What does 1 Corinthians 8:2 mean?

Paul seems to have quoted the Corinthians as saying "all of us possess knowledge." This might have been part of an earlier letter (1 Corinthians 7:1), and possibly a rebuttal to Paul's own instructions. Paul has responded that knowledge on its own merely leads to pride. He refers to it using the term phuisoo, meaning "inflated." On the other hand, love—from the Greek agapē—truly builds people up (1 Corinthians 8:1).

Now Paul warns that someone can imagine they know something and be wrong. The old saying goes that a little knowledge is dangerous. Modern culture has even given this a fancy-sounding name: the Dunning-Kruger Effect. The idea is that those who gain a small amount of knowledge on a subject tend to become overconfident about how much they really know. That's what Paul seems to be saying about those in Corinth: they are challenging his teaching about eating food offered to idols based on limited knowledge and an "inflated" view of their own wisdom.

Paul's references to "knowing" here all come from the same basic word: ginosko, which implies perception, understanding, and knowledge.