¹Now concerning things sacrificed to idols : We know that we all have knowledge . Knowledge puffs up , but love builds up .

²But if anyone thinks that he knows anything , he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know .

³But anyone who loves God is known by him .

⁴Therefore 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 .

⁵For though there are things that are called “gods ”, whether in the heavens or on earth —as there are many “gods ” and many “lords ”—

⁶yet to us there is one God , the Father , of whom are all things , and we for him ; and one Lord , Jesus Christ , through whom are all things , and we live through him .

⁷However , that knowledge isn’t in all men . But some , with consciousness of an idol until now , eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol , and their conscience , being weak, is defiled .

⁸But 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 .

⁹But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak.

¹⁰For 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 ?

¹¹And through your knowledge , he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died .

¹²Thus , sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ .

¹³Therefore , if food causes my brother to stumble , I will eat no meat forever more , that I don’t cause my brother to stumble .