Introduction
Please turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 10:14.
Before we start reading, I want to stress that while we’re looking at just 392 words of the Holy-Spirit inspired error-free letter from Paul to the church in Corinth, we are 10 chapters into a book that totals almost 7,000 words, and it’s important in order to understand today’s section to have a sense of where we’re coming from.
Paul is writing to a new church (just a few years old) in a buzzing port town with lots of people coming and going that was an epicenter of commerce, trade, and entertainment. The makeup of this town and church was primarily not Jews, not those of the Abrahamic faith following the One true God, but what Paul calls “Greeks.” Greeks are non-Jews who are culturally polytheistic — that is, they worship multiple gods — the Greek gods, the ones who “put the glad in gladiator” (that’s Hercules by the way).
Greek worship was very different than Jewish worship. The most central principles of Jewish worship were anchored in God’s instruction to his people recorded in Exodus 20 which we call the Ten Commandments. They begin:
Exodus 20:2–6 (CSB)
2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. 3 Do not have other gods besides me. 4 Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. 5 Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.
The God of Moses, the God of Paul, the Father of Jesus Christ declared as incredible importance His desire to be our one and only. He is jealous for our affections; He wants to be the singular subject of our worship.
This is a different world then the Greeks were living in, and maybe at first blush God’s desire comes across as greedy and selfish. But the all-consuming worship of all of His people — God makes His claim on this on the basis that He is the one who created the entire universe, who brought us into this world, who holds it all together, who sustains us and provides every single good thing we have — every ounce of food, every piece of shelter, every moment of joy.
So, this undivided worship is not simply good, it is owed. That is what makes right worship so critical, what makes sin so damning, so egregious, so absurd, because sin is using the very breath God put in our lungs against Him. It is using the very life he granted us to stand in opposition to Him. And that is why as Romans 6 tells us, the wages for sin — the thing we are owed for our sin — is death.
Right worship of the right God is a matter of life and death. And that is what Paul is going to tackle today in our passage.
Here’s how: let’s zoom in a little bit on Paul’s line of argument he started in chapter 8 — which, he’s still carrying on in chapter 10 where we are. Speaking into a culture where food was often offered in worship as a sacrifice to idols (aka. false gods), Paul argues that food offered to idols is just food. There is nothing special about it, because God is the one who made it, and those idols, those false gods aren’t real anyways.
So, food offered to idols is just food, but some [weaker conscience] Christians don’t yet know that (and their consciences are bothered, so they abstain from eating). So Paul says to all of those Christians: don’t use your knowledge that food is just food in a way that harms fellow Christians who believe food is more than just food.
And in today’s passage Paul is going to argue that there’s a reason some people believe food is more than just food, and that’s because some food is more than just food.
If you’re confused, that means you’re paying attention, so let’s head to the passage and we’ll try to walk away as slightly less-confused people.
READ 1 Corinthians 10:14-22
14 So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. 15 I am speaking as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I am saying. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, since all of us share the one bread. 18 Consider the people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 What am I saying then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons! 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 22 Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
We’re going to pause here before reading the rest of today’s passage to look carefully at this first argument that Paul builds.
He starts this particular thread by telling them to flee from idolatry. Paul just got done warning about how idolatry had impacted the Israelites in their past, and now he is warning of a particular danger zone of idolatry for the Corinthian church.
The basis of Paul’s argument is rooted in the group experience people have when they come together with the elements of worship. Earlier in chapter 10 verse 2, Paul connects Corinthian Christians with the nation of Israel. Israel had a baptism of sorts, miraculously passing between the waters of the Red Sea, and now the Corinthian Christians are bound together through the declaration of new life in Christ in baptism.
And just as the cup of redemption in the Passover festival reminded Israelites of the blood that saved them in their rescue from slavery in Egypt, the cup of communion reminds Corinthian Christians of the bloody sacrifice Jesus made for their redemption. They remembered that every time they gather around the table to take communion together in fellowship.
