008:002 If any one imagines that he already possesses any true knowledge, he has as yet attained to no knowledge of the kind to which he ought to have attained;
008:003 but if any one loves God, that man is known by God.
008:004 As to eating things which have been sacrificed to idols, we are fully aware that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but One.
008:005 For if so-called gods do exist, either in Heaven or on earth— and in fact there are many such gods and many such lords—
008:006 yet *we* have but one God, the Father, who is the source of all things
and for whose service we exist, and but one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom we and all things exist.
008:007 But all believers do not recognize these facts. Some, from force
of habit in relation to the idol, even now eat idol sacrifices
as such, and their consciences, being but weak, are polluted.
008:008 It is true that a particular kind of food will not bring us
into God's presence; we are neither inferior to others if we
abstain from it, nor superior to them if we eat it.
008:009 But take care lest this liberty of yours should prove a hindrance to the progress of weak believers.
008:010 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?
008:011 Why, your knowledge becomes the ruin of the weak believer—
your brother, for whom Christ died!