Common English Bible CEB
Revised Standard Version RSV
1 Now concerning meat that has been sacrificed to a false god: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes people arrogant, but love builds people up.
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Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." "Knowledge" puffs up, but love builds up.
2 If anyone thinks they know something, they don't yet know as much as they should know.
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If any one imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.
3 But if someone loves God, then they are known by God.
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But if one loves God, one is known by him.
4 So concerning the actual food involved in these sacrifices to false gods, we know that a false god isn't anything in this world, and that there is no God except for the one God.
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Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "an idol has no real existence," and that "there is no God but one."
5 Granted, there are so-called "gods," in heaven and on the earth, as there are many gods and many lords.
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For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords" --
6 However, for us believers, There is one God the Father. All things come from him, and we belong to him. And there is one Lord Jesus Christ. All things exist through him, and we live through him.
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yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
7 But not everybody knows this. Some are eating this food as though it really is food sacrificed to a real idol, because they were used to idol worship until now. Their conscience is weak because it has been damaged.
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However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through being hitherto accustomed to idols, eat food as really offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
8 Food won't bring us close to God. We're not missing out if we don't eat, and we don't have any advantage if we do eat.
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Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
9 But watch out or else this freedom of yours might be a problem for those who are weak.
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Only take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
10 Suppose someone sees you (the person who has knowledge) eating in an idol's temple. Won't the person with a weak conscience be encouraged to eat the meat sacrificed to false gods?
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For if any one sees you, a man of knowledge, at table in an idol's temple, might he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?
11 The weak brother or sister for whom Christ died is destroyed by your knowledge.
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And so by your knowledge this weak man is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.
12 You sin against Christ if you sin against your brothers and sisters and hurt their weak consciences this way.
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Thus, sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
13 This is why, if food causes the downfall of my brother or sister, I won't eat meat ever again, or else I may cause my brother or sister to fall.
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Therefore, if food is a cause of my brother's falling, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to fall.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.