24The Truth About  Idolatry (10:14-22)

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. 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. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we? (10:14-22)

As Paul has made clear in 10:1-13, idolatry, immorality, and complaining against God are not questionable things; they are outright sins. Christians have no liberty in regard to such things. In the next nine verses (14-22) the apostle explains why the sin of idolatry is especially abominable to God. It is not a moral issue to eat something offered to an idol, but it is a serious sin to engage in any form of idol worship. Some of the Corinthians were taking their liberty in questionable things too far, and were becoming involved in the evil of idolatry. They were free to attend pagan functions but were not free to participate in the false worship. With strong words Paul here rebukes those who would do that.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. (10:14-15)

Paul first assures his fellow believers, his brothers and sisters in Christ, that he is speaking to them as one who loves and cares for them. The Corinthian Christians were deeply loved by their former pastor, who was the spiritual father of many of them. They were his beloved, in spite of their many problems.

Many of the believers in Corinth were still spiritually immature (3:1-3). But because of their salvation, all of them had divine guidance in understanding, and so are addressed here as wise men. Paul gives them the benefit of any doubt and assumes that, if they listen carefully, they will by the Spirit be able to judge correctly what he says. His exhortation is simple, scriptural, and logical.

Before he goes into defining the specific evils of idolatry, he tells them to flee from idolatry. Even before they understand its full danger they should get away from it (cf. 1 John 5:21). If they had slipped back into idolatry or were strongly tempted to do so, they first should get far away from it, and then study Paul’s argument. “First, get out of immediate danger. You won’t be able to pay attention to or appreciate what I am saying as long as you are associated with the practice in any way.”

Because idolatry is worshiping something other than the true God in the true way, it is the most serious and contaminating of sins. It strikes at the very character of God. Those who worship an idol declare that the Lord is not the only true God and that other “so-called gods” (8:5) are worthy to share His glory and honor. They testify that the Lord is deficient, that He is not all-wise, all-powerful, and all-sufficient. A Pandora’s box is opened to other loyalties and other moral and spiritual standards. It is not accidental or incidental that the first two of the Ten Commandments are prohibitions that have to do with idolatry. If we do not have the right view of God, nothing else can be in the right perspective.

Since the Fall men have wanted to make God over into their own images and to their own liking. “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Rom. 1:21-23). As A. W. Tozer observed, “A god begotten in the shadows of a fallen heart will, quite naturally, be no true likeness of the true God.”

Idolatry includes much more than bowing down or burning incense to a physical image. Idolatry is having any false god—any object, idea, philosophy, habit, occupation, sport, or whatever that has one’s primary concern and loyalty or that to any degree decreases one’s trust in and loyalty to the Lord.

There is no other God but the God of the Bible, and He is a jealous God who will not tolerate the worship of another. In Isaiah 48:11, God says: “My glory will I not give to another.” Exodus 34:14 says, “You shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”

Yet the world worships false gods. Romans 1:21 indicts all of mankind: “Even though they knew God,” Paul wrote, speaking of the human race, “they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks.” In fact, when they refused to worship God, they began to make images. They “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and fourfooted animals and crawling creatures” (v. 23).

They refused to worship God, turning instead to false gods, and that is unacceptable. Verse 24 tells the consequences of worshiping a false god: “God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity.” Verse 28 adds, “God gave them over to a depraved mind.”

The result of their improper worship was that God simply gave them over to their sin and its consequences. Can you think of anything worse? Their sin increasingly became the dominating factor in their lives, and ultimately they faced judgment without any excuses (Rom. 1:32—2:1).

Everyone worships—even an atheist. He worships himself. When men reject God they worship false gods. That, of course, is what God forbids in the first commandment.

False gods may be either material objects or mythical, supernatural beings. Material gods may be worshiped even without the conscious thought that they are deities. Job wrote,

That describes a man who refuses the inclination to worship his material wealth. If you worship what you possess, if you center your life on yourself, your possessions, or even your needs, you have denied God.

