nor do men pour fresh wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine is spilt, the wineskins are ruined. They put fresh wine into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved."

Blind guides that you are, filtering away the gnat and swallowing the camel!

I tell you, after this I will never drink this produce of the vine till the day I drink it new with you in the Realm of my Father."

they gave him a drink of wine mixed with bitters; but when he tasted it he would not drink it.

They offered him wine flavoured with myrrh, but he would not take it.

for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, he will drink neither wine nor strong drink, he will be filled with the holy Spirit from his very birth;

on my very slaves and slave-girls in those days will I pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

So let us stop criticizing one another; rather make up your mind never to put any stumbling-block or hindrance in your brother's way. I know, I am certain in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is in itself unclean; only, anything is unclean for a man who considers it unclean. read more. If your brother is being injured because you eat a certain food, then you are no longer living by the rule of love. Do not let that food of yours ruin the man for whom Christ died. Your rights must not get a bad name. The Reign of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, it means righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit; he who serves Christ on these lines, is acceptable to God and esteemed by men. Peace, then, and the building up of each other, these are what we must aim at. You must not break down God's work for the mere sake of food! Everything may be clean, but it is wrong for a man to prove a stumbling-block by what he eats; the right course is to abstain from flesh or wine or indeed anything that your brother feels to be a stumbling-block.

but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him. Well then, with regard to food that has been offered to idols, I am quite aware that 'there is no such thing as an idol in the world' and that 'there is only the one God.' read more. (So-called gods there may be, in heaven or on earth ??as indeed there are plenty of them, both gods and 'lords' ??6 but for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all comes, and for whom we exist; one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom all exists, and by whom we exist.)

But remember, it is not everyone who has this 'knowledge.' Some who have hitherto been accustomed to idols eat the food as food which has been really offered to an idol, and so their weaker conscience is contaminated. Now mere food will not bring us any nearer to God; if we abstain we do not lose anything, and if we eat we do not gain anything. read more. But see that the exercise of your right does not prove any stumbling-block to the weak. Suppose anyone sees you, a person of enlightened mind, reclining at meat inside an idol's temple; will that really 'fortify his weak conscience'? Will it not embolden him to violate his scruples of conscience by eating food that has been offered to idols? He is ruined, this weak man, ruined by your 'enlightened mind,' this brother for whose sake Christ died! By sinning against the brotherhood in this way and wounding their weaker consciences, you are sinning against Christ.