I Corinthians 10:14-22: "Idolatry"
In this section Paul will expound in more detail on one of the sins he had written about in verses 1-13 of this chapter. Because of its abominable nature and the obvious problem it posed in Corinth, Paul wants to make sure that his readers understood the danger of idol worship. Paul begins, "Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say". As Paul so often does, he reminds his readers that he has a deep care and love for them. He calls them his "beloved". There is a tenderness in this word, that gives his readers the understanding that what he is telling them is for their own good. Before explaining his case, Paul lovingly, yet sternly warns them to flee from idolatry. MacArthur writes, "Even before they understand its full danger they should get away from it (cf. I 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". Paul understood that although his audience was made up of many immature believers, they still had the divine guidance and understanding of the Holy Spirit, to help them discern right from wrong. With this he addresses them as "wise men". More than calling out their wonderful wisdom, he is almost asking them to use their wisdom to "judge what [he] says". He knows if they use the discernment that God has given them they will understand the wisdom in the command to "flee from idolatry".
Paul understand the graveness of this sin. All throughout his letters, Paul is warning of the dangers of being around and partaking in idol worship. In Romans 1:21-23, Paul writes, "For even though they knew God, the 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". In Colossians 2:18, Paul writes, "Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels". In Acts, Paul is quoted as saying, "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". Not only in Paul's writings, but all throughout Scripture, their are strong commands and warnings regarding idol worship. In fact, the first two commandments forbid any type of idol worship. In Job 31:24-28 we read, "If I have put my confidence in gold, and called fine gold my trust, if I have gloated because my wealth was great, and because my hand had secured so much; if I have looked at the sun when it shone or the moon going in splendor, and my heart became secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth, that too would have been an iniquity calling for judgment, for I would have denied God above". It is obvious that God desires our affections and loyalties undivided.
The key to understanding this section is to truly understand all that idol-worship encompasses. After understanding how broad this can be, we will all understand that we are all tempted with this everyday. More than just worshipping a graven image, MacArthur helps us to understand all that idolatry encompasses:
1. Worshiping any image is idolatry. This is the one we think about the most often when we think of idolatry. This was the blatant sin that Israel committed in the wilderness. Even if the image is of Christ or of God, we are not to worship that in God's place. We are not to misplace our focus from Christ to an image of Christ.
2. Worshiping angels. Paul warned of this in the Col. 2:18 verse. Angels are created beings just like we are, and to worship them in any sense is clearly idol worship as they are merely creations of the mighty God.
3. Worshiping demons. As we will learn in a few verses, many times when we worship images, we are in fact worshipping demons.
4. Worshiping dead men. In Psalm 1-6:28-29, we read, "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". Although great men, we are never to worship living or dead men in any way regardless of how godly they may have been. In Catholicism, it is common to worship the saints.
5. Supreme loyalty in our heart to anything other than God. This is where it hits a little closer to home. This speaks of the principle spoken of in Matt. 6:21, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also", Jesus said. If we ever hold up our ambitions, desires, possessions or recognition above our love for God, this is idol worship.
6. Covetousness. Also spoken of in the 10 commandments. This is the worship of materialism. We desire and lust after that which we do not have and let this desire drive our thoughts and actions.
7. Inordinate desire, or lust. Paul writes about this in Phil. 3:18-19, "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". This is the most common of all the forms of idol worship. The scary thing is, is often we do not recognize it when it is in our hearts until we have fully sinned in this way. We are to constantly check our thoughts and heart motives to make sure there is nothing we are putting before our devotion to the Lord.
