How to Deal With Food: Do All to the Glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1)

Such a question could not have been avoided, and rules had to be written in response to it, given the external circumstances of that time. Food offered to idols was eaten not only at idol temples but was also offered on tables in homes and sold in markets. Thus it was possible either to buy food offered to idols at the market and eat it, or, having come to a meal at a pagan’s house, to partake of it. What then should one do? The Apostle answers: eat all things, until someone tells you: “this is food offered to idols.” Having heard this, do not eat, so as not to cause offense to anyone—a Jew, a Greek, or a brother weak in conscience. Receive food with thanksgiving, turning its consumption to the glory of God and the spiritual edification of others.

1 Cor. 10:23. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.

After the terrible warning, the discourse flows calmly. The Apostle begins with what gave occasion to the whole discussion about food offered to idols—with freedom regarding the consumption of all kinds of harmless food. Standing on this foundation, the clever ones sat down at tables in idol temples. The Apostle does not reject it, but affirms it: “all things are lawful for me, all things are lawful for me.” Absolute, says he, justice. But the use of this right to freedom cannot be without limits. I place for this two restrictions: benefit to oneself and edification of one’s neighbor. As soon as eating something is not beneficial to oneself and does not edify one’s neighbor, one must refrain from it. The Apostle places these thoughts at the beginning because he will be guided by them in setting forth the rules that follow. Saint Chrysostom says: “Do you see the great wisdom of the Apostle? Since one of them could say: I am perfect, I have control over myself, I eat what is offered with full knowledge of the matter – he says: suppose you are perfect and have control over yourself, but look not to that, but to whether your conduct causes some harm or some disturbance. Both he expressed in the words: ‘not all are profitable, not all edify,’ understanding the first of himself and the second of the brother, for the word ‘not profitable’ indicates his own destruction, and the word ‘edify not’ indicates offense to the brother.”

Saint Chrysostom calls harm to oneself the destruction of himself, probably because through eating food offered to idols one becomes a partner of demons, and in this there is manifest ruin. Oecumenius and Theophylact see this harm in the fact that, having become accustomed to eating food offered to idols, one will again become accustomed to idols and may fall away from the Church, also to one’s ruin.

But one can understand both benefit and edification only in relation to the brothers, as the following text suggests, where nothing is said about oneself, and all attention is commanded to be directed toward the benefit of one’s neighbor. So reasons the blessed Theodoret: “By that knowledge which you ascribe to yourself, it is permitted you to do all things; but it is not beneficial for you to cause harm to others. What you do does not edify them. Suppose you are perfect, but you must also care for the weak. For the Apostle added this.”

1 Cor. 10:24. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.

“Do not look only to what you eat with a pure conscience, but especially to whether it edifies your neighbor. In many places Saint Paul sets forth this rule as most necessary. But he does not simply command not to seek one’s own benefit, but only when this harms the brother. In such a case what benefits the neighbor should be preferred to one’s own benefit, and one should choose that and abandon this” (Theophylact). The root law of Christian action: love God above all, and love your neighbor as yourself. Concerning love of oneself there is no need to write rules; it can only be limited. Love of God is chiefly an action of the heart, internal, hidden. In manifest life there acts love of neighbors alone, kindled within by love of God. You must love God above all; but active love toward God you cannot show in any way except through acts of love toward neighbors. Therefore, “let each one seek that of his neighbor” – is the sum of all moral law. But in this one must hold strictly in the soul the complementary principal thought, so that this seeking of “that of his neighbor” proceeds from love of God. For there are humanists who appear to be moved by love of mankind, while they have not only no love of God, but no faith in Him either. Empty persons!

By these two verses the Apostle reminded the Corinthians: therefore, eating food offered to idols openly in idol temples—from now on do not dare to do this. But there remained other cases in which, without knowing, one could eat food offered to idols. These the holy Paul now determines.

1 Cor. 10:25–26. Eat anything sold in the market without raising questions of conscience; for the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.

