The apostle proceeded to warn his readers of the danger of idolatry further (cf. v. 7). This paragraph concludes the long argument that Paul began in 8:1 concerning going to temple feasts.
10:14 Formerly Paul urged the Corinthians to flee fornication (6:18; cf. v. 8). Now he concluded all he said in verses 1-13 with the charge to flee idolatry, the worship of idols. He softened his strong command with an affectionate address ("my beloved"). Amoral activities are alright for the Christian, but if they involve or lead to idolatry we should avoid them.
10:15 This statement prepares for what follows. The apostle was confident that the Corinthians had the wisdom to understand the correctness of what he was about to tell them. He believed they could make correct judgments about what they should do. Still, to follow his logic they would need to use their minds. As we have seen, the Corinthians considered themselves very wise. They should judge for themselves that Paul was right.
10:16 The apostle employed rhetorical questions again to make his point. He was setting the Corinthians up for what he would say in verses 19-21.
Most New Testament references to the bread and the cup in the Lord's Supper occur in that order. Here Paul reversed the normal order. He probably turned them around because he wanted to give more attention to the bread in the verses that follow. The cup may focus on the vertical dimension of fellowship between the believer and the Lord whereas the bread focuses on the horizontal dimension (cf. v. 17).223The pagan feasts also emphasized both dimensions of fellowship, with the god and with the fellow-worshippers.
The "cup of blessing"was a technical term for the third of four cups of wine that the Jews drank in the Passover celebration. At the Last Supper the drinking of this cup preceded the giving of thanks for the bread (cf. Luke 22:17-20). However the Lord's Supper only involved eating bread and drinking one cup (cf. 11:23-29).
Paul described the cup as a cup of blessing, a common Jewish expression for the last cup of wine drunk at many meals. The Jews used it as a kind of toast to God for His goodness.224However, Paul turned this around by saying we bless the cup. That is, we give thanks to God for the cup because of what it symbolizes, namely our sharing in the benefits of Christ's shed blood (cf. 11:25).
Likewise the bread used at the Christian feast, the Lord's Supper, is a symbol of our participation in the effects of Christ's slain body (cf. 11:24). The Greek word here translated "sharing"(NASB) or "participation"(NIV; koinonia) in other places reads "fellowship"or "communion."This is why another name for the Lord's Supper is the communion service.
10:17 When Christians take communion we all eat from one bread symbolic of the physical body of Christ. In the early church believers seem to have used one loaf, the literal meaning of the word translated "bread"in this verse (artos). Paul stressed that many people eating from one loaf symbolized the solidarityof our relationship as a redeemed community in Christ. (He developed the idea of the unityof the body more fully in 12:14-27 in his explanation of the diversity that exists within the unity of the spiritual body of Christ, the church.) The emphasis here is on the solidarity of believers that forbids all other unions.
10:18 We can see the partnership of those who partake of sacrifices with everything the altar stands for in Judaism (cf. Deut. 14:22-27). Paul referred to Israel literally as "Israel according to the flesh."He contrasted all the physical Israelites with those who are Jewish Christians (cf. Phil. 3:3). This description lends no support to the idea that the church replaces Israel in the program of God. "Israel"always refers to Jewish people in the New Testament.
Paul's line of reasoning was proceeding as follows. Christians who eat the bread at the Lord's Supper thereby express their solidarity with one another and with Christ. Likewise Jews who ate the meat of animals offered in the sacrifices of Judaism expressed their solidarity with one another and with God. Therefore Christians who eat the meat offered to pagan gods as part of pagan worship express their solidarity with pagans and with the pagan deities.
"As in the Holy Communion, therefore, so also in the Temple services, participating in sacrificial feasts is sacrificial fellowship with an unseen power, a power that is Divine. There is something analogous to this in the sacrificial feasts of the heathen; but in that case the unseen power is not Divine."225
The "wise"man in Corinth (v. 15) could have replied to Paul's conclusion as follows. Yes, but you agreed before that idols have no real existence and there is only one true God.
10:19 Paul proceeded to clarify what he meant. He was not saying that sacrifices to idols or idols themselves were anything. That is, sacrifices to idols were not in themselves sinful nor were idols genuine entities. On this point he and the Corinthians agreed. Idols were only pieces of wood or stone, not gods with supernatural powers. Nevertheless these idols represented supernatural powers (v. 20), and so eating cultic meals had genuine significance.
10:20 The power behind pagan religion is demonic (cf. Deut. 32:17; Ps. 106:37). Consequently people who sacrifice to idols express solidarity with demonic powers. Eating the food sacrificed to idols means that the people who participated shared in what had been sacrificed to demons just as the Israelites shared in what had been sacrificed to God. The cultic feasts were really sacrifices to demons, so they involved the worship of demons.
10:21 It is inconsistent for a Christian to partake in the Lord's Supper and to take part in pagan religious feasts. In the former he eats and drinks in union with Christ, and in the latter he is in union with demons who direct the devotees to worship idols. What the Lord promotes and what the demons promote are opposite. This inconsistency must be obvious to "wise men"(v. 15). Christians have a unique relationship with the Lord and with fellow-believers, which the Lord's Supper symbolizes. It is, therefore, inappropriate for us to have a similar association with demons and unbelievers (vv. 20-21), which participation in cultic events involves.
10:22 The Israelites provoked the Lord to jealousy by doing just such a thing when they joined in Moabite worship (Num. 25; cf. Deut. 32:17, 21-22). We are to learn from their experiences. It would be folly to provoke the Lord unless we are stronger than He. If we provoke Him and are not, we can count on His chastening since He is a jealous God.
The Corinthians were arguing for the right to attend pagan religious meals. They even viewed attendance as a way of building their "weaker"brethren. Paul responded that attendance was wrong on two counts: it was unloving, and it was incompatible with life in Christ, which their participation in the Lord's Table symbolized. He forbade any relationship with the demonic. The demonic is not as remote as some modern Western Christians would like to believe.
