The Cup of Blessing and the Table of Demons (1 Corinthians 10:14–22)

The course of the Apostle’s thought is this: judge for yourselves: when we partake of the Holy Mysteries, we partake of the Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ; likewise among the Jews, those who eat from the sacrifices become sharers in the altar; and you think that those who eat from sacrifices to idols are sharers in nothing?! Idols are truly nothing; but there are demons to whom, through sacrifices to idols, service is rendered. If so, then those who eat food offered to idols are sharers in demons. This is where your wisdom leads you! Therefore I greatly do not wish for you to be sharers in demons. You cannot partake of the Holy Mysteries and at the same time participate in the table of demons. Stop this. You are provoking God’s jealousy by this. When God is angered, who will stand?

1 Cor. 10:15. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.

The preceding verse can be considered both the end of the preceding section and the beginning of the present one. There it was said: “flee from idolatry”; the thought of the saying is this: stop participation in the feasts of the temples, because through this you make yourselves partakers of idolatry. Now approaching the proof of this, or rather approaching the proof of something far greater, namely, that through this they become sharers in demons—and this is terrible—the Apostle chooses the Corinthians themselves as judges over themselves. He says as it were: I will only present the data to you, and you will draw the conclusion yourselves. Holy Chrysostom says: “Since he has said much and intensified the rebuke by calling their deed idolatry, so that it may not seem that he speaks too harshly and reproachfully, he submits it to their judgment and, having praised them, makes them judges: ‘I speak,’ he says, ‘as to sensible people.’ One must be completely confident in the rightness of one’s cause to make the accused the judge of the case. This greatly encourages the listeners, when someone discourses with them not as a ruler or legislator, but as an advisor awaiting their own judgment. With the Jews, who were senseless and childishly cowardly, God did not converse thus and did not everywhere reveal to them the reasons for His commandments, but only commanded; but here, since we are deemed worthy of great freedom and capable of sharing in freedom, the Apostle converses as with friends and says: I do not require other judges; you yourselves will pronounce judgment; I make you judges.”

1 Cor. 10:16. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ?

Two kinds of communion through the visible with the invisible the Apostle presents for the consideration of the wise Corinthians. The first is the highest—communion in the Body and Blood of Christ under the form of bread and wine. In the Church is offered a bloodless sacrifice. Then all who are present in the temple partake of this sacrifice, and by partaking they enter into communion with the Blood of Christ and the Body of Christ. For bread and wine through blessing are mystically transformed into the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what we have and what you know, he says. The force of his words is that we enter into communion with the body and blood of the Lord; but at the same time both dogmatic truths concerning the mystery of the Eucharist are affirmed: first, that in this mystery a sacrifice is offered, and second, that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of the Lord. The first is according to the course of discourse, for the discourse concerns sacred sacrifices; the second is according to the power of partaking, for drinking wine is communion in blood, and eating bread is communion in body; neither is merely mental but truly actual. “Being deemed worthy of the sacred Mysteries, do we not enter into communion with the Master Himself, do we not say that this is His body and His blood?” (Theodoret).

“The cup of blessing” (or Eucharist, thanksgiving) he called it because we, holding it in our hands, glorify God, marvel and are amazed at His unspeakable gift, blessing Him that He poured out His blood for our deliverance from error, and not only poured it out but bestowed it upon all of us (holy Chrysostom). The words, moreover: that we bless“indicate the sacred blessing through which by the power of Christ wine mystically becomes the blood of Christ and bread becomes the body of Christ. Consequently, partaking from the cup”is it not a communion in the blood of Christ?“He spoke very truly and awesomely; the meaning of his words is as follows: that which is in the cup is the very thing that flowed from the side of the Lord; this we partake of” (holy Chrysostom).

Consequently, partaking of the bread, “that we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ?” Both questions contain a most emphatic affirmation of what is asked. “Why did he not say: participation? Because he wished to express something greater, to show perfect union. For, when we partake, we not only become participants and sharers, but are united with Christ. As the body of Christ is united with Christ, so also we through this bread are united with Him” (holy Chrysostom).

