1 Corinthians 8:12

8:12 To make immature believers sin by violating their conscience is the same as sinning against Christ, who has claimed them for himself (cp. Matt 25:40, 45).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Co 8:12. Τύπτοντες, striking) [Engl. V. not so well, wounding], as the weary cattle are urged on by the lash. Striking is elegantly used, not wounding, for a wound is seen, a stroke is not so discernible. You strike brethren, or make them strike themselves.—εἰς Χριστὸν, against Christ) to whom the brethren are united. The expression, against Christ, in the latter clause bears the chief emphasis; when ye sin, in the former.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_8:12. Οὕτω] When ye sin against the brethren in this way, as described in 1Co_8:10-11.

καί] and especially.

τύπτοντες] in substance the same thing as μολύνοντες in 1Co_8:7, only expressed by a different metaphor, which makes the cruelty of the procedure more apparent. What befits a weak conscience is forbearance, not that it should morally receive blows, should be smitten through offence done to it as with a wounding weapon (Hom. Il. xix. 125; Herod, iii. 64; Xen. Cyr. v. 4. 5; Pro_26:22), so that now, instead of being but a weak, it becomes a bad conscience.

αὐτῶν] put first because correlative to the εἰς Χριστόν which follows; in the latter is finally concentrated the whole heinousness of the offence.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 8:12 . In such case, not only the weak brother sins by yielding, but the strong who tempted him; and the latter sins directly “against Christ” (for the construction, cf. 1Co 6:18 ): “But sinning in this way against the brethren, and inflicting a blow on their conscience while it is weak, you sin against Christ”. τὴν συνείδησιν ἀσθενοῦσαν , not “their weak conscience” ( τὴν ἀσθεν .), but “their conscience weak as it is”: how base to strike the weak! τύπτω describes as the violent wrong of the injurer, what is a μόλυσμα . and πρόσκομμα (1Co 8:7 ; 1Co 8:9 ) in its effect upon the injured. A blow on the conscience shocks and deranges it. For the bearing of such an act on Christ , see Mat 18:6 ff; Mat 25:40 ; Mat 25:45 ; also Zec 2:8 , etc. The principle of union with Christ, which forbids sin against oneself (1Co 6:15 ), forbids sin against one’s brother.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 12, 13. “But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. 13. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.”

Every violence done to a brother’s conscience, even though he should not thereby be drawn into a deed of unfaithfulness, is a sin committed against Christ, whose work so painfully accomplished we compromise. Here again there is a marked force in every term: τύπτειν, strictly speaking, to strike; συνείδησις, conscience, the most sacred of things; ἀσθενοῦσα, weak, tottering with weakness, and consequently claiming the greatest regard; εἰς Χριστόν, against Christ, the highest of crimes.

Vv. 13. This thought of 1Co 8:12 tells so vividly on the apostle’s heart, that it inspires him with a sort of vow whereby he is ready to devote his whole life. The διόπερ, wherefore, sums up all the grounds previously indicated, in particular that of 1Co 8:12: against Christ.

Instead of, a [kind of] meat, we ought logically to read, this [kind of] meat, or a [kind of] flesh. But the apostle generalizes the idea; though in the second part of the verse, by the use of the expression: flesh, he returns to the particular case. He employs the first person, because the sacrifice in question is one which a man may impose on himself, but which he has no right to impose on others. He would rather abstain from flesh all his life than by using it cause one of his brethren to fall even once.

Holsten well sums up the idea of the chapter thus: The strong sought the solution of the question from the standpoint of knowledge and its rights; the apostle finds it from the standpoint of love and its obligations.

The last words of this chapter evidently form the transition to the following passage, in which Paul continues to present to the Corinthians his own example, by reminding them of the great and constant voluntary sacrifice with which he accompanies the exercise of his apostleship. As Calvin observes to perfection (and such is the real transition from chap. 8 to chap. 9): “Quia in futurum pollicendo non omnibus fecisset fidem, quid jam fecerit, allegat.” To the contingent sacrifice of 1Co 8:13 he adds, as a still more convincing example, the sacrifice which he has already made, and which he renews daily, his renunciation of all recompense from the Churches founded by him.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_8:12

But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

We sin against our brethren when we wound their weak conscience. The one phrase explains the other. To wound a mans conscience is to give it the pain of remorse. When we bring on him a sense of guilt we inflict on him the greatest evil in our power; not only because a wounded spirit is worse than a wounded body; but also because a sense of guilt alienates us from God and brings us under the power of Satan. He who thus sins against his brother, sins against Christ. This is true in two senses. An injury done to a child is an injury to the parent, both because proper regard for the parent would prevent one from injuring his child; and also because the parent suffers in the child. They are so united that the injury of the one is the injury of the other. So also it is a manifestation of want of love to Christ, an insult and injury to him, to injure his people; and moreover, he and they are so united that whatever of good or evil is done to them is done also to him. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me, Mat_25:40. If we believed this aright it would render us very careful not to wound our fellow Christians, and make us also feel it to be an honor to relieve their wants.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Another amplification: Such offending of our weak brethren redoundeth unto Christ, and therefore let not these men think that they have to do only with their brethren.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

wound their weak conscience--literally, "smite their conscience, being (as yet) in a weak state." It aggravates the cruelty of the act that it is committed on the weak, just as if one were to strike an invalid.

