Commentary - 1 Corinthians 8:4-6

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, the Apostle Paul is addressing a very practical, pastoral problem in the Corinthian church: is it permissible for a Christian to eat meat that has been offered in sacrifice to a pagan idol? But as is his custom, Paul does not simply give them a "yes" or "no" answer. He first lays a profound theological foundation, and everything else is built on top of that. The presenting issue is meat, but the real issue is the nature of God, the nature of idols, and the nature of Christian love. Paul begins by agreeing with the "strong" in Corinth. They are correct in their basic theology. There is only one true God, and the idols in the pagan temples are, in the ultimate sense, nothing. They are nullities. But this theological knowledge, while true, is not the highest good. Love is. This section, therefore, sets up the central argument of the chapter. Correct doctrine is essential, but it must be wielded in love for the sake of the brethren. The great theological declarations of these verses function as the bedrock for the ethical instruction that follows. Before you can know what to do with the meat, you must first know who God is, and who you are in relation to Him.

The core of the passage is a magnificent, Trinitarian confession that stands as a Christian adaptation of the Jewish Shema. Paul contrasts the "many gods and many lords" of the pagan world with the Christian confession of "one God, the Father" and "one Lord, Jesus Christ." He establishes an absolute Creator/creature distinction. All things are from the Father and through the Lord Jesus. Everything else, including the so-called gods, falls on the creature side of that line. This is the fundamental truth that governs all of reality and therefore must govern how Christians navigate the complexities of their pagan culture.

Outline

Context In 1 Corinthians

This section directly follows Paul's introduction to the topic, where he established that "knowledge puffs up, but love edifies" (1 Cor 8:1). The Corinthians who prided themselves on their "knowledge" were the ones arguing for their right to eat meat sacrificed to idols. Paul is now granting their major premise, but he is going to reframe it in a way that leads to a completely different conclusion. This discussion of idolatry and Christian freedom spans three chapters (8-10) and is central to Paul's larger project in this letter, which is to address the factionalism and divisions in the Corinthian church. Their divisions were rooted in pride, worldliness, and a failure to apply the gospel to their relationships with one another. The question of food offered to idols was a key battleground for these issues. It pitted the "strong" (those with knowledge and a clear conscience) against the "weak" (new converts from paganism whose consciences were still sensitive to idolatrous associations). Paul's handling of this issue, therefore, becomes a case study in how true Christian unity is achieved, not by everyone insisting on their rights, but by the strong bearing with the weak out of love.

Key Issues

Gods, Nullities, and Demons

One of the challenges in this passage is to understand what Paul means when he says an idol is "nothing" and in the next breath acknowledges that there are "gods many and lords many." Is he contradicting himself? Not at all. The key is to distinguish between the physical idol (the block of wood or stone) and the spiritual reality behind it. The carved image is a nullity. It has no power. It is not a real god. In that sense, "an idol is nothing in the world."

However, Scripture is also clear that pagan worship is not directed into a void. Later in this letter, Paul will state plainly, "the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God" (1 Cor 10:20). So, the "so-called gods" are real. They are spiritual entities; they are fallen angels, demons. They exist. But the crucial point, which Paul makes here, is that they are on the created side of the Creator/creature divide. They are not God. They are not in the same category as God. They may be powerful compared to us, but they are nothing compared to Him. So the idol is a physical nothing, representing a spiritual something (a demon), which is itself a created being and therefore nothing when compared to the uncreated God. This robust, multi-layered understanding is what allows Paul to affirm the theological knowledge of the strong while still warning them about the spiritual dangers of idolatry.

Verse by Verse Commentary

4 Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one.

Paul begins by stating the core theological truth that the "knowledgeable" Corinthians were resting their case on. He says "we know," identifying with them on this point of doctrine. And what is it that we know? Two things. First, that an idol is a nullity. The Greek is quite emphatic. It is a "no-thing in the world." It has no actual existence as a deity. It's a fiction carved out of wood or stone. It cannot see, hear, or act. To worship it is the height of folly. Second, and flowing from the first point, we know the foundational creed of Israel, the Shema: "there is no God but one." This is the bedrock of biblical monotheism. Because God is one, all other claimants to deity are fraudulent. This is the correct starting point. If your theology doesn't begin here, you will go wrong everywhere else. Paul grants the premise of the strong. Their abstract theology is spot on.

5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords,

Here Paul introduces the necessary nuance. He has just said idols are nothing, but now he says that in another sense, there are "many gods and many lords." He calls them "so-called" gods, which means they are not gods in the ultimate sense, but they do exist and function as objects of worship for the pagans. These are the spiritual powers and principalities, the demons that stand behind the idols. The Bible does not teach that the spiritual world is empty except for God and us. It is teeming with spiritual beings, angels and demons. The pagan world was not simply mistaken; it was enslaved to these lesser, created spiritual beings. Paul's point is that even acknowledging the existence of these entities does not challenge the uniqueness of the one true God. They are called gods, but they are not God. Clapton is not god, but that doesn't mean Clapton doesn't exist.

6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

This verse is one of the most magnificent and theologically dense statements in all of Paul's writings. It is the Christian answer to the "many gods and many lords" of the pagan world, and it is a profound reformulation of Israel's Shema ("Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one," Deut. 6:4). Paul takes the one God of the Shema and shows us His triune nature. He splits the confession into two clauses, assigning the title "God" (Theos) to the Father and the title "Lord" (Kyrios) to Jesus Christ. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Kyrios is the word used for Yahweh. Paul is making a breathtaking claim here. He is taking the one name of God, Yahweh, and applying it to Jesus.

Notice the structure. "One God, the Father," and "one Lord, Jesus Christ." The Father is described as the source of all creation: "from whom are all things." He is the ultimate origin. And He is our ultimate purpose: "we exist for Him." Our lives are to be lived to His glory. Then, Paul says of the "one Lord, Jesus Christ," that He is the agent of all creation: "by whom are all things." This is a direct echo of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament and the prologue of John's gospel. Christ is the divine agent through whom the Father created and sustains everything. And He is also the agent of our redemption: "we exist through Him." He is not only the means of our creation but the means of our new life as Christians. The Father is the source, the Son is the agent. All things come from the Father, through the Son. This establishes the absolute deity of Christ and places both the Father and the Son on the Creator side of the fundamental divide of all reality, over against everything else, including all the "so-called gods."

Application

The first and most obvious application is that our theology matters immensely. We must be grounded in the truth that there is one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were made. This is not abstract trivia; it is the truth that sets us free from all fear of lesser powers. The idols of our age, whether they are political ideologies, sexual identities, or the god of mammon, are nothing. The spiritual forces behind them are real, but they are created, defeated foes. We owe them nothing, neither fear nor allegiance.

But the second application is the one Paul is driving at for the rest of the chapter. Right theology is not enough. It is possible to have a perfectly orthodox statement about the nature of God and still use that knowledge as a club to beat up your brother. The Corinthians with "knowledge" were right about the idols, but they were wrong in their lovelessness. Our doctrinal precision must always be in the service of love. The goal of our knowledge is not to win arguments or to carve out the maximum space for our personal liberty. The goal is to build up the church. The strong must use their strength to protect the weak, not to trample on their consciences. We who understand the glorious truth of verse 6 should be the first to lay down our rights for the sake of a brother for whom Christ died. True knowledge of the God who is love will always result in a life of love.