The Good of Others for the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 11:23–11:1)

For the apostle Paul, everything about life was informed by the message of the cross. This is once again front and centre in the text before us.

Paul was concerned both about his own spiritual welfare and the spiritual welfare of others—both in the church and outside, whom he desperately wanted to see inside, the church (unbelieving Jews and unbelieving Gentiles). This has been at the heart of everything he has written in chapters 8, 9, and, thus far, 10. This becomes patently clear in these closing verses of chapter 10. Paul was concerned about the good of others. But fundamentally, he was concerned for the glory of God. His love for his neighbour was fuelled by his love for God. He cared about the salvation of others because he cared deeply about the sanctity of God’s name. He cared about the ultimate good of others because he cared ultimately about the glory of God. This is at the heart of this passage.

Having exhorted the Corinthian church to flee from idolatrous feasts, there remains one related matter: eating meat in one’s private capacity, which may have been offered to an idol.

Specifically, what does the Christian do when it comes to purchasing meat that may have been offered to an idol, and what if you are at a person’s home who is serving such meat? How does a Christian respond? How does the Christian live well in a world saturated with idolatry?

Paul’s instruction is relevant to us as we also live in a culture saturated with sinful idols. How do we interact with an unbelieving, idolatrous world to the glory of God and the good of our neighbour? When do we take a stand and when do we not? What in the world can we enjoy and what must we not enjoy? Let’s dig into the text and look for answers as how to live for the good of others for the glory of God. Let us see how the weight of God’s glory and the worth of a human soul inform us how to live in this world of idols.

We will aim for this by studying this passage under several headings:

1. Love Your Neighbour (10:23–27)
2. Love Your God (10:28–33)
3. Live Like Your Lord (11:1)

Love Your Neighbour

First, Paul exhorts his readers to love neighbour:

“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbour. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

(1 Corinthians 10:23–27)

As has been clear for the past 62 verses, Paul was burdened for the spiritual welfare of people, particularly in the context of a culture in which idolatry was ubiquitous and in which the temptation to idolatry was therefore inescapable. He has illustrated how he was willing to die to his rights to help others to escape the sin of idolatry. He was personally aware that, in dying to his rights, he was also strengthening the assurance of his own salvation (9:24–27). In this closing passage, Paul returns to the theme of restraining one’s rights lest another stumbles along the path to Christ. “Paul’s [closing] comments qualify a Christian’s freedom in any circumstance where their behaviour may be reasonably interpreted by others as participation in or support of idolatry” (Ciampa and Rosner). The motivation is love for one’s neighbour, whether that neighbour is a church member or an unbeliever. There are two things to consider.

Think of Others

First, Paul challenges his readers to think of others (vv. 23–24). Hearkening back to 6:12, he again quotes—twice—what was apparently a Corinthian saying (“all things are lawful for me”) and then responds with a godly, neighbourly rebuttal.

Though he seems to quote with approval, we need to understand what he does and does not have in mind. Schreiner helpfully observes, “Paul is not suggesting that eating food in an idol’s temple is permissible, since he has just finished arguing that such an action is idolatrous and may lead to final judgment. The subject of this paragraph is whether one may eat idol food sold in the open market.”

Since idolatry was widespread, it was likely that meat purchased in the marketplace had been secured from a temple. So, how should the Christian function in the (literal) marketplace?

Additionally, what if an unbeliever invites a Christian to a meal? Should she accept the invitation? Is it right to partake of a meal with an unbeliever, or do vv. 15–20 apply here as well? After all, since possibly the meat served at the meal will have been offered first to an idol, should Christians decline the invitation? Or, having accepted the invitation, how should they respond when the leg of lamb is passed to them? Should they say something? Should they enquire about its history? At issue here is, how does the Christian interact with unbelieving neighbours?

The fundamental principle Paul reveals—again—is that the Christian should think of the spiritual welfare of others. This will be an important guide in making such decisions.

First, though it is lawful to eat meat that may have a suspicious history, it may not be beneficial (helpful) to an observant unbeliever. If an activity might compromise one’s gospel testimony, or raise questions of integrity (hypocrisy), by all means, abstain! Think of others and restrain your liberty. Love your neighbour. Paul will flesh this out later.

