1 Corinthians 8

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¹Now about “food sacrificed to idols.” So “we all have knowledge” about this subject. Knowledge makes us proud, but love strengthens us.

²If anyone thinks they know anything, they don't know as they really should know!

³But whoever loves God is known by God…

⁴So regarding eating food sacrificed to idols: we know that there are no such things as idols in the world, and that there is only one real God.

⁵Even though there are some things called “gods,” whether in heaven or on earth—in fact there are many “gods” and “lords.”

⁶But for us there is only one God, the Father, from whom everything was made, and he is the goal of our existence; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom everything was made, and he is the means of our existence.

⁷But not everyone has this “knowledge.” Some who up to now have been so used to idols as a reality that when they eat food sacrificed to an idol, their conscience (which is weak) tells them they have defiled themselves.

⁸But food doesn't gain us God's approval! If we don't eat this food, we're not bad, and if we do eat this food, we're not good.

⁹Just take care not to use this freedom you have to eat food sacrificed to idols to become offensive to those with a weaker attitude.

¹⁰If another believer sees you who have such “better knowledge” eating food in an idol temple, won't his weak conscience be convinced to eat food sacrificed to idols?

¹¹By your “better knowledge” the weaker believer is destroyed, a believer for whom Christ died.

¹²In this way you sin against other believers, wounding their weaker consciences, and you sin against Christ.

¹³So if eating food sacrificed to idols would cause my fellow believer to stumble, I will never eat such meat ever again, so that I don't offend any believer.