1 Corinthians · 13 verses
1 Corinthians 8
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The meat is harmless; the dinner table is not.
Knowledge with feathersvv. 1–6
Knowledge arrives with an alarming tendency to inflate its owner, while love quietly constructs something useful. The knowledge in question is that an idol is nothing and that there is one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ. A splendidly confident theology, in other words—but confidence is not yet the same thing as knowing as one ought.
The harmless meal becomes a snarevv. 7–13
Food itself has no spiritual upgrading power: eating does not make anyone better, and abstaining does not make anyone worse. Yet a well-informed diner in an idol’s temple may become a rather impressive trap for someone whose conscience still hears the old alarm bells. Knowledge, having puffed up at the beginning, now does the damage; so the eater gives up meat altogether rather than turn freedom into another person’s fall.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
1 Cor 8:1Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
1 Cor 8:2The one who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.
1 Cor 8:3But the one who loves God is known by God.
1 Cor 8:4So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.
1 Cor 8:5For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many so-called gods and lords),
1 Cor 8:6yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist.
1 Cor 8:7But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that they eat such food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. And since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.
1 Cor 8:8But food does not bring us closer to God: We are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
1 Cor 8:9Be careful, however, that your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.
1 Cor 8:10For if someone with a weak conscience sees you who are well informed eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged to eat food sacrificed to idols?
1 Cor 8:11So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.
1 Cor 8:12By sinning against your brothers in this way and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
1 Cor 8:13Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to stumble.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 207 passages were voted onto 13 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 3Revelation 3:8–9I know your deeds. Behold, I have placed before you an open door, which no one can shut. I know that you have only a little strength, yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name.
- 3Exodus 33:17So the LORD said to Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”
- 3Nahum 1:7The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of distress; He cares for those who trust in Him.
- 32 Timothy 2:19Nevertheless, God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord must turn away from iniquity.”
- 31 Corinthians 2:9Rather, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
- 3Galatians 4:9But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
- 3Revelation 2:19I know your deeds—your love, your faith, your service, your perseverance—and your latest deeds are greater than your first.
- 3James 1:12Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.
- 3Jeremiah 1:5“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
- 3John 10:14I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me,
- 3Matthew 7:23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’
- 3Psalms 1:6For the LORD guards the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
- 6Romans 11:36For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.
- 6John 1:3Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.
- 9Galatians 5:13For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love.
- 6Malachi 2:10Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why then do we break faith with one another so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?
Onward