John Calvin Commentary 1 Corinthians 8:13

"Wherefore, if meat causeth my brother to stumble, I will eat no flesh for evermore, that I cause not my brother to stumble." — 1 Corinthians 8:13 (ASV)

Wherefore if meat make my brother to offend. With the aim of reproving more severely their disdainful liberty, he declares that we ought not merely to refrain from a single banquet rather than injure a brother, but ought to give up eating meat throughout our whole life.

Nor does he merely prescribe what ought to be done, but declares that he himself would act in this way. The expression, it is true, is hyperbolical, as it is scarcely possible that one should refrain from eating flesh throughout his whole life if he remains in common life. But his meaning is that he would rather make no use of his liberty in any instance than be an occasion of offense to the weak. For participation is in no case lawful unless it is regulated by the rule of love.

If only this were duly pondered by those who make everything serve their own advantage, so that they cannot bear to give up even a hair's breadth of their own right for the sake of their brothers; and if only they would pay attention not merely to what Paul teaches, but also to what he demonstrates by his own example! How greatly superior he is to us! When he, then, makes no hesitation in subjecting himself to this extent to his brothers, who among us would not submit to the same condition?

But, however difficult it is to act according to this doctrine, its meaning is easy to understand, if it were not that some have corrupted it by foolish interpretations and others by wicked slanders. Both classes err as to the meaning of the word offend. For they understand the word offend to mean incurring the hatred or displeasure of men, or what is nearly the same thing, doing what displeases them or is not altogether agreeable to them. But it appears very plainly from the context that it means simply to hinder a brother by bad example (as an obstacle thrown in his way) from the right course, or to give him occasion of falling.

Paul, therefore, is not here discussing how to retain the favor of men, but how to assist the weak, to prevent them from falling, and prudently directing them so that they do not turn aside from the right path. But (as I have said) the former class are foolish, while the latter are also wicked and impudent.

Those are foolish who allow Christians scarcely any use of things indifferent, for fear that they might offend superstitious persons. “Paul,” they say, “prohibits here everything that may give occasion of offense. Now, to eat flesh on Friday will not fail to give offense, and therefore we must abstain from it, not merely when there are some weak persons present, but in every case without exception, for it is possible that they may come to know of it.”

Not to mention their misinterpretation of the phrase rendered occasion of offense, they fall into a serious blunder by not considering that Paul here speaks out against those who impudently abuse their knowledge in the presence of the weak, whom they make no effort to instruct.

Therefore, there will be no occasion for reproof if instruction has been previously given. Furthermore, Paul does not command us to calculate whether there may be an occasion of offense in what we do, except when the danger is present before us.

I come now to the other class. These are pretended followers of Nicodemus who, under this pretext, conform themselves to the wicked by participating in their idolatry. Not content with justifying what they do wrong, they also desire to bind others to the same necessity.

Nothing could be said with greater clarity to condemn their perverse dissimulation than what Paul here teaches: that all who by their example allure the weak to idolatry commit a serious outrage against God as well as men. Yet they eagerly shield themselves from this by trying to show that superstitions should be cherished in the hearts of the ignorant, and that we should lead the way for them into idolatry, for fear that a free condemnation of idolatry should offend them.

Therefore, I will not do them the honor of dwelling on a refutation of their impudence. I simply admonish my readers to compare Paul’s times with ours, and judge from this whether it is allowable to be present at mass and other abominations, giving so much occasion of offense to the weak.