The Weak Brother Perish

“Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died” Rom. 14:15

“And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?” 1 Cor. 8:11

Without question, “brother” is someone genuinely saved. And since Paul emphasized “for whom Christ died,” he was clearly talking about him perishing from the salvation he once had in Christ. The bolded words in these verses are from the Greek word transliterated as “apollymi” which means to perish or to be lost. Here is how it is used in several other places: Matt. 10:28, 15:24, 18:11; Luke 13:3, 15:6,9,24, 19:10; John 3:16, 17:12; Rom. 2:12; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 4:3; 2 Pet. 3:9.

Furthermore, “perish” is positively in reference to salvation because both passages also speak of this brother being caused to stumble. The Greek word transliterated as “proskomma” is translated as “stumbling block.”

“Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way” Rom. 14:13

“But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak” 1 Cor. 8:9

There are only two other places in the New Testament where this word is used (Rom. 9:33; 1 Pet. 2:8) and both are quotations from Isaiah about Israel rejecting their own Messiah (Is. 8:14, 28:16). Christ, the very Savior Himself became a stumbling block to their salvation! And the very next thing Paul said after quoting from Isaiah is: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved” (Rom 10:1). The term “stumbling block” is clearly a metaphor for somebody being a hindrance to another’s salvation.

In Romans 14 and First Corinthians 8, Paul was not saying that a Christian will perish by simply doing something one time against their own conscience. He was giving his readers a scenario of what could possibly happen to a weaker brother if they (his readers) did not walk in love and abused their liberty in Christ. Their bad example might stimulate a weaker brother to do something against their conscience. This in turn could start them in the direction of routinely violating their consciences to the point of being seared and consummating in their departure from Christ. It is a sobering warning against the consequences that could come from us not walking in love toward our brothers and sisters in Christ.