The Narrow Path Ministries

Dear Steve,

On the matter of food offerred to idols, Jesus (in Rev 2:14 and Rev 2:20), the Holy Spirit (in Acts 15:28-29) and the Jerusalem council (in Acts 15:28-29) have required that Christians not eat food offered to idols. However, Paul tells us that food does not commend us to God (1 Cor 8:8) and that Christians have the liberty to eat food offered to idols if it is not against their conscience (1 Cor 10:25).

I don't think that Paul is contradicting either Jesus or the Holy Spirit, so I was wondering how to figure this out. What do you think?

[I'm guessing that Jesus used the phrase "food offered to idols" as a synecdoche for idolatry. That would also make some sense out of Paul's warning against idolatry in 1 Cor 10:6-22 in the midst of his discussion about food offered to idols.]

Benjamin,

I realize it's been a while since you posted this, so maybe you've already got a satisfactory answer. I'll take a shot at it anyway.

My thinking has been that these are separate circumstances.

In 1 Cor he's talking to people who buy meat that may have been sacrificed to idols and points out that it dosen't make any difference one way or the other.

In Rev 2 he's talking about people who are being taught to eat meat offered to idols. In other words, they're making a point of eating meat offered to idols for religous purposes. Therefore they would have had involvement, to one degree or another, in the idol worship.

In Acts it could have been (although it's not explicitly stated as it is in Rev) a similar situation. There was much superstition at that time. The Gentile Christians could have been tempted to make a point of eating meat offered to idols to avoid "bad karma" from the gods. Paul, in 1Cor is pointing out that it makes no difference to the meat if it's offered to idols or not. If you realize that then it's OK to eat.

Just my thoughts,
Steve

Dear AnotherSteve,

My answer at this point in time is similar to yours except for Acts 15:

In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul was referring to the context of buying food offered to idols in the market place (and even eating food offered to idols in someone's house). Apparently, excess meat from idol sacrifices was sold in the marketplace, and people could buy these meats cheaply.

In 1 Corinthians 10:20-21, Paul warned them not to take this freedom to the extreme, i.e. they are not to participate in heathen religious activities. i.e. permission to eat food offered to idols should not be understood as permission to participate in idolatry. I think this is the same meaning in Revelation 2:14 and 2:20.

In Acts 15, the context was about maintaining peaceful relations between the Gentile believers and the Jewish believers. The instructions laid the common ground between the believers from these two backgrounds. Also James mentioned in Acts 15:21 that these Gentile cities had significant Jewish population as a reason for the instructions. This would suggest that in 1 Cor 10:28 the person who informs about food offered to idols might have been a Jew, and thus the Gentile should not eat it for the sake of the Jew's conscience.