NOW ABOUT FOOD SACRIFICED TO IDOLS: WE KNOW THAT 'WE ALL POSSESS KNOWLEDGE.' BUT KNOWLEDGE PUFFS UP WHILE LOVE BUILDS UP.
1 CORINTHIANS 8:2
THOSE WHO THINK THEY KNOW SOMETHING DO NOT YET KNOW AS THEY OUGHT TO KNOW.
1 CORINTHIANS 8:3
BUT WHOEVER LOVES GOD IS KNOWN BY GOD.
1 CORINTHIANS 8:4
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.'
1 CORINTHIANS 8:5
FOR EVEN IF THERE ARE SO-CALLED GODS, WHETHER IN HEAVEN OR ON EARTH (AS INDEED THERE ARE MANY 'GODS' AND MANY 'LORDS'),
1 CORINTHIANS 8:6
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.
1 CORINTHIANS 8:7
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.
1 CORINTHIANS 8:8
BUT FOOD DOES NOT BRING US NEAR TO GOD; WE ARE NO WORSE IF WE DO NOT EAT, AND NO BETTER IF WE DO.
1 CORINTHIANS 8:9
BE CAREFUL, HOWEVER, THAT THE EXERCISE OF YOUR RIGHTS DOES NOT BECOME A STUMBLING BLOCK TO THE WEAK.
1 CORINTHIANS 8:10
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?
1 CORINTHIANS 8:11
SO THIS WEAK BROTHER OR SISTER, FOR WHOM CHRIST DIED, IS DESTROYED BY YOUR KNOWLEDGE.
1 CORINTHIANS 8:12
WHEN YOU SIN AGAINST THEM IN THIS WAY AND WOUND THEIR WEAK CONSCIENCE, YOU SIN AGAINST CHRIST.
1 CORINTHIANS 8:13
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.