But let's imagine that our interlocutor told us bluntly that this lamb was so delicious precisely because yesterday it was slaughtered at the altar of Apollo. Then you have to refuse. But why? Not at all because in this case the food will become worse than it was before this "announcement". The Apostle Paul explains: "But if anyone says to you, 'This is sacrificed to idols,' then do not eat for the sake of him who has declared it to you" (1 Corinthians 10:28). If a Christian begins to eat things sacrificed to idols in the presence of a pagan, then the Christian will give the pagan a reason to believe that this Christian is not firm in his faith. After all, a pagan may know that church rules forbid eating things sacrificed to idols (Acts 15:29), and then he will see that his acquaintance is violating the church rule. Seeing such a disregard for the Christian's own rules, the pagan will cease to respect him and will no longer listen to the Christian preaching from the lips of this acquaintance of his. As the Christian apologist of the second century, Minucius Felix, warned of this danger: "Every work of nature, as an inviolable gift of God, is not defiled by any use; but we abstain from your sacrifices, lest anyone think that we yield to the demons to whom they have been offered, or that we are ashamed of our religion" (Octavius 38).

In addition, the pagan entertainer may consider that Christianity approves of the pagan religion. And it is possible to combine participation in pagan mysteries and in Christian sacraments. Convinced that Christians also have recourse to pagan rituals, they will hold on to them even more firmly.

Thus, one everyday mistake, one gesture can push a person into the swamp of religious omnivorousness.

Finally, the eating of food sacrificed to idols by a Christian can have two more bad consequences. One of them is if the Jews can find out about this case. For them, what is sacrificed to idols is undoubtedly "treif", unacceptable food. And if they find out that Christians eat such foods, they, the Jews, will become closed to the preaching of the Gospel. Another bad echo can be heard within the church community itself. For there are those among Christians who do not have a very firm understanding of the rules of Christian behavior. Here is how St. Theophan the Recluse wrote about it: "More perfect Christians considered idols to be nothing, and they considered things sacrificed to idols to be pure food. Others, less perfect, could not yet renounce their former, pagan view of idols as gods and sacrifices to them as real foul gods. With such thoughts, they considered the partaking of things sacrificed to idols contrary to their Christian conscience, which was still weak – powerless to consider idols as nothing. But, carried away by the example of the more perfect, they take part in idolatrous meals, eat things sacrificed to idols as if they were sacrificed to idols, and thus defile their weak consciences. The reason for the temptation of the weak is that which in itself has no value before God: if we eat things sacrificed to idols, we gain nothing, and if we do not eat them, we lose nothing before God"[268]. With these words, St. Theophan retells the reflections of Bl. Theophylact of Bulgaria.

The one who allows himself to taste things sacrificed to idols, convinced that this is ordinary food, turns out to be a perfect Christian. Thus writes the Apostle. This is how the Holy Fathers understand it. "Those who are strong in reasoning look upon things sacrificed to idols as any other food, and they eat them with a clear conscience"[269]. But he who fears things sacrificed to idols and ascribes to food participation in those non-existent false gods, with the invocation of whose mythical names the animals sacrificed to idols were sacrificed, still remains an imperfect Christian.

According to Jewish law, the two main sources of defilement and impurity are everything related to paganism and everything related to death. Touching a dead body was considered defilement. But is this the case with Christians today? For the Christian consciousness, "neither death can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38-39)[270]. The body was the temple of the spirit during life, it becomes relics after death. We touch the remains even with reverence... This turning point in the attitude towards the remains was also not given to the Church without difficulty. But it still happened, obviously, and to the end. But in relation to things sacrificed to idols, to this day, we have to distinguish between the "esoteric" teaching of the Church and pedagogical considerations.

There are people who have preserved "an idolatrous conscience" (1 Corinthians 8:7)[271]. They "have the same opinion of idols as they had before their conversion, considering them to be something and fearing them as capable of harming" [272]. Such people, if they happen to eat things sacrificed to idols, "experience it as if someone, according to Jewish custom, considered touching a dead man to be a defilement, but seeing that others touch him with a clear conscience, out of shame before them, he himself would touch it, but he himself would be defiled in conscience, being condemned by it" [273].

The parallel is quite clear: a Christian, who in any situation is called to think about the One God and who has acquired such a habit, does not badly touch the dead remains, just as there is no loss for him when eating food sacrificed to idols.

So it is necessary to distinguish between ontology (or theology) and pedagogy.

From the point of view of being, which is really existing, an idol is nothing, and that which is sacrificed to idols does not harm man. "There is no secret power in them," writes Clement of Alexandria about idolatrous meals[274].

Therefore, when buying food for oneself in the market, one need not be interested in whether it is sacrificed to idols or not – "lest they again become discriminating beyond what is due, they would not refuse what is sold at the market, for fear that it may be sacrificed to idols, [the Apostle] says: Everything that is sold, eat without inquiring about those who sell, without asking whether not things sacrificed to idols are sold, as if your conscience is jealous of you. and you want to clear it. Or thus: lest thy conscience be jealous of thee, thou shalt not investigate; for in the proceedings you will find out that what you are supposed to buy is sacrificed to idols, and your conscience will be troubled"[275]. "Everything that is sold in the market, eat without any examination, for peace of conscience" (1 Corinthians 10:25).

From the pedagogical point of view, before using this knowledge of one's own, one must think: whether it will not harm the person who does not yet have such knowledge, whether it will not compel him to touch the food that he himself still considers unclean, and whether this will not thereby confuse his conscience. "But I do not mean my own conscience, but another's: for why should my freedom be judged by the conscience of others" (1 Corinthians 10:29). For this reason, the Apostolic Council, convened to settle disputes between Jewish and Gentile Christians, in fact called on both sides to make concessions: it called on the Jews not to embarrass the Gentiles by demanding circumcision, and it called on the Gentiles not to confuse the Jews by eating things sacrificed to idols.

Now it is clear "in what difficulty he (the apostle) was. He wants to prove two things – that one should abstain from such a meal, and that it cannot harm those who eat of it. These subjects do not quite agree with each other. Hearing that idolatrous sacrifices do no harm, the Corinthians could use them as indifferent. And when they heard the prohibition to touch them, they could suspect that these things were forbidden because they could be harmful. Therefore, rejecting the concept of idols, he puts the temptation of the brethren as the first reason for abstinence" [276].

The Apostle Paul, having said: "An idol is nothing in the world" (1 Corinthians 8:4), immediately adds with contrition: "But not everyone has such knowledge" (1 Corinthians 8:7). And if such a Christian, weak in the faith, begins to imitate the action of a more perfect Christian, then he will act against the dictates of his own conscience. "By doing so, he will offend his conscience and sin against God; for one should not act against one's conscience in any case"[277].