“In the Old Testament, when people were imperfect, He was pleased to accept the very same blood that the heathen offered to idols, so as to turn them away from idols, which also proved His unspeakable love; but now He has given a more awesome and perfect sacred rite, changing the sacrifice, commanding that instead of the slaying of voiceless beasts, He Himself be offered” (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:17. Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

That partaking of the Mysteries of Christ is truly communion in His body and blood, though for all Christians evident and beyond doubt, the Apostle deemed it necessary to clarify or even prove by presenting, as confirmation of this, a manifest reality—that all who partake, though they are many, constitute one body, and the body of Christ. How could this be if those who partake of the Mysteries of Christ did not partake of His body and blood? Thus it is evident that, since by partaking of the one bread we become one body, it means that by partaking of the bread we partake of the body of Christ. Holy Chrysostom says: “Having said ‘communion in body,’ he wishes to express an even more intimate connection and says: ‘Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body.’ What do I say, ‘communion’?—he continues—we are His very body. For what is this bread? The body of Christ. What do those who partake become? The body of Christ, not many bodies, but one body. As bread, made up of many grains, becomes one, so that, though grains are in it, they are not seen, and their distinction is imperceptible due to their union, so also we are united with one another and with Christ. For we do not eat separately, one one thing and another another, but all eat the same body. Wherefore the Apostle also adds: ‘For we all partake of the one bread.’ Christ united you with Himself, though you are so far removed from Him. See what manner of life you are deemed worthy of! For He did not simply give His body, but in place of the former flesh, which by its nature, coming from the earth, was slain by sin and deprived of life, He brought, as it were, another constitution and another leaven—His own flesh, which though by nature the same, is alien from sin and full of life—and bestowed it upon all, so that, being nourished by it and putting off the former dead flesh, we might be prepared through this table for incorruptible life.”

1 Cor. 10:18. Look at Israel after the flesh; are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

The second example of communion with Israel according to the flesh. “He proves the same again from the Old Testament. The greatness of what was being said exceeded far the understanding of the listeners; therefore he persuades them by former, ordinary examples” (holy Chrysostom). The significance of the mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ was not unknown to the Corinthians, but its meaning truly exceeds the understanding not only of them but of all. The significance of Old Testament sacrifices is more comprehensible. Why the Apostle speaks as if: “Learn at least from the simplest examples that those who eat from sacrifices become partakers of the sacrifice” (holy Chrysostom). “Israel after the flesh” he called those who continued to follow the Mosaic law and were descended according to the flesh from Abraham and Jacob, who was the first to be called Israel, in distinction from spiritual Israel—Christians, who see God and are gathered through the Gospel of faith from all nations. The law concerning sacrifices among Israel was such that only a part of what was brought to the altar was laid upon the altar and burned, but the rest was consumed as food by the priests. Thus God legislated, saying that those who serve at the altar should also be nourished from the altar. Why to the tribe of Levi, appointed for the performance of services in the temple, He did not assign a portion of land, but said: I am your portion; that is, the other tribes the land feeds, but I will feed you. Thus the priests and Levites were nourished from the table of God. The table was the altar. The portion of God was consumed by fire, but the priestly portion was consumed by the priests themselves, by the blessing of God, receiving it from the altar as if from the table of God. This is why the Apostle called them “participants in the altar,” that is, the table of the Lord. They did not enter through this into a real communion with God, though they were God’s, but only with the altar. With spiritual Israel it is not so: here a sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ is offered, and those who eat from this sacrifice are sharers not in the altar but in Christ Himself. Holy Chrysostom says: “Those who ate from the sacrifice there became sharers only in the altar, but with us it is not so; but how? The partaking of our sacrifice is ‘communion in the body of Christ,’ for we become partakers not of the altar but of Christ Himself.”

1 Cor. 10:19. What do I mean then? That an idol is anything, or that meat sacrificed to an idol is anything?

From the two examples cited it was evident that those who eat from sacrifices become sharers in the sacrifice in that sense and with that force in which it is performed. Having read this, the Corinthians could come to perplexity and have an inclination to turn to the Apostle with a question: from what has been said, it is evident that we too, eating food offered to idols, become sharers in something. Sharers in what then? An idol is nothing, and food offered to idols receives nothing, being offered to that which is nothing. The Apostle himself taught this. So in whom are we sharers? Anticipating them, the Apostle qualifies his speech: I am not saying that an idol is anything or that food offered to idols is anything. No, an idol is nothing, and food offered to idols remains what it was. There is another being with whom the sacrifice and those who sacrifice it and those who eat it enter into communion, and this being is opposed to God.

