Now concerning things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 8:1 Go To 1 Corinthians 8
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Now as touching things offered unto idols we know that we all have knowledge. We all know, though some of you may think differently, that things offered to idols are the same as other food, and have no greater sanctity or power. All of us who are fairly well instructed in the faith of Christ know that they belong to the class of adiaphora.
Knowledge puffeth up. This knowledge of yours, that idols are nothing, and that consequently it is lawful to eat of things offered to idols, which accordingly you do to the great offence of those who know it not, makes you proud towards the ignorant, and makes you look down on them. The word for puffeth up points to a bladder distended with wind. Such, he says, is this windy knowledge. S. Augustine (Sent. n241) says: "It is a virtue of the humble not to boast of their knowledge; because, as all alike share the light, so do they the truth."
But charity edifieth. The weak and ignorant. It brushes aside such things as the eating of idol-sacrifices, which may be stumbling-blocks t them, so as to keep them in the faith of Christ, and help them forward in it. Windy knowledge, therefore, makes a man proud, if it be not tempered with charity, So Anselm.
It plainly appears that this knowledge, which puffeth up, is contrary to charity, for it induces contempt of one"s neighbours, while charity is anxious to edify them. S. Bernard (Serm36 in Cantic.) says appositely: "As food, if not digested, generates unhealthy humours, and harms rather than nourished the body, so if a mass of knowledge be bolted into the mind"s stomach, which is the memory, and be not assimilated by the fire of Christ, and if it be so passed along through the arteries of the soil, viz, the character and Acts , will it not be regarded as sin, being food changed into evil and noxious humours?"