against Christ--on account of the sympathy between Christ and His members (Mat 25:40; Act 9:4-5).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 12. But when ye sin so against the brethren] Against Christians, who are called by the Gospel to abhor and detest all such abominations.

Ye sin against Christ.] By sending to perdition, through your bad example, a soul for whom he shed his blood; and so far defeating the gracious intentions of his sacrificial death. This is a farther intimation, that a person for whom Christ died may perish; and this is the drift of the apostle's argument.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. When ye sin so against the brethren, etc. For if the soul of every one that is weak is the price of Christ’s blood, that man who, for the sake of a very small portion of meat, hurries back again to death the brother who has been redeemed by Christ, shows how contemptible the blood of Christ is in his view. Hence contempt of this kind is an open insult to Christ. In what way a weak conscience may be wounded has been already explained — when it is built up in what is evil (1 Corinthians 8:10) so as daringly and rashly to rush on farther than the individual thinks to be lawful for him.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(12) When ye sin so.—When you sin in this way—and he explains further what the sin is: “Striking a blow upon their weak consciences”—you sin against Christ. You wound a member of that body which is His. (See Mat_25:40.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. ye sin against Christ] Cf. St Mat_25:40; Mat_25:45. For the reason of this compare St John 17 throughout, as also such passages as Rom_12:5; Eph_1:23; Eph_3:17; Eph_4:15-16; Col_2:19; and ch. 1Co_10:17, 1Co_12:17 of this Epistle, where the indwelling of Christ in the individual believer is taught.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But when ye sin so against the brethren,.... Through sitting at meat in an idol's temple, and thereby violating the new commandment of love; by which saints are obliged to love one another as brethren, and take care to do nothing that may hurt and prejudice one another's peace and comfort, it being an incumbent duty upon them by love to serve one another: and

wound their weak conscience: as before observed: it is contrary to the law of love to wound a brother; it is an aggravation of the sin to wound a weak one; what greater cruelty than to strike or beat, as the word here used signifies, a sick and infirm man? and greater still to strike and wound his conscience than any part of his body; for a wounded spirit is insupportable without divine aid and influence; and what serves most to enhance the crime and guilt is,

ye sin against Christ, who has so loved this weak brother as to die for him; and between whom there is so close an union, as between head and members; and from whence such a sympathy arises, that what is done to or against such a person, Christ takes as done to himself. The Syriac version emphatically adds, "himself".

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

12 But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

Ver. 12. And wound their weak consciences] Gr. τυπτοντες, beat upon it to make it sound heavily, as a shaulm (shawm). {a} Sin is as a stroke upon the heart, 2Sa 24:10.

Ye sin against Christ] Who holds himself highly concerned in the misusages of his servants. It is an idle misprision to sever the sense of an injury done to any of the members, from the head. Joab had slain Abner and Amasa. David appropriates it; "Thou knowest" (saith he to Solomon) "what Joab did to me." The arraignment of mean malefactors runs in the style of wrong to the king’s crown and dignity. So here.

{a} A mediaeval musical instrument of the oboe class, having a double reed enclosed in a globular mouthpiece. ŒD

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But when ye sin so against the brethren - This is designed further to show the evil of causing others to sin; and hence, the evil which might arise from partaking of the meat offered to idols. The word sin here is to be taken in the sense of “injuring, offending, leading into sin.” You violate the law which requires you to love your brethren, and to seek their welfare, and thus you sin against them. Sin is properly against God; but there may be a course of injury pursued against people, or doing them injustice or wrong, and this is sin against them. Christians are bound to do right toward all.

And wound their weak conscience - The word “wound” here (τύπτοντες tuptontes, “smiting, beating”) is taken in the sense of injure. Their consciences are ill-informed. They have not the knowledge which you have. And by your conduct they are led further into error, and believe that the idol is something, and is to be honored. They are thus led into sin, and their conscience is more and more perverted, and oppressed more and more with a sense of guilt.

