1Cor 10:15-22 - Relativity and Reality

15-22 I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? 19 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer 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 partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?


Now idols were indeed the cause of some misunderstandings between church members in Corinth. But Paul, like all mature believers, knows that the idols themselves are nothing. But when men worship them or make offering to them, then they are really serving the demons behind the idol. Any bowing down to anything or any one other than God is idolatry. That includes the self - which Paul goes on to illustrate by their own inquiry, and by the behaviour of some in the congregation.

Perhaps some in the congregation, coming from an idolatrous background desired to evangelize their pagan friends. Perhaps they sat at table with them. Maybe the meals were the leftover portion of their sacrifice of the day to the pagan god of the day. It may have been a sort of Purpose-Driven/Willow Creek kind of a question. Should the sensitivity of the so-called seekers take precedence over reverence for the One True God? Well, the answer is not formulaic. Care must be taken to understand the mindset of the parties involved. Circumstances differ. The same action might be correct in one situation and wrong in a similar situation at another time.

This is not relative truth, such as the postmoderns follow after. It is a deeper truth - the truth that is applied through love. And the governing principle of this loving practicality (not pragmatism, but practicality) is laid out in the next section where Paul says in verse 24, "Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbour."

When Paul says, "I do not want you to be participants with demons," he cannot be referring to the meat itself, nor to the physical nature of the idol it was sacrificed to. If that were the case then the prior references make no sense. Paul has called the idols "nothing". They have no reality or substance in and of themselves. But they represent something to some people. Some outsiders may consider them to actually be gods; and because many in the Corinthian church used to be idol worshipers their consciences may be offended at the very idea of eating meat sacrificed to such idols. Yes, they now believe in the One True God - Maker of heaven and earth - but they have not yet attained to the fullness of their freedom in Christ.

They are like some people I have met who believe that certain objects are invested with demons or with demonic influence. African masks and spears and religious paraphernalia must be thrown out; rooms in which they are found can be entered only in fear and with great caution - and sometimes only with the protection of "holy" water or anointing oil. I’ve seen it in evangelical churches. Romish and pagan nonsense perpetrated in the Name of Christ. It is immaturity that allows such practices to usurp faith in Christ alone and to rest in Him in mind, spirit and body. Nothing more is needed if this is but done.

But the reality of the matter is that we all come into the kingdom as babies and we all grow at different rates. It can take a long time for us to shed the vestiges of our superstitions, prejudices, quirks and misunderstandings. Paul is affirming that we should be gentle in dealing with brethren who have, as yet, not fully entered into their Sabbath rest. To one degree or another this is true of all of us.


This sort of prudence and care ought not to become the substitute for preaching and teaching the truth - for then we should inevitably fall into some sort of relativistic religion where what’s OK for you is OK by me, because there is not underlying absolute Truth that can be known. But neither should the certainty that God has spoken be mistaken for light in the soul of the hearer. We proclaim the Word in and out of season, but it is always God alone Who enlightens the soul. We are light bearers, not light givers. And we are witnesses, not lawyers. As such we hold fast to what we know and trust God to be at work through our faithful obedience.

In ignorance, some people who think they are sinning, or who are tempted to wrongly judge us as sinning, on account of some food, ceremony, rite, custom - whatever - are likely to actually be committing sin when they go against their own conscience in the matter. The reasoning is this (and it does seem to be relativistic on the face of it) - that if a thing is sin to you, then it is sin. If you think a thing is wrong and you do it anyway then it is wrong for you. But this has nothing to do with right and wrong in the absolute sense. God has made plain what is right and wrong in certain areas of life. Against these things there is no argument and none should be attempted by any true believer. No blasphemy, no adultery, no theft, murder or coveting and so on. These are absolutes because God has spoken plainly.

But there are myriads of situations in life throughout the ages where various cultures meet Christianity. In this instance, pagan idolatry meets Christianity. That idolatry is forbidden is one of those plain things that God has revealed. But what constitutes idolatry is not always so clear. It can be both more and less than what we think, because it is a heart matter. As pagan unbelievers we externalized everything because we had no real life in us. As Christians we now understand that all depends upon the inner man, no matter what the outer appearance may at first look like to the unenlightened.

So Paul can say that idols are nothing, but that we must look behind the idols to the demons that they represent. If our conscience is not clear before God we cannot know that we are not serving demons if we go against it; in fact, I would argue that we are serving demons whenever we violate our conscience. We are serving the master demon, Satan Himself, which is an offence to our jealous God. Pagans are blind to these implications, but Christians ought never to be. And Paul is also pointing to this inner reality, to the inner struggle, to the unseen battle and the kingdom in the midst of us that is invisible to the world.

Now, is it actually possible to be a partaker both in God and in demons? At first sight it seems to be implied in what Paul is saying. But one must be careful to understand what is meant by "partake" in the actual context. It does not mean that people indwelt by the Holy Spirit can be indwelt by demons. It might mean that Christian sometimes seem to aid (actually aid) the enemy through their disobedience; perhaps even by their ignorance.

There is also an element of witness here. Christians must hold a consistent witness in the world. Whenever they either go against a directive of God or violate their own consciences - and when they behave in ways that are insensitive to weaker brethren - Christians are failing to abide in Christ and, not being "for" Him in that instance, are by definition against Him. And if they are against Him they are for the enemy.

But this is the wonder of the finished work of Christ - there is forgiveness and the absence of condemnation whenever they repent. Christ paid even for the sins that believers commit in the light. This is grace upon grace. The world sins with lesser light and greater ignorance than we. We were once as they now are. But the grace of God in Jesus Christ is so vast and infinite towards those whom He chose in Christ that He forgives in us what are actually greater trespasses then the ones we committed before we believed. Only because He paid the price to the very last drop of His blood are the very last dregs of our sin covered.

The world slays Christ in relative ignorance every day, but when we saints sin and bow down to our idols - whatever they may be - we actually give ourselves the more to His crucifixion. The more we sin, the more grace abounds BUT - and this is a big BUT - if we are truly His this causes us great distress and we come to Him for the grace not to keep on offending.

Most assuredly the words of God through Paul are the very means by which the life of Christ is imparted to our inner man. The command NOT to partake of demons is the fuel for the believer’s soul to fight, to stand, to pray, to supplicate and, casting His true children upon Him, become part of the very means by which the saint is renewed in the image of His Saviour. The Bread of Life is the Word of life remembered to us in the Bible and in the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. It is what we have been brought to love and to desire, to crave and to seek.