They had been told in the Law not to eat meat that had been offered to idols. That was the only authoritative direction they had been given on this issue. This was not about doing something that appeared to be wrong, to some of them it was wrong based on the Scripture that they had at that time. Others had been taught by Paul about liberty and this is where the conflict came from.

So this issue was not about preferences or varying interpretations of Scripture or doing something that appeared to be wrong, it was about transitioning from a life under the law to a life under grace. I’m not even sure that this idea of being a stumbling block can even take place today in the same way as it did then. We have the completed Scripture to guide our lives….they didn’t and that is why they needed Paul’s guidance.

I do think that the principle that we can take from this passage in I Corinthians is that knowledge tends to cause us to be puffed up and love tends to cause us to build up. We should each help others become more like Christ. So to answer your question, I do not think that this verse supports the idea of abstaining from the ‘appearance’ of evil.

I’ve always heard this verse interpreted the opposite of what you’ve said, so I’m letting the truth of what you said soak in.

You are right in saying that I didn’t use Matthew Henry’s commentary. This was intentional. The Matthew Henry Commentary is devotional not exegetical. His focus was not on exegeting scripture. As a result, I believe Matthew Henry has a wrong interpretation of this passage. The fact that most all other commentators agree with this point confirms that.

I would encourage you to study this passage in detail. I am convinced that when you do you will see that the interpretation that I offered in this post is accurate. Thanks again for your comment.

Curious that you read 10 commentaries, but somehow missed out on reading Matthew Henry in there:

This is a good means to prevent our being deceived with false doctrines, or unsettled in our faith; for our Saviour has told us (John vii. 17), If a man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God. Corrupt affections indulged in the heart, and evil practices allowed of in the life, will greatly tend to promote fatal errors in the mind; whereas purity of heart, and integrity of life, will dispose men to receive the truth in the love of it. We should therefore abstain from evil, and all appearances of evil, from sin, and that which looks like sin, leads to it, and borders upon it. He who is not shy of the appearances of sin, who shuns not the occasions of sin, and who avoids not the temptations and approaches to sin, will not long abstain from the actual commission of sin.

Sometimes the Bible means what it says, and says what it means.

There’s another good article on 1 Thes 5:22 by Daniel Wallace at http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=1478