1st Corinthians Chapter 8 verse 8 Holy Bible
But food will not commend us to God: neither, if we eat not, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better.
read chapter 8 in ASV
But God's approval of us is not based on the food we take: if we do not take it we are no worse for it; and if we take it we are no better.
read chapter 8 in BBE
But meat does not commend us to God; neither if we should not eat do we come short; nor if we should eat have we an advantage.
read chapter 8 in DARBY
But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.
read chapter 8 in KJV
read chapter 8 in WBT
But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don't eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better.
read chapter 8 in WEB
But victuals do not commend us to God, for neither if we may eat are we in advance; nor if we may not eat, are we behind;
read chapter 8 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 8. - But meat commendeth us not to God; rather, will not recommend us. God would think none the better of them for eating idol sacrifices, even though they asserted thereby a freedom which was the reward of clear insight. This verse will serve to show why "fasting" is nowhere rigidly enjoined on Christians. If fasting is a help to our spiritual life, then we should practise it, but with the distinct apprehension of the truth that God will think none the better of us merely because we eat less, but only if the fasting be a successful means of making us more pure and more loving. If the Bible had been in the hands of the people during the Middle Ages, this verse would have rendered impossible the idle superstition that to eat meat in Lent was one of the deadliest sins, or that there was any merit whatever in the Lenten fast except as a means of self improvement and self mastery. This verse says expressly, "We lose nothing by not eating; we gain nothing by eating."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(8) But meat . . . .--By showing that the eating is a matter of indifference, the Apostle introduces his reason for yielding to the weakness of another. If the weakness involved a matter of our vital relation to God, then to yield would be wrong. But meat will not (future) affect our relationship to God. The concluding words of this verse are inverted in later MSS., as in the English version, and the better order is: "Neither, if we eat not, do we lose anything in our relation to God; nor, if we eat, do we gain anything in our relation to Him."
