For if someone with a weak conscience sees you who are well informed eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged to eat food sacrificed to idols?
Parallel translations
- WEB 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?
- KJV For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;
- NKJV For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols?
- NASB For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will his conscience, if he is weak, not be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?
- NLT For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
If a weak believer sees you, the "knowledgeable" one, dining in an idol's temple, his conscience may be emboldened to eat against his own convictions. Your example can lure him into what he believes is sin.
Overview
Paul gives a concrete scenario: feasting in a pagan temple. The strong believer's confident participation can pressure the weak brother to imitate behavior that, for him, amounts to idolatry. The danger is not the food but the wounding of a brother's conscience by a misused example. Paul shows how liberty pursued without love can actively harm others rather than build them up.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Cor 10:28–29But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience—
- 1 Cor 8:4So 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.
- 1 Cor 10:20–21No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.
- Rom 14:23But the one who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that is not from faith is sin.
- Rom 14:14I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
- 1 Cor 8:7But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that they eat such food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. And since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.
- 1 Cor 8:1–2Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
- Amos 2:8They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. And in the house of their God, they drink wine obtained through fines.
- Num 25:2who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods.
- Judg 9:27And after they had gone out into the fields, gathered grapes from their vineyards, and trodden them, they held a festival and went into the house of their god; and as they ate and drank, they cursed Abimelech.
- 1 Cor 10:32Do not become a stumbling block, whether to Jews or Greeks or the church of God—
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Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
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