“Since the Apostle completely forbade eating food offered to idols—and at that time cities were full of such meats, and probably some out of respect for the apostolic law would not have bought them at all, while others from gluttony would have disregarded the law—therefore out of necessity he also prescribes concerning this what should be done. The essence of the prescription is as follows: at the market buy everything without asking whether it is food offered to idols or not, and then eat it without fear” (Theodoret).

Priests, not managing to consume all that was offered in sacrifice themselves, sent the surplus to the market, or perhaps someone bought it from them and sold it. In this way food offered to idols could have come to Christians. The Apostle says: what you buy at the market, eat without question, μηδέν ἀνακρίνοντες. There is as it were no thought of examination and investigation, whether it is food offered to idols; but only one thing, to eat it without any deliberation, as simple, pure food, unsullied by anything, in simplicity of mind. Our Slavonic translation expresses the Apostle’s thought exactly: “without doubting.” The word “conscience” διὰ τὴν συνείδησιν means: according to that conviction of conscience that all God’s creation is good and nothing is to be rejected. With this bright conscience, with this bright conviction eat everything that is sold in the market. Therefore he added as the foundation of such a provision: “for the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.” All is the Lord’s, and what is the Lord’s is blessed. There is no need to deliberate: eat all as God’s blessed gift.

Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle does not even allow them to doubt, that is, to examine and inquire whether this is food offered to idols or not, but commands simply to eat everything found in the market without asking what is being offered. Food offered to idols is bad not by its own nature, but produces defilement by the will of the one eating. Therefore he says: without doubting. ‘For the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness,’ not the demons’. If the earth is the Lord’s and the fruits and dumb animals, then there is nothing unclean; something becomes unclean only through the malice and disobedience of man.” Here are some more phrases of the blessed Photius, whose extensive opinion Oecumenius cites. “Eat market food without divided mind, μηδὲν διστάζοντες, with a pure, unwavering conscience. Without deliberation, ἀζητήτως eat market food with a pure conscience that does not deliberate and does not require any other assurance than the conviction that the earth is the Lord’s. If the earth is the Lord’s and what is upon it, what further need there be to deliberate?”

1 Cor. 10:27. If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you wish to go, eat everything put before you, without raising questions of conscience.

Another case: when some pagan invites you to dinner, and they had the custom of taking portions from sacrifices and bringing them home. What then should one do? – Here too the same rule applies: “eat everything put before you, without raising questions of conscience,” that is, according to the same conviction that all creation of God is good, not admitting even the thought that there might be food offered to idols here, “without raising questions,” in simplicity of mind.

The Apostle neither forbids nor commands going to pagans for dinners; he leaves this to the freedom of the one invited. Theodoret remarks: “Because it would be impossible to win over unbelievers if one severed all contact.” “And he frees those eating from all suspicion (of anything being food offered to idols),” Saint Chrysostom explains, “in order that excessive caution might not appear as an act of fear and anxiety, for whoever inquires does so from fear, while whoever refrains after learning the matter does so from aversion, contempt, and revulsion” (to idolatry and to everything connected with it). The Apostle wants that, holding firm in the conscience a steadfast conviction that one Master, the Lord, reigns over all, and that all His creatures are His, with this bright faith they should eat all things with thanksgiving to the Giver of blessings.

1 Cor. 10:28. But if someone says to you, This is food offered to idols, do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience; for the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.

Not all dishes are presumed to be food offered to idols, but only some. So if someone, when it comes to them, says: “this is food offered to idols,” in such a case do not eat. Who is this one who informs? As the Apostle does not define this, it would be more direct not to touch on this question. Whoever it may be. But since the preliminary settlement of this question, even by supposition, provides convenience for clarifying the course of all the subsequent discourse, people began to settle it. Some think it is best to understand by this a weak Christian who says this to a strong one; others think it is better to understand some pagan who says this with malicious intent to tempt the Christian and see how he will act. But the Apostle writes a rule not for one case but for all; in all cases it could happen that sometimes a weak Christian might say this, sometimes a pagan. So let us suppose: whether a weak Christian or a tempting pagan says: this is food offered to idols – do not eat, says the Apostle. Do not eat “for the sake of the one who informed you,” that is, sparing him. It is evident how sparing the weak Christian applies here. In this: if the strong one, after this notification, were to eat, the weak one could not refrain from eating, and having begun to eat, he would eat it as something having religious significance, and thereby defile his conscience; but if he refrains from eating, he will give him courage to refrain himself, and thus save him from the staining of conscience. But how does sparing the pagan apply? If a pagan says this to a Christian, it is evidently because he thinks the Christian should not eat this. Thus his pagan conscience has formed. If the Christian, despite this, were to eat, the pagan might think: what is this, Christians boast of the height of faith and moral teaching, and yet show them only a tasty morsel and they are ready to live again at peace with our gods. For him, food offered to idols is something sacred (in some manuscripts it stands ἱεροθύτον), the eating of which anoints one with the blessing of the gods. The same, according to his thought, will transfer to the Christian. How is this, he will think? And from an unfavorable thought about the Christian he will move to an unfavorable thought about Christianity. Consequently, eating after the notification given will mean degrading oneself as a Christian, degrading all Christians in one’s person, and Christianity itself. Consequently further, one’s dignity as a Christian, the honor of Christians, and Christianity itself require not to eat certain food as soon as they say it is food offered to idols. And this must be done for the sake of the one who informed and others like him, and for the sake of the informing itself. In what spirit should one do this? – In demonstration of contempt for all idolatry. Not because food offered to idols is something, but because in so far as it is offered to idols, it is abominable. Out of contempt for idolatry, I despise this food offered to idols too. Thus Saint Chrysostom: “The Apostle commands abstaining from sacrifices to idols not as from things having power, but as from things worthy of aversion. Avoid food offered to idols, says he, not because it could cause harm; it has no power whatsoever; but because it is despicable. However, on the ground that it has no power at all, do not eat it indifferently, for it is the table of enemies and the impious.”

Thus this abstention before the face of pagans will be an instructive preaching about the dignity of Christianity and the contemptibility of idolatry. “For the sake of the one who informed you” will mean in this case: so as not to close the door for him to ascend to clear knowledge of the height of Christianity, and through that the door of faith. For eating would have mixed up all his concepts and darkened the bright countenance of the faith of Christ.

“And conscience.” Whose conscience? – The Apostle explains below: not one’s own conscience, but that of another. In the previous two cases (1 Cor. 10:25, 27) conscience was understood as one’s own, but here as that of another. Whose then? – Most nearly, the one who informed. Whether a pagan says: this is food offered to idols, or a weak Christian, not eating this food offered to idols will be healing for the conscience of either of them.

“For the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.” This should be connected with the course of the discourse thus: I mean not your conscience, but that of another; for your conscience there remains unchanged that conviction, that in the kingdom of the Lord all is good and nothing is to be rejected. “I am not forbidding this, says he, as if it were an alien thing, for the earth is the Lord’s, but “for the sake of conscience,” that is, so as not to cause harm. So then, must one inquire? – No, says he, I mean not your conscience but that of another, for I previously said: ‘for the sake of the one who informed’” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:29. I speak not concerning my own conscience, but another’s; why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience?

Act thus, sparing the conscience of another, yet not changing your own convictions. When another says: “this is food offered to idols” – from this word your conviction, that all creation is God’s good, and consequently this food offered to idols too is good, receiving no defilement by itself, must not change, must not pass over to the thought that before you is a thing alien to God, not His creation. In this be firm, but refrain from eating for the benefit of others. Not submitting to the opinion of those speaking, act thus, but following an entirely different principle – the will of God, which commands to love one’s neighbor and care for his welfare, especially spiritual more than bodily. They speak because they consider food offered to idols as something, but you refrain not because of this, but to show them that, having turned away from idolatry, you do not wish anything to have contact with it, you loathe and abhor it.

“Why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience?” He sets forth the reason why in his word one should understand the conscience of another, not one’s own. He speaks as if to say: the conscience of another is not a law for me. I must follow my own conviction, not another’s. According to my conviction I have full freedom with respect to every kind of food; others judge differently. By this judgment my conscience and my freedom are not bound. And I could eat without perturbation despite the indication that what is offered is food offered to idols; but I refrain not because of this word: it does not bind me, and I remain free even with it. It is another law that binds me, that of my own conscience, not another’s. Saint Chrysostom develops a different thought – that if I eat of my freedom, pagans, not understanding why I do so, will condemn this freedom. I do not want to permit this to happen, for the condemnation of my freedom is the condemnation of Christian freedom in general. I do not want to be the cause of this. He says: “By freedom he means – not being bound to observe and not being subject to prohibition (with respect to food). And the sense of his words is this: God created me free (or recreated me in Christ for freedom) and set me above all harm, but a pagan neither knows how to judge my wisdom nor understands the bounty of my Master, but will condemn me and say to himself: the teaching of Christians is a fable; they flee from idols, avoid demons, yet do not refuse what is offered to them: great is their gluttony. What then, you will say, is the harm for us if he judges us thus unjustly? But is it not far better not to give him occasion for condemnation at all? (Judgment from one person passes into condemnation of the faith.) If you refrain, he will not say this. – How will he not say it? Seeing that I, without inquiring, use everything both at the market and at the feast, how will he not say and condemn me for using everything indifferently? – Indeed not, for you use it not as food offered to idols but as clean; without inquiring you show that you do not fear what is offered. Therefore, whether you enter a pagan’s house or come to the market, I do not permit you to inquire, so that you might not be anxious and timid and not bring unnecessary cares upon yourself.”

1 Cor. 10:30. If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I reviled for that which I give thanks?

This passage is somewhat obscure. By grace one should understand the grace of faith, which has enlightened our understanding and given us to understand that we can freely eat any kind of food as God’s gift. So I do: I eat all things and give thanks to God. But if I eat indiscriminately in every case, then others, not understanding the matter, will condemn me for it, and through me also my faith. I do not want to allow this to happen. – This is the sense of the words: “why am I reviled” – I do not want reviling to fall upon me. Oecumenius writes: “By God’s grace, which has made my soul so elevated that I am convinced that I am not defiled by such things, by this grace I eat with boldness. But if, says he, you are such, if by God’s grace you have reached the knowledge that an idol is nothing and there is no harm in you eating food offered to idols, then why do you allow yourself to be reviled, and through you faith, and even God – and that by the very thing for which you should give thanks, having received perfect understanding of things. The Apostle turns his exhortation on the Corinthians through his own person.”

Saint Chrysostom says (of “for which I give thanks”): “What then, tell me, do you receive with thanksgiving? – God’s gifts. His grace is such that it makes my soul pure and sets it above all uncleanness. As the sun, touching with its rays all unclean things, keeps its rays clean, so we too, moving about in the world, can remain clean if we wish, and all the more as we have greater strength. Why then, you will say, refrain? – Not because otherwise one might become unclean, but for the brother, so as not to have fellowship with demons, and so as not to be subjected to condemnation by the unbeliever. Here it is not the nature of foods, but disobedience and fellowship with demons that makes me unclean, and defilement depends on willing choice. What then do the words mean: ‘why am I reviled, for which I give thanks’? – I, says he, give thanks to God that He has so magnified me and set me so far above Jewish degradation (for with them: ‘do not touch’ and so forth), that nothing can harm me; but pagans, not knowing my wisdom, will suspect the contrary and will say: Christians desire our company; they are hypocrites, they revile demons and shun them, yet they flock to our tables; what could be more unreasonable than this? So they did not accept this teaching for truth, but from ambition and licentiousness. – Therefore, is it not foolish to give occasion for reviling for those very benefits for which thanksgiving is offered? But, you will say, a pagan will say this even when he sees that I do not inquire. No, for not everything is filled with food offered to idols, to have such suspicion; moreover you eat this not as food offered to idols. So, do not inquire needlessly; but on the other hand, do not accept food when they tell you it is food offered to idols. Christ, having given you grace, has so magnified you and set you above all harm not so that you might give occasion for ill fame about you, and not so that by those very prerogatives for which you give thanks you might so offend others that they might revile.”

