Dining with Demons
Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 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? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 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. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?[1]
It is possible for Christians to dine with demons. The shattering truth that Christians can be participants with demons in their diabolical activities is presented in these verses by the Apostle. The truth is that the actions of Christians have both social and spiritual implications which we dare not ignore. The Apostle insists upon an intimacy between what we declare and what is practised, which actions can bring us under judgement of the Lord. The message which I propose to present in this present hour is a continuation of the message delivered in the previous week. It explores the ramifications of the use or the abuse of the liberty we enjoy in Christ the Lord.
Partnership Declared — What do we declare as we join with other believers in celebration of that rite we know as The Lord's Supper? What do we avow as we drink the wine and eat the bread together with others such as ourselves? The Apostle could appeal to the Corinthians as sensible people capable of judging for themselves. Above all else, they declared a participation in the sacrifice of Christ. They avowed a partnership with Him in His sacrifice. Beyond that, they proclaimed unity and harmony with one another: Because there is one bread, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
As believers sharing the Communion Meal, we affirm our commitment to Christ, and our commitment to one another. We avow partnership with Christ in the work of His kingdom, and we claim partnership with one another as kingdom subjects. We aver a life of sharing in the labours of Christ, and a life of sharing with one another in all things. How often this note of partnership, of participation, of fellowship is missing in our world today. The aged Apostle John penned insightful words instructing us with respect to our partnership with the Lord.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin [1 John 1:1-7].
I call you to take careful note of a vital truth which is taught in these verses, a truth which serves to underpin every doctrine of the Faith. The truth which I call you to note is that partnership with Christ leads to and is seen in partnership with one another. To declare fellowship with Christ while out of fellowship with those believers with whom we most intimately associate with is not only incongruous—it is an impossible lie. Such thoughts need to sink into our consciousness until we are gripped with their reality.
I break the bread. It is one loaf, a symbol of our unity in Christ. To each believer sharing the meal with me I am declaring, “I am one with you. We are one with Christ. We are sharing our lives, our joys, our sorrows. We are one.” This is one reason why the Meal is seen as a Church ordinance.
Among other reasons, this is why we are instructed to examine ourselves before participating in the Meal. This is why we are instructed to look to ourselves to insure that no sense of disfellowship or lack of unity among us. To avow unity while practising selfishness is an act which brings us under judgement. Think of those words which Paul would pen in a very short while.
In the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognised. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
…So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgement. About the other things I will give directions when I come [1 Corinthians 11:17-22, 33, 34].
Partnership Demonstrated — The act of breaking the bread together declares our unity. We who are called believers and who have identified ourselves as evangelical Christians, have too frequently depreciated the ordinances. We speak of them as if they were of little importance. Almost unconsciously, we have reduced them to the level of mere religious acts without significance. But the ordinances which God has set in the Church sign-ify our declarations.
Baptism is a picture of my faith. In that ordinance I confess my belief that Christ died for my sin and that He was buried and He raised on the third day. Similarly, I declare that my old nature was dead—separated from God and under judgement, but through faith in the sacrifice of Christ and by His resurrection, I have been born from above. I declare that I am alive in Christ. Finally, in my baptism I affirm that I look forward to the metamorphosis which shall occur when Christ comes again. Though I may die and this body should be buried, I believe that at His return Christ shall raise me up to His glory. Baptism is, then, a portrayal of the glorious scope of Christ's salvation.
Likewise the Lord's Supper, though it does not make me a better Christian nor in any way make me more acceptable to God, is a declaration of my own faith. Looking back, as I partake of the Meal I recall the sacrifice of Christ in my place. Looking about, I declare my participation in His present work of unifying believers in the common Faith. Looking forward, I confess my hope in His return. The Meal is a constant and regular picturing of truths to which we adhere.
Though no blessing is conferred through participation in this Meal, a curse may be communicated if I should lie. If I avow fellowship with Christ and with his people, yet do not experience such fellowship, I am lying and placing myself in jeopardy, even as the Apostle has warned. In 1 Corinthians 11:31, 32 the Apostle warns believers to examine themselves. If we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Literally, Paul's solemn words of warning in that passage would be translated something like the following. If we had been examining ourselves all along, we would not now be undergoing judgement. When we are undergoing judgement, we are experiencing discipline because we are not under the condemnation of the world [1 Corinthians 11:31, 32].
Do you not see, then, that what we picture in our observance of the Meal is important in that it should reveal what is in our heart. Unless we are lying, we are worshipping in the presence of the Lord! We are each under obligation to insure that we examine ourselves, bringing our motives and attitudes into line with our profession. The admonition is not a prohibition; it is an encouragement to draw us into fellowship.
