1 Corinthians 8

1Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

2If anyone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.

3But if anyone loves God, that person is known by him.

4So, concerning the eating of food sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no God but one.

5For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many gods and many lords—

6yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things come and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist.

7But not everyone has this knowledge. Some, because they have been used to idols until now, eat the food as food sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

8Food will not bring us closer to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

9But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

10For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, eating at a table in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, weak as it is, be built up to eat food sacrificed to idols?

11And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother or sister for whom Christ died.

12When you sin against your brothers and sisters in this way and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

13Therefore, if food causes my brother or sister to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother or sister to stumble.