¹⁷ When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ He said to them, “So, are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, ¹⁹ since it enters not the heart but the stomach and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)

²⁸ For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: ²⁹ that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled^[a] and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”^(A)

¹⁴ I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who considers it unclean.^(A)

²⁵ Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience, ²⁶ for “the earth and its fullness are the Lord’s.”^{(A) 27} If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. ²⁸ But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who informed you and for the sake of conscience— ²⁹ I mean the other’s conscience, not your own. For why should my freedom be subject to the judgment of someone else’s conscience?^{(B) 30} If I partake with thankfulness, why should I be denounced because of that for which I give thanks?^(C)

³¹ So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.^{(D) 32} Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,^{(E) 33} just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage but that of many, so that they may be saved.^(F)

Food Offered to Idols

8 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.^{(A) 2} Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge,^{(B) 3} but anyone who loves God is known by him.^(C)

⁴ Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists” and that “there is no God but one.”^{(D) 5} Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— ⁶ yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.^(E)

⁷ It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.^{(F) 8} “Food will not bring us close to God.”^[a] We are no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do.^{(G) 9} But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.^{(H) 10} For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? ¹¹ So by your knowledge the weak brother or sister for whom Christ died is destroyed.^{(I) 12} But when you thus sin against brothers and sisters and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. ¹³ Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never again eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.^(J)

¹⁴ But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and engage in sexual immorality.^{[a](A) 15} So you also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶ Repent, then. If not, I will come to you soon and wage war against them with the sword of my mouth.^(B)

²⁰ But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and beguiling my servants to engage in sexual immorality^[a] and to eat food sacrificed to idols.^(A)