Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
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The question keeps coming up regarding meat that has been offered up to an idol: Should you attend meals where such meat is served, or not? We sometimes tend to think we know all we need to know to answer these kinds of questions -
2 But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn't yet know as he ought to know.
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but sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds.
3 But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him.
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We never really know enough until we recognize that God alone knows it all.
4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
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Some people say, quite rightly, that idols have no actual existence, that there's nothing to them, that there is no God other than our one God,
5 For though there are things that are called "gods," whether in the heavens or on eretz; as there are many "gods" and many "lords;"
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that no matter how many of these so-called gods are named and worshiped they still don't add up to anything but a tall story.
6 yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we to him; and one Lord, Yeshua the Messiah, through whom are all things, and we through him.
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They say - again, quite rightly - that there is only one God the Father, that everything comes from him, and that he wants us to live for him. Also, they say that there is only one Master - Jesus the Messiah - and that everything is for his sake, including us. Yes. It's true.
7 However, that knowledge isn't in all men. But some, being used until now to the idol, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
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In strict logic, then, nothing happened to the meat when it was offered up to an idol. It's just like any other meat. I know that, and you know that. But knowing isn't everything. If it becomes everything, some people end up as know-it-alls who treat others as know-nothings. Real knowledge isn't that insensitive. We need to be sensitive to the fact that we're not all at the same level of understanding in this. Some of you have spent your entire lives eating "idol meat," and are sure that there's something bad in the meat that then becomes something bad inside of you. An imagination and conscience shaped under those conditions isn't going to change overnight.
8 But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don't eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better.
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But fortunately God doesn't grade us on our diet. We're neither commended when we clean our plate nor reprimanded when we just can't stomach it.
9 But be careful that by any means this liberty of yours doesn't become a stumbling block to the weak.
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But God does care when you use your freedom carelessly in a way that leads a Christian still vulnerable to those old associations to be thrown off track.
10 For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol's temple, won't his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols?
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For instance, say you flaunt your freedom by going to a banquet thrown in honor of idols, where the main course is meat sacrificed to idols. Isn't there great danger if someone still struggling over this issue, someone who looks up to you as knowledgeable and mature, sees you go into that banquet? The danger is that he will become terribly confused - maybe even to the point of getting mixed up himself in what his conscience tells him is wrong.
11 And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Messiah died.
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Christ gave up his life for that person. Wouldn't you at least be willing to give up going to dinner for him - because, as you say, it doesn't really make any difference? But it does make a difference if you hurt your friend terribly, risking his eternal ruin!
12 Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Messiah.
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When you hurt your friend, you hurt Christ. A free meal here and there isn't worth it at the cost of even one of these "weak ones."
13 Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forevermore, that I don't cause my brother to stumble.
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So, never go to these idol-tainted meals if there's any chance it will trip up one of your brothers or sisters.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
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.