Through my union with the Lord Jesus, I know and am persuaded that nothing is 'defiling in itself.' A thing is 'defiling' only to him who holds it to be so.
Do not undo God's work for the sake of what you eat. Though everything is 'clean,' yet, if a man eats so as to put a stumbling- block in the way of others, he does wrong.
Before certain persons came from James, he had been in the habit of eating with the Gentile converts; but, when they came, he began to withdraw and hold aloof, for fear of offending those who still held to circumcision.
Everything is pure to the pure-minded, but to those whose minds are polluted and who are unbelievers nothing is pure. Their minds and consciences are alike polluted.
Do not let yourselves be carried away by the various novel forms of teaching. It is better to rely for spiritual strength upon the divine help, than upon regulations regarding food; for those whose lives are guided by such regulations have not found them of service.