Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ

by D.A. Carson

7. 1 Corinthians 8:10. “For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?” In the Greek text, “conscience” is the grammatical subject of the verb “encouraged” (or “strengthened” or “emboldened”). Here’s a more formal translation: “For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, being weak, be encouraged to eat food offered to idols?” (compare the KJV, NKJV, NASB, NET, and HCSB versions). Here’s the idea: If anyone sees you, who have an informed moral consciousness on this issue (i.e., you know that there are no real gods but one), eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person’s misinformed moral consciousness be emboldened to sin against his own conscience by eating food sacrificed to idols?