^9 (A)Have you not driven out the priests of Yahweh, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests like the peoples of other lands? Whoever comes ^(B)to ordain himself with a bull from the herd and seven rams, even he may become a priest of what are ^(C)no gods.

¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the ^(A)work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have ^(B)destroyed them.

⁴ Therefore, concerning the eating of ^(A)things sacrificed to idols, we know that ^[a]an idol is ^(B)nothing in the world, and that ^(C)there is no God but one. ⁵ For even if ^(D)there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, ⁶ yet for us ^(E)there is one God, ^(F)the Father, ^(G)from whom are all things and we exist for Him, and ^(H)one Lord, Jesus Christ, ^(I)by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

⁷ However, not all men ^(J)have this knowledge; but ^(K)some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. ⁸ But ^(L)food will not ^[b]commend us to God. We neither lack if we do not eat, nor abound if we do eat. ⁹ But ^(M)see to it that this ^[c]authority of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the ^(N)weak. ¹⁰ For if someone sees you, who have ^(O)knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be built up to eat ^(P)things sacrificed to idols? ¹¹ For through ^(Q)your knowledge he who is weak ^(R)is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. ^12 (S)And in that way, by sinning against the brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin ^(T)against Christ. ¹³ Therefore, ^(U)if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again—ever, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

²⁰ No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they ^(A)sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become sharers in demons.