Sermon Tone Analysis
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Idolatry
Anything we we value
Anything we delight in
Anything we think about
Anything we long for more than God is an idol.
Adrian Rogers said,
What is an idol?
An idol is anything you love more than God.
An idol is anything you trust more than God.
An idol is anything you serve more than God.
An idol is anything you fear more than God.
I don’t care what it is; it’s an idol—it’s an idol.
This is the largest idol of the human heart, the idol which man loves most, and God hates most.
Dearly beloved, you will always be going back to this idol.
You are always trying to be something in yourself, to gain God’s favor by thinking little of your sin...God hates this idol more than all others, because it comes in the place of Christ; it sits on Christ’s throne.
R.M. McCheyne
It is easy not to notice our own idols.
Common things often express our connection to the divine.
1 Corinthians 10:16–18 (ESV)
16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
18 Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?
Common things like food and drink are often expressions of worship.
κοινωνία"fellowship" the act of sharing in the activities or privileges of an intimate association or group .
The Lord’s Supper.
We aren’t just eating and drinking we are worshiping.
The same principle held true in Jewish worship: “Consider the people of Israel: do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?” (v 18).
To eat sacrificial food in a context of worship was to participate in the sacrifice—the act of worship—itself.
If that is true in Christian worship (at the Lord’s table), and if it was true in Jewish worship (at the temple altar), then it is true in pagan worship as well.
The participants might think they’re just having a meal, but they’re actually worshipping an idol.
This takes us on to Paul’s second response, which relates to the true character of idols.
At a purely factual level, idols do not exist.
Paul has already conceded this point (8:4) and does so again here: “Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?
No” (10:19–20).
But demons exist.
Principalities and powers exist.
And when idols are worshipped by people who believe they are real and who serve them, demons exercise power over the worshipper.
(We could say similar things about the belief in poltergeists or the ghosts of dead people today: they are not real, but they can exercise demonic power over people who believe they are.)
So in one sense pagan sacrifices are offered to nobody at all, but in another sense they are offered to the darkest and most dangerous beings of all (v 20).
Paul wants the Corinthians to have nothing to do with them.
Mixing worship is exceedingly dangerous.
How about eating meet from the market?
Paul says in verses 23-26
1 Corinthians for You (Sacrificial Food in the Meat Market)
Ever mindful of the danger of legalism and the importance of Christian freedom, Paul wants to clarify that the problem with “idol food” is the “idol” rather than the “food”—the context rather than the content.
If it is served in the pagan temple - eat never.
If it is sold in the market - eat whenever.
In Paul’s world, as in ours, there were all sorts of people banning all sorts of foods for all sorts of reasons.
Paul will have none of it, and regularly takes the opportunity to give asceticism a punch on the nose
God created it - So I am able to eat it.
How about eating meet in private homes?
We are to exercise a loving liberty in Christ.
Every facet of my life should bring God glory.
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