How many people only know God from all sorts of rules and bans? To how many people religion is only a burden and a terrible restriction of life? There are very few Christians left who study the Bible. If they do, it is often their only goal to gain certain rules to live by. The Bible is not meant for that, it is meant for getting to know God better!
In this passage, Paul tells us something about the consumption of food sacrificed to idols. In those days, no meat was for sale, except that which had been offered in the heathen temples. This bothered a lot of Christians: would they not, through this, be defiled by all kinds of heathen influences?
Even nowadays, many believers fear the influence of oriental images and such. They are afraid that dark powers emanate from them. And this is true too, at least, for those who are weak in their faith and can easily be affected by the forces of evil. Some Christians have closely studied the powers of darkness. When we listen to them, we feel ill at ease, we even grow afraid that something in our house could be defiled by evil influences. Then we check our bookcase and poke around the whole house, deeply impressed by the power of Satan and, consequently, so little impressed by the victorious power of Jesus.
But it is not God’s intention that we should acquire so much knowledge about the powers of evil. Only the lord of darkness himself could aspire something like that. But when we have come to love our Lord Jesus Christ, we are safe - for God keeps us safe - and the evil one cannot harm us (1 John 5:18).