1 Corinthians 10:27 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Corinthians 10:27

Comments

The same approach may be followed in the case of private invitations to a meal. In the example given, the invitation comes from an unbeliever. Such a person certainly does not have faith in the one true God, and so is a very clear case of someone who lacks knowledge, but the instruction that follows would equally apply to a believer with a weak conscience. Just as there is no requirement to ask about the food sold in the market place because you receive it as God’s good gift to you, so there is no obligation to ask your host at a meal in his home whether or not the food set before you has been offered to an idol. While you do not ask the question, your host can reasonably be expected to give you the benefit of the doubt: you are not consciously eating meat offered to idols. That is true even though he knows otherwise. This is about his assessment of your conscience. While he keeps that knowledge to himself, he has no reason to think that you are knowingly doing something which goes against your conscience. That is of vital importance, because your conscience may have an effect on his conscience. The issue is not whether you eat meat offered to an idol unknowingly, but whether you eat knowing that the meat has been offered to an idol. It is all about the conscience. The situation changes completely as soon as he or one of the other guests lets you know that this food has come from the idol temple. There is a possibility that one of the other guests is a believer with a weak conscience, but since no one other than the unbelieving host is mentioned, it is safest to understand Paul’s instruction with him in mind.

Application

Christian witness is paramount. You are a believer and, in the example, he is an unbeliever. Your whole life is about witnessing to Christ. You want to win him to salvation. You don’t want to put any obstacle in his way. How can you witness to an idol worshipper and tell him that Christ requires him to turn away completely from his idols, when at the same time you are undermining your witness by eating food offered to an idol? He will not understand that. He will not be able to process that. His current level of knowledge tells him that becoming a Christian means stopping any contact with idolatry, including eating food offered to idols which has been a big part of his life. He is not yet ready to take the extra step and say, an idol is nothing. Don’t hurry him faster than he is capable of going. This has now become a matter of conscience. The same principle applies to other matters where the unbeliever makes scruples of matters which are of no real consequence.

Questions

Why does Paul use precisely the same reason for now doing the opposite? Before he was happy for the one purchasing food in the meat market to eat, because ‘the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.’ Now he tells the guest not to eat, because ‘the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.’ Most commentators point out that these words are not found in a great many Greek texts. Gill explains them by saying that if the believer avoids eating meat offered to idols, then God has made so many alternative foods that he will not suffer any shortage by abstaining.

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1 Corinthians 10:27 Commentary and Bible Study