I Corinthians 8
8
Be Sensitive to Conscience
1Now #Acts 15:20; 1 Cor. 8:4, 7, 10concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have #Rom. 14:14knowledge. #Rom. 14:3Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. 2And #(1 Cor. 13:8–12); Gal. 6:3; (1 Tim. 6:4)if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. 3But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.
4Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that #Is. 41:24an idol is nothing in the world, #Deut. 4:35, 39; 6:4; 1 Cor. 8:6and that there is no other God but one. 5For even if there are #(John 10:34)so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 6yet #Mal. 2:10; Eph. 4:6for us there is one God, the Father, #Acts 17:28of whom are all things, and we for Him; and #John 13:13; 1 Cor. 1:2; Eph. 4:5; (1 Tim. 2:5)one Lord Jesus Christ, #John 1:3; (Col. 1:16, 17); Heb. 1:2through whom are all things, and #Rom. 5:11; Rev. 4:11; 5:9, 10through whom we live.
7However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, #(1 Cor. 10:28)with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is #Rom. 14:14, 22defiled. 8But #(Rom. 14:17)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.
9But #Gal. 5:13beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become #Rom. 14:13, 21; 1 Cor. 10:28a stumbling block to those who are weak. 10For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not #1 Cor. 10:28the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? 11And #Rom. 14:15, 20because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12But #Matt. 25:40when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13Therefore, #Rom. 14:21; 1 Cor. 10:32; 2 Cor. 6:3; 11:29if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
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I Corinthians 8: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
1 Corinthians 8
8
Regarding meat offered to idols
1-4Now as to the question of obtaining meat which has been first sacrificed on one of the city altars (and meat is not often purchasable nowadays which has not been killed in this way). The idea of course in the minds of those who have been accustomed in the past to partake of these sacrifices is that there is some connection between the meat so sacrificed and the god to whom it has been rendered as a sacrifice. That is a very fixed idea in the minds of many, that to enter the precincts of the temples, purchase the sacrificial meat as prepared by the priests and their acolytes and take it home with you, is to subject yourself to all sorts of evil influences from the spirits, gods, devils who haunt these scenes and acts of worship. 5Now recollect our point of view — that these gods or demons, however real they may be to those that believe in them, a vast congregation indeed of gods and masters of all kinds, so called and so believed, — well, all that world of supposed beings has nothing whatever to do with us, and their images are absolutely nothing at all. 6That is our knowledge, our science — One God alone, from whom come all things, and for whom alone we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom comes the universe, the sum total of all things, inclusive of ourselves whose means of existence are found in Him alone. This divine oneness and allness is our faith, and contrariwise an idol is nothing, and a god is nothing. 7But do all possess this spiritual science? Alas! no, many there are to whom these beings, of which they were quite recently worshippers, are still somewhat of a dread reality, and to see any one of the brethren enter an idol’s shrine and there purchase the meat which is sold in it, alarms the conscience of those whose faith has not yet won clear of the fear of these things. 8Now to you and me food is a small matter. Meat will not bring us any nearer to God; whether we eat it, or not, makes no difference to our condition. Our fulness, or our wants are dependent on things spiritual, not on physical food. 9But it is important that he whose faith still exists fearfully and haltingly should not be led by your example to do that which is going to have a darkening and dangerous effect upon his mind. 10For if with his weak conscience and his fears and semi-belief in the beings he has so recently rejected, he return to their shrines and take a part in their feasts, is it not likely that this will have an influence upon his mind, and work on him to his own destruction? 11And so your clearer knowledge is likely to rob him of his chance to escape, you are doing your best to make the way out more difficult for him, and so defeat the very purpose of Christ’s death, which was to free our weak minds and souls and consciences from idols. 12O sooner than that, sooner than handicap him in his fight with the old falsehoods, what a small matter it would be to eat no meat again for ever! 13Yes, we all have some knowledge perhaps but remember this — knowledge by itself only tends to make us self-satisfied: it is love that builds.
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Translated in 1916, published in 1937.