Ye sin against Christ - Because:

(1) Christ has commanded you to love them, and seek their good, and not to lead them into sin, and,

(2) Because they are so intimately united to Christ (see the notes at Joh 15:1 ff) that to offend them is to offend him; to injure the members is to injure the head; to destroy their souls is to pain his heart and to injure his cause; see the note at Mat 10:40; compare Luk 10:16.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

But when ye sin so against the brethren: sin is properly against God, for it is a breach of the Divine law; but the violations of that part of the Divine law which concerneth our duty to our neighbour, are called sins against our brethren, that is, sins against God in matters which concern our duty towards our brethren.

And wound their weak conscience; the giving the weak judgments of others, by your examples, an occasion of sin, by venturing upon actions which they think sinful, is that which is here called a beating, or a wounding, their weak consciences, because it is indeed a hurting and defiling of them.

Ye sin against Christ; this the apostle determineth to be a sinning against Christ; both against the law of Christ, concerning loving one another, and against the love of Christ, who, in dying for the weakest believers, hath showed the highest degree of love imaginable to them; whom they are far from following, who will not abate themselves a small matter of liberty, where the use of it this or that way may very probably be an occasion of sin and ruin to their brethren’s souls.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. Sin against Christ—By destroying the fruit of his death. This was a new argument in the world, drawn from a new source, and in behalf of a new virtue, namely, tenderness for the souls of men.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And wound their weak conscience; rather, and in smiting their conseience which is weak. "What," asks St. Chrysostom, "can be more ruthless than a man who strikes one who is sick?" Was it not a cowardly exercise of liberty to strike the conscience of the defenceless? It is another form of "defiling" (ver. 7) the conscience, but brings out the cruelty of such conduct. Ye sin against Christ. Because Christ lives and suffers in the persons of the least of his little ones (Mat_25:40, Mat_25:45; Rom_12:5, etc.)

Sin against Christ.

It is a proof of the personal and intimate character of the relation between Christ and his people, as that relation was conceived in the primitive Churches, that it should be the very climax of reproach against any professed Christians because of any course of action they followed, to charge them with sin against Christ, It is surely obvious that language like this could not be used of any merely human teacher or leader. One who was on the one hand so closely united to the Divine Father and on the other hand so truly a Son of man, as Jesus, Immanuel, could alone be spoken of thus. It was not possible to go further in expostulation than by the use of such language as this, addressed to those who considered too little the conscience of a weak brother, "Ye sin against Christ." To act without due sympathy, consideration, and charity towards a brother Christian is to sin against Christ, because it is

I TO OFFEND AGAINST CHRIST"S COMMANDMENT. Our Lord"s great commandment, his new commandment, his oft repeated commandment, was a commandment to his disciples to love one another. He even went so far as to make obedience to this law of charity a test and note of discipleship: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." A disregard for the feelings, the conscience, the spiritual health, of a Christian brother was an evident cud flagrant violation of the Lord"s great precept, and was therefore "sin against Christ.

II TO CONTRADICT CHRIST"S EXAMPLE. Our Lord did not enjoin a spirit or conduct which he did not exemplify in his own life. Whoever reads the record of that life must observe that his spirit in dealing with his disciples was one of forbearance, consideration, pity, and benevolence. He washed his disciples" feet; he bore with their infirmities and their slowness to understand him; he pitied and instructed their ignorance; he overlooked and forgave their cowardice and desertion; in a word, he laid himself out in every way for their spiritual good. How then could any Corinthian, how can any other professing Christian, be a follower of the blessed Lord, if he display an inconsiderate, contemptuous, unforgiving spirit towards a brother in Christ? In so doing he sins against the Master.

III TO INJURE CHRIST IN THE PERSON OF ONE OF HIS LITTLE ONES. Jesus laid down this principle with great clearness when he identified himself with his own, assuring us that what was done good or ill to his little ones he should, in the judgment, regard as done unto himself. The Head is insulted when the member is injured; the King is aggrieved when his subject is attacked; the Shepherd is smitten when his sheep are scattered. Whosoever is indifferent to the welfare of the Lord"s servant sins against that Lord himself, and shall not be held guiltless. Christ expects all his people to act as if he were present in the person of every one whom he loves and for whom he died. T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ye sin against Christ - Whose members they are.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

sin

Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The apostle goes on to show, that such an use of our Christian liberty as doth embolden and encourage others to do that which is evil, is both an act of uncharitableness towards our brother, and also an act of sin against our Lord Jesus Christ, in betraying a soul to ruin as much as in us lieth, and hindering his salvation, for the saving of whom Christ died; wounding the members of his body, defeating the great end of his death, and destroying them whom he designed to save.

Learn, 1. That Christ, in dying for the weakest believers, hath shown the highest degree of love imaginable unto them.

