1 I want to write about food that has been given as a gift in worship to a false god. We all know something about it. Knowing about it makes one feel important. But love makes one strong.

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

2 T he person who thinks he knows all the answers still has a lot to learn.

But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know.

3 B ut if he loves God, he is known by God also.

But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him.

4 W hat about food that has been given as a gift to a false god in worship? Is it right? We know that a false god is not a god at all. There is only one God! There is no other.

Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.

5 M en have thought there are many such gods and lords in the sky and on the earth.

For though there are things that are called “gods”, whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many “gods” and many “lords”;

6 B ut we know there is only one God. He is the Father. All things are from Him. He made us for Himself. There is one Lord. He is Jesus Christ. He made all things. He keeps us alive.

yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.

7 N ot all men know this. They have given food as a gift in worship to a god as if the god were alive. Some men have done this all their lives. If they eat such food, their hearts tell them it is wrong.

However, that knowledge isn’t in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

8 F ood will not bring us near to God. We are no worse if we do not eat it, or we are no better if we eat it.

But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don’t eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better.

9 S ince you are free to do as you please, be careful that this does not hurt a weak Christian.

But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak.

10 A Christian who is weak may see you eat food in a place where it has been given as a gift to false gods in worship. Since he sees you eat it, he will eat it also.

For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol’s temple, won’t his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols?

11 Y ou may make the weak Christian fall into sin by what you have done. Remember, he is a Christian brother for whom Christ died.

And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died.

12 W hen you sin against a weak Christian by making him do what is wrong, you sin against Christ.

Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

13 S o then, if eating meat makes my Christian brother trip and fall, I will never eat it again. I do not want to make my Christian brother sin.

Therefore if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble.