1 Corinthians 8
8
Food Offered to Idols
1In your letter you asked me about food offered to idols. All of us know something about this subject. But knowledge makes us proud of ourselves, while love makes us helpful to others. 2In fact, people who think they know so much don't know anything at all. 3But God has no doubts about who loves him.
4Even though food is offered to idols, we know that none of the idols in this world are alive. After all, there is only one God. 5Many things in heaven and on earth are called gods and lords, but none of them really are gods or lords. 6We have only one God, and he is the Father. He created everything, and we live for him. Jesus Christ is our only Lord. Everything was made by him, and by him life was given to us.
7Not everyone knows these things. In fact, many people have grown up with the belief that idols have life in them. So when they eat meat offered to idols, they are bothered by a weak conscience. 8But food doesn't bring us any closer to God. We are no worse off if we don't eat, and we are no better off if we do.
9Don't cause problems for someone with a weak conscience, just because you have the right to eat anything. 10You know all this, and so it doesn't bother you to eat in the temple of an idol. But suppose a person with a weak conscience sees you and decides to eat food that has been offered to idols. 11Then what you know has destroyed someone Christ died for. 12When you sin by hurting a follower with a weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13So if I hurt one of the Lord's followers by what I eat, I will never eat meat as long as I live.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
1 Corinthians 8
8
Food Offered to Idols
1About food offered to idols: # Ac 15:29; 21:25; 1Co 10:19; Rv 2:14,20 We know that “we all have knowledge.” # See note at 1Co 6:12-13. Knowledge inflates with pride, # 1Co 4:6 but love # 1Co 13:1-13 builds up. 2If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. # 1Co 3:18; 13:8-12; 1Tm 6:4 3But if anyone loves God, # Dt 6:5; Lk 10:27 he is known # Pr 2:6 by Him.
4About eating food offered to idols, then, we know that “an idol is nothing in the world,” and that “there is no God but one.” # Dt 6:4 5For even if there are so-called gods, # 2Th 2:4 whether in heaven or on earth — as there are many “gods” and many “lords” —
6yet for us there is one God, the Father. # Mt 5:16; 11:27; Lk 11:13; Jn 8:42; Eph 5:20
All things are from Him, # Ps 104:24; Col 1:16; Rv 3:14
and we exist for Him.
And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ.
All things are through Him,
and we exist through Him. # Jn 1:3
7However, not everyone has this knowledge. In fact, some have been so used to idolatry up until now that when they eat food offered to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8Food will not make us acceptable to God. We are not inferior if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat. # Rm 14:17 9But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block # Ex 23:33; Rm 14:20 to the weak. 10For if someone sees you, the one who has this knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, won’t his weak conscience be encouraged to eat food offered to idols? 11Then the weak person, the brother for whom Christ died, # Jn 11:51; Rm 5:6,8; 8:34; 14:9,15; 1Co 15:3; Gl 2:21; Eph 5:2; 1Th 5:10 is ruined # Or destroyed # Heb 6:8 by your knowledge. # Mt 25:45 12Now when you sin like this against the brothers and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. 13Therefore, if food causes my brother to fall, I will never again eat meat, # Dt 12:15 so that I won’t cause my brother to fall.
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