8:1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge ①makes one conceited, but love edifies people.
▷ ①Lit puffs up
8:2 If anyone thinks that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know;
8:3 but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.
8:4 Therefore, concerning the eating of food sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is ①nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.
▷ ①I.e., what it represents does not exist
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 only one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
8:7 However, not all people have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
8:8 Now food will not bring us ①close to God; we are neither ②the worse if we do not eat, nor ③the better if we do eat.
▷ ①Or before God ②Lit lacking ③Lit abounding
8:9 But take care that this ①freedom of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
▷ ①Lit right
8:10 For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will his conscience, if he is weak, not be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?
8:11 For through your knowledge the one who is weak is ruined, the brother or sister for whose sake Christ died.
8:12 And so, by sinning against the brothers and sisters and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
8:13 Therefore, if food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to sin.