1 Corinthians 11:1

Paul has already shown that an idol is nothing (1 Corinthians 8:4–6). In 1 Corinthians 9 he set out his own example of giving up his rights for the gospel, and he then warned from Israel’s history in the wilderness that God’s people can fall into idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:1–13). He has forbidden the Corinthians to share the table of idols at their feasts (1 Corinthians 10:14–22). Now he turns to the everyday meals that remain.

“All things are lawful for me” was probably a saying current in the Corinthian church among believers who knew their freedom in Christ. Paul quoted it once before, in 1 Corinthians 6:12, where his concern was the danger of being brought under the power of anything. Here his concern is what our freedom does to other people and to the unity of the church. He repeats the saying and agrees with it each time, then adds a test of his own after it, so that their liberty stands and its use is corrected.

The word for lawful, éxesti, is an impersonal verb meaning “it is permitted” or “it is lawful”. In matters such as food the believer truly is free, because Jesus taught that what enters a man from outside cannot defile him (Mark 7:18–19).

The first test is whether a thing is “expedient”. The Greek symphérō is formed from “together” and “to bear”, and it came to mean what brings advantage and does good. A thing may be allowed and still be of little use to us or to anyone else. The second test is whether it edifies. The verb oikodoméō means to build, and figuratively to build up, and Paul uses it throughout this letter for strengthening the faith of others and the church as a whole: “Let all things be done unto edifying” (1 Corinthians 14:26). With this second word the question moves from what helps me to what helps the body of Christ.

So the believer’s question about a free act has three parts: is it permitted, will it help, and will it build up the people around me? Paul has already warned that liberty used carelessly becomes a stumblingblock to the weak (1 Corinthians 8:9–13), and he gives the same warning in Romans 14:13.

Corinth was a busy port city full of temples. Animals were sacrificed to idols, and the edible portions were then sold in the public meat market, the macellum. The KJV’s “shambles” translates mákellon, a butcher’s stall or meat market. Paul is speaking of ordinary buying and selling, where the history of a cut of meat was usually unknown to the buyer, and he sets this market apart from the idol’s feast he has just forbidden.

His word is simple: “that eat.” He has already said that food does not commend us to God (1 Corinthians 8:8), and the meat on the stall is simply food. The believer is to buy it “asking no question for conscience sake”. The verb anakrínō means to examine or investigate, and with mēdeís, “not even one”, the phrase rules out any inquiry at all. The conscience, syneídēsis, is the inner moral sense that judges our actions and approves or condemns them. Asking where the meat came from would only load the believer’s conscience with a scruple over something clean, and a question asked aloud in the market could trouble a weaker brother who overheard it.

Jesus put it plainly: “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man” (Matthew 15:11). Paul says the same in Romans 14:14, that nothing is unclean of itself, and in Titus 1:15, that to the pure all things are pure. He also tells the Colossians to let no man judge them in meat or in drink (Colossians 2:16). These verses free believers from anxious scrupulosity in a matter God has left free.

Verse 27 moves from the market to a private home. If an unbeliever “bid you to a feast”, using kaléō, to call or invite, “and ye be disposed to go”, the choice is yours. The phrase “disposed to go” joins the Greek words thélō, to will, and poreúomai, to go. Invitations from neighbours, friends and people one did business with were part of life in Corinth, and a guest was expected to accept what was served, so that refusing food or asking pointed questions could give real offence.

Paul’s rule matches the market: “whatsoever is set before you, eat.” “Whatsoever” comes from pâs, all or every, and it covers the whole table. The words “asking no question for conscience sake” close this verse as they closed verse 25, and here they keep the believer’s own conscience clear of a doubt he has no need to raise.

This freedom keeps doors open for the gospel. Jesus ate with publicans and sinners (Matthew 9:10–13), and Paul made himself all things to all men so that he might by all means save some (1 Corinthians 9:19–23). Christ has made us free, and we are to stand fast in that liberty (Galatians 5:1), a freedom that lets a believer sit as a gracious guest at an unbeliever’s table.