Learn, 2. That such as will not abate or abridge themselves of their Christian liberty, when the use of it may probably be an occasion of sin, and the ruin of their brethren’s souls, do at once wound their weak brethren, and sin against Christ.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. “You thus sinning against the brethren, and wounding their weak conscience, sin against Christ.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And thus, sinning against the brethren, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, ye sin against Christ . [who suffers with the very least of his servants ( Mat_18:6 ; Mat_25:40 ; Mat_25:45 ). Corinth was full of temples, and sacrifices were daily and abundant. Part of the meat of these sacrifices went to the priests, part was burnt on the altar, and part was returned to the worshiper. The priests' and the worshiper's parts were frequently sold to the butchers, who in turn vended the same in the public markets. Such sacrificial meat was so plentiful, and was so indistinguishably mingled with other meats, that a Christian could hardly avoid using it unless he refrained from meat altogether. He could not attend any of the public banquets, nor dine with his pagan friends or relatives, without being almost sure to eat such meat. The Jews illustrated the difficulty, for wherever they lived they required a butcher of their own who certified the meat which he sold by affixing to it a leaden seal, on which was engraved the word kashar--"lawful." Under such circumstances the strong-minded made bold to eat such sacrificial meat, contending that the idol, being a nonentity, could in no way contaminate it. But there were others having less knowledge, and weaker consciences, who could not shake off the power of old habits, thoughts and associations, and who therefore could not free themselves from their former reverence for the idol, but looked upon it as really representing something--a false something, but still a reality. To such the sacrificial meat was part of a real sacrifice, and was contaminating. In answering, therefore, Paul states the correctness of the position that the idol, being nothing, does not contaminate meat sacrificed to it, and urges that the Christian's knowledge of God and relationship to him preclude all thought of reality in idols. But, nevertheless, because it is a cruel sin against Christ to wound those already weak in conscience, he pleads that the strong use forbearance, not privilege; love, not knowledge, lest they make the death of Christ of none effect as to such weaklings. The principle may be applied to many modern amusements and indulgences which the strong regard as harmless, but which they should rejoice to sacrifice rather than endanger weaker lives.]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. But when ye so sin. To wound, injure, imperil the weak brethren, is a sin against Christ. It injures Christ's cause; besides, he denounces those who cause the weaker ones to stumble (Matt. 18:6; 25:40).

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

12. ἀσθενοῦσαν refers rather to the present condition than the permanent character of the conscience, and intimates the hope that the weakness will pass away as the believer grows in grace.

εἰς Χριστόν. Cf. Mat 25:40; Mat 25:45. For the reason of this compare John 17 throughout, as also such passages as Rom 12:5; Eph 1:23; Eph 3:17; Eph 4:15-16; Col 2:19; and ch. 1Co 10:17, 1Co 12:27 of this Epistle, where the indwelling of Christ in the individual believer is taught.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12.] οὕτως, viz. as in vv. 10, 11. καί fixes and explains what is meant by ἁμαρτ. εἰς τ. ἀδ.

τύπτοντες] smiting: τί γὰρ ἀπηνέστερον ἀνθρώπου γένοιτʼ ἂν τὸν νοσοῦντα τύπτοντος; Chrys. p. 176

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. οὕτως δὲ ἁμαρτάνοντες εἰς τοὺς ἀδ. ‘But by sinning against your brothers in such a way as this’: οὕτως is emphatic. This verse confirms the view that εἰς τ. ἴδ. σῶμα ἁμαρτ. (6:18) must mean ‘sins against his own body.’

καὶ τύπτοντες. ‘And by inflicting blows upon their conscience in its weakness.’ The καί makes the ἁμαρτάνοντες more definite, by showing the kind of injury. The force of the present participles should be noted: the wounding is a continued process, and so also is the weakliness; not ἀσθενῆ, but ἀσθενοῦσαν. Nowhere else in N.T. is τύπτω used in a metaphorical sense: elsewhere only in the Synoptists and Acts. But this sense occurs, in LXX (1Sa 1:8; Pro 26:22; Dan 11:20). ‘Wounding’ and ‘weakening’ are in emphatic contrast: what requires the tenderest handling is brutally treated, so that its sensibility is numbed. The wounding is not the shock which the weak Christian receives at seeing a fellow-Christian eating idol-meats in an idol-court, but the inducement to do the like, although he believes it to be wrong. His conscience is lamed by being crushed. This is the third metaphor used respecting the weak conscience; it is soiled (v. 7), made to stumble (v. 9), wounded (v. 12). The order of the words is a climax; ‘inflicting blows, not on the back, but on the conscience, and on the conscience when it is in a weakly state.’

εἰς Χριστὸν ἁμ. Like οὕτως and τύπτοντες, εἰς Χρ. is emphatic by position: ‘it is against Christ that ye are sinning.’ St Paul may have known the parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Mat 25:40, Mat 25:45), but Christ Himself had taught him that an injury to the brethren was an injury to Himself (Act 9:4, Act 9:5).

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.