Freedom From Stupidity
Paul has been talking about our freedom in Christ, that in Christ people are free from superstition and godless cultural practices. He began this section in chapter eight talking about various food prohibitions and practices as an example of Christian freedom. He had elsewhere discussed the fact that Christians are free from the Old Testament food laws. Here he showed that Christians are also free from pagan food practices.
What made the Old Testament food laws binding was the power of God. And what freed people from those Old Testament food laws was the power of Christ. Here he argues that only God has spiritual power, and God has given all spiritual authority and power to Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18). Therefore, the pagan gods have no power. Their sacrifices and ceremonies have no consequences, and so whatever power was thought to be transmitted to food that had been sacrificed to idols was nonexistent because false gods had no power to begin with.
Therefore, Christians could eat food that had been sacrificed or dedicated to pagan idols because they knew that there was no spiritual power associated with such food. Pagan idols were dead and powerless to do anything. So, there was no danger or threat from such idols or from anything associated with them.
And yet Paul did make a case against eating food that had been sacrificed or dedicated to idols that was based, not on the power of pagan idols, but on the weakness of Christian brothers. Paul had argued that practicing radical Christian freedom in the presence of weaker Christians, Christians who did not fully or correctly take their own weaknesses into consideration, could result in the overestimation of their own strength, their own ability to resist the pull