1 Corinthians 10:14–28

WARNING AGAINST IDOLATRY

¹⁴So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. ¹⁵I am speaking as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I am saying. ¹⁶The cup^af of blessing^ag that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread^ah that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? ¹⁷Because there is one bread, we who are many are one^ai body, since all of us share the one bread. ¹⁸Consider the people of Israel.^I Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?^{aj 19}What am I saying then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰No, but I do say that what they^J sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons! ²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons. ²²Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?^ak

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

²³“Everything is permissible,”^A but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,”^A but not everything builds up. ²⁴No one is to seek his own good, but the good of the other person.^al

²⁵Eat everything that is sold in the meat market, without raising questions for the sake of conscience, ²⁶since the earth is the Lord’s,^am and all that is in it.^{Ban 27}If any of the unbelievers invites you over and you want to go, eat everything that is set before you, without raising questions for the sake of conscience. ²⁸But if someone says to you, “This is food from a sacrifice,” do not eat it,^ao out of consideration for the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience.^C