Miscellanies 4.15.97

“We know that we all have knowledge,” the common knowledge in common matters, and that there is one God; for he was writing to believers. That is why he adds, “But not in all is knowledge,” the knowledge handed down among few. There are some who say that the knowledge about things sacrificed to idols does not reach all, “lest our liberty become a stumbling block to the weak; for the weak man is destroyed by your knowledge.” And if they say that one must buy everything sold in the market, taking “asking no questions” as a question equivalent to “asking questions,” they will offer a ridiculous interpretation. For the apostle says, “Buy all the rest from the market, asking no questions,” with the exception of the things indicated in the catholic letter of all the apostles, with the approval of the Holy Spirit, which is written in the Acts of the Apostles and was carried to the believers by the ministry of Paul himself. For they declared that it is necessary to abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, keeping themselves from which they would do well. Another thing, then, is what the apostle said: “Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take about a sister as wife, as the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? But we did not use this right,” he says, “but we endure all things, so as not to put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ,” either by carrying burdens about, when one should be unencumbered for everything, or by becoming an example to those who wish to practice self-control, not building them up to eat what is set before them without fear and to associate with a wife casually. Especially those entrusted with so great a ministry should be set before learners as a spotless example.