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by Katie Erickson

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God.
So 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.” For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet 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.
- 1 Corinthians 8:1-6

After spending a lot of 1 Corinthians 7 discussing marriage, Paul then moves on to the next question raised by the church in Corinth: should they eat food that was sacrificed to idols? As modern believers, we may look at that question and think this doesn’t apply to us at all. While the specific circumstances may not be applicable, the overall theological principles are still relevant.

It is first important to understand what was going on in that culture at that time. The pagan culture of Corinth placed importance on making sacrifices to their pagan gods. When an animal was sacrificed, the resulting meat was divided into 3 portions. One part was burned in the offering, one part was given to a priest, and one part was given back to the person making the offering. So if the priest did not want his share, it ended up in the meat market where it could be purchased by anyone, and the buyer likely would not know the source of that meat.

The problem for the new Christians of that day was, is meat sacrificed to these pagan idols somehow spiritually tainted and they should avoid it? That was a big part of the non-Christian portion of their society, so how should Christians handle this issue?

As Paul begins to address this issue, he points out the difference between knowledge and love (verse 1). Knowledge may puff us up with pride in how much we know, but love is meant to build one another up. Knowledge looks inward at the self, while love looks outward to our fellow human beings. The fact that “We all possess knowledge” is presented as a quotation in that passage implies that it was perhaps a saying common among the first-century Corinthians.

Paul warns in verse 2 that knowledge is not as important as we may think. Just because you think you know something does not mean you truly know it. We become prideful and depend on only ourselves when we think we know something, when the reality is that our knowledge is very limited, especially in comparison to God. But love, on the other hand, makes us known by God (verse 3), which is of greater importance. The right kind of knowledge is knowing God and knowing His great love for us as His people. This is an important context to keep in mind as Paul gets into the meat of the issue (pun intended).

Paul frames the discussion with the fact that God is the one and only true God and that idols are nothing in this world (verse 4). So if idols are nothing, then the meat sacrificed to them is also nothing. If idols have no power, then sacrifices to them have no power. God is the one and only God who truly has power.

Verse 5 may be confusing for us when Paul says that “there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords,’” but he is referring to authorities that exist on earth. Even those who are in authority over us are still under the authority of the one true God. The “so-called gods” of the pagans are definitely not real, while other “gods” and “lords” are real as those placed in authority over us.

Paul’s point comes in verse 6 where he says, “Yet 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.” Paul declares God as the source of everything – all of life and all of creation. Jesus is the one and only true Lord, who is also the source of life and all things that were created. Paul is declaring that Jesus is God in this statement, and he is also sharing the point of the Christian life: to live for God because all things came from God. In light of that fact, why should little things like meat sacrificed to idols really matter?

The question for believers today becomes one of the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law. I previously have written about that in this blog post. The first-century Corinthians were trying to follow the letter of the law, being very careful to not associate with the pagan idols in any way, including not eating meat that had been sacrificed to them. But they were missing the spirit of the law, which is to focus on the one true God. While God does care about the details of our lives and what we do, the intention of our hearts is more important to Him. Are we so focused on every little action that we forget to worship Him for this world that He has created and the life that He has given us?

This issue from the Corinthians is an opportunity to remind ourselves where we come from – God. The entire purpose of our lives is to worship Him and Him alone, as He is the one true God. There will be people who will worship pagan gods and idols, but we as His followers are to focus on Him. We are to focus on the love that He has for us rather than on our own knowledge that makes us feel self-sufficient. We need to remember that He is all-powerful and that anything else can have no real power over us when God is in charge.

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