Today (July 14, 2026), I finished translating the last passage of 1 Corinthians in my 34 sermons series through the book at Range Hills Baptist Church. The book is fascinating for multiple reasons, and I’ve had a lot of fun preaching through the book. I got to be very direct in preaching while matching the substance, structure, and spirit of each text. One of the most interesting sections in 1 Corinthians is the discussion on eating food offered to idols.
1 Corinthians can be divided into seven macro-sections. 1:1-9 (Greeting and Introduction), 1:10-4:21 (Unity, Wisdom, and Things that Divide), 5:1-6:20 (Problems in the Corinth Church Paul Heard About), 7:1-11:1 (Questions from the Corinth Church), 11:2-14:40 (How to Act During the Church Gathering), 15:1-58 (The Truth of Resurrection), and 16:1-23 (Giving and Final Statements). The longest of these sections, by word count in the Greek, is 7:1-11:1 concerning the questions that the Corinth Church asked. The first question is “Should a man touch a woman?” or, to paraphrase, “Should any of us be married?” Paul handles this question by addressing a lot of the nuances of the question, including the temptation of sexual immorality, the temptation of divorce, and the options of engaged people. With this question, Paul goes beyond what they’re asking. The second question is “Can we eat food sacrificed to idols?” In answering this question, Paul goes behind the question. Great meaning can be deduced from the structure of this section.
Paul brings up this section’s question in 8:1, but does not answer the question until 10:25. The gap between bringing up the question and answering the question can cause the reader to think Paul dropped the discussion in 9:1 and returns to it in 10:23. Yet, everything that is written between 9:1 and 10:22, as well as the rest of the passages between 8:1 and 11:1, all are answering the question “Can we eat food sacrificed to idols?” Paul does not answer the question directly because he knows what’s behind the question matters a lot more than the actual question. So, he dodges the question to answer something more important. In each of the passages answering this question, Paul could start each passage with the phrase, “But before I answer…”
In 8:1-13, Paul dodges the question and begins to talk about knowledge. His reason for that is that “knowledge” was the grounds Corinth Church members used to eat food sacrificed to idols. The knowledge they had was that idols are not real, and, therefore, the food sacrificed to them was just food. Paul does not disagree with this thought, but what was behind this desire was a lack of care about other people’s consciences. In this passage, to answer what’s behind the question, Paul says, “But, before I answer…y’all really need to protect each other’s conscience before you care about this.”
In 9:1-27, Paul continues to dodge the question and begins talking about rights. He talks about how he has rights in the gospel, but he defers them because the rewards in the gospel are greater than the rights, and the rights are not the goal. This subject seemingly is completely different from the conversation about food sacrificed to idols. In chapter 9, “idols,” “food,” and “eating” are not even mentioned in the passage. If you read chapter 9 without chapter 8 or 10, you would not know it was about eating food sacrificed to idols. But the passage is still answering that question, or more precisely, what’s behind the question. The Corinth Church members who were adamant about being able to eat food sacrificed to idols were appealing to their rights in the gospel. As born-again believers, they were no longer under the law and were free to eat because their conscience allowed them. Yet, Paul answers what’s behind the question by telling them that rights aren’t the best things the gospel has to offer. Rather, the best things the gospel has to offer come from the rewards that are given for laying down one’s rights. In this passage, to answer what’s behind the question, Paul says, “But, before I answer…y’all should desire the rewards of laying down your rights more than you desire your rights.”
In 10:1-22, Paul continues to dodge the question and starts discussing events in the Old Testament. Paul’s reason for discussing Israel in the Old Testament is to solemnly warn the Corinth Church about participating in the same sins that Israel committed. He reminds them that all of Israel was identified with Moses and participated in the meal meant for God’s people, yet God still killed them in the wilderness because of their sin. Paul is very clear with them that God hates sin. From that, Paul focuses on one sin particularly: idolatry. Paul charges them to flee from idolatry. In 10:14, Paul speaks of idolatry again, something he has not mentioned since 8:1-13, but still, seemingly, he is not talking about food sacrificed to idols. Yet, this concern of Paul informs us that he is concerned that some of the Corinth Church members claiming to have freedom to eat food sacrificed to idols were actually just wanting to participate in idolatry. Idolatry in the first century was extremely attractive. Someone who participated in it could avoid persecution and be thought well of by the community. Jewish converts, who had suffered their whole lives by not partaking in idolatry, were tempted to participate because of this newfound freedom. Gentile converts, who were being disowned by friends and family, could participate in the appearance of idolatry while not abandoning the faith. Paul corrects this thinking sharply. If anyone desired to eat food sacrificed to idols to participate in the cultural practice of idolatry, then that person was in sin and provoking God to jealousy. Behind the question in some Corinth Church members was a very sinful desire to have Christ and idolatry. In this passage, to answer what’s behind the question, Paul says, “But, before I answer…if your reason to eat food sacrificed to idols is to practice idolatry, then you’re in blasphemous sin.”
In 10:23-11:1, Paul finally answers the questions, but still makes a bigger deal about something behind the question instead of the question itself. In 10:25, Paul instructs the Corinth Church members that they are free to eat any food at the meat market without asking any questions about why the meat was cooked. But, they were to do so only after they’ve considered how their actions could edify, or, more costly, tear down, someone else. The Corinth Church members could eat any meat from the meat market or at a lost person’s home, but if they were told it was sacrificed to an idol, they had to abstain for the sake of conscience. The “other” conscience in 10:29 is ambiguous, but those who were not to be offended in 10:32 likely are the “other.” That would include lost Jews, lost Gentiles, and fellow church members. For the sake of every other person’s conscience, when it is known that a piece of meat was sacrificed to an idol, Paul commands, “Don’t eat it.” The food itself is not sinful, as all things are the Lord’s, but failure to communicate that Christians don’t participate in idolatry is sinful. That’s how God is glorified through whether you eat or drink. If you identify solely with the kingdom of God, even in how you eat and drink, then you’re glorifying God and edifying others. Paul, in answering the question, still adds on, “But, now that I’ve answered the question…y’all need to make sure everyone, saved or unsaved, Jew or Gentile, church member or lost person, knows Christians don’t participate in idolatry.”
Implications
By zooming out and not missing the forest for the trees, a thorough explanation of consideration for how we live in this world is found. The purpose of 8:1-11:1 is not a discussion about Christian liberties, as some contend. Rather, it is a discussion of how to be “in the world” without being “of the world.” So instead of preaching these passages as how a Christian can make use of as many liberties as he has, they ought to be preached as how a Christian can never appear to participate in idolatry without constant fear. The best 1-to-1 application of these passages would be concerning modern cultural “idols” and how ingrained they’ve become in normal life. For example, the idolatry of the LGBTQ+ lifestyle (or what I’ve termed the idolatry of sexuality) is so entrenched in our culture that it is extremely easy to support accidentally or seemingly the sinful lifestyle. A rainbow is originally a Bible symbol and was once rather neutral, yet a rainbow-colored shirt may now be a symbol of the idol of sexuality. How should a Christian think through whether or not to buy a shirt with a rainbow on it? 1 Corinthians 8:1-11:1 gives every consideration one should have before doing so. If the macrostructure is omitted, forgotten, or rejected, these considerations are lost; the substance, structure, and spirit of what Paul writes cannot be brought to a modern day where the majority of food at the grocery store is not sacrificed to idols, and the bridge that connects the two worlds is lost in the flood of seeing the trees to the neglect of the forest.