1 Corinthians 10
1 For I don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that all our ancestors were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea.
2 All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
3 All ate the same spiritual food.
4 All drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
5 But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.
6 These things happened as examples for us, so that we would not desire evil things, as they desired.
7 And do not become idolaters, as some of them did, as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to celebrate.”
8 And let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.
9 And let us not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did, and they perished by the snakes.
10 And do not grumble, as some of them grumbled, and they perished by the destroyer.
11 These things happened to them as examples, and were written down as a warning for us, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
12 So anyone who thinks they are standing should take care not to fall.
13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. With the temptation, he will also provide a way out, so that you can endure it.
14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
15 I am speaking to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.
16 Isn’t the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Isn’t the bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ?
17 Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all share in the one loaf.
18 Look at Israel according to the flesh: aren’t those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?
19 What am I saying, then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
20 Rather, I’m saying that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I don’t want you to become participants with demons.
21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
22 Are we trying to make the Lord jealous? Are we stronger than he is?
23 Everything is permitted, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permitted, but not everything builds up.
24 No one should seek their own good, but the good of the other person.
25 Eat anything sold in the market, without asking questions for the sake of conscience.
26 For the earth and everything in it belong to the Lord.
27 If an unbeliever invites you and you want to go, eat anything set before you, without asking questions for the sake of conscience.
28 But if someone says to you, “This was offered in sacrifice,” do not eat it, for the sake of the person who told you and for the sake of conscience.
29 I mean the other person’s conscience, not your own. For why should my freedom be judged by someone else’s conscience?
30 If I share in the food with gratitude, why am I slandered for something I give thanks for?
31 So whether you eat or drink or do anything else, do everything for the glory of God.
32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks, or the church of God.
33 In the same way, I try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
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