"What Is a Free Christian?"	May 8th, 2005

1 Corinthians 8: 1-13, 10: 23-31

1. Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
2. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.
3. But the man who loves God is known by God.
4. So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one.
5. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"),
6. yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
7. But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.
8. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
9. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.
10. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols?
11. So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.
12. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
13. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.

23. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive.
24. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.
25. Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience,
26. for, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."
27. If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience.
28. But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience' sake—
29. the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience?
30. If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?
31. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

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