“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
The Basket Case Chronicles #88
“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 to eat those things which are offered to idols; and through thy knowledge shall the weaker brother perish, for whom Christ died” (1 Cor. 8:10-11)”
So here is the scenario. We have a man with a strong conscience and robust immune system, and he knows that idolatry is a bunch of nothing. He has knowledge, and so he goes to the restaurant attached to the idol-temple, and there has his sirloin. Best one he ever had, and the idolatry is far from his mind. All he is thinking about is the tenderness of the cut, and the garlic butter on the potatoes.
But a weaker brother sees him there. This weaker brother is defined as someone who cannot (because of his personal history) disassociate the meat from the false worship. This being the case, if he eats the meats, he is sucked back into the idolatry. The stronger brother can swim in that current, but by doing so he lures in brothers who can’t swim in it. The stronger brother therefore has a responsibility to stay on the beach.
Christ died for the weaker brother, to save him, and not so that some know-it-all Christian might come along and destroy him by enticing him back into idolatry.