The First to the Corinthians, 8

¹ Now concerning foods offered to idols:^*1 we know we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

² If anyone thinks he has acquired knowledge of something, he does not yet know [it] just as he ought to know [it].

³ But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him.

⁴ Now concerning the eating of foods offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world,^*1 and that there is no God but one.

⁵ For even though there are those who are called “gods,” whether in heaven or on earth, just as there are many “gods” and many “lords,”

⁶ there is actually to us one God^*1 the Father, out of whom all things are, and we for him; and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and we through him.

⁷ Nevertheless, there is not this knowledge in all persons; but some, being accustomed until now to the idol, eat food as something sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

⁸ But food will not commend us to God; if we do not eat, we do not fall short, and, if we eat, we have no credit to ourselves.

⁹ But keep watching that this authority of YOURS does not somehow become a stumbling block to those who are weak.

¹⁰ For if anyone should see you, the one having knowledge, reclining at a meal in an idol temple,^*1 will not the conscience of that one who is weak be built up to the point of eating foods offered to idols?

¹¹ Really, by your knowledge, the man that is weak is being ruined, [your] brother for whose sake Christ died.

¹² But when YOU people thus sin against YOUR brothers and wound their conscience that is weak, YOU are sinning against Christ.

¹³ Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat flesh at all, that I may not make my brother stumble.