The question Paul first raised in 1 Corinthians 8 comes to its sharpest case in verse 28. If someone at the meal says plainly that the meat is eidōlóthyton, a thing sacrificed to an idol, the believer is to “eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake”. The meat is the same as before. What has changed is that a person has drawn attention to its origin, and eating now would say something to that person.

Who that person is the verse leaves open, and believers differ on it. On one reading he is a fellow believer with a weak conscience, who would be drawn by the example to eat against his own conviction. On another he is an unbeliever, perhaps the host or another guest, who would take the Christian’s eating as approval of the idol. On either reading the conscience in view belongs to the one who spoke, and love for him decides the matter.

Paul then repeats the words of the psalm: “for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” The believer who gives up this dish loses nothing he needs, because every meal in the world is the Lord’s provision. He sets his freedom aside out of love for the other person, free of any fear that the meat could defile him.

Verse 29 makes the point exact: “Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other.” Paul assumes that the believer’s own conscience is clear about the meat. In this moment the conscience that matters is the other person’s, and caring for it is an act of self-denial and of love.

Then Paul asks, “for why is my liberty judged of another man’s conscience?” Liberty is eleuthería, freedom, here the believer’s real freedom from the food laws and from the power of idols. “Judged” is krínō, to distinguish or decide, and by implication to try or condemn. Paul speaks as the free believer would. If I go on eating after I have been told, my liberty, good as it is, will be condemned in another person’s mind, and something meant for God’s honour becomes a cause of division.

Verse 30 presses the same question: “For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks?” To be a partaker, metéchō, is to share in the food. “By grace”, cháris, means that the believer’s freedom is God’s favour and gift. “Evil spoken of” is blasphēméō, to speak evil of, defame or revile. “Give thanks” is eucharistéō, to be grateful and to say so. There is an irony here, because the thanksgiving that honours God and sanctifies the food for the believer becomes the very thing others criticise. Paul’s answer follows at once in the “therefore” of verse 31, and it is to give no occasion for such talk.

Verse 31 gathers the whole of 1 Corinthians 10 into one rule: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” The “therefore” ties it to the questions about meat. Eating and drinking are the plainest acts of daily life, and “whatsoever ye do” takes in all the rest: work, rest, home, friendships, decisions and motives. The verb poiéō, to make or do, is a word of very wide use, and pâs, all, leaves nothing outside the rule.

The word for glory, dóxa, speaks of God’s majesty, excellence and honour. To do something to the glory of God is to do it in a way that shows who he is and leads others to acknowledge his worth. God made his people for his glory (Isaiah 43:7). Paul tells the Colossians to do whatever they do, in word or deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:17), and he asks the Romans to present their bodies a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). So the believer’s life is one piece, with ordinary meals and ordinary work as much a place of worship as the gathering of the church.

In daily practice this shows itself in a handful of ways:

• Motive. We do things first to honour God, ahead of gain, recognition or pleasure.
• Diligence. We do our work heartily, as to the Lord (Colossians 3:23–24).
• Integrity. The integrity of the upright guides them (Proverbs 11:3), and honest dealing shows God’s righteousness.
• Love. Jesus told his disciples to love one another as he loved them, and said that all would know them by it (John 13:34–35).
• Stewardship. Time, gifts and body come from God, and we are to be good stewards of his grace (1 Peter 4:10).
• Gratitude. We receive food and every good thing with thanksgiving, as from the Giver.

Verse 32 reads, “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.” The key word is apróskopos, formed from a negative and a verb meaning to strike against or stumble. Used actively, as here, it means inoffensive, a person whose conduct is free of anything that would trip another up. Used passively, it means blameless. Paul has in mind an action that leads someone into sin or doubt, or keeps him from receiving the gospel, which is a weightier thing than hurt feelings.

