1 Corinthians 8

Take Care with Your Liberty

1Now concerning 1food sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have 2knowledge. Knowledge 34makes one conceited, but love 5edifies people. 26If anyone thinks that he knows anything, he has not yet 7known as he ought to know; 3but if anyone loves God, he 8is known by Him.

4Therefore, concerning the eating of 9food sacrificed to idols, we know that an 10idol is 11nothing at all in the world, and that 12there is no God but one. 5For even if 13there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6yet for us 14there is only one God, 15the Father, 16from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and 17one Lord, Jesus Christ, 18by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

7However, not all people 19have this knowledge; but 20some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8Now 21food will not bring us 22close to God; we are neither 23the worse if we do not eat, nor 24the better if we do eat. 9But 25take care that this 26freedom of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the 27weak. 10For if someone sees you, the one who has 28knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will his conscience, if he is weak, not be strengthened to eat 29things sacrificed to idols? 11For through 30your knowledge the one who is weak 31is ruined, the brother or sister for whose sake Christ died. 1232And so, by sinning against the brothers and sisters and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin 33against Christ. 13Therefore, 34if food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to sin.