What happened to our fathers in the desert
1I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3and all ate the same spiritual food, 4and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was the Christ. 5Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were strewn across the desert. 6These things happened as patterns for us, so that we would not crave what is evil, as they craved it. 7Do not become idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to play.” 8Let us not be sexually immoral, as some of them were, and twenty-three thousand of them fell in a single day. 9Let us not put the Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes. 10And do not grumble, as some of them grumbled, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11These things happened to them as a pattern, and were written down as a warning to us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12So whoever thinks he is standing, let him take care that he does not fall. 13No test has come upon you that is not common to humanity. And God is faithful: he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the test he will make a way out, so that you can bear it.
The table of the Lord and the table of demons
14So, my dear friends, run from idolatry. 15I am speaking to people with sense; judge for yourselves what I say. 16The cup of blessing that we bless — is it not a sharing in the blood of the Christ? The bread that we break — is it not a sharing in the body of the Christ? 17Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all share in the one loaf. 18Look at Israel by natural descent: are those who eat the sacrifices not partners in the altar? 19What am I saying, then? That food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20No — that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to become partners with demons. 21You 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. 22Or are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he is?
Everything for the glory of God
23“Everything is permitted” — but not everything does good. “Everything is permitted” — but not everything builds up. 24Let no one look after his own interest, but after the other person’s. 25Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, raising no question of conscience, 26for “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” 27If an unbeliever invites you and you want to go, eat whatever is set before you, raising no question of conscience. 28But if someone says to you, “This was offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience — 29I mean his conscience, not your own. For why should my freedom be judged by someone else’s conscience? 30If I take my share with thanks, why am I slandered for food I give thanks for? 31So whether you eat or drink or do anything else, do it all for the glory of God. 32Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, 33just as I try to please everyone in everything, not looking for my own advantage but for that of the many, so that they may be saved.