Second, though it is lawful to eat meat that may have a suspicious history, it may deconstruct the faith of another rather than building it up. In such a case, think of your brother or sister in Christ and restrain your liberty. Love your nearest neighbour.

Both of these qualifications are rooted in what Paul says next: “Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbour” (v. 24). This is a frequent concept in Paul’s discipling of the local church (13:5; Romans 14:7; 15:2; Galatians 6:2; Philippians 2:1–7). It is to be a mark of our church. We are to focus on serving the welfare of others more than serving our own desires. In other words, when confronted with a “questionable” situation, ask how your decision will help or hinder discipleship. Consider how your decision will either build up or tear down what God is doing in their lives (and in our church). Run your decision through the filter of love for your neighbour.

So many conflicts and wounds can rightly be avoided in a church and in a community if we would use such a filter. “Do I really need to say this?” “Do I really need to send this email?” “Do I really need to exercise my liberty?”

Can you imagine the revival we could have if, out of love for Christ, each of us applied the truth of this verse in our interactions with one another? Our biggest conflicts would be over who gets to die to self first! Imagine if Christian husbands and wives practiced this. Imagine if Christian children practiced this.

Paul now applies this principle practically to the matter at hand. He moves from theory to action. He moves from faithful words to faithful works. Counterintuitively, he exhorts them to enjoy God’s good gifts. Too often, Christians are uptight and negative about everything around us, thinking that that is true Christianity. Paul begs to differ, thank the Lord.

Thank the Lord

In essence Paul’s first counsel is to not be overly scrupulous (vv. 25–27). Either in the marketplace or in the home of a neighbour.

Remember Common Grace

When the Corinthian Christian goes to the market to purchase food for her sustenance, she will be interacting with an unbelieving world. The shop owners probably won’t be Christians; in fact, they will be either idolators or unbelieving Jews. They will be either antinomians or legalists. They will not share her Christ-centred worldview.

At that time in history, the modern Christian subculture did not yet exist, including any kind of a Christian neighbourhood. There were no butchers displaying the Christian fish symbol, advertising allegiance to Jesus. In most situations, you would not be interacting with those who had any affinity for Jesus. Some would even be overtly hostile to his name.

Because of this ubiquitous unbelief, when buying your meat, there was a good chance it had earlier been part of an idolatrous sacrifice. Paul knew that and his advice was to go ahead and make the purchase without being overly scrupulous about it. In a sense he is saying, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you or your neighbour.” He substantiates this instruction by quoting Psalm 24:1: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”

In that psalm, the sovereign Creator, Yahweh, is honoured as owner and king over all creation. The meat originated with God and is among his many gracious gifts to humanity. The Christian therefore can purchase the meat, thanking God for it and then enjoy the braai. Paul here affirms what he said earlier about the neutrality of meat (8:8; 10:19). The Christian should not assume that food handled by an unbeliever makes it bad and therefore makes the Christian worldly. Rather than being suspicious and overly and paralysingly careful, the Christian should fill her shopping trolly. There is a lesson for us here.

A new believer is often filled not only with joy but also with zeal. Sometimes, this zeal can be turned in a negative direction in which everything from his old life is suspect, including friends, recreation, music, possessions, etc. This is understandable and, in some cases, abstinence is necessary for one’s spiritual welfare. However, this can morph into an unhealthy rejection of God’s good gifts and Christians can become kill-joys as they develop a practice of “pooh-poohing” everything that does not have a Christian symbol on it: non-Christian music; non-Christian art; sports, business, recreational hobbies; relationships with non-Christians; etc.

The fact is, when a person is converte, they are in the best position to enjoy life. Let’s thank God for both his command and special grace to his children.

Fleeing senseless idolatry, self-indulgence, and sexual immorality is the responsibility of the Christian. But this is not tantamount to fleeing the world with its many gifts from the Creator of the cosmos. We are not to be of the world, of course. But we are in the world (see John 17:14–19). Beware the folly of thinking grumpy is godly!

We need to be more neighbourly and less negative, particularly if we will effectively evangelise. That is, joyful rather than joyless. We can be (and should) be against sin, but for what God has sanctified (1 Timothy 4:1–5).

