1 Corinthians 8-10

What’s Happening?

Corinth was city devoted to its gods. One of the ways Corinthians communed with those gods was through sacrifices at temple feasts. These meals were more than food; they were worship. If you ate at a temple, you weren’t just having dinner—you were sharing a table with a god. And now, as followers of Jesus, the Corinthian Christians came to a new table to commune with him. But there was disunity. Some felt the freedom to continue eating at these pagan meals. Others refused to eat meat that was sold in the markets because they were triggered by any connection with pagan festivals. These different views on meat sacrificed to idols were causing disunity in the church and compromising communion with Jesus. 

The apostle Paul tells those who feel free to eat meat to limit their freedom for the sake of others. Some believers felt free to eat food sacrificed to idols because they knew that while there are spiritual beings that have wrongly received worship through idolatry, there is only one supreme Creator God revealed in Jesus who made them all (1 Corinthians 8:4-6). Therefore, since God made everything, they can enjoy everything he made, including meat sacrificed to idols (1 Corinthians 10:26). But many in the Corinthian church who grew up with these idols were triggered by any association with those meals (1 Corinthians 8:7). If they saw fellow Christians eating meat sacrificed to idols, they might think that they are free to commune with pagan gods (1 Corinthians 8:8-12; 10:28). So Paul commands the Corinthians who feel free to eat to love their fellow Christians by limiting themselves so they don’t make others stumble (1 Corinthians 8:13; 10:23-31). This is because love knowingly limits its freedom so others might be saved.

Since Paul has asked the Corinthians with this knowledge to limit their freedom, Paul shows how he has limited his own. As an apostle and preacher, Paul had the freedom and right to be supported in his work by the church (1 Corinthians 9:1-12). However, he did not exercise this freedom, but chose to support himself so that he could preach the Gospel for free (1 Corinthians 9:13-18). Since Paul answers to no one but God, he is free from all laws and customs. Yet, when Paul is around Jews, he limits his freedom and eats according to Jewish law. When he is around pagans he lays the Jewish food laws aside to eat with pagans (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). In love, he limits his freedom so others might be saved. As another example of limited freedom, Paul mentions athletes. Athletes knowingly limit their freedom to condition their bodies for winning a prize. For Paul, the prize is to save as many as he can, so he gladly limits any freedom to win them (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). 

Paul then gives an example from Israel’s history to show that communing with God and with idols is incompatible. After being freed from slavery and idolatry in Egypt, Israel communed with God in the wilderness. God fed them with miraculous bread from heaven and made water come from a rock (1 Corinthians 10:1-4). This was a spiritual meal with God. Yet, soon after, the Israelites built an idol and held a pagan festival. This led to their destruction (1 Corinthians 10:5-7). Paul connects this to the Corinthians. They are having a real spiritual meal with God in the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). If they then go and eat with pagan idols, they are making the same mistake as Israel and are in danger of the same destruction (1 Corinthians 10:12,21-22). Paul uses these examples both to warn and encourage the Corinthian believers. They are not the only ones facing this struggle. God’s people’s history is full of temptations like these. And God provides a way out of communion with idols by providing real communion with him (1 Corinthians 10:11-13). 

Where’s the Gospel? 

Paul tells the Corinthians to follow his example as he follows Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). And Christ’s example is this: true love is to lay your freedom down for the sake of another.  

No one is more free than Jesus. He is the eternal, infinite God. And yet, for our sake, he laid down his freedom and lived in human weakness, poverty, and hunger. The supreme Ruler of the entire universe became a servant, so that he might save us (Philippians 2:5-8). Jesus not only lived as a human—he also died as a human. He gave us his body and his blood so that in him, we might truly commune with God (John 6:54-57). 

Jesus has always given himself to his people. He was the one who fed Israel in the wilderness. He was the rock that gave them water and the bread from heaven that fed them (1 Corinthians 10:4; John 6:51). And now, through the Lord’s Supper, Jesus offers himself again to us. Every time we take the bread and the cup, we commune with Jesus (Matthew 26:26-28). In this meal with God, we are one with him and one with each other (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).  

And that is why Paul tells the Corinthians not to compromise this union. If you have been given a seat at Jesus’ table, why would you ever sit at another? If he has called you into communion with God himself, why would you seek communion with anything less?  

Paul urges them—and us—not to use our freedom selfishly but to lay our freedom down out of love for one another (1 Corinthians 10:31-33). You may have the freedom to enjoy God’s good gifts in a way other people struggle to. But in Christ, you have a greater freedom to lay down anything that would cause another to struggle. So let us lay aside anything that would compromise our unity with Jesus and one another (Colossians 3:5-11). Like athletes, let us run the race with endurance because we know the prize we are running after is real and worthwhile. We lay aside anything to win the prize—communion with Jesus himself.  

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to see the God who calls his people into deep communion with him. And may you see Jesus as the one who gave up everything so that you might share in his life.