Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
Howbeit. Though to us who "have knowledge" (1 Corinthians 8:1; 1 Corinthians 8:4-6) all meats are indifferent, yet 'this knowledge is not in all.' Paul admitted to the Corinthians that "we all have knowledge" (1 Corinthians 8:1) - i:e., so far as theory goes; but practically some have it defectively.
With conscience - the persuasion that idols are real existences. So C Delta G f g, Vulgate. But 'Aleph (') A B read suneetheia (G4914). Some Gentile Christians, from old association of ideas (or else misdirected conscience), when they ate such meats, had a feeling as if the idol were something real (1 Corinthians 8:4), and had changed the meats by the consecration into something either holy or polluted.
Unto this hour - after having embraced Christianity; an implied censure, that they are not further advanced by this time in Christian "knowledge."
Their conscience being weak is defiled - by eating it 'as a thing offered to idols.' If they ate it unconscious that it had been offered to idols, there would be no defilement of conscience. But conscious of what it was, and not having such knowledge as others boasted of-namely, that an idol is nothing, and can therefore neither pollute nor sanctify meats, they by eating them sin against conscience (cf. Romans 14:15-23). On the ground of Christian expediency, to avoid a stumblingblock to "weak" brethren, the Jerusalem decree forbade partaking of such meats, (though indifferent in themselves, Acts 15:1-41.) Hence, he vindicates it against the asserters of an inexpedient liberty.