1 Corinthians 8:1-13
“Now
about food sacrificed to idols:
We know that ‘We all possess knowledge.’ But knowledge puffs
up while love builds up.
2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they
ought to know.
3 But whoever loves GOD is known by GOD.
4 So then, about eating food
sacrificed to idols:
We
know that ‘An idol is nothing at all in the world’
and
that ‘There is no GOD
but one.’
5 For even if there are so-called
gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and
many “lords”),
6 yet for us there is but one GOD,THE FATHER, from
whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one LORD, JESUS CHRIST,
through WHOM all things came and through WHOM we live.
7 But not everyone possesses this
knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat
sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since
their conscience is weak, it is defiled.
8 But food does not bring us near to
GOD; we
are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
9 Be careful, however, that the
exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.
10 For if someone with a weak
conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t
that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols?
11 So this weak brother or sister,
for whom CHRIST
died, is destroyed by your knowledge.
12 When you sin against them in
this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against CHRIST.
13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my
brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will
not cause them to fall.”
