²⁰ but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from whatever has been strangled^[a] and from blood.^(A)

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)

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)

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)

¹⁷ It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, in all your settlements: you must not eat any fat or any blood.”^(A)

⁴ Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.^(A)

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.”^{(A) 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.^(B)

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.^{(C) 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.^{(D) 9} But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.^{(E) 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.^{(F) 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.^(G)

²⁵ But as for the gentiles who have become believers, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled^[a] and from sexual immorality.”^(A)

⁷ Do not become idolaters as some of them did, as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.”^{(A) 8} We must not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.^(B)