Habakkuk 1:16 describes the false worship of the Chaldeans: “The Chaldeans bring all of them [the righteous] up with a hook, drag them away with their net, and gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore, they rejoice and are glad. Therefore, they offer a sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their fishing net.” Their “net” was their military might, and the god they worshiped was armed power—a false god.

Some formulate supernatural gods, supposed deities. That, too, is unacceptable. Things sacrificed to idols are really sacrificed to demons (1 Cor. 10:20). Therefore, if men worship false beings, they are actually worshiping the demons that impersonate those false gods.

Acts 17:29 contains a marvelous observation by Paul: “Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.” We are made in God’s image, and we are not silver, stone, or wood. How could any man think that his Creator would be such?

Idolatry has many forms. Libeling the character of God is idolatry. This form includes believing the true God to be something other than He is. We are guilty of idolatry, for example, when we think of the Son of God only as Jesus and use that name almost to the exclusion of His other names. He is first of all the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. He is our friend and brother, but infinitely more important than that He is our Lord and Savior, our God.

We are also guilty of libeling God when we do not trust Him, when we doubt that He is able or willing to meet every need we have. When we doubt God we say in our hearts, “I question whether your Word is reliable, your promises are true, your power is sufficient, or your love unlimited.”

Worshiping the true God in the wrong way is idolatry. Whenever men establish unbiblical forms and rituals and neglect worship from the heart, they set up idols that come between worshipers and God, even though the forms and rituals are intended to be in His name and for His honor and glory. Any time they adopt worldly practices in church services they set up idols that detract from true worship.

Worshiping God in the wrong form is unacceptable worship. For example, the Israelites were idolatrous when they worshiped the golden calf in the wilderness despite the fact that they intended the image to represent the true God (Ex. 32:1-4). Making idols of any sort was strictly forbidden in the second commandment (Ex. 20:4), and was a practice they knew was pagan even before the law was given.

Exodus 32:7-9 records God’s response when the Israelites made the golden calf to worship:

When the Israelites constructed the molten calf, they worshiped it in the name of the true God, but they had reduced Him to an image.

Years later, as recorded in Deuteronomy 4:14-19, Moses said to the assembled Israelites:

In other words, when God revealed Himself to the Israelites, He was not represented in any visible form. There was no physical representation of God—and that is true of God throughout the Scriptures. Why? Because God does not want to be reduced to any image.

The idea that God is an old man with a beard sitting in a chair is completely contrary to Scripture and is unacceptable. Idolatry does not begin with a sculptor’s hammer; it begins in the mind. When we think of God we should visualize absolutely nothing. No visual conception of Him could properly represent His eternal nature and glory.

Worshiping any image is idolatry. That is the most literal and obvious kind of idolatry, the kind so frequently denounced in the Old Testament. It is the kind in which a person makes an image with his own hands and then “falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, ‘Deliver me, for thou art my god’” (Isa. 44:17).

Even statues or other images of Christ are not to be revered or worshiped. Only Christ is to be worshiped, not likenesses of Him. They do not represent Jesus Christ, no matter what our claims and intentions are. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Even nonliturgical Christians should be on guard, whether in public worship or private devotions, about associating any place, picture, or pattern of worship too closely with God. It is easy for such a thing to come between us and Him, though we may think it helps draw us closer.

Worshiping angels is idolatry. Paul warns, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels” (Col. 2:18). When, overcome with awe, John fell at the feet of the angel who was speaking to him, the angel said, “Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God” (Rev 19:10). Angels are created beings and, whether holy or fallen, are not to be venerated or worshiped.

Worshiping demons is idolatry, and is closely associated with worshiping images, behind which are often demons. In Satan cults demons are worshiped directly. Speaking of the Tribulation, John foretells that “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood” (Rev 9:20).

Worshiping dead men is idolatry. Referring to idolatry that Israel learned from Moab, the psalmist wrote, “They joined themselves also to Baal-peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds; and the plague broke out among them” (Ps. 106: 28-29). We do not worship human beings, whether they are alive or dead, saintly or otherwise. Even the great heroes of Scripture—such as Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets, Mary, or the apostles—are never to be worshiped. That is idolatry.

Supreme loyalty in our heart to anything other than God is idolatry. Every person is tempted with ambitions, desires, possessions, recognition, and a host of other such things that easily can become idols. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” Jesus said (Matt. 6:21). The greatest heart treasure, or heart idol, is self.

Covetousness is idolatry. Those who covet or are greedy worship at the shrine of materialism, one of the most popular and powerful idols of our day. But Paul says, “For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolator, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Eph. 5:5; cf. Col. 3:5).

Inordinate desire, or lust, is idolatry. Paul speaks of “enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things” (Phil. 3:18-19). The person whose mind, desires, longings, and appetites are set on fleshly things is an idolater.

Idolatry brings guilt on everyone who is involved in it, as well as bringing God’s vengeance on unbelievers and His chastening on believers. “The Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, shall bear the punishment for their iniquity” (Ezek. 44:10). To those whose idolatry is less obvious the Lord says, “I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts” (Isa. 65:2).

Idolatry is listed among the vilest sins of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21), and the Lord makes it clear that no idolater will inherit His kingdom (Rev 21:8; 22:15).

Idolatry not only is an offense against God but is harmful to men. It defiles those who practice it and is harmful to everyone around them. Idolatry defiles a person by rendering him spiritually impure. Whether he worships a carved god of stone or a sophisticated god of his mind and heart, that worship has a corrupting effect on his moral and spiritual life. It has that effect both on believers and unbelievers. An unbeliever is pushed further from God and His way, and a believer violates the purity of his relationship with his heavenly Father. God graciously keeps forgiving and cleansing the believer, but his idolatry is no less defiling and sinful. Idolatry harms those around the idolater by giving them a false testimony and example. It is a degrading influence on all of the society in which it is practiced.

Not only that, but no idol can help men. A carved image cannot forgive, save, give peace of mind, or solve problems; nor can money, fame, education, social prestige, or any other such thing that men come to trust in. Every idol is man-made, and every idol is helpless to help. Idols only defile. They never glorify God but always dishonor Him. Since no good can come of idolatry, the only response to it should be to flee.

In verses 16-22 Paul gives three reasons for fleeing from idolatry: it is inconsistent; it is demonic; and it is offensive to God.

IDOLATRY IS INCONSISTENT

Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? (10:16-18)

The cup of blessing could be the last cup of wine drunk at the end of a meal, as a final testimony of thanksgiving for all that God had provided. It also was the proper name given to the third cup passed during the Passover feast. In the upper room, on the night before His crucifixion, Jesus may have used the third cup as the symbol of His blood shed for sin. That cup then became the instrument to institute the Lord’s Supper. In any case He set apart the cup as a token of special thanksgiving before He passed it to the disciples (Matt. 26:27), and whenever believers partake of Communion they partake of this blessed sacred cup. For Christians it is the supreme cup of blessing, which in turn we bless and are thankful for His death each time we use it in remembrance of our Lord.

Paul’s words are so framed as to assume that participating in the Lord’s Supper is a regular practice of faithful Christians. It is commanded by our Lord (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24-25) to remind us of His sacrifice for us and of our oneness with Him and with fellow believers. When believers participate they are sharing in the blood of Christ and sharing in the body of Christ. It is communing with the Lord and with His people. Celebrating our common salvation and eternal life is the ultimate fellowship of believers while we are on earth, and reflects the perfect fellowship we will have in heaven.

Sharing (koinōnia) means to have in common, to participate with, to have partnership. The same Greek word is used of our being “called into fellow ship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9), of the “fellowship of the Spirit” (Phil. 2:1), of the “fellowship of His sufferings” (Phil. 3:10), and of “participation in the support of the saints” (2 Cor. 8:4). When we properly share in Communion we spiritually participate in fellowship with Jesus Christ and with other believers. It is much more than a symbol; it is a profound celebration of common spiritual experience.

The picture of someone we love is not the same as that person; it only represents the person. But the feelings of love, care, desire to be with them, and of remembering experiences we have had with them are totally real. We have an experience of real fellowship and kinship with that person whenever we see the picture. Our minds are flooded with reality.

While we are thinking of them, our earthly loved ones are seldom aware of it; but our Lord is intensely aware of it when we think of Him. When we remember His death for us, His becoming sin for us, His taking our penalty upon Himself, His redeeming us—all of which are represented by His shed blood—we participate in the most intimate and real communion with Him and with all others in Him.

In this passage, and in many places in the New Testament, Jesus’ blood and body are used as metonyms. A metonym is a figure of speech in which the name of one thing is used to represent another thing of which it is a part or with which it is associated. When we say, “I was reading Shakespeare last night,” we mean that we were reading a play written by him. The name of the author is used to represent the works he has written. In the Old Testament, blood is frequently used to represent life, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev 17:11). Similarly, shedding of blood is often used to represent death, which is the loss of life. In the New Testament, therefore, blood is often used to represent Christ’s sacrificial death, the death in which His physical blood was shed on behalf of those who trust in Him. There was nothing in the physical blood of Christ that could remove sin. It was His death, represented by His shed blood, that paid the penalty for our sin and redeemed us.

The bread which we break [is] a sharing in the body of Christ. The bread symbolizes Christ’s body just as the cup symbolizes His blood. And as the blood represents His death, so the body represents His life.

In the Old Testament the human body was associated with the totality of life, with man’s earthliness, his humanness. Adam’s body was formed “of the dust from the ground” (Gen. 2:7), and his very name is from the same Hebrew root as earth, or land (‘adāmâ). When we share in the body of Christ we remember and celebrate His earthliness, His humanness, His incarnation, and also His death as a human sacrifice for the salvation of humankind.

The New Testament makes a special point of the fact that Jesus’ body was not broken on the cross. “For these things came to pass, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, ‘Not a bone of Him shall be broken’” (John 19:36). The bread represents Christ’s body, but the breaking of the bread does not represent the breaking of His body, because that never took place.

Jesus broke the bread in order to distribute it among the disciples, representing His sharing His life with them. When we eat the bread we remember Christ’s emptying Himself in order to live among us as a man (Phil. 2:7), His suffering as we suffer, and His being tempted as we are tempted, in order that “He might become a merciful and faithful high priest” (Heb. 2:17).

The Lord’s Supper is a spiritual experience. The bread and wine are not transubstantiated—turned into the actual body and blood of Christ—as Roman Catholics believe, or consubstantiated—having the actual body and blood existing alongside them—as many Lutherans believe. Christ cannot be sacrificed again, because He was offered only “once to bear the sins of many” (Heb. 9:28). Nor can His body and blood actually be consumed by us, either in place of the bread and wine or along with them (cf. John 6:52). Not only that, but at the first Lord’s Supper, in which Christ Himself passed the cup and the bread, He had not yet been crucified; His physical blood had not yet been shed. When believers partake of Communion in faith, the Holy Spirit uses those symbols as sensitizers to kindle our spirits in awareness and appreciation of our Lord’s great ministry and sacrifice for us.

Christ’s body also symbolizes our unity in Jesus Christ. Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. Because we are one with Christ we are one with each other. As we come into fellowship with Christ through Communion, we come into fellowship with each other in a unique and deep way (cf. 1 Cor. 6:17). All believers stand on the same ground at the foot of the cross, as forgiven sinners who possess the eternal life principle within them.

Again Paul uses Israel to illustrate his point. Are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? When the Israelites sacrificed to the Lord, some of the offering was burnt as the sacrifice proper, some of it was eaten by the priests, and some was eaten by those who offered it. Everyone was involved with the offering, with God and with each other.

Likewise, to sacrifice to an idol is to identify with it, to participate with the idol and with all others who sacrifice to it. Religious ceremonies, whether Christian or pagan, involve participation of the worshipers with the object of their worship and with each other. Thus it is completely inconsistent for believers to participate in any expression of worship that is apart from and contrary to their Lord.

IDOLATRY IS DEMONIC

What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. 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. (10:19-21)

Much worse than being inconsistent, idolatry is also demonic. The thing sacrificed has no spiritual power or nature (cf. 8:8); nor does the physical idol to which it is sacrificed (cf. 8:4). Those things are nothing in themselves. But more importantly than their not being anything, idols represent that which is demonic.

Demons are the spiritual force behind all idolatry. Those who sacrifice to idols sacrifice to demons. When worshipers believe an idol represents an actual god, Satan sends one of his demon emissaries to act out the part of that imaginary god. There is never a god behind an idol, but there is always a spiritual force; and that force is always evil, always demonic.

Demons can exhibit considerable power. Many cultic and pagan religious claims are faked and exaggerated; but many are true. They are evil but true. Much that goes under the name of astrology, for instance, is simply exploitation of the gullible. But many predictions come true through the work of demonic forces. Demons are not unlimited in power, but they have power to perform enough wonders and to make enough predictions come true to keep superstitious worshipers deceived and loyal (cf. 2 Thess 2:9-11).

Satan is the prince of this world system and he rules this world with the aid of his demons. To participate in the corrupt things of this world, especially in idolatrous acts of worship, is to participate with Satan and his demons. It is to become sharers in demons. Moses wrote of Jeshurun, an affectionate name for Israel, as having “sacrificed to demons who were not God” (Deut. 32:17). The ones they worshiped were not divine but they were real. The psalmist, also speaking of Israel, tells of her following pagan practices to the extent even of sacrificing “their sons and their daughters to the demons” (Ps. 106:37).

A Christian cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. He cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Paul is not giving advice but stating a fact. Jesus made it clear that we cannot “serve two masters” (Matt. 6:24). It is not simply that we should not but that we cannot. It is impossible to do both at the same time. It must be one or the other. We will “hate the one and love the other,” or we will “hold to the one and despise the other.” When we fellowship with the Lord we cannot also fellowship with demons, and vice versa. Some attempted it in Corinth, but they were not truly fellowshipping with the Lord. Their worship was hypocrisy.

Christians are not immune from the influence of demons. When we willingly ignore the Lord’s way and flirt with the things of Satan by setting up idols of any kind, we open ourselves up to demonic influence. In rebuking Ananias, Peter said, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?” (Acts 5:3). Through the idol of their greed, he and his wife, Sapphira, left themselves open to being corrupted by the chief of demons. It is clear from our wrestling with demons (Eph. 6:12) that there is some intimate contact between believers and those vile fallen angels.

John warns, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds” (2 John 10-11). Even showing hospitality to those who promote false teaching causes us to participate with the demonic influence behind those teachings. To do that in any way and then come to the Lord’s table in true communion with the Savior and His people is impossible.

IDOLATRY IS OFFENSIVE TO THE LORD

Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we? (10:22)

Idolatry is inconsistent, demonic, and offensive to the Lord. It will provoke the Lord to jealousy. God has holy jealousy because He will have no competition. That is why God said Israel “made Me jealous with what is not God; they have provoked Me to anger with their idols” (Deut. 32:21). The Lord deals strongly with idolatry because nothing is more offensive to Him than idolatry, which is the most detestable sign of unbelief. Because Judah had gone “after other gods to serve them and to worship them, … ‘behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them a horror, and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation’” (Jer. 25:6, 9). John pictures an even more terrible judgment. “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev 21:8).

Paul’s question, We are not stronger than He, are we? obviously is rhetorical. Does the idolater foolishly think he is more powerful than God? God will not allow idolatry to go unpunished, and no one can escape. Even His own children will not escape His severe chastisement if they persist in worshiping any sort of idol. Some of the Corinthians had done that and had paid with their health, or even their lives (1 Cor. 11:30).