1 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge {gnosis: intellectual awareness} puffs up, but love {agape: self-giving care} builds up.
2 If anyone thinks he has come to know anything {ti: any specific matter}, he has not yet known as he ought {dei: binding obligation} to know.
3 But if anyone loves God {Theos, Deserving Full Love}, this one has been known by Him {autou: relationally acknowledged}.
4 Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol {eidolon: powerless image} is nothing in the world, and that there is no God {Theos, One True Deity} except one.
5 For even if there are those being called gods {theos: so-called deities}, whether in heaven or on earth, just as there are many gods and many lords {kyrios: ruling authorities}—
6 Yet for us there is one God {Theos, Personal Source of All}, the Father: all things come from Him, and our life is directed toward Him {Theos, Goal of Our Lives}; and there is one Lord Jesus Christ {Kyrios Iesous Christos, Mediating Lord of Creation}: all things come through Him, and through Him we exist.
7 But this knowledge {gnosis: spiritual understanding} is not in everyone. Some, because of their habit {synetheia: ingrained pattern} up to now concerning the idol, eat the food as something offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
8 But food will not present us to God {Theos, Standard of Acceptance}; if we eat, we do not gain an advantage {perisseuo: overflowing surplus}, and if we do not eat, we do not fall short.
9 But see to it that this right {exousia: legitimate spiritual right} of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak {asthenesin: spiritually vulnerable believers}.
10 For if someone sees you—the one having knowledge {gnosis: informed insight}—reclining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience {syneidesis: inner moral awareness}, being weak, be built up to eat the idol-offerings?
11 By your knowledge, the weak brother is brought to ruin, the one for whom Christ {Christos, Sacrificial Redeemer} died {apethanen: Suffered Death}.
12 But in this way, when you sin against the brothers and wound their weak conscience {syneidesis: moral awareness}, you sin against Christ {Christos, Wronged Lord}.
13 Consequently, if any food should cause my brother to stumble, I will certainly refrain from eating meat for all time, so that I do not cause my brother {adelphos: close fellow believer} to stumble {skandalizo: spiritual snare}.