There is a oneness, a connected experience between the Israelites, the Corinthian Christians, and us today which is why earlier in chapter 10 Paul says: you need to be aware! You need to remember that the faithful love of the God who rescued Israel through Christ (who was the Rock), is available to those who have been saved through the cross of Christ. And don’t forget that the idolatry, the sexual immorality, the testing of God, the grumbling — all these things that plagued the nation of Israel, they are still a danger to the Corinthian Christians, and to Ames Christians, too.
Okay, so how does that tie into Paul’s warning about food sacrificed to idols?
Think about the worship experience of the Israelites and the Corinthian Christians as it relates to their gathering around the cup. In one sense, it was just a cup and some bread, but in a very real sense, it is so much more. It is a fellowship with, a partnership with, a communion with God and His people. That is a key reason why the taking of the bread and the cup is not an individual experience, but a shared experience with the church that declares to everyone watching a oneness, a fellowship around the singular thing that matters most to this community: the salvation we find together in Jesus.
We are bound together by the blood of Jesus, and the display of that reality in baptism and communion is both public and meaningful. And that’s where things get interesting.
Why does that matter? Because what if you take and eat the bread of another god? What if you drink the cup of another god? Is that not a declaration of your union and partnership with that god?
You could say “it shouldn’t matter — those gods aren’t real, so this is just a loaf of bread, this is just a cup of wine. In fact, the one true God made this food and provided me with it and holds it together, so I’ve got nothing to worry about, and my conscience is clear.”
The problem is — that is not the message that partaking in those things sends to those around you, and that matters because they matter.
Imagine this: you’re at Jack Trice Stadium for a football game. It’s a gorgeous afternoon. The sun is shining, you’ve got your popcorn. Life is good. But down the stairs walks someone in a grimey, mustard-colored shirt with a giant gross Hawkeye logo on it, and they are sitting right next to you.
They say, “hey, just so you know I’m here to support the Cyclones. I just picked up this shirt at a thrift store because it was on sale.”
What is everyone in that stadium going to think about their allegiances? They’re going to think they are Hawkeye fans of course! They’ve probably been spotted by every set of eyes there. Why? It’s just a shirt! It’s just thread and colors. But we all know what it means! The message being sent by that shirt means something.
And Paul argues that this type of association with “the enemy” is a possible danger in certain situations of eating meat sacrificed to idols. Even if you don’t mean for it to, it communicates an association, a partnership with false gods. And a partnership in the worship of false gods is idolatry, and that is something our God is provoked to jealousy over — verse 22 says.
Okay, but in one sense, the food is just food, and Paul reinforces that in v19:
19 What am I saying then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, … but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons!
So food is just food, but in another sense — in this situation — the food is way more than just food. The food is a message, and it’s a message you don’t want to send. It’s a message that groups you in — that creates fellowship with the worship of other gods.
Before we keep going, it’s always important to ask ourselves how a passage connects to our lives, and here in the USA, we don’t have a lot of people literally bowing down to a graven image of a god or sacrificing meat to gods. That’s just not culturally normative, here. So what does idolatry or association with the worship of false gods look like in Ames, Iowa? How does something become an idol to us?
A good definition for idolatry (that comes from someone else) is that idolatry is when a desire becomes a demand. It’s when you must have something at all costs — and you are willing to do anything or give up anything to get it. The god you worship is the thing you’ll give anything to, any amount of time, money, effort, relationships, and so on. It’s the thing you value most.
A good way to find the idol(s) you or other people worship at is to ask: what’s the thing that I’m most afraid to lose? What’s the thing that would absolutely kill me if I lost it? What’s the thing you would do anything to keep?
In Ames, Iowa, some of the idols I see around me and in me might include comfort, entertainment, security, attention, sexual fulfillment, success, independence (the right to shape your own identity, control your own future).We can turn anything into an idol, and Paul’s warning is to flee from idolatry, including being careful about where engaging in our Christian liberties takes us.
