8:1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.
8:2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.
8:3 But whoever loves God is known by God.* / *An early manuscript and another ancient witness think they have knowledge do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves truly knows.
8:4 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.”
8:5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”),
8:6 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.
8:7 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.
8:8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
8:9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.
8:10 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?
8:11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.
8:12 When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
8:13 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.