1 Corinthians 10:14-23

Complete Jewish Bible

¹⁴ Therefore, my dear friends, run from idolatry! ¹⁵ I speak to you as sensible people; judge for yourselves what I am saying. ¹⁶ The “cup of blessing” over which we make the b’rakhah — isn’t it a sharing in the bloody sacrificial death of the Messiah? The bread we break, isn’t it a sharing in the body of the Messiah? ¹⁷ Because there is one loaf of bread, we who are many constitute one body, since we all partake of the one loaf of bread. ¹⁸ Look at physical Isra’el: don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? ¹⁹ So, what am I saying? That food sacrificed to idols has any significance in itself? or that an idol has significance in itself? ²⁰ No, what I am saying is that the things which pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice not to God but to demons; and I don’t want you to become sharers of the demons! ²¹ You can’t drink both a cup of the Lord and a cup of demons, you can’t partake in both a meal of the Lord and a meal of demons. ²² Or are we trying to make the Lord jealous? We aren’t stronger than he is, are we?

²³ “Everything is permitted,” you say? Maybe, but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permitted?” Maybe, but not everything is edifying.