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1 Corinthians 8

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📖 1 Corinthians introduction

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1Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. ✦ 2Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. ✦ 3But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes. ✦ 4So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. ✦ 5There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. ✦ 6But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live. ✦ 7However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. ✦ 8It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do. ✦ 9But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. ✦ 10For 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? ✦ 11So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed. ✦ 12And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. ✦ 13So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

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.

Where this chapter connects

1 Cor 8 ·15Rom 14 ·151 Cor 10 ·12Rev 2 ·6Matt 18 ·51 Cor 13 ·4Rom 11 ·4Eph 4 ·3

Christ at the center

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.

How 1 Corinthians 8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

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    Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

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    130+ free videos and lectures from the scholar behind the "minimal facts" method — the start-here on the historical evidence for the resurrection. (Only his books are paid.)

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