The three groups cover everyone. “The Jews”, Ioudaîos, are those belonging to Judah, Jewish by descent, whether or not they believe in Christ. Unbelieving Jews, who were strict about anything touching idolatry, should find in a Christian’s conduct nothing to keep them from considering Christ, and Jewish believers should have their convictions respected. “The Gentiles” translates Héllēn, Greek, used for the non-Jewish peoples, among them many who might yet come to faith and new believers still finding their way out of paganism. “The church of God” is the ekklēsía, the assembly or congregation of believers, and it belongs to theós, God. Within it our conduct should build unity and growth.

Peter likewise tells believers to keep their conduct honest among the Gentiles (1 Peter 2:12), and Paul prays that the Philippians may discern what is excellent (Philippians 1:10). The gospel does carry an offence of its own. Christ crucified is a stumblingblock to some and the power and wisdom of God to those who are called (1 Corinthians 1:23–24), and Paul speaks of “the offence of the cross” (Galatians 5:11). That offence belongs to the message, and verse 32 forbids the needless offence that our own careless choices would add to it.

Verse 33 sets Paul’s own life before the Corinthians: “Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.” To please, aréskō, is to be agreeable to someone or to seek to be. “Profit” is symphérō, the same word that is translated “expedient” in verse 23, so Paul answers his own test with his own practice: what he weighs is the profit of others. “Many” takes in believers whose faith might be strengthened and unbelievers who might come to faith, and the aim is stated plainly, “that they may be saved”. The verb sṓzō means to save, deliver or protect, and here it is salvation from sin and its eternal end, through faith in Christ.

This is the rule of verse 24, now shown in a life, and it is the love that 1 Corinthians 13 describes. It is also Christ’s own way, for the Son of man came to minister and to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45), and God so loved the world that he gave his Son, that whoever believes in him should have everlasting life (John 3:16).

“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” This verse closes the argument of chapter 10, and it also leads into the instructions on head coverings and the Lord’s Supper that follow in chapter 11.

The KJV’s “followers” translates mimētḗs, from miméomai, to imitate: one who deliberately patterns his life on another. “Be ye” is gínomai, to become, so Paul calls the Corinthians to become imitators of him. The pattern he has in mind is the one just described, giving up his own profit for the salvation of others. He made the same call earlier in the letter (1 Corinthians 4:16). In the Greek and Roman world a teacher’s disciples commonly copied their master’s way of life, and Paul takes up that familiar practice and ties it to Christ.

“Even as” (kathṓs) sets the limit. Paul is worth following as far as he follows Christ, the Anointed One, Christós, and Christ is the standard by which Paul’s example and every other teacher’s is measured. So the imitation of a godly leader always points past the leader. Peter says that Christ left us an example, that we should follow his steps (1 Peter 2:21), and God’s purpose is that his people be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29).

Everything this passage asks of us is first true of Jesus. Being in the form of God, he “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant”, and humbled himself to the death of the cross (Philippians 2:5–8). He used his rights for others and sought our good to the uttermost. Christ “pleased not himself” (Romans 15:3), and Paul there applies Psalm 69:9 to him: the reproaches of those who reproached God fell on him. He was evil spoken of, as verse 30 puts it, while he bore the sins of others.

He came to minister and to give his life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). He laid down his life for his friends (John 15:13) and bare our sins in his own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), and his blood purges our conscience (Hebrews 9:14). He is the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He too gave thanks over food, at the supper where he gave the bread and the cup as signs of his coming sacrifice (Luke 22:19–20). He is the Word made flesh (John 1:14), who learned obedience by the things which he suffered (Hebrews 5:8).

In this passage God gives his people a real freedom. The world and everything in it is his, so a believer can sit at any table and eat with thanks, untroubled by idols that are nothing. He also shows us what that freedom is for. The God who owns the earth gave his Son for us, and the Son spent his freedom in serving. So the believer’s liberty is held open-handed for the good of others, ready to be laid down at a word from a troubled conscience and spent on the salvation of many. Paul’s rule, “do all to the glory of God”, reaches every meal and every ordinary day, and his example points past himself to Christ, in whom all of it is fulfilled.