Paul draws that out more as we continue in this passage. Next, he does something we see a lot in his letter to the Romans. He anticipates an objection to his point and responds to it preemptively.
We’ll continue in verse 23, and you can almost hear the people saying, “But Paul…and then he brings out a slogan of the people, verse 23:
READ 1 Corinthians 10:23-24
23 “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything builds up. 24 No one is to seek his own good, but the good of the other person.
Things are starting to come into focus here. Paul has argued that you don’t want to accidentally or intentionally participate in the worship of other gods, and now he’s responding to a possible objection of “I’m free to do this. I know that the food is just food.”
To that, Paul says: but that negatively impacts those around you, and their good is more important than your exercise of freedom. He says that no one should use the excuse of our Christian liberties to do something that tears down another person in this way.
For us, this may mean giving up some things in the presence of others, restricting ourselves for their sake. Part of getting to a place where you can even do that is that you need to get to know the other people in your church and your neighborhood and your workplace. You’ve got to be around people. You’ve got to talk to them. For some of us, that can be intimidating or feel really clunky or invoke existential dread, and to be honest, I’ve felt that.
Sometimes at the end of a long day of meetings, my relational tank is running on empty, and the last thing I want to do is go talk to someone else after talking to people all day. But how can we “seek the good of the other person” if we’re not spending time with another person?
If you’re not sure where to get started with something like that, just visit one of our small groups. That’s a great first step. One of the goals of our small groups is to help equip us to not just care for those within that group, but to have a missional focus in the other parts of our lives when we’re outside our Christian circles, and for most of us, that’s a lot of the time!
We need to be “seeking the good of the other person,” and if that person is not a Christian, the good they most need is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we need to be having that good news on our minds, in our hearts, and on our lips. 1 Peter 3:15 describes this as being “…ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”
If you’re a Christian and you’re not yet ready for that, sit down with someone that seems good at that, and ask them to help you. It’s actually simpler than you might think.
So, Paul has told us to watch out for idolatry, to avoid association/fellowship with the worship of other gods, and when we consider our Christian liberties to seek the good of others.
Then Paul gives instructions about how to deal with some specific situations starting in verse 25:
READ 1 Corinthians 10:25-11:1
25 Eat everything that is sold in the meat market, without raising questions for the sake of conscience, 26 since the earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it.
So, scenario 1 is coming across meat that may or may not have been sacrificed to idols. To that, Paul says: you’re good. Eat away. That meat belongs to the Lord, and he quotes Psalm 24:1 to support that. So in this situation, don’t even ask where that meat has been.
27 If any of the unbelievers invites you over and you want to go, eat everything that is set before you, without raising questions for the sake of conscience.
Scenario 2: you’re at an unbelievers’ house and they serve you food that may or may not have been sacrificed to idols. Eat away. Don’t even ask where the meat has been. We may be on the road to some digestive problems, but our conscience is clear.
28 But if someone says to you, “This is food from a sacrifice,” do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience.
Scenario 3: we found out the meat is specifically from a sacrifice to a false god. Maybe they wanted to inform you because they know of your faith, and didn’t want you to have something they think you wouldn’t want to have. Maybe they just wanted to talk about the ceremony they had. Whatever the reason, Paul says: “do not eat it.”
Interestingly, he does not say to explain to the person that your conscience is unbothered because it all belongs to God anyways. He doesn’t say to defend or even raise your liberties that are available to you. He just says to abstain “for the sake of conscience.”
To avoid any confusion, Paul preemptively responds to a rebuttal of “wait a minute, I thought you said my conscience was good because the food is the Lord’s.”
29 I do not mean your own conscience, but the other person’s. For why is my freedom judged by another person’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I criticized because of something for which I give thanks?
So Paul explains: this really isn’t about your conscience. That’s not the conscience we’re talking about. So what exactly are we talking about?
