But if any man.... — If, however, some weak brother present points out that it is sacrificial meat, do not eat for his sake and for conscience sake (see 1 Corinthians 10:29). Here your personal liberty is to be modified by the principle mentioned in 1 Corinthians 10:24. If the weak brother see you eat the flesh which he has just informed you was used as a sacrifice, he may be led by your example to eat it himself, though the very fact of his having called your attention to it showed that he thinks it wrong, and so his conscience is defiled.
The word (hierothuton) here used (according to the best MSS.) for “offered to an idol” is different from the condemnatory word (eidolothuton) elsewhere used; as natural courtesy would lead a Christian at the table of a heathen to use an epithet which would not be offensive to his host. A lesson in controversy — Don’t conceal your conscientious convictions, but don’t express them in language unnecessarily painful to your opponent.
The repetition of the words “The earth is the Lord’s,” &c., in this verse is an interpolation not found in the best MSS., and tends to interrupt the thought which is carried on in 1 Corinthians 10:29.