Text Bible Reading
1 Corinthians 8 (NIV)
- 1
Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.
- 2
Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.
- 3
But whoever loves God is known by God.
- 4
So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.”
- 5
For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”),
- 6
yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
- 7
But not everyone possesses this knowledge. 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, it is defiled.
- 8
But food does not bring us near to God; 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 to the weak.
- 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?
- 11
So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.
- 12
When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
- 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.
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1 Corinthians Chapter 8 complete.
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