Partnership Demeaned — I declare my partnership with Christ and with His Body as I demonstrate that same fellowship through participation in the Fellowship Meal. It is shocking to realise that it is possible to demean that sacred avowal, debasing and degrading the very profession made.
If we dare approach the Meal as a mere rite without realising the significance of what we declare, we demean and debase both the act and the declaration we presume to have made. The Apostle takes the Corinthians to task for that very issue in the following verses. According to the Mosaic Law, only the priests could eat of the sacrifices. They, because they were appointed to office, shared in the sacrifices which were presented before the altar. Listen to the words of Leviticus 7:28-36 which demonstrate this point.
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, Whoever offers the sacrifice of his peace offerings to the Lord shall bring his offering to the Lord from the sacrifice of his peace offerings. His own hands shall bring the Lord’s food offerings. He shall bring the fat with the breast, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the Lord. The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be for Aaron and his sons. And the right thigh you shall give to the priest as a contribution from the sacrifice of your peace offerings. Whoever among the sons of Aaron offers the blood of the peace offerings and the fat shall have the right thigh for a portion. For the breast that is waved and the thigh that is contributed I have taken from the people of Israel, out of the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons, as a perpetual due from the people of Israel. This is the portion of Aaron and of his sons from the Lord’s food offerings, from the day they were presented to serve as priests of the Lord. The Lord commanded this to be given them by the people of Israel, from the day that he anointed them. It is a perpetual due throughout their generations.”
Whenever a fellowship offering was brought to the Tabernacle, it was understood that the priests would share in that fellowship offering. The one bringing the offering declared his or her desire for renewal of fellowship with God, and at the same time, he or she declared fellowship with those who ministered at the altar. To make the one declaration was to make the other; both alike were avowed.
The Apostle, reviewing that familiar scene in his mind, drew an analogy to the Fellowship Meal … or to any other declarative meal in which the believer participates. To participate in an activity is to lend credence to that which the activity declares! To eat of the Lord's Table is to affirm that which the Meal declares. Similarly, to participate in an idol feast was to avow concurrence with that which was declared through the idol feast—it was to lend credence to the existence of the demonic influence behind the idol. To attempt to share in both activities was to debase the Lord's Table.
It is unthinkable, but true. These Corinthian believers were actually dining with demons! The Name of the Lord was debased and demeaned—if not in the eyes of the world surrounding these professing believers, then certainly in their own eyes.
Fortunately, we who are Christians have no such difficulties today … or do we? Consider that whenever I, as a child of the Living God, give assent to the prevailing attitudes of humanism, I am doing exactly that which the Corinthians did and which merited the apostolic rebuke. Whenever I permit the teachings of the Word of God to be ridiculed without registering my dissent, or whenever I elevate the ideas of man above the wisdom of God, I am reducing the Lord God to the level of a mere convenience. At such a time, I am dining with demons.
Whenever I adopt a casual attitude toward morality that excuses premarital sex, or tolerates extramarital sex, or accepts homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle, I am in my mind sharing in that particular teaching. At such a time, I have begun to dine with demons. Whenever I turn from attitudes of chastity and modesty to tolerate and promote immodest dress, I am dining with demons. Whenever I participate in the salacious feast of Eros, satiating my eyes with scenes of nudity and pornography and the degradation of that which God meant to be beautiful and wholesome and holy within the bounds of marriage, I am dining with demons. At such times, I am agreeing that the philosophy of this world is correct and that God is in error. Whenever I attempt to justify the lack of permanence in the marriage relationship, excusing casting off a partner as one would discard a worn pair of shoes, I am dining with demons.
In any of the instances mentioned, I had as well be a Corinthian attending the Temple of Venus or of Aphrodite or of Ishtar. Participating, either vicariously or in actual fact, in such activities is tantamount to fellowshipping with the demonic.
Whenever I permit vulgarity and filth and rebellion to enter my home via the television or VCR or through the media of radio or compact discs, I am dining with demons. I fear that some of us look forward to vicarious participation in pornography via the eyesore of the home with greater anticipation than we do to sharing in the greatest work the world has ever known—the preaching of the Gospel. Shame!
Whenever I seek to lose myself in the momentary euphoria of drugs or liquor, or whenever I condone the cocktail party and the consumption of liquid pot, I am dining with demons. Whenever I fail to speak out against the evil of drunkenness or actively defend such, I am dining with demons. Whenever I do such things, it is no different than if I were a Corinthian participating in the feasts of Dionysus. I am dining with demons.
