Bible Synapse
May Christians eat meat sacrificed to idols?
Hard question · Acts and the letters · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
“An idol is nothing in the world”; food does not commend us to God, and eating or not eating makes us neither better nor worse.
As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.
Pagan sacrifices are offered to demons: “ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils”.
What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
Eat whatever is sold in the market, and what an unbeliever serves, asking no questions; but if someone says it was offered to idols, do not eat, for his sake.
Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake: For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake. But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof:
“Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats”, but God will destroy both; the body is not for fornication but for the Lord.
Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
The objection
In 1 Corinthians 8 Paul says that an idol is nothing and that food makes no difference to God, and in chapter 10 he tells Christians to eat whatever is sold in the market without asking questions. Yet in the same chapter he says that what pagans sacrifice is offered to demons and that Christians cannot share the table of demons. Is it right to eat meat sacrificed to idols or not?
The answer
Paul draws a line between eating the meat and taking part in the sacrifice. Much of the meat sold in a city like Corinth had passed through a temple. As food, Paul says, it is harmless: “an idol is nothing in the world”, and “meat commendeth us not to God” (1 Corinthians 8:4, 8). So a Christian may buy whatever is sold in the meat market without asking where it came from, and may eat what an unbelieving host serves at home (10:25–27), “For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof” (10:26).
What Paul forbids is sharing in the sacrificial meal as an act of worship. Feasts in a temple’s dining rooms were part of the god’s worship, and Paul compares them with the Lord’s Supper: as the bread and the cup are a sharing in Christ (10:16), so feasting at an idol’s table is fellowship with the demons behind the idols (10:20–21). He foresees the objection that this takes back what he said in chapter 8, and answers it. The idol is nothing, “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils” (10:19–20). Already in 8:10 he had warned against being seen to “sit at meat in the idol’s temple”. Gill puts the difference simply: eating in an idol’s temple is one thing, buying meat in the market and eating it at home is another.
Love sets one more limit. If someone at a meal points out that the meat was offered to idols, the Christian should not eat it, for the sake of that person’s conscience (10:28–29), and if eating would lead a weaker believer into sin, Paul would rather eat no meat at all (8:13). 1 Corinthians 6:13, also cited, is about food in general, in an argument about sexual sin, and does not touch idol sacrifices. So the passages give one consistent rule: the food is free, worship at an idol’s table is not, and love for others decides the cases in between.
Other answers Christians give
Acts 15 and Revelation
The Jerusalem council asked Gentile believers to abstain from “meats offered to idols” (Acts 15:29), and Revelation condemns those who teach believers to “eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication” (Revelation 2:14). Many read these, like 1 Corinthians 10:20–21, as aimed at idol feasts and the immorality that often went with them; the council’s request also helped Jewish and Gentile believers to eat together in peace.
Still open
How exactly the council’s request in Acts 15:29 relates to Paul’s rules in 1 Corinthians 8–10 is debated. Some think the council asked Gentiles to avoid all idol meat, as a concession to Jewish believers in that time and place; others think it, like Paul, had idol feasts in view.
From the classic commentators
there was a difference between an idol's temple, and eating things sacrificed to idols there, and buying them in shambles or meat market, and eating them at homeJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on 1 Corinthians 10:25 (1746–1763)