RECONCILIATION AND FAILURE OF THE LAW 93

`I think then that it is good on account of the present necessity that it is good for a man to remain so as he is. Art

thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed; art thou free from a wife? do not seek a wife' (7:26,27 Author's

It is not a question of `sin' (7:28-36), but of `tribulation in the flesh' from which the apostle would spare them.

The principle upon which the apostle framed his advice, and which comes to us forcefully in our day and for our

guidance as it did then, is given in 7:29-31 :

`But this I say brethren, the time having been straightened (or the opportunity having been contracted), it remains

that both those who have wives may be as though they had none; and they who weep, as though they wept not;

and they who rejoiced, as though they rejoiced not; and they who buy, as though they possessed not; and they

who use the world, as though they used it not to the full, for the FASHION OF THIS WORLD PASSETH AWAY'

(Author's translation).

The fact that much that is here said was particularly connected with the time is evidenced by the change of

teaching that is given after the dispensation had passed away. In 1 Corinthians 7:39,40 the apostle considers a

widow well advised to remain unmarried, but in later times the apostle wrote:

`I will therefore that the younger women (widows, verse 11) marry, bear children' (1 Tim. 5:14).

Another question of great and present bearing upon their daily life was the one dealing with the eating of things

sacrificed to idols. In their letter to the apostle they had evidently expressed some opinion of their own as follows:

We have all knowledge, and feel that since we know that an idol is nothing in the world, we are not called upon

to forego our liberties because of the ignorance and scruples of some among us.

To this the apostle replies, quoting much of their own letter. We, to-day, are not perplexed with the literal

problem of eating things sacrificed to idols, but there are everyday equivalents, and the spirit wherewith the

Corinthians were enjoined to walk in this particular affair is the spirit wherein we also must solve all our problems.

A similar problem is raised and met in Romans 14. There the weak brother was a converted Jew, here he is a

converted idolater. There the scruple was connected with Mosaic distinctions between clean and unclean, here it is

the question of food offered to idols.

If the apostle had to insist upon the glory of the wisdom of God, and the failure of the wisdom of this world in

the opening section, he has occasion to speak strongly concerning a loveless knowledge that ministered to pride in

this one, `We know that we have all knowledge'. This is evidently a quotation from the letter received from Corinth.

The apostle adds as a parenthesis:

`Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up. If anyone thinketh he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet

as he ought to know it, but if any man love God, the same is known of Him' (8:1-3 Author's translation).

He then returns to the subject, `As concerning therefore the eating of those things which are sacrificed unto idols'

(8:4 Author's translation). While we may `know' that an idol is nothing, and have learned the truth concerning one

God and one Lord, such knowledge must never lead us to override the weaker conscience of another. How many

members of the one body in their new-found liberty would do well to heed the words of 1 Corinthians 8:9 :

`But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak'.

One of the key words of this chapter is the word `edify'. It has a most significant and unusual application in

verses 10 and 11:

`For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him

which is weak be emboldened (EDIFIED) to eat those things which are offered to idols; And through thy

knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?'

The word `perish' both here and in Romans 14:15 is apolluo. The manuscript called the Codex Claromontanus,

which Dr. Tregelles said was `one of the most valuable extant', reads apoluo, `put away', instead of apolluo,

`destroy'. The reading `put away' in Romans 14:15 is supported by several MSS. For fuller evidence the reader is

referred to How to enjoy the Bible by Dr. E.W. Bullinger.