Be eagerly engaged to evangelise. If you are overly-scrupulous about interacting with the world, fastidiously fussy about being wrongly seen as worldly, we run the risk of isolating ourselves from others. After all, if Corinthian believers were overly-scrupulous about purchasing meat with a questionable history, chances were that they would never interact with their neighbours in the marketplace. But how can Christians be salt if they never get near the meat?

Sometimes, Christians are fussy about enjoying God’s good gifts because of fear of man. I don’t mean fear of unbelievers but rather fear of believers. Because we don’t want to be misunderstood, we disengage from those things for which there is no reason to disengage. Sometimes, because of intimidation by “professional weaker brothers,” Christians cut themselves off from those things they could enjoy. This might all sound strange in a passage where Paul makes the point of dying to our liberties. But it need not. Yes, when the weightiness of God’s glory is being minimised by a certain action, cut it out. When there is potential for the gospel to be eclipsed by certain behaviour, don’t do it. But an over-scrupulous approach to the world can easily become a stumbling-block to evangelism.

This passage can help us in the month of June and what I will call the “Woolworths wokeness.” Gay Pride Month makes Christians uneasy. It should. After all, it promotes what God condemns. Its goal is not merely to promote tolerance but to coerce affirmation, celebration, and participation. So what do we do when Woolworths is decked out in rainbows? Is it wrong to shop there—then or ever?

Just as Paul counsels against participation in affirming idolatry, so the Christian must never behave in any way that affirms what dishonours God. However, buying a product from Woolworths is not tantamount to affirming its wrong-headed and sinful worldview about gender and sexuality. Of course, if you purchase something that is clearly promoting this evil agenda, it is wrong. If it has rainbow, don’t put it in your shopping cart. But buying a roasted chicken from the deli is not necessarily the same thing.

Remember Special Grace

Paul applies the same principle to being invited by an unbeliever for a private meal (v. 27). First, what an opportunity for evangelism! What an opportunity to share a meal provided by God’s common grace for sustenance with the opportunity to proclaim special grace of salvation! Paul says to accept the invitation. (Remember: Jesus ate with unbelievers—including at times his own unbelieving disciples!)

But Paul also cautions against asking too many questions. He wants them to look for common ground rather than points of difference. Though the meat may have been offered to an idol, it will not hurt you or hinder your witness—unless you ask and they tell (v. 28ff). In that situation, you are potentially causing them to question your loyalty to Christ, thus placing an evangelistic stumbling-block before them. Just enjoy the meal, looking for an opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.

Paul cautions both against compromise and confusion. We need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

In summary, we need to avoid being so sensitive that we end up wrongly isolating ourselves from the world. The truth is, if we dig deep enough, we will find some questionable ideology behind most things we purchase. Therefore, don’t ask. Relax and enjoy God’s good gifts that, by his common grace, are available to us all. However, if someone tells, then keep away from it. This brings us to our next point.

Love Your God

In vv. 28–33, Paul exhorts his readers to love God above all:

But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

(1 Corinthians 10:28–33)

Paul now addresses the situation when, though you have not asked, yet the host tells you that the main course is the leftovers from a sacrifice to a false god. In such a case, Paul tells you that, out of love for your neighbour, driven by your love for God, decline the meal.

Paul seeks to “please everyone in everything that he does, not seeking my own advantage” (v. 33). And everyone is advantaged when they are saved by God. It is clear that Paul sought fundamentally to please God, which kept him from wrongly trying to please man (see Galatians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:4). Otherwise, man would not be ultimately pleased. God is pleased when “the many” are “saved” (cf. Isaiah 53:11–12). And those “many” are then very pleased! Therefore, sometimes the Christian needs to initially cause displeasure as they aim at the ultimate pleasure of another.

When a Christian refused to eat meat offered to an idol, the unbeliever would likely be displeased. But this would be good for his soul as he considered the error of his ways.

Alternately, to partake of the food may cause the unbeliever to question either the genuineness of professed faith and/or the greatness of the Lord. After all, if he is Lord of lords and King of kings, why would Christians participate in potential idol worship (see vv. 19–21)? “What is such good news about a god who seems to be on the level as my god? What kind of a saviour is he, really?” Syncretism helps no one.

