People who believed in idols also believed it was beneficial to offer gifts, including food, to those idols. The idols, of course, couldn't actually eat that food. Some enterprising entrepreneurs didn't see why that uneaten food should be left to spoil. They would gather the food and offer it for sale. So, if you were invited to eat with someone, you couldn't be sure whether you were being served some of that food.
It wouldn't make any difference whether that food has been sacrificed to idols if you know that idols aren't really real. Jews knew that there was only one God. They would not have considered it harmful to their religion to eat that meat. Christians who were Jews would being able to eat the meat served to them without worrying about whether it had been part of idol worship.
But, not all Christians in Corinth had a Jewish background or understanding. Paul was writing to believers who lived among nonbelievers. Think about the difference between preaching to the already converted and teaching those who really don't have a good idea about just what it is that sets us apart.
In his time, if you wanted to eat meat, you got it from the meat place, and the meat place didn't stamp it "not from idol sacrifice." If you accepted an invitation for supper, you would not know whether that meat fit your religious scruples.
Should you refuse to eat with people who had different standards?
On the other hand, if your own religion is strong enough not to be hampered in any way by some practice that you consider a scruple, shouldn't you just go ahead and to what's easiest on everybody?
Paul advises that the Christians he terms as strong should refuse to eat meat from an unknown origin because other Christians, the ones he terms as weak, would misunderstand.
Is he asking us to be politically correct?
In our own time, we aren't faced with the question of idol meat, but we still face circumstances in which our behavior might be misinterpreted by someone else.
Lectio Divina: 1 Corinthians 8:1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
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