With that understanding in mind, Paul continues, "Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?" In this context we can understand this to be the participation in communion. The "cup of blessing" can refer to the "blood of Christ" that was shed in order for us, in order for us to receive the righteousness of Christ. MacArthur writes, "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". It is in this ceremony which we remember the blood of Christ that was shed to cover over our sins. It is a blessed event in which we can rejoice in our salvation. Paul continues along this ceremony, "Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?" The bread is obviously not the body of Christ, and His body was never broken on the cross that He might fulfill Scripture. The "sharing in the body of Christ" refers to the fellowship that believers take part in with Christ and with each other. MacArthur writes, "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 body symbolizes our unity together. Paul continues, "Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread". Christ is the head of the church. The many who come together worship the one true God. We all stand together with one thing in common, the sacrifice for our sins was made on the cross, and in Christ alone was our sin removed. Paul then remarks, "Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?". MacArthur points out, "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". Paul's point is that just as when you participate in communion, which is the symbol of all you share in Christ, when you participate in idolatry you are worshiping an object that is not God. Therefore, to do so is completely contradictory and makes no sense.
Paul then moves to get to the meat of his case against idolatry. Even more than it being inconsistent and contradictory, it is demonic. Paul writes, "What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?" The thing that is sacrificed to the idol, and the idol itself has no power, in and of itself it is like burning something for a piece of wood or metal. The idol itself has no power or value. The piece of carved wood cannot do anything itself. Paul is pointing at what is behind the idol. He writes, "No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God". Here is Paul's main point. He wants his readers to understand that the spiritual force behind these idols are demons. Therefore, when you participate in the sacrifice to idols you are worshiping demons. How can you worship God and worship demons at the same time? MacArthur writes, "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. Paul's goal is to get the Corinthians to understand how dangerous and evil idol worship is. It is not just a cultural thing. This is not a black and white issue. He did not want them "to become sharers in demons". To help bring together his point from communion, he writes, "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". Paul is telling them that if they are to partake in communion, they cannot do so if they are also worshipping idols. That would be to make a mockery of what Christ has done. You cannot worship God in one breath, and a demon in the next. Christ had made it clear in Matt. 6:24 that you cannot "serve two masters". Paul wants to expose the Corinthians to their wicked inconsistency in worship.
Lastly, Paul points out that God is a jealous God and he will not tolerate worship to anything but him. He writes, "Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?" Idolatry is extremely offensive to the Lord. It would be like me telling my wife that I love her and am devoted to her, and yet I have many other women in my life that I tell the same thing to. There is no way I could be devoted to her and everyone else. MacArthur points out, "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". Let these words from Jer. 25:6-9 ring in our minds, "and do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm. "Yet you have not listened to Me," declares the LORD, "in order that you might provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm. "Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Because you have not obeyed My words, 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". May our hearts and minds be fully devoted to God.
Paul understand the graveness of this sin. All throughout his letters, Paul is warning of the dangers of being around and partaking in idol worship. In Romans 1:21-23, Paul writes, "For even though they knew God, the 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". In Colossians 2:18, Paul writes, "Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels". In Acts, Paul is quoted as saying, "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". Not only in Paul's writings, but all throughout Scripture, their are strong commands and warnings regarding idol worship. In fact, the first two commandments forbid any type of idol worship. In Job 31:24-28 we read, "If I have put my confidence in gold, and called fine gold my trust, if I have gloated because my wealth was great, and because my hand had secured so much; if I have looked at the sun when it shone or the moon going in splendor, and my heart became secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth, that too would have been an iniquity calling for judgment, for I would have denied God above". It is obvious that God desires our affections and loyalties undivided.
The key to understanding this section is to truly understand all that idol-worship encompasses. After understanding how broad this can be, we will all understand that we are all tempted with this everyday. More than just worshipping a graven image, MacArthur helps us to understand all that idolatry encompasses:
1. Worshiping any image is idolatry. This is the one we think about the most often when we think of idolatry. This was the blatant sin that Israel committed in the wilderness. Even if the image is of Christ or of God, we are not to worship that in God's place. We are not to misplace our focus from Christ to an image of Christ.
2. Worshiping angels. Paul warned of this in the Col. 2:18 verse. Angels are created beings just like we are, and to worship them in any sense is clearly idol worship as they are merely creations of the mighty God.
