The Weak and the Strong

14 Accept the one whose faith is weak,^(A) without quarreling over disputable matters.

15 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak^(A) and not to please ourselves.

⁷ But not everyone possesses this knowledge.^(A) Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak,^(B) it is defiled. ⁸ But food does not bring us near to God;^(C) we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

⁹ Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block^(D) to the weak.^{(E) 10} For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols?^{(F) 11} So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed^(G) by your knowledge. ¹² When you sin against them^(H) in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.^{(I) 13} Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.^(J)

²² To the weak I became weak, to win the weak.^(A) I have become all things to all people^(B) so that by all possible means I might save some.^(C)

⁷ Accept one another,^(A) then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

The Church and Its Leaders

3 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit^(A) but as people who are still worldly^(B)—mere infants^(C) in Christ. ² I gave you milk, not solid food,^(D) for you were not yet ready for it.^(E) Indeed, you are still not ready.

²¹ It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.^(A)

¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them.^(A)

¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead^(A)—since he was about a hundred years old^(B)—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.^(C)