1 Corinthians 8

New Testament for Everyone

Meat offered to idols

8 Now when it comes to meat offered to idols, we know that “We all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs you up, but love builds you up! ² If anybody thinks they “know” something, they don’t yet “know” in the way they ought to know. ³ But if anybody loves God, they are “known”—by him.

⁴ So when it comes to food that has been offered to idols, we know that “idols are nothing in the world,” and that “there is no God but one.” ⁵ Yes, indeed: there may be many so-called “gods,” whether in heaven or on earth, just as there are many “gods” and many “lords.” ⁶ But for us

Respecting weak consciences

⁷ The problem is that not everybody has this “knowledge.” Some have been accustomed up to now to eating idol-food with the assumption that it really does belong to the idol. This has left them with a weak conscience, and now that conscience will be polluted. ⁸ But the food we eat won’t recommend us to God. We won’t be any worse off if we don’t eat, and we won’t be any better off if we do.

⁹ But you must take care in case this official right of yours becomes a danger to the weak. ¹⁰ Look at it like this: if someone with a weak conscience sees you, a person with “knowledge,” sitting down to eat in an idol-house, that conscience of theirs is likely to make up its mind actually to eat idol-food, isn’t it? ¹¹ And so, you see, the weak person—a brother or sister for whom the Messiah died!—is then destroyed by your “knowledge.” ¹² That means you’ll be sinning against your brother or sister, and attacking their weak conscience; and in doing this you’ll be sinning against the Messiah. ¹³ So, for this reason, if food causes my brother or sister to stumble, I will never ever eat meat, so that I won’t make my brother or sister trip up.