18. Consider physical Israel. Those who eat the sacrifices—aren’t they partners in the altar?
19. What am I saying then—that an idol sacrifice is anything, or that an idol is anything?
20. No, I’m saying that what the pagans sacrifice is to demons and not to God, and I don’t want you to become partners with demons.
21. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
22. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?
23. “Everything is permitted”—but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permitted”—but not everything builds up.
24. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.
25. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, without raising questions of conscience.
26. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.”
27. If an unbeliever invites you over and you want to go, eat whatever is set before you, without raising questions of conscience.
28. But if anyone says to you, “This is from an idol sacrifice,” do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—
29. not your own conscience, I mean, but the other person’s. For why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience?