1 Corinthians 8

Be Sensitive to Conscience

8Now ^aconcerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have ^bknowledge. ^cKnowledge ¹puffs up, but love ²edifies. ²And ^dif anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. ³But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.

⁴Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that ^ean idol is nothing in the world, ^fand that there is no other God but one. ⁵For even if there are ^gso-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), ⁶yet ^hfor us there is one God, the Father, ⁱof whom are all things, and we for Him; and ^jone Lord Jesus Christ, ^kthrough whom are all things, and ^lthrough whom we live.

⁷However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, ^mwith consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is ⁿdefiled. ⁸But ^ofood does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.

⁹But ^pbeware lest somehow this liberty of yours become ^qa ³stumbling block to those who are weak. ¹⁰For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not ^rthe conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? ¹¹And ^sbecause of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? ¹²But ^twhen you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³Therefore, ^uif food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.