In the moral and religious sense there are two realms: God’s and Satan’s, demonic—opposite, like light and darkness, like truth and falsehood, like good and evil, like life and death. He who is in God’s realm is not in the demonic realm, and he who is in the demonic realm is not in God’s. He who does something for God is free from demons, and he who does not do it for God is on the demonic side. Consider now: is it to God that the nations sacrifice what they sacrifice? Clearly not. But if not to God, then to demons. The idol remains nothing; but the demon is not nothing, but a being opposed to God, an enemy of God and of us. He taught them these sacrifices, he receives them, and those who accept and consume them please him. The table from sacrifices to idols is a real demonic table, despite the fact that the idol is nothing and the sacrificial meat remains what it was. So this is my thought!

1 Cor. 10:20. No, but I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons.

The course of the discourse is thus: I am not saying that an idol is something or that food offered to idols is something. No; but that the heathen sacrifice to demons what they sacrifice. And consequently, those who eat from these sacrifices commune with demons. And I do not want you to be sharers in demons. “I say this and turn you away from idols not because they could cause any harm or have any power; they are nothing; but I want you to despise them. If he wants us to despise them, you will say, why does he so strongly turn us away from them? Because their sacrifices are not brought to your Lord. ‘What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.’ Do not turn, therefore, to that which is opposed to God. You enter through this into a connection with the enemies of God. That is why I turn you away from this! The purpose of those who bring sacrifices and the nature of the beings who receive them (that is, demons) make what is offered unclean. ‘I do not want you to be partners with demons.’ Do you see the love of a caring father? Do you see how his very words express great benevolence? I do not want, he says, for you to have any communion with unclean powers” (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:21. 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.

This is now an authoritative commandment. “Before he said: ‘judge for yourselves,’ as if offering advice; but when he laid out for them the whole course of reasoning and drew from it to what danger those who eat from sacrifices to idols come—that they even go over to the side of the enemies of God and themselves—he no longer gives place to their reasoning, but writes a determination: do not dare any longer to touch these demonic sacrifices: you cannot drink that cup of demons and partake of that demonic table. You have your own cup, the cup of the Lord, and your own table, the table of the Lord. Partaking of them, desire no others. This strict commandment the Apostle uttered, so that none of the more obstinate, seeing that he spoke all the former as if in the way of advice: ‘I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves’—would not disobey and consider themselves at liberty not to do what followed from that reasoning. This is why he says: ‘You cannot… you cannot.’ These expressions alone are sufficient for instruction” (holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:22. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

“That is, do we dare to tempt Him and provoke Him, going over to the side of His opponents and standing as enemies of His? Here he reminds them of Old Testament events and the iniquities of their ancestors; therefore he uses the very expression that Moses once used, speaking from God to rebuke the Jews for idolatry. ‘They,’ he said, ‘provoked me in what is not God, they angered me with their idols’ (Deut. 32:21). ‘Are we stronger than he?’ Do you see how powerfully, how terribly he strikes them, shaking their very nerves, driving their judgments to absurdity and thus bringing down their pride? Beginning with the lesser, he reached the most important; the latter could be accepted much more readily after the listener’s soul had been softened by the previous arguments” (holy Chrysostom). Reasoning is good, but acts weakly upon the determinations of the will if the fear of God does not lie at the foundation of moral life. Where the fear of God is, even weak reasoning is powerful; but where it is not, even strong reasoning will accomplish nothing. To protect against moral weakness, the Apostle raises up the fear of God, and moreover in its terrible aspect, as the fear of punishment and God’s wrath. No feeling acts so powerfully on the arousal of strength as the feeling of self-preservation. It is this that the Apostle stirs up here. Having reached the fear lest God strike them for eating food offered to idols, they could more readily and decisively refrain from this, relying upon this fear.

In the words: ‘or do we provoke the Lord’—provoke not His anger but His jealousy, παραζηλουμεν. God is called God—the jealous one, as jealous for His glory, for the glory of His Godhead. “My glory,” He says, “I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved idols.” This jealousy and its provocation the Apostle means. And that it is not idle in God, how many proofs of this there are in the history of the Israelites! Hence also the question: “Are we stronger than he?” Let God’s jealousy be stirred up and it will grind you to dust. So be careful and, subduing your lofty views, do not touch the sacrifices of idols.