1 Corinthians 8
Contemporary English Version
Food Offered to Idols
8 In your letter you asked me about food offered to idols. All of us know something about this subject. But knowledge makes us proud of ourselves, while love makes us helpful to others. 2 In fact, people who think they know so much don't know anything at all. 3 But God has no doubts about who loves him.
4 Even though food is offered to idols, we know that none of the idols in this world are alive. After all, there is only one God. 5 Many things in heaven and on earth are called gods and lords, but none of them really are gods or lords. 6 We have only one God, and he is the Father. He created everything, and we live for him. Jesus Christ is our only Lord. Everything was made by him, and by him life was given to us.
7 Not everyone knows these things. In fact, many people have grown up with the belief that idols have life in them. So when they eat meat offered to idols, they are bothered by a weak conscience. 8 But food doesn't bring us any closer to God. We are no worse off if we don't eat, and we are no better off if we do.
9 Don't cause problems for someone with a weak conscience, just because you have the right to eat anything. 10 You know all this, and so it doesn't bother you to eat in the temple of an idol. But suppose a person with a weak conscience sees you and decides to eat food that has been offered to idols. 11 Then what you know has destroyed someone Christ died for. 12 When you sin by hurting a follower with a weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 So if I hurt one of the Lord's followers by what I eat, I will never eat meat as long as I live.
1 Corinthians 8
New English Translation
Food Sacrificed to Idols
8 With regard to food sacrificed to idols, we know that “we all have knowledge.”[a] Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If someone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know to the degree that he needs to know. 3 But if someone loves God, he[b] is known by God.[c]
4 With regard then to eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that “an idol in this world is nothing,” and that “there is no God but one.”[d] 5 If after all there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as 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 live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live.[e]
7 But this knowledge is not shared by all. And some, by being accustomed to idols in former times, eat this food as an idol sacrifice, and their conscience, because it is weak, is defiled. 8 Now food will not bring us close to God. We are no worse if we do not eat and no better if we do. 9 But be careful that this liberty of yours does not become a hindrance to the weak. 10 For if someone weak sees you who possess knowledge dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience be “strengthened”[f] to eat food offered to idols? 11 So by your knowledge the weak brother or sister,[g] for whom Christ died, is destroyed.[h] 12 If you sin against your brothers or sisters[i] in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 For this reason, if food causes my brother or sister to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause one of them[j] to sin.
Footnotes
- 1 Corinthians 8:1 sn “We all have knowledge.” Here and in v. 4 Paul cites certain slogans the Corinthians apparently used to justify their behavior (cf. 6:12-13; 7:1; 10:23). Paul agrees with the slogans in part, but corrects them to show how the Corinthians have misused these ideas.
- 1 Corinthians 8:3 tn Grk “this one.”
- 1 Corinthians 8:3 tn Grk “him”; in the translation the most likely referent (God) has been specified for clarity.
- 1 Corinthians 8:4 sn “An idol in this world is nothing” and “There is no God but one.” Here and in v. 1 Paul cites certain slogans the Corinthians apparently used to justify their behavior (cf. 6:12-13; 7:1; 10:23). Paul agrees with the slogans in part, but corrects them to show how the Corinthians have misused these ideas.
- 1 Corinthians 8:6 tn Grk “through whom [are] all things and we [are] through him.”
- 1 Corinthians 8:10 tn Or “built up”; This is the same word used in v. 1b. It is used ironically here: The weak person is “built up” to commit what he regards as sin.
- 1 Corinthians 8:11 tn Grk “the one who is weak…the brother for whom Christ died,” but see note on the word “Christian” in 5:11.
- 1 Corinthians 8:11 tn This may be an indirect middle, “destroys himself.”
- 1 Corinthians 8:12 tn See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.
- 1 Corinthians 8:13 tn Grk “my brother.” Both “my brother or sister” earlier in the verse and “one of them” here translate the same Greek phrase. Since the same expression occurs in the previous line, a pronoun phrase is substituted here to suit English style, which is less tolerant of such repetition.
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