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or the church of God, 33 just as I also try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own benefit, but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved. 11 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.
The point being made here is: it’s not about you. It’s not about you and your rights.
Paul is reinforcing what he said in verse 24 about not seeking your own good, but the good of the other person. And he broadens out what the application looks like, that whether it’s eating or drinking or anything at all really, it needs to be God-honoring and others-benefiting.
Here in verse 32 he calls out 3 groups of people that could be negatively affected:
- Jews
- Greeks
- the Church
Whether they were interacting with Jews who still felt bound to the worship customs found in the Old Testament or with people outside the church who had their own worship customs that impacted how they perceived your actions or people inside the church who are maybe carrying in some baggage from their former lives and are engaging with different levels of spiritual maturity and are still learning about God’s commands and Christian freedom and all that — anyone and everyone should be considered.
Special attention should be given to how your actions impact the consciences of others and your gospel witness.
Questions for Us
Here’s a helpful flow chart I’ve adapted from something I came across that I think helps us summarize what this section of Scripture is asking us to consider as we answer the question: what does it mean to do everything for the glory of God and the good of others?
The first question we always want to ask is: Does the Bible allow it? If the answer is no, then don’t do it. That’s seems like the easiest one, but it requires that you actually know the instruction of the Bible. In the Great Commission in Matthew 28, Jesus says not just to make disciples, but to teach them to obey everything He has commanded us. So, if you don’t know the commands of Jesus yet, start reading the gospels.
If the Bible does allow it, the second question we ask is: Does my conscience allow it? If the answer is no, then don’t do it. There is another question that can flow from this, which is: can you explain why your conscience won’t allow that? If the answer to that is: no I can’t, then that might be an indicator that you need to continue to calibrate and shape your conscience through study of the Bible, through prayer, and through shared learning with your church community.
A loud conscience can absolutely be a good thing, but if your conscience is going off in a way that doesn’t come from the Word of God, you may be unnecessarily restricting yourself in ways that limit your gospel witness. Paul draws that out in verse 33 where he says
I also try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own benefit, but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved. Imitate me…
It goes alongside what he said in chapter 9, verse 22:
22 …I have become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some. 23 Now I do all this because of the gospel, so that I may share in the blessings.
The glory of God and the salvation of souls is what is in view here. And that takes us to the next section of our flow chart.
When asking should we do something, if the Bible allows it, and our conscience allows it, then it is an area of Christian liberty, but we still want to consider 3 things:
- How does it affect other Christians? (Love is more important than knowledge or “being right”)
- How does it affect non-Christians? (The gospel is more important than your rights)
- How does it affect your spiritual life? (The health of your soul is more important than your freedoms)
Personal Reflection Time:
- How are you using your freedoms?
- What impact is that having on you and those around you?
- Do you use freedoms to flex for the sake of the gospel, or for our own personal fulfillment?
- Are you overly care-free about your obedience to the Lord and singular worship of Him, or are you overly cautious in ways you don’t need to be that limit gospel opportunities?
Conclusion
1 Corinthians 11:1 (CSB)
11 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.
This is not about trying to find the one individual perfect person in this congregation to imitate, to completely model your life after. I will tell you right now, that will not work. That was already a problem in the Corinthian church that Paul addressed back in chapter 1 where you had people saying “I follow Paul” and others saying “I follow Apollos” or “I follow Peter,” and Paul says no, no, no, you’re to follow Christ.
We’re only to imitate Paul in the ways that he is imitating Christ. So what exactly are we to imitate in Christ? Verse 33: “not seeking His own benefit, but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved.”
Christ had every right to seek His own benefit, but He came to earth to seek and save the lost, that they might receive the eternal benefit of salvation. God showed His love in this way — that even while we were still sinners, failures, fools, Christ died for us.
That is the type of love we are to imitate: a love that puts the good of others above our own.
Resource Info
