釋道：「傳教士們知道，要讓新皈依者戒除他們過去的習慣或生活方式，這可能涉及迷信或偶像崇拜，是多麼困難的事。皈依者希望成為基督徒，但舊有的方式仍對他們有吸引力。在現代，以稍微不同的形式，我們的文化提供了一系列令人眼花繚亂的替代基督信仰的選項，往往是因為這些選項中包含了一些與基督徒混合的元素，令那些信仰教育不足的信徒容易受到影響。在格林多，有些皈依者甚至找到神學上的理由來參加異教徒的祭祀宴席。而其他人，可能是猶太皈依者，對基督信徒甚至接受非信徒在家中邀請他們用餐感到震驚，因為吃的肉可能曾祭邪神。」
「神學上的理由」被表達為兩個格言：「我們都有知識。」（8:1）和「世上並沒有什麼邪神。」（8:4）聖保祿對第一個格言的回應是：「這『知識』只會使人傲慢自大，愛德纔能立人。」（8:1）他對第二個格言的回應則指出，偶像的背後存在著邪魔的力量。（格前10:14–22）
天主教作家Stephen K. Ray評論說：「那些自負的格林多人聲稱自己擁有知識，但一點點知識往往比完全無知更危險。無知的人通常不會驕傲。另一方面，一個自以為擁有大量知識的人可能變得傲慢自大。然而，一個真正擁有全備知識的人卻會回復謙卑，因為他明白一切都來自天主 – 包括他所擁有的知識。真正的知識並不僅僅是事實和資訊的累積；是一種謙卑的承認：我們之所以知道，是因為天主先認識了我們，而在天主的思想中，愛德是最重要的。」
金口聖若望說：「格林多人所有問題的根源並不是缺乏知識，而是缺乏愛德以及對近人的關懷。這正是教會內部分裂的原因，也是使他們陷入虛榮、自以為是、以及一切混亂的根源，為此宗徒已經責備過他們，並將繼續責備他們。他將多次對他們談論愛德，並試圖闡明，說明一切美好事物的源泉。」
聖保祿寫道：「不過這種知識不是人人都有的；有些人直到如今因拜慣了邪神，以為所吃的是祭邪神的肉，因為他們的良心軟弱，就受了玷污。」（格前8:7）在公元4世紀向信友講道時，金口聖若望邀請他們考慮格林多前書的歷史背景：「保祿說他們仍然在偶像面前顫抖。不要只想到現在的情況，因為你們的先祖已經歷經好幾代的基督信徒生活。將你的心思帶回到更早的時代。想像一下福音剛剛開始被宣講的時候，異教的邪魔依然占據主導地位，祭壇上的火焰熊熊燃燒，祭獻和奠酒儀式不斷進行，且異教徒佔多數。想像那些從祖先繼承異教信仰的人，他們是異教的父親、祖父和曾祖父的後裔，是那些受到魔鬼多重苦難折磨的人。想想當這些人突然改信基督信仰時，他們面對魔鬼詭計時會如何因恐懼而顫抖…。假如有人遵循猶太人的習俗，認為觸碰屍體會使自己不潔。如果他看到別人心安理得地觸碰屍體，而自己在不了解其信念的情況下也這樣做了，他就會因此受到玷污。這正是那些格林多『軟弱者』當時所經歷的情況。」
聖保祿宣告：「倘若食物使我的弟兄跌倒，我就永遠不吃肉，免得叫我的弟兄跌倒。」（格前8:13）一位聖經評論者寫道：「實踐基督的愛德比行使基督徒的自由更為重要。以危及他人的方式主張我們的自由，就是犯了違背愛德的罪。」
聖奧斯定說：「彼此承擔重擔正是基督的律法。此外，因為愛基督，我們便能輕鬆承受他人的軟弱，即使那人尚不知因自身的良善而被我們所愛，我們卻明白，我們所愛的人是主為他而捨命的人。」
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