¹ Now about food which has been dedicated to false gods. We are well aware that all of us have knowledge; but while knowledge puffs up, love is what builds up.

² Someone may think that he has full knowledge of something and yet not know it as well as he should;

³ but someone who loves God is known by God.

⁴ On the subject of eating foods dedicated to false gods, we are well aware that none of the false gods exists in reality and that there is no God other than the One.

⁵ Though there are so-called gods, in the heavens or on earth -- and there are plenty of gods and plenty of lords-

⁶ yet for us there is only one God, the Father from whom all things come and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things come and through whom we exist.

⁷ However, not everybody has this knowledge. There are some in whose consciences false gods still play such a part that they take the food as though it had been dedicated to a god; then their conscience, being vulnerable, is defiled,

⁸ But of course food cannot make us acceptable to God; we lose nothing by not eating it, we gain nothing by eating it.

⁹ Only be careful that this freedom of yours does not in any way turn into an obstacle to trip those who are vulnerable.

¹⁰ Suppose someone sees you, who have the knowledge, sitting eating in the temple of some false god, do you not think that his conscience, vulnerable as it is, may be encouraged to eat foods dedicated to false gods?

¹¹ And then it would be through your knowledge that this brother for whom Christ died, vulnerable as he is, has been lost.

¹² So, sinning against your brothers and wounding their vulnerable consciences, you would be sinning against Christ.

¹³ That is why, if food can be the cause of a brother's downfall, I will never eat meat any more, rather than cause my brother's downfall.