MONDAY, OCTOBER 1
1 Corinthians 8:1-3
Acts 15:13-21

“Now as touching things
offered unto idols …”

FOOD OFFERED TO IDOLS

The practice of eating food offered to idols was widespread in the city of Corinth. When two parties wanted to conclude a business deal, they would often gather in an agora (community square) and seal the contract with a meal. These meals would typically be offered to an idol to procure the blessings of the “deity.” Such meals were also offered during feasts and parties. Failure to eat the food might offend the hosts and cause the individual to be ostracised by society. Thus, some Corinthian Christians chose the way of expediency and ate the food that had been offered to idols. This was in contradiction with the injunction issued by the Jerusalem Council concerning Gentile Christians: “Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they  abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood” (Acts 15:19-20). This is still applicable for us today.

At the same time, some brethren (who were young in the faith, with a lack of understanding and a weak conscience) might fear even eating food that were sold in the market (“shambles,” 1 Cor 10:25) as the food might have been offered to idols. They thought that eating such food would subject them to the power and control of the idols.

How should this confusion in the Corinthian Church be addressed? The solution is not found in philosophy, nor psychology, but in the forever inerrant and infallible Word of everlasting life. “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple” (Ps 119:130). If only the Corinthian Christians would humble themselves before God’s Word, there would be clarity concerning this issue! Similarly, if we want to have clarity amid life’s perplexing challenges, we must turn to God’s authoritative Word. Will you?

THOUGHT: I must keep myself from idols (1 John 5:21).
PRAYER: Father, may all idols be removed from my life!