²⁰ but that we ^(A)write to them to abstain ^(B)from things polluted by idols, ^(C)from ^[a]sexual immorality, ^(D)from things strangled, and from blood.

²⁰ Nevertheless I have ^[a]a few things against you, because you allow ^[b]that woman ^(A)Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, ^[c]to teach and seduce My servants ^(B)to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

¹⁴ But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of ^(A)Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, ^(B)to eat things sacrificed to idols, ^(C)and to commit sexual immorality.

¹⁷ ‘This shall be a ^(A)perpetual^[a] statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings: you shall eat neither fat nor ^(B)blood.’ ”

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

²⁵ But concerning the Gentiles who believe, ^(A)we have written and decided ^[a]that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from ^[b]sexual immorality.”

⁴ Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that ^(A)an idol is nothing in the world, ^(B)and that there is no other God but one. ⁵ For even if there are ^(C)so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), ⁶ yet ^(D)for us there is one God, the Father, ^(E)of whom are all things, and we for Him; and ^(F)one Lord Jesus Christ, ^(G)through whom are all things, and ^(H)through whom we live.

⁷ However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, ^(I)with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is ^(J)defiled. ⁸ But ^(K)food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.

⁹ But ^(L)beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become ^(M)a ^[a]stumbling block to those who are weak. ¹⁰ For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not ^(N)the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? ¹¹ And ^(O)because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? ¹² But ^(P)when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³ Therefore, ^(Q)if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

²⁰ But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, ^(A)did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship ^(B)demons, ^(C)and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.