3. Worshiping demons. As we will learn in a few verses, many times when we worship images, we are in fact worshipping demons.
4. Worshiping dead men. In Psalm 1-6:28-29, we read, "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". Although great men, we are never to worship living or dead men in any way regardless of how godly they may have been. In Catholicism, it is common to worship the saints.
5. Supreme loyalty in our heart to anything other than God. This is where it hits a little closer to home. This speaks of the principle spoken of in Matt. 6:21, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also", Jesus said. If we ever hold up our ambitions, desires, possessions or recognition above our love for God, this is idol worship.
6. Covetousness. Also spoken of in the 10 commandments. This is the worship of materialism. We desire and lust after that which we do not have and let this desire drive our thoughts and actions.
7. Inordinate desire, or lust. Paul writes about this in Phil. 3:18-19, "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". This is the most common of all the forms of idol worship. The scary thing is, is often we do not recognize it when it is in our hearts until we have fully sinned in this way. We are to constantly check our thoughts and heart motives to make sure there is nothing we are putting before our devotion to the Lord.
With that understanding in mind, Paul continues, "Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?" In this context we can understand this to be the participation in communion. The "cup of blessing" can refer to the "blood of Christ" that was shed in order for us, in order for us to receive the righteousness of Christ. MacArthur writes, "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". It is in this ceremony which we remember the blood of Christ that was shed to cover over our sins. It is a blessed event in which we can rejoice in our salvation. Paul continues along this ceremony, "Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?" The bread is obviously not the body of Christ, and His body was never broken on the cross that He might fulfill Scripture. The "sharing in the body of Christ" refers to the fellowship that believers take part in with Christ and with each other. MacArthur writes, "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 body symbolizes our unity together. Paul continues, "Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread". Christ is the head of the church. The many who come together worship the one true God. We all stand together with one thing in common, the sacrifice for our sins was made on the cross, and in Christ alone was our sin removed. Paul then remarks, "Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?". MacArthur points out, "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". Paul's point is that just as when you participate in communion, which is the symbol of all you share in Christ, when you participate in idolatry you are worshiping an object that is not God. Therefore, to do so is completely contradictory and makes no sense.
Paul then moves to get to the meat of his case against idolatry. Even more than it being inconsistent and contradictory, it is demonic. Paul writes, "What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?" The thing that is sacrificed to the idol, and the idol itself has no power, in and of itself it is like burning something for a piece of wood or metal. The idol itself has no power or value. The piece of carved wood cannot do anything itself. Paul is pointing at what is behind the idol. He writes, "No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God". Here is Paul's main point. He wants his readers to understand that the spiritual force behind these idols are demons. Therefore, when you participate in the sacrifice to idols you are worshiping demons. How can you worship God and worship demons at the same time? MacArthur writes, "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. Paul's goal is to get the Corinthians to understand how dangerous and evil idol worship is. It is not just a cultural thing. This is not a black and white issue. He did not want them "to become sharers in demons". To help bring together his point from communion, he writes, "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". Paul is telling them that if they are to partake in communion, they cannot do so if they are also worshipping idols. That would be to make a mockery of what Christ has done. You cannot worship God in one breath, and a demon in the next. Christ had made it clear in Matt. 6:24 that you cannot "serve two masters". Paul wants to expose the Corinthians to their wicked inconsistency in worship.
Lastly, Paul points out that God is a jealous God and he will not tolerate worship to anything but him. He writes, "Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?" Idolatry is extremely offensive to the Lord. It would be like me telling my wife that I love her and am devoted to her, and yet I have many other women in my life that I tell the same thing to. There is no way I could be devoted to her and everyone else. MacArthur points out, "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". Let these words from Jer. 25:6-9 ring in our minds, "and do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm. "Yet you have not listened to Me," declares the LORD, "in order that you might provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm. "Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Because you have not obeyed My words, 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". May our hearts and minds be fully devoted to God.
posted by amesfam | 8:25 AM
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