1 Corinthians 8:11

For through thy knowledge he that is weak perisheth, the brother for whose sake Christ died!

This was a hand grenade detonated in the faces of the "knowledge" group in Corinth. The word "knowledge" throughout this chapter belongs in quotations; because certainly it was not knowledge but the most incompetent ignorance that would approve of behavior capable of murdering an immortal soul.

That school of interpreters holding to the impossibility of apostasy on the part of believers strive to soften the impact of "perisheth." Thus Barnes saluted this verse with "No one who has been truly converted will apostatize and be destroyed."[24] Johnson declared this refers "to bodily perishing, not eternal perishing";[25] but he did not explain how eating meat against one's conscience could kill him! As Wesley put it, regarding "he that is weak perisheth":

He is from that moment in the way of perdition ... if this state continues and becomes aggravated, as is inevitable in such cases, eternal perdition is the end of it.[26]

Leon Morris' words regarding the last clause of this verse are beautiful. He wrote:

The last clause could hardly be more forcible in its appeal; every word tells; "the brother," not a mere stranger; "for the sake of whom" precisely to rescue him from destruction; "Christ," no less than he; "died," no less than that![27]

[24] Albert Barnes, op. cit., p. 146.

[25] S. Lewis Johnson, Jr., Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 613.

[26] John Wesley, op. cit., in loco.

[27] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 129.