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I want you to be quite certain, brothers, that our ancestors all had the cloud over them and all passed through the sea.
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In the cloud and in the sea they were all baptised into Moses;
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all ate the same spiritual food
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and all drank the same spiritual drink, since they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ.
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In spite of this, God was not pleased with most of them, and their corpses were scattered over the desert.
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Now these happenings were examples, for our benefit, so that we should never set our hearts, as they did, on evil things;
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nor are you to worship false gods, as some of them did, as it says in scripture: The people sat down to eat and drink, and afterwards got up to amuse themselves.
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Nor, again, are we to fall into sexual immorality; some of them did this, and twenty-three thousand met their downfall in one day.
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And we are not to put the Lord to the test; some of them put him to the test, and they were killed by snakes.
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Never complain; some of them complained, and they were killed by the Destroyer.
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Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were described in writing to be a lesson for us, to whom it has fallen to live in the last days of the ages.
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Everyone, no matter how firmly he thinks he is standing, must be careful he does not fall.
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None of the trials which have come upon you is more than a human being can stand. You can trust that God will not let you be put to the test beyond your strength, but with any trial will also provide a way out by enabling you to put up with it.
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For that reason, my dear friends, have nothing to do with the worship of false gods.
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I am talking to you as sensible people; weigh up for yourselves what I have to say.
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The blessing-cup, which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ; and the loaf of bread which we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?
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And as there is one loaf, so we, although there are many of us, are one single body, for we all share in the one loaf.
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Now compare the natural people of Israel: is it not true that those who eat the sacrifices share the altar?
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What does this mean? That the dedication of food to false gods amounts to anything? Or that false gods themselves amount to anything?
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No, it does not; simply that when pagans sacrifice, what is sacrificed by them is sacrificed to demons who are not God. I do not want you to share with demons.
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You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons as well; you cannot have a share at the Lord's table and the demons' table as well.
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Do we really want to arouse the Lord's jealousy; are we stronger than he is?
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'Everything is permissible'; maybe so, but not everything does good. True, everything is permissible, but not everything builds people up.
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Nobody should be looking for selfish advantage, but everybody for someone else's.
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Eat anything that is sold in butchers' shops; there is no need to ask questions for conscience's sake,
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since To the Lord belong the earth and all it contains.
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If an unbeliever invites you to a meal, go if you want to, and eat whatever is put before you; you need not ask questions of conscience first.
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But if someone says to you, 'This food has been offered in sacrifice,' do not eat it, out of consideration for the person that told you, for conscience's sake-
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not your own conscience, I mean, but the other person's. Why should my freedom be governed by somebody else's conscience?
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Provided that I accept it with gratitude, why should I be blamed for eating food for which I give thanks?
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Whatever you eat, then, or drink, and whatever else you do, do it all for the glory of God.
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Never be a cause of offence, either to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God,
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just as I try to accommodate everybody in everything, not looking for my own advantage, but for the advantage of everybody else, so that they may be saved.
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