\v 1 Now, about the question you asked regarding eating food that was offered to idols: We know that people say, "We all have knowledge." But if you think you know a lot, you can become very proud of yourself. If, however, when you love others, you help them grow strong in their faith.
\v 2 The truth is that if someone thinks he knows something, he has not yet learned the things he needs to know.
\v 4 Now about eating food sacrificed to idols: Let us begin with the principle that idols in this world are nothing. We have no doubt that "there is only one God." So idols are not real gods, they are not living gods at all.
\v 5 Those many so-called gods and lords have temples, and people worship them as though they where alive in the heavens or on the earth.
\v 6 Scripture says this clearly,
\q "Yet for us there is one God, the Father,
\q1 from him come all things, and for him we live.
\q And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ;
\q1 he made everything there is, and he is the one who gives us life.
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\p
\v 7 But not everyone knows this. Some worshiped an idol in earlier times, and, now, if they ate food sacrificed to an idol, they worry that they are still worshiping a god. They were torn between two opinions, they were weak in their faith in Christ, but they felt they were honoring an idol when they bought food that had been offered to it.
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\v 8 We know that the food we eat does not make us better or worse before God.
\v 9 But what is important is your brother and sister in Christ. You are free to eat that food, but you should not cause a person to fall down in their faith because you have the freedom to eat it.
\v 10 You know that idols were never alive, nor were they gods at all. But if a weak brother sees you eating in an idol's temple, would that not encourage them to turn back to his idolatry?
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\v 11 As a result, if your weaker brother or sister sees you eat meat offered to idols because you have freedom in your mind to eat that food but they did not have the same freedom—your freedom to eat that food could destroy your brother or sister for whom Christ died.
\v 12 So, you sin against your weaker brothers and sisters when you encourage them to do something that their sense of right and wrong tells them not to do. This is sinning against Christ.
\v 13 Therefore, if food causes my brother or sister to fall down in their relationship with God, I will never eat meat again! I do not want to do anything that causes them to fall.
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