Food Sacrificed to Idols
1Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. 3But the man who loves God is known by God.
4So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. 5For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), 6yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
Dig Deeper
Recently I went in to a restaurant to pick up and carry out some food that I had ordered. As I was paying, I noticed that there were several Buddha statues around the cash register and throughout the store. I really didn’t think much of it as I grabbed my food and left. For us, something of this nature is not a big deal. It was a very big deal, however in the ancient world. In the ancient world, the closest things to restaurants were Temples. They would take the meat that was leftover from sacrifices to the gods and then sell it. This was such a problem for Jews that lived in places like Corinth that rather than eating food sacrificed to pagan idols, they would often just avoid eating meat altogether.
The issue was no less sticky for the new Christians in Corinth. Should they eat meat sacrificed in a pagan Temple? Apparently, some teachers in Corinth had been pressing Christian freedom to the point that they were teaching that they could even go right into the Temples themselves and eat meat sacrificed to other gods. Their questions were good ones, though. Should they eat this meat? What about various weddings, parties, and clubs that used the Temples as meeting halls? Paul will begin to lay down his answer to this question here, but it won’t be until chapter 10 that he fully completes his answer. The questions throughout though, have to do with the consumption of food sacrificed to idols and going to the Temple for other reasons; there is no question in Paul’s mind that any actual idolatry should not be taking place amongst the Christians.
Using a technique that is rather common for him, Paul engages here in an imaginary dialogue of sorts so that we should understand the phrase, “we know that we all possess knowledge,” to be a quote from the Corinthians. This was, evidently, another one of those slogans that had been passed around by some in the Corinthian church. Their claim, then, is that because they have a special knowledge of the truth (at least in their own eyes they did), they should be able to do whatever they wanted. Paul’s answer gets right to the point of Christian living. He sets up a sharp contrast between knowledge and love. Knowledge is self-serving and only puffs up, while love is self-sacrificial and builds up. Paul is not anti-intellectual or anti-learning. He is specifically speaking against prideful human speculation that was being passed off as knowledge.
If they thought they had attained a higher level of understanding due to this type of knowledge, then this was proof in and of itself that they did not have true godly knowledge at all. This is what Paul is saying in verse 2 which could be paraphrased something like this: “If someone thinks they have reached some level of knowledge, they have not yet reached the stage where he has any knowledge at all in the true sense of the word.” The reason is that true Christian knowledge cannot be separated from love. Without love, human knowledge has little value in itself and is useful for nothing more than self-aggrandizement.
If one wants to know how wise they are, to what level of knowledge they have attained then they need look no further than their love for God. In Paul’s mind, anyone not demonstrating a love for God is not demonstrating true knowledge. If we love God, then we will love others as well. Paul is carefully laying the groundwork of the importance of love to show them that how their actions effect others is far more important than exercising their own freedoms based on their deep knowledge and understanding of what is really going on in the world. The knowledge that is so valued in the world, the type of knowledge that, for instance, denied the possibility of resurrection leads people away from God rather than towards him and has to be carefully detected and rejected by those who would embrace the truth of the life of Christ.
Paul’s quote of another Corinthian slogan in verse 4 demonstrates some of that so-called knowledge of what was going on in the world. Those who were becoming drunk on their own knowledge felt that all this business about idols and Temples had absolutely no bearing on them because they understood that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. The “we know” should be understood as part of the quote and does not imply that Paul agrees with that statement in its entirety. In 10:20, Paul will state that he believes that behind the seeming myth of pagan idols is the very real world of demons. So, in a sense Paul agrees with them. There is nothing in pagan idols or Temples that rivals that of the one true God. They must be careful and not deceive themselves, however, because it is not true that there are no other supernatural beings beside God in the world (by ‘gods’ Paul probably meant pagan demonic gods, while ‘lords’ refers to their human agents, such as the powers of the Roman empire). These supernatural, demonic powers will use pagan religion to lead people away from the true God. The idols themselves are worthless pieces of stone and wood but they are used by the powers of evil to enslave human minds and hearts. In short, they are nothing to simply be dismissed as a fairy tale. Even if these things hold no sway in their lives, they are very real in the lives of the pagans and in the minds of many Christians. Puffed-up knowledge would dismiss idols. Love would understood that power that they hold in people’s lives and not want to offend Christians who were sensitive to these evil forces.
Paul does confirm, though, that for the Christian there is only the one, true God. In confirming the uniqueness of the Christian God, Paul does something extraordinary here. He has taken the familiar creedal statement of the Jews from Deuteronomy 6:4, known as the Shema, and re-written it with Jesus smack in the middle of their understanding of the one, true God. The Shema was, and still is, recited by Jews several times a day as they remind themselves that theirs is a faith of one God. Paul affirms the basic Jewish monotheism, but at the same time, blows a hole in by including Jesus in that statement. Thus, there is one God, and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ (We should note that kyrios, the word translated as “Lord”, could simply mean “sir” but was also the word used in the Septuagint, the Old Testament translation used by Jews of Jesus’ day, for YHWH, the personal name of God. This is likely the meaning with which Paul wishes to infuse “Lord” here), through whom all things came and through whom we live.
Devotional Thought
Once again Paul will avoid laying down hard and fast rules in favor of giving principles that cause Christians to show discernment and think through difficult situations. When you give Christian advice is that how you tend to do things or is it easier for you to just tell others what they should or shouldn’t do? In the future, take a page from Paul and try giving principles that will cause others to think and develop strong Christian convictions for themselves.
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