1 Corinthians 10

God will not let us be tempted beyond what [we] can bear. This is an extremely important promise. We must never say that we can no longer resist a particular temptation, that we cannot stand firm. If we say this, we are calling God a liar. Because God has promised to give us the power to stand, to resist any temptation. If we have the will to resist, we shall be able to do so.³⁰ Either God will give us the power to resist the temptation, or He will provide a way out—that is, He will remove or lessen the temptation. God’s grace is sufficient to enable us to overcome every temptation that comes to us. But we must pray for that grace whenever temptation comes.

Why does God allow temptation to come upon us? The answer is this: God allows us to be tempted so that our faith might be tested and so that we might become mature and complete (see James 1:2-4,1215; 1 Peter 1:6-7 and comments).

14—15 Let us recall that the first of God’s ten commandments is this: You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3-5; 1 John 5:21). Let us also remember that idolatry includes more than just worshiping ordinary idols made of wood, stone, or metal. Idolatry means putting anything in God’s place. It means giving something else besides God first place. It means loving something more than God—such as our money or possessions, our family, our work, our honor, etc. If we love anything more than God, then for us that thing becomes an idol.

16 The cup of thanksgiving is the third of the four cups of wine traditionally drunk during the Jewish Passover feast. Many Bible scholars believe that at Jesus’ last supper it was this third cup that He raised when He said to His disciples, “This is my blood” (Mark 14:23-24).

Paul says here that the cup and the bread are a participation in the blood and body of Christ. Paul is talking here about the Lord’s Supper. Some Christians believe that the cup (that is, the wine inside it) and the bread are actually Christ’s blood and body in a physical way (Mark 14:22). Others believe that the cup and the bread are only symbols or representations of Christ’s blood and body. Still others believe that the cup and the bread are only meant to be reminders of Jesus’ death (see 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; General Article: Lord’s Supper).

However, there is one thing that all Christians agree on, and that is that Christ gave His body and blood in order that our sins might be forgiven and we might receive salvation. When we drink from the cup and eat the bread during the Lord’s Supper, we are sharers together in the great gifts of for-giveness and salvation that Christ has given to us. In the Lord’s Supper, we in some way participate anew in Christ’s death, through which death we receive new spiritual life that will never end (see John 6:3335,48-56 and comment). We are sharers in the blood and body of the living God. How then, Paul asks, can we ever think of worshiping idols?

17 During the Lord’s supper, the bread is broken into small pieces so that each one present can eat. But all the pieces come from one loaf. In the same way, even though we believers are many individuals, in Christ we are all one body (see Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12:27 and comments).

Paul says that we all partake of one loaf. That is, we all are sharers together in the body of Christ. Just as the one loaf enters our bodies during the Lord’s Supper, so Christ’s one Holy Spirit enters each of us and makes us one spiritual “body,” whose head is Christ Himself (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-13; Colossians 1:18).

18 Here Paul again cites the example of the people of I SRAEL, that is, the Jews. When the Jews of fered sacrif ices, the priests and the people used to eat the meat of the sacrificed animal (Leviticus 7:15-16; 10:12-14). When they did this, they were participating in the altar; that is, they were sharing in the meat sacrificed on the altar.

In the same way, when the Corinthian Christians ate at the temple of an idol, they were sharing and having fellowship with evil spirits, or demons (verse 20). Let this not be, says Paul. We cannot be sharers with Christ and sharers with evil spirits at the same time (see 1 Corinthians 8:4-5; 10:21 and comments).

19 Paul is not saying here that sacrif ices of fered by the Jews to the living God are the same as the sacrif ices of fered by the Gentiles to dead idols. An idol is nothing at all (1 Corinthians 8:4).

20-21 Idols are nothing, but DEMONS, (evil spirits) are something. When one worships an idol, he is really worshiping a demon (Deuteronomy 32:17). We must not be participants with demons.

22 if we become participants with demons, we are like adulterers. God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5), and if we forsake Him to follow after demons, He will become angry with us. Are we stronger than he? of course, not. It is surely foolish to anger God, who is so much stronger than we are!

23-24 See Romans 14:19-20; 15:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:12 and comments.

25 In Corinth in Paul’s time, almost all the meat sold in shops had first been sacrificed to idols. But since an idol is nothing (1 Corinthians 8:4), such meat was not unclean; it was all right for a Christian to eat it.

26 Paul here quotes from Psalm 24:1. Everything that God has made is “clean,” and can be enjoyed with thanksgiving (see Mark 7:19; Acts 10:13-15; Romans 14:14; 1 Timothy 4:4 and comments).

27 Christians should not go to feasts at the temples of idols; but it is all right for them to go to the homes of their non-Christian neighbors to eat. There they can eat whatever is served to them (Luke 10:8).

28-29 But if anyone says to you, “Look out, this food has been sacrificed to idols,” then don’t eat it (verse 28). When Paul says anyone, he means any Christian with weak faith or a weak conscience (see 1 Corinthians 8:7,9-13 and comment). If such a person of weak conscience knows that the food we are about to eat has indeed been sacrificed to idols and he warns us about it, then for the sake of that person’s weak conscience, we must not eat that food.

It is for the sake of the other man’s conscience (verse 29)—that is, the weak Christian’s conscience—that Paul will not eat food sacrificed to idols. Paul will do nothing that might defile his brother’s weak conscience and cause him to sin. Paul’s own conscience says that he can eat such food freely and lawfully, but the weak brother’s conscience does not allow him to eat it. Each man will be judged by his own conscience. Paul will be judged by his own conscience, not his weak brother’s conscience. The weak brother’s conscience cannot take away Paul’s freedom. The weak brother is not entitled to judge Paul’s freedom (see Romans 14:2-3). What would be a sin for the weak brother (eating food sacrificed to idols) is not a sin for Paul.

However, even though Paul has the freedom to eat food sacrificed to idols, he will voluntarily give up his freedom for his weak brother’s sake, in order not to defile the weak brother’s conscience and cause him to sin (1 Corinthians 8:13).

30 Anything we receive from God with thankfulness is clean and good, and can be lawfully enjoyed³¹ (1 Timothy 4:4). We should not be denounced for partaking of it.

31 In this verse we see Paul’s main point. Whatever we do, we must first ask ourselves: Why am I doing this? For whose sake am I doing this? And the answer must always be: I am doing it for God’s sake, for His glory. If we cannot say that, then we shouldn’t do that thing.

Anything we do must ultimately be for the glory of God (see Matthew 5:16; Romans 14:7-8). Anything that does not glorify God is not acceptable to Him.³²

32 See Romans 14:13,20-21; 1 Corinthians 8:8,13 and comments.

33 Paul does not please others to gain advantage for himself. Rather, he tries to please others for their own spiritual benefit (see Romans 15:2; 1 Corinthians 9:22; 10:24 and comments).