But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that showed it, and for conscience's sake: for the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof:
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Clement Of Alexandria
AD 215
"For why is my liberty judged of by another conscience? For if I by grace am a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? Whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God "
Notice Paul’s balanced approach. He did not order Christians to withdraw from associating with unbelievers, but neither did he forbid it. People who make scrupulous inquiries do so out of fear, and that is wrong. On the other hand, if someone happens to find out that the food has been sacrificed to idols and then makes a conscious decision to abstain, he does so out of contempt and aversion toward the idolatry, not out of fear, and that is acceptable in God’s sight.
Thus it is not at all for any power that they have but as accursed, that he bids abstain from them. Neither then, as though they could injure you, fly from them, (for they have no strength;) nor yet, because they have no strength, indifferently partake: for it is the table of beings hostile and degraded. Wherefore he said, eat not for his sake that showed it, and for conscience sake. For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
Do you see how both when he bids them eat and when they must abstain, he brings forward the same testimony? For I do not forbid, says he, for this cause as though they belonged to others: (for the earth is the Lord's:) but for the reason I mentioned, for conscience sake; i.e., that it may not be injured. Ought one therefore to inquire scrupulously? Nay says he for I said not your conscience, but his. For I have already said, 'for his sake that showed it.' And again, v. 29, Conscience, I say, not your own, but the other's.
2. But perhaps some one may...
