Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble.
- BSB Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to stumble.
- NKJV Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
- NASB Therefore, if food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to sin.
- NLT So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, Paul says he will gladly never eat meat again rather than trip him up. Personal liberty is worth surrendering for a brother's spiritual safety.
Overview
Paul closes the chapter with his own resolve as a model: he will forgo even a lawful pleasure permanently if it endangers a fellow believer. This embodies the self-denying love he has commended, foreshadowing his fuller example in chapter 9. It reflects the mind of Christ, who laid down far more for our sake, and shows that mature Christian freedom expresses itself most fully in voluntary, loving restraint.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Rom 14:21It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
- 2 Cor 6:3Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:
- 2 Cor 11:29Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?
- 1 Cor 6:12All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
- 1 Cor 13:5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
- 1 Cor 9:19–23For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
- 1 Cor 10:33Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
- 1 Cor 9:12If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
- 2 Tim 3:8–9Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
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Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 8:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.