But if any one tells you, »This food has been offered in sacrifice;« abstain from eating it–out of respect for him who warned you, and, as before, for conscience' sake.
But now I mean his conscience, not your own. »Why, on what ground,« you may object, »is the question of my liberty of action to be decided by a conscience not my own?
For if any one were to see you, who know the real truth of this matter, reclining at table in an idol's temple, would not his conscience (supposing him to be a weak believer) be emboldened to eat the food which has been sacrificed to the idol?
To the weak I have become weak, so as to gain the weak. To all men I have become all things, in the hope that in every one of these ways I may save some.
I use the language of self-disparagement, as though I were admitting our own feebleness. Yet for whatever reason any one is `courageous' –I speak in mere folly– I also am courageous.
You however, brethren, were called to freedom. Only do not turn your freedom into an excuse for giving way to your lower natures; but become bondservants to one another in a spirit of love.
Take care lest there be some one who leads you away as prisoners by means of his philosophy and idle fancies, following human traditions and the world's crude notions instead of following Christ.
And they promise them freedom, although they are themselves the slaves of what is corrupt. For a man is the slave of any one by whom he has been worsted in fight.
Yet I have a few things against you, because you have with you some that cling to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling-block in the way of the descendants of Israel–to eat what had been sacrificed to idols, and commit fornication.