First Epistle to the Corinthians - The New Testament

¹ I want you to be quite certain, brothers, that our ancestors all had the cloud over them and all passed through the sea.

² In the cloud and in the sea they were all baptised into Moses;

³ all ate the same spiritual food

⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink, since they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ.

⁵ In spite of this, God was not pleased with most of them, and their corpses were scattered over the desert.

⁶ Now these happenings were examples, for our benefit, so that we should never set our hearts, as they did, on evil things;

⁷ nor are you to worship false gods, as some of them did, as it says in scripture: The people sat down to eat and drink, and afterwards got up to amuse themselves.

⁸ Nor, again, are we to fall into sexual immorality; some of them did this, and twenty-three thousand met their downfall in one day.

⁹ And we are not to put the Lord to the test; some of them put him to the test, and they were killed by snakes.

¹⁰ Never complain; some of them complained, and they were killed by the Destroyer.

¹¹ Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were described in writing to be a lesson for us, to whom it has fallen to live in the last days of the ages.

¹² Everyone, no matter how firmly he thinks he is standing, must be careful he does not fall.

¹³ None of the trials which have come upon you is more than a human being can stand. You can trust that God will not let you be put to the test beyond your strength, but with any trial will also provide a way out by enabling you to put up with it.

¹⁴ For that reason, my dear friends, have nothing to do with the worship of false gods.

¹⁵ I am talking to you as sensible people; weigh up for yourselves what I have to say.

¹⁶ The blessing-cup, which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ; and the loaf of bread which we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?

¹⁷ And as there is one loaf, so we, although there are many of us, are one single body, for we all share in the one loaf.

¹⁸ Now compare the natural people of Israel: is it not true that those who eat the sacrifices share the altar?

¹⁹ What does this mean? That the dedication of food to false gods amounts to anything? Or that false gods themselves amount to anything?

²⁰ No, it does not; simply that when pagans sacrifice, what is sacrificed by them is sacrificed to demons who are not God. I do not want you to share with demons.

²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons as well; you cannot have a share at the Lord's table and the demons' table as well.

²² Do we really want to arouse the Lord's jealousy; are we stronger than he is?

²³ 'Everything is permissible'; maybe so, but not everything does good. True, everything is permissible, but not everything builds people up.

²⁴ Nobody should be looking for selfish advantage, but everybody for someone else's.

²⁵ Eat anything that is sold in butchers' shops; there is no need to ask questions for conscience's sake,

²⁶ since To the Lord belong the earth and all it contains.

²⁷ If an unbeliever invites you to a meal, go if you want to, and eat whatever is put before you; you need not ask questions of conscience first.

²⁸ But if someone says to you, 'This food has been offered in sacrifice,' do not eat it, out of consideration for the person that told you, for conscience's sake-

²⁹ not your own conscience, I mean, but the other person's. Why should my freedom be governed by somebody else's conscience?

³⁰ Provided that I accept it with gratitude, why should I be blamed for eating food for which I give thanks?

³¹ Whatever you eat, then, or drink, and whatever else you do, do it all for the glory of God.

³² Never be a cause of offence, either to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God,

³³ just as I try to accommodate everybody in everything, not looking for my own advantage, but for the advantage of everybody else, so that they may be saved.