Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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The Question about Food Offered to Idols
1 Now, concerning what you
wrote about food offered to
idols.
1 It is true, of course, that “all of us
have knowledge,” as they say. Such
knowledge, however, puffs a person
up with pride; but love builds up.
2 Whoever thinks he knows something
really doesn't know as he
ought to know.
3 But the person who
loves God is known by him.
4 So then, about eating the food
offered to idols: we know that an
idol stands for something that does
not really exist; we know that there
is only the one God.
5 Even if there
are so-called “gods,” whether in
heaven or on earth, and even though
there are many of these “gods” and
“lords,”
6 yet there is for us only one
God, the Father, who is the Creator
of all things and for whom we live;
and there is only one Lord, Jesus
Christ, through whom all things
were created and through whom we
live.
7 But not everyone knows this
truth. Some people have been so
used to idols that to this day when
they eat such food they still think of
it as food that belongs to an idol;
their conscience is weak, and they
feel they are defiled by the food.
8 Food, however, will not improve
our relation with God; we shall not
lose anything if we do not eat, nor
shall we gain anything if we do eat.
9 Be careful, however, not to let
your freedom of action make those
who are weak in the faith fall into
-- --
sin.
10 Suppose a person whose conscience
is weak in this matter sees
you, who have so-called “knowledge,”
eating in the temple of an
idol; will not this encourage him to
eat food offered to idols?
11 And so
this weak person, your brother for
whom Christ died, will perish because
of your “knowledge”!
12 And
in this way you will be sinning
against Christ by sinning against
your Christian brothers and wounding
their weak conscience.
13 So
then, if food makes my brother sin, I
will never eat meat again, so as not
to make my brother fall into sin.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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