Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
We know that we all possess the understanding shared in common affairs, together with the recognition that God is one; for he was addressing believers, and so he continues: yet the understanding granted only to a few is not shared by everyone. Some claim that awareness concerning food offered to idols is absent in everyone, lest our exercising it turn into an obstacle for the weak; for the weak person is ruined through your understanding. And should they claim that one is obligated to purchase whatever is sold in the meat-market, citing by way of argument the phrase "raising no question," as if it applied just as well to "raising a question," their exegesis becomes absurd. For the apostle states, "purchase everything else offered in the market, raising no question," apart from what was disclosed in the joint epistle issued by all the apostles together, by the favor of the Holy Spirit — the letter recorded within the deeds of the emissaries and delivered to believers through Paul's own service; for they proclaimed it a binding necessity to keep away from meat offered to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality, and that refraining from these they would act rightly. What the apostle states, then, is a separate matter: "Do we lack the right to take food and drink? Do we lack the right to bring along a sister as wife, as the rest of the apostles do, and the Lord's brothers, and Cephas?" "Yet we have not made use of this right," he says, "but we endure everything, so that we may place no obstacle before the good news of Christ" — whether by hauling burdens around, when a person ought to travel light for every purpose, or by setting an example for those wishing to pursue self-mastery, not encouraging them toward consuming without hesitation whatever is placed before them or taking a wife however it happens; and it is fitting above all that those entrusted with so weighty a stewardship should show themselves a spotless model for those still learning.
"Though I am free from everyone," he says, "I made myself a slave to everyone, so that I might win more," and "every competitor keeps himself disciplined in every respect"; "yet the earth belongs to the Lord, and everything filling it." For the sake of conscience, then, a person must keep away from what must be kept away from. And by conscience I mean not one's own — for that belongs to the one who possesses knowledge — but the conscience of the other, lest that person be poorly formed through imitating in ignorance what he fails to grasp, turning into a scorner rather than someone of noble character. "For why should my freedom be judged by someone else's conscience? If I share in it with gratitude, why am I denounced over something I give thanks for?" "So then, whatever you do, do it all for God's glory" — whatever falls within what faith's rule permits.
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