ACC ~ 1 Corinthians 8 v1 - 8

8:1 | Food Offered to Idols

LOVE BUILDS UP. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Love builds up. It moves in the realm of truth, not of opinion. STROMATEIS 1.54.4.

KNOWLEDGE WITH LOVE. AMBROSIASTER: Paul means that knowledge is a great thing and very useful to the person who has it, as long as it is tempered by love. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT LOVE. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul rebukes those who think they are wiser than the rest by saying that everybody possesses knowledge—the self-appointed wise people are nothing special in this respect. If anyone has knowledge but lacks love, not only will he gain nothing more, but also he will be cast down from what he already has. Knowledge is not productive of love, but rather it prevents the unwary from acquiring it by puffing him up and elating him. Arrogance causes divisions, but love draws people together and leads to true knowledge. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 20.2.

KNOWLEDGE PUFFS UP. AUGUSTINE: Paul means that knowledge only does good in company with love. Otherwise it merely puffs a man into pride. CITY OF GOD 9.20.

8:2 | Not Knowing as One Ought

HE DOES NOT YET KNOW. AMBROSIASTER: Only when a person has love can he be said to know as he ought to know. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

OUR IMPERFECT KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. CHRYSOSTOM: Whatever knowledge we may have, it is still imperfect. How is it then that some people claim to have a full and precise knowledge of God? Where God is concerned, we cannot even say just how wrong our perception of him is. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 20.3.

LACKING LOVE, LACKING KNOWLEDGE. THEODORET OF CYR: Paul shows not only that they have no love but that they have no knowledge either. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 215.

8:3 | Known by God

THROUGH LOVE GOD KNOWS US. CHRYSOSTOM: We do not know God, but he knows us. This is why Christ said: “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you” (Jn 15:16). This is the fruit of love and the death of pride. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 20.3.

TO BE KNOWN BY GOD. AUGUSTINE: Paul says: “If one loves God, one is known by him.” He certainly did not say “one knows God,” a dangerous presumption, but “he is known by God.” Elsewhere he remarks, “But now you know God,” and then immediately corrects himself: “or rather you are known by God.” ON THE TRINITY 9.1.

8:4 | No God but One

AN IDOL IS NOTHING. ORIGEN: “An idol is nothing,” says the apostle. One who makes an idol makes what is not. But what is that which is not? A form which the eye does not see but which the mind imagines for itself. HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8.3.

KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT LOVE. AMBROSIASTER: Paul now develops his argument in detail in order to show that knowledge without love is both useless and harmful. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

AN IDOL HAS NO REAL EXISTENCE. AUGUSTINE: Although man has made his own gods, he nevertheless became their captive once he was handed over to their fellowship by his act of worshiping them. … For what are idols but things, as the Scripture says, which “have eyes and see not”? CITY OF GOD 8.

8:5 | So-Called Gods

IDOLS DO NOT EXIST. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Paul says “so-called” here because he is showing that they do not really exist. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

8:6a | One God, the Father

THERE IS ONE GOD. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: We say “one” to stop anyone dreaming that there could be another. We say “one” lest you should hear of his work under manifold names. CATECHETICAL LECTURES 10.3.

WITH, THROUGH AND IN HIM. AMBROSE: When he says “through him,” did he deny that all things were made in him, through whom he says that all things are? These words, “in him” and “with him,” have this force, that by these is understood one and the same reality, not something contrary. … Scripture bears witness that these three phrases—“with him,” and “through him,” and “in him”—are one in Christ. THE HOLY SPIRIT 83.

FROM WHOM ARE ALL THINGS. AUGUSTINE: You have made not only what is created and formed but also whatever can be created and formed. Everything which is formed from the formless must first be formless before it can be a formed thing. CONFESSIONS 12.19.

TRIUNE LANGUAGE EMBEDDED. AUGUSTINE: “From him” means from the Father. “Through him” means through the Son. “In him” means in the Holy Spirit. It is self-evident that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God. ON THE TRINITY 1.13.

ONE GOD, ONE LORD. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Just as there is one God the Father from whom are all things, so there is one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things. LETTER 50.26.

ALL THINGS ASCRIBED TO GOD. PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS: So all things are rightly ascribed to God since it is by him and in him and for him that all things exist, are co-ordered, remain, hold together, are completed and are returned. THE DIVINE NAMES 980.

8:6b | One Lord, Jesus Christ

ONE NAME. AMBROSE: It is written: “Go baptize the nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” “In the name,” he said, not “in the names.” So there is not one name for the Father, another name for the Son, and another name for the Holy Spirit, because there is one God, not several names, because there are not two gods, not three gods. THE HOLY SPIRIT 13.132.

ONE GOD. AMBROSIASTER: Everything which exists has been created by the Father through the Son. It is impossible for God not to be Lord as well, and since the Lord is God, it is clear that Father and Son are one. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE SON IS NO LESS GOD THAN THE FATHER. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: The Father is one, just as the Son is one. If the Son is called Lord, that does not make the Father any less Lord, just as when it is said that God the Father is one, the Son is no less God. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

ONE LORD AND ONE GOD. THEODORET OF CYR: Note once more the apostle’s wisdom. For having first demonstrated that the words Lord and God are synonymous, he then splits them up, calling the Father one and the Son the other. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 215.

8:7 | The Weak Conscience

THE WEAK CONSCIENCE FEELS DEFILED. CHRYSOSTOM: When people were forbidden to touch idols they would suspect that it was because they had power to do them harm. Paul therefore makes his position clear. He says categorically that there is no such thing as an idol but that it is necessary to avoid them so as not to give cause for scandal to those who are weak in the faith. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 20.8.

8:8 | Eating or Not Eating

FOOD WILL NOT COMMEND US TO GOD. CHRYSOSTOM: Food by itself is neither here nor there. But as he goes on, Paul reveals all the harm which might arise from eating meat which had been sacrificed to idols. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 20.9-10.

NEITHER ABUNDANCE NOR LOSS. AUGUSTINE: “Neither shall we have any abundance if we do eat, nor shall we suffer any loss if we do not eat.” That is to say: neither will the former make me rich, nor will the latter make me poor. CONFESSIONS 10.45.