Whenever I harbour and relish the joy of malice, the secret thrill of slander, or the excitement of gossip, I am dining with demons. Whenever I am so controlled by “self” that I refuse to forgive or do so only grudgingly, I am dining with demons. Whenever I exalt and elevate “self” to the position of pre-eminence in my view and in my experience, I am dining with demons. It is no different than if I were a Corinthian participating in a feast to Zeus or Ares or Eris. I am dining with demons.
It is inappropriate that I should spend the week “dining with demons” and then come to the services of the Body of Christ and share in that Fellowship Meal, declaring that I am in fellowship with Christ and with the people of God. Is it any wonder that revival waits? Is it any wonder that the people of God, though many, are not much? Is it any wonder that the power of God has departed—that the glory of the Living God has departed His Temple? Is it any wonder that we see an increasing number of those whom we love and for whom we care attracted to the strange fires of various cults when no fire burns on the altar of the Lord? We have sinned. We have dishonoured the Lord. We need forgiveness. We need to repent. We have demeaned the name of the lord. We have debased our own profession of relationship to Him. We have degraded our profession.
Partnership Disciplined — If you have followed what has been said to this point, you have realised the following thoughts provide an excellent summation of the message:
Association Leads To Participation.
Participation Leads To Diabolical Involvement.
Involvement Leads To Spiritual Disaster.
God will, and does, judge His people. God will not tolerate sin. If we will not judge ourselves, if we will not judge our own attitudes and actions, God will Himself judge us!
Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? This is the apostolic challenge. Paul is at this point speaking in a rather facetious manner. “Why do this? Why act as if our actions were unimportant? Do you hope to make the Lord jealous so that He will bless you in a panic-stricken attempt to bring you back?” You see, our actions and our attitudes become the basis for divine judgement; and the Living God demands accountability of His own. He Himself shall judge His people.
The Corinthians had attempted to hide behind a facade of an old saw. They said, All things are lawful. In effect, they were claiming that liberty set them free from all rules. They were abusing the liberty which God has given them. Lest you think we are terribly different, I caution you that Christians today are prone to claim the same thing. We say in the identical vein, We live under grace.
In appealing to this truth, we forget that though it is true we live under grace, we are not our own. We are bought with a price and therefore we are under obligation to honour the Lord through our actions, just as the Apostle will remind his readers in a few, short verses. 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 [1 Corinthians 10:31, 32].
What of you and what of me? Have we been dining with demons? Have we tolerated and promoted evil through our lives during this week past? Have we feasted our eyes or our ears or our minds on that which is inappropriate for God's Holy people? What shall we do?
If I were to say that we who have sinned must abstain from the Table of the Lord, it would solve nothing. We would abstain, and then we would go home, returning to that which has already contaminated us. We would still be in the same state we were in before be heard the message. That is no answer. We need to take steps to remedy the malady which has infected our souls.
I believe the better answer is that which we find repeatedly throughout the Word of God. Let us now humble ourselves. Let us each confess, in our own heart and before the Lord Christ, that particular sin which has contaminated our lives, being careful to name it. Let us each resolve that by the grace of God we will forsake that sin, admitting our own powerlessness and casting ourselves on Christ for the power to forsake it. Let us determine that we will henceforth partake of the Fellowship Meal having used the time to insure fellowship—first with God and then with one another.
Perhaps we would do well to again read the words of the Apostle penned in the encyclical Ephesian letter. The passage is extended, but it is worthy of our solemn consideration. Read with me now, Ephesians 4:17-5:21.
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
The focus of this message is for those who profess the Name of Christ as Lord. When you confess your devotion to Christ, does your life reveal fellowship with demons? What a dreadful question! May it not include any of us. Should it speak of our lives, let us determine to lay aside the baggage of dead works, the weight which drags us down, that we may serve Christ acceptably. Let us each one determine that so long as the world stands we will make every effort to honour Christ the Lord.
To you who have yet to decide for Christ, we now extend our invitation to consider the life which He offers. That life is found as you submit your life to Him, seeking Him as Master of your life. This is the Word of God to you. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [Romans 10:9-13]. Amen.
Literally, Paul's solemn words of warning in that passage would be translated something like the following. If we had been examining ourselves all along, we would not now be undergoing judgement. When we are undergoing judgement, we are experiencing discipline because we are not under the condemnation of the world [1 Corinthians 11:31, 32].
Association Leads To Participation.
Participation Leads To Diabolical Involvement.
Involvement Leads To Spiritual Disaster.
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[1] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture passages are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Good News Publishers, 2001. Used with permission.