18. have they anything to do with the rites observed by pagans, and can we who take this cup of the Lord fall into the error of idolatry?
19. Certainly the image and the meat sacrificed to it are nothing —
20. we know that. But the heathen sacrifice “not to God, but to devils.” (Deut. xxxii. 17).
21. And to partake of the feasts by which these devils are worshipped is to lay yourself open to the strong influences that hang over such rites. Just as in that Israel which now bears the name of Israel after the flesh, the people who share in the sacrificial feast, share also in the Altar. Can we then, who take the cup of the Lord and partake of this feast, have anything whatever to do with the feasts of the devils? O beware of the subtle contaminating influence of idolatry! Our feast is a spiritual one; the words of blessing pronounced over the cup, and again over the bread, they mean our share in the blood of the Christ, our membership in the infinite body of the Christ, just as we all partake of the one loaf which is broken and given to all with the accompanying words of blessing, so are we all members of that one divine spiritual body. That is the meaning of our feast. Can such a feast as that have in it any taint of idolatry? Mark well the types I have spoken of, which the scriptures contain! Shall the table of the Lord (Mal. i. 7, 12) be polluted by you through intercourse with devils?
22. Will you “provoke him to jealousy with strange gods?” (Deut. xxxii. 16). What possible connection can there be between our spiritual feast and the table of devils?
23. Granted — all things are lawful to those who are free and emancipated. But it does not follow that there is no danger, no destructive power lurking round things which in an absolute sense are harmless.
24. Seek what serves the common good, seek what builds and edifies, seek not your own.
25. You are of course at liberty to purchase whatever you please where meat is sold, and ask no questions about it.
26-27. Similarly, you can dine with friends not of the faith, and eat whatever they set before you. That is our freedom. “Is not the earth the Lord's and the fulness thereof?” (Ps. xxiv. 1).
28. But if your host inform you, “this meat was sacrificed to such and such a god,” then keep the rule of absolute abstention from idolatry.
29. You may consider yourself free, and think that you partake of all things by the grace of God,
30. and are able to give thanks therefore with a good conscience, but if you are really free, why should this action affect the conscience of another, and be misinterpreted? It is better not to eat of it where other people's consciences are at stake.
31-32. Seek not your own point of view, lean not to that, although you know yourself to be as free as Christ has made you in all such matters of eating and drinking, or whatever other things you may be doing, but seek the glory of the one God, seek to commend yourself to all men, whether your company be Jewish, Greek or those who are of the faith. O think not of yourselves, but of them!
33. That is always my point of view, to please all in every way I can, that they may find salvation;