1 Corinthians 10:17-28

17 Because there is one loaf, our many-ness becomes one-ness - Christ doesn't become fragmented in us. Rather, we become unified in him. We don't reduce Christ to what we are; he raises us to what he is.
18 That's basically what happened even in old Israel - those who ate the sacrifices offered on God's altar entered into God's action at the altar.
19 Do you see the difference? Sacrifices offered to idols are offered to nothing, for what's the idol but a nothing?
20 Or worse than nothing, a minus, a demon! I don't want you to become part of something that reduces you to less than yourself.
21 And you can't have it both ways, banqueting with the Master one day and slumming with demons the next.
22 Besides, the Master won't put up with it. He wants us - all or nothing. Do you think you can get off with anything less?
23 Looking at it one way, you could say, "Anything goes. Because of God's immense generosity and grace, we don't have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster." But the point is not to just get by.
25 With that as a base to work from, common sense can take you the rest of the way. Eat anything sold at the butcher shop, for instance; you don't have to run an "idolatry test" on every item.
26 "The earth," after all, "is God's, and everything in it." That "everything" certainly includes the leg of lamb in the butcher shop.
27 If a nonbeliever invites you to dinner and you feel like going, go ahead and enjoy yourself; eat everything placed before you. It would be both bad manners and bad spirituality to cross-examine your host on the ethical purity of each course as it is served.
28 On the other hand, if he goes out of his way to tell you that this or that was sacrificed to god or goddess so-and-so, you should pass. Even though you may be indifferent as to where it came from, he isn't, and you don't want to send mixed messages to him about who you are worshiping.

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Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.