Weymouth New Testament WNT
New International Version NIV
1 Now as to things which have been sacrificed to idols. This is a subject which we already understand--because we all have knowledge of it. Knowledge, however, tends to make people conceited; it is love that builds us up.
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Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.
2 If any one imagines that he already possesses any true knowledge, he has as yet attained to no knowledge of the kind to which he ought to have attained;
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Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.
3 but if any one loves God, that man is known by God.
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But whoever loves God is known by God.
4 As to eating things which have been sacrificed to idols, we are fully aware that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but One.
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So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.”
5 For if so-called gods do exist, either in Heaven or on earth--and in fact there are many such gods and many such lords--
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For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”),
6 yet *we* have but one God, the Father, who is the source of all things and for whose service we exist, and but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom we and all things exist.
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yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
7 But all believers do not recognize these facts. Some, from force of habit in relation to the idol, even now eat idol sacrifices as such, and their consciences, being but weak, are polluted.
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But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.
8 It is true that a particular kind of food will not bring us into God's presence; we are neither inferior to others if we abstain from it, nor superior to them if we eat it.
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But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
9 But take care lest this liberty of yours should prove a hindrance to the progress of weak believers.
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Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.
10 For if any one were to see you, who know the real truth of this matter, reclining at table in an idol's temple, would not his conscience (supposing him to be a weak believer) be emboldened to eat the food which has been sacrificed to the idol?
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For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols?
11 Why, your knowledge becomes the ruin of the weak believer--your brother, for whom Christ died!
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So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.
12 Moreover when you thus sin against the brethren and wound their weak consciences, you are, in reality, sinning against Christ.
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When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
13 Therefore if what I eat causes my brother to fall, never again to the end of my days will I touch any kind of animal food, for fear I should cause my brother to fall.
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Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.
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