Love God and His Gospel Supremely

Love for God means willingness to be misunderstood. Love for God means willingness to lose the fish in order to honour the one who fished you out of a sea of hopelessness. Love for God means refusal to compromise on the message that is the only hope for those whom you love and yet who make themselves estranged. As much as we might love the sinner, we love our sovereign Saviour more. In fact, it is this love for the Saviour that drives our love for the sinners we are seeking to win. We see this further in what follows.

Weighing the Why

The two questions in vv. 29–30 should probably be read as rhetorical. Having made the point that the refusal to participate (v. 28) is out of concern for the conscience of the host, Paul understands that his readers might ask, “Why do we need to do this? After all, our conscience is clear. In fact we even give thanks to God for the meal. Why then must we be controlled by the conscience of others?”

Paul answers in v. 31 when he says, “Here is why: for the glory of God.” The weight of God’s glory is why. God is to be honoured above all. Therefore if there is the likelihood of your behaviour eclipsing his glorious glory don’t participate.

The reference to eat and drink contextually fits the theme but then Paul expands this to whatever you do. When we speak of “glorifying God,” we can fall into Christianise, using words that have no meaning. We don’t need to do so here, for the context of this imperative tells us precisely what glorifies God: the salvation of sinners, whether unbelieving Jews, unbelieving Gentiles, or an increasingly believing and obeying church. Paul wants his readers to live with consciousness of God and to make others conscious as well.

When we seek to bring the weighty truth of the gospel to bear on others, we are glorifying God. The weightiness of his holiness and love on both ends of the scale are meant to weigh upon the conscience bringing a person to repentance and saving trust in Jesus Christ alone.

When Christians see and sense the weight of God’s glory, they will be moved to properly weigh up the value of a human soul. Conversely, when we see and sense the worth of a human soul, we will want them to know the weight of God’s glory. This compels us to die to self as we seek the ultimate pleasure of the many for whom Jesus Christ died. A refusal to do so potentially creates an offence before others. This has been defined as “an obstacle that keeps someone from finding their way to ultimate salvation, to the proper destination of life’s journey” (Ciampa and Rosner).

Of course, Paul is concerned for the spiritual wellbeing of the church of God as well. As church members interact with one another, they must be careful not to grieve one another by their liberty. They need to beware not to put a cause of stumbling before another member. When the congregation is committed to assisting one another with a clear conscience, God is glorified. As Schreiner notes, “God is glorified when the stability and continuance of faith of those belonging to the church remains a concern for all believers.” God is glorified when there is a weighty unity, a God-centred commitment to full and final salvation.

Live Like Your God

Paul concludes this entire section with a final imperative commanding the church to be imitators (“follow”) him in as much as he is following Christ: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (11:1). Ultimately, his command is that the church should imitate Jesus their Lord and Saviour. He is the supreme example of seeking the good of others to the glory of God.

“Living for the glory of God is inextricably tied to living for the good of others” (Schreiner), and no one exemplifies this more than our Saviour, the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

It was certainly lawful for Jesus to do what was most comfortable for himself. It was certainly lawful for him to let sinners face God’s righteous judgement. It was his right to be honoured as King rather than to be treated as a criminal.

Yet he knew that, if he held on to his rights, sinners would be hurt rather than helped. He knew that, if he did what was comfortable, the church would not be built. Therefore, he humbled himself to the point of humiliation before sinners. Rather than justly scorning sinners, he mercifully sacrificed himself for them. Rather than rightfully judging sinners, he graciously justified them. Rather than choosing his own way, he submitted to the Father’s way. Rather than exercising his free-sovereignty to save himself, he used his freedom to save others (Matthew 27:42). He literally “saved many” (Isaiah 53:11–13) by laying aside his rights. He did eternal good to others for and to the glory of God. And every one of his followers is called to live the same way.

Just as Paul did. “Because the salvation of many others is Paul’s driving motivation, his own good will always be subordinate to theirs. He will use his freedom to deny himself the rights which are freely his if that means that others will come to be saved, through faith in Christ crucified” (Jackman). Paul was simply following his Saviour’s example.

Brothers, sisters, we too are called to this cruciform—cross-shaped—approach to one another. We too are privileged to follow in the footsteps of our Saviour, dying to our rights, taking up our cross for the good of others to the glory of God.

May we feel the glorious weight of God’s glory, pressing us to declare the good news of a crucified, risen, reigning, returning Saviour. May we seek this gospel good of others for the glory of God.

AMEN