First Corinthians 10

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¹I do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea.

²All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,

³and all ate the same spiritual food.

⁴All drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

⁵But God was not well pleased with most of them, and their corpses were scattered about in the wilderness.

⁶Now these things were examples for us, so we would not long for evil things as they did.

⁷Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. This is as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”

⁸Let us not commit sexual immorality, as many of them did. In one day, twenty-three thousand people died because of it.

⁹Neither let us put Christ to the test, as many of them did and were destroyed by snakes.

¹⁰Also do not grumble, as many of them did and were destroyed by an angel of death.

¹¹Now these things happened to them as examples for us. They were written for our instruction—for us on whom the end of the ages has come.

¹²Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands be careful that he does not fall.

¹³No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to all humanity. Instead, God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. With the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, so that you may be able to endure it.

¹⁴Therefore, my loved ones, run away from idolatry.

¹⁵I speak to you as people who have understanding, so you may judge what I say.

¹⁶The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?

¹⁷Because there is one loaf of bread, we who are many are one body. We all take of one loaf of bread together.

¹⁸Look at the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

¹⁹What am I saying then? That an idol is anything? Or that food sacrificed to an idol is anything?

²⁰But I say about the things the Gentile pagans sacrifice, that they offer these things to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons!

²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot have fellowship at the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

²²Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he is?

²³“Everything is lawful,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is lawful,” but not everything builds people up.

²⁴No one should seek his own good. Instead, each one should seek the good of his neighbor.

²⁵You may eat whatever is sold in the market, without questions of conscience.

²⁶For “the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness of it.”

²⁷If an unbeliever invites you to eat a meal, and you wish to go, eat whatever is set before you without asking questions of conscience.

²⁸But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—

²⁹the conscience of the other man, I mean, and not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience?

³⁰If I partake of the meal with gratitude, why am I being insulted for that for which I gave thanks?

³¹Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

³²Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks, or to the church of God.

³³I try to please all people in all things. I do not seek my benefit, but that of the many. I do this so that they may be saved.