^15 (A)Instead, he will send you a prophet like me from among your own people, and you are to obey him.^[a]

¹⁶ “On the day that you were gathered at Mount Sinai, you begged not to hear the Lord speak again or to see his fiery presence any more, because you were afraid you would die. ¹⁷ So the Lord said to me, ‘They have made a wise request. ¹⁸ I will send them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will tell him what to say, and he^[b] will tell the people everything I command. ^19 (B)He will speak in my name, and I^[c] will punish anyone who refuses to obey him. ²⁰ But if any prophet dares to speak a message in my name when I did not command him to do so, he must die for it, and so must any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods.’

In Praise of the Lord

The Question about Food Offered to Idols

8 Now, concerning what you wrote about food offered to idols.

It is true, of course, that “all of us have knowledge,” as they say. Such knowledge, however, puffs a person up with pride; but love builds up. ² Those who think they know something really don't know as they ought to know. ³ But the person who loves God is known by him.

⁴ So then, about eating the food offered to idols: we know that an idol stands for something that does not really exist; we know that there is only the one God. ⁵ Even if there are so-called “gods,” whether in heaven or on earth, and even though there are many of these “gods” and “lords,” ⁶ yet there is for us only one God, the Father, who is the Creator of all things and for whom we live; and there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created and through whom we live.

⁷ But not everyone knows this truth. Some people have been so used to idols that to this day when they eat such food they still think of it as food that belongs to an idol; their conscience is weak, and they feel they are defiled by the food. ⁸ Food, however, will not improve our relation with God; we shall not lose anything if we do not eat, nor shall we gain anything if we do eat.

⁹ Be careful, however, not to let your freedom of action make those who are weak in the faith fall into sin. ¹⁰ Suppose a person whose conscience is weak in this matter sees you, who have so-called “knowledge,” eating in the temple of an idol; will not this encourage him to eat food offered to idols? ¹¹ And so this weak person, your brother for whom Christ died, will perish because of your “knowledge”! ¹² And in this way you will be sinning against Christ by sinning against other Christians and wounding their weak conscience. ¹³ So then, if food makes a believer sin, I will never eat meat again, so as not to make a believer fall into sin.

A Man with an Evil Spirit^(A)

²¹ Jesus and his disciples came to the town of Capernaum, and on the next Sabbath Jesus went to the synagogue and began to teach. ^22 (B)The people who heard him were amazed at the way he taught, for he wasn't like the teachers of the Law; instead, he taught with authority.

²³ Just then a man with an evil spirit came into the synagogue and screamed, ²⁴ “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Are you here to destroy us? I know who you are—you are God's holy messenger!”

²⁵ Jesus ordered the spirit, “Be quiet, and come out of the man!”

²⁶ The evil spirit shook the man hard, gave a loud scream, and came out of him. ²⁷ The people were all so amazed that they started saying to one another, “What is this? Is it some kind of new teaching? This man has authority to give orders to the evil spirits, and they obey him!”

²⁸ And so the news about Jesus spread quickly everywhere in the province of Galilee.