Verses 1-3
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During Paul's time, pagan worshippers sacrificed animals to their gods, and the leftover meat was sold at a discount in the meat-market.
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Christians were asking about this because they were wondering if it was wrong for them to buy this discounted meat, even though it came from a pagan temple.
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Paul turns his attention to addressing this question, and knowledge of these matters is important.
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First, a principle about knowledge: Knowledge alone makes a person prideful, but love truly builds them up. How so?
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The more knowledge you gain, the more you think you know it all. You get a big head. Whereas, becoming more loving truly builds a person up in making them more like Jesus. So, gaining knowledge isn't the focus; love is.
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Therefore, in everything that you learn, focus on becoming more loving, not on accumulating knowledge for the sake of knowledge.
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As soon as you think you know things, you know nothing because you've lost sight of love. Someone walking in love won't be puffed up in their knowledge.
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Verses 4-13
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For an informed believer, our knowledge is that there is only one true God and Christ, and that the idols of so-called “gods” are false gods—they're not real.
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Therefore, buying meat offered to a god that doesn't exist means that there is no inherent violation of one's faith or betrayal of loyalty to Christ in so doing.
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However, not everyone thinks that way. Some people believe that those gods are a danger to them, and in buying/eating such meat, they feel that they are sinning. So, their knowledge, or lack thereof, makes them stumble.
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Therefore, Paul is saying, “if you, with your confidence, go and buy temple-meat in the sight of a believer who thinks doing so is sinful, they could be emboldened by your example to eat also and so violate their own conscience; and that would be sinful for them (Romans 14:14,23)! Don't do this!”
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To sum it up, don't do, practice, or say merely what you're confident in and out of yourown knowledge. Do and teach what your fellow believers will understand and be confident in. Consider how other believers will feel about what they hear you say and see you do. Will they be confident in you, or not? Will they respect what you're doing, or not?
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Verse 13. If anything will make my brother stumble, I will never do that thing again!
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In this chapter also, Paul clarifies what James said in Acts 15:20— “Abstain from things polluted by idols...from blood, and from things strangled.” This command reaffirms the importance of doing everything, including eating, out of love. If your brother will stumble because of your eating, don't eat!