1 Cor. 10:31. Whether therefore you eat or drink or do anything else, do all to the glory of God.

“The Apostle covers all considerations with one universal rule: “Do you see how he moved from the particular subject in his teaching to the general and taught us an excellent rule – to glorify God in all things?” (Saint Chrysostom). From this it is evident that, in the Apostle’s thought, from indiscriminate eating of food offered to idols a certain shadow fell upon faith itself and upon God. Therefore the Apostle set forth this general law: that we are obliged to use not only food and drink, but do all other things to the glory of God – permitting ourselves nothing through which anyone, even to the slightest degree, might think something not praiseworthy about our holy faith and about God. Beautifully does the Apostle combine all these – both sitting and walking and conversing and grieving and instructing – into one, so that in all things to set for himself one goal – the glory of God. So the Lord also commanded: ‘Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven’ (Matt. 5:16). So it is said here too” (Theodoret). “Thus, says he, do all things so as to thereby give occasion for the glorification of God, making clear that what they then did served to God’s dishonor and to reviling of Him and of His holy faith” (Oecumenius). “One eats and drinks to the glory of God when one eats and drinks not to the offense of another, not as a glutton and lover of pleasure, but as one wishing to maintain the body so that it might be capable of doing every virtue; and simply, anyone does anything to the glory of God when he neither harms another through offense, nor himself by anything, and when he does nothing from pleasing men or from any other passionate thought” (Theophylact).

1 Cor. 10:32. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God.

“That is, give no one any occasion for offense (do not eat). Otherwise the brother will be offended, and the Jew will even more hate and condemn you, and the pagan will laugh at you as at a glutton and a hypocrite. One must not offend not only the brothers, but, if possible, even the outsiders. For if we are light, leaven, lights and salt, then we must enlighten, not darken, strengthen, not weaken, draw unbelievers to ourselves, not drive them away from ourselves. Why then do you drive away those whom you should draw? Truly, pagans are offended when they see that we return to these things, because they do not know our way of thinking and that our soul has become above every sensual defilement; Jews and weak brothers will experience the same thing. Do you see how many reasons he has given for why one must abstain from sacrifices to idols? Then, when he said: ‘give no offense,’ he laid upon them responsibility for the offense of Jews and pagans, and expressed something grievous” (Saint Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 10:33. Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved.

“To seek what is beneficial for all – that is the rule of the most perfect Christianity, that is its exact purpose, that is the height of perfection” (Saint Chrysostom). “To please all and to flatter are properties of flatterers, but not what the Apostle says of himself. Flatterers seek not the benefit of others but their own, or rather, neither do they seek their own, because they harm themselves more than others. But the divine Apostle sought not his own but had in view the salvation of others, thereby multiplying for them imperishable wealth” (Theodoret). How Saint Paul was “all things to all people, that by all means he might save some,” he has already spoken. Now he only reminds of this, setting the pattern of his own action as a law for all. This is the third principle as guidance for the ordering of our life, or even the fourth: first, that we should do all things with a clear and firm conscience, with true awareness of the conformity of a deed with God’s will; second, that we should do all things to the glory of God, not only having as a goal the glory of God, but so that the glory of God proceeds from our action itself; third, that we should not offend anyone, not only intentionally but also unintentionally; fourth, that we should direct everything toward the salvation of our neighbors in word and deed. To what extent the Apostle was ready to sacrifice all for the salvation of others we can judge from his prayer, in which he expressed his readiness even to be accursed, if only his brothers would be saved (Rom. 9:3). Such disposition, more than anything else, gave him boldness to say:

1 Cor. 11:1. Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

“This word is not arrogance but a desire to every way dispose toward the work he was urging. If, says he, I imitated Christ, who despised His life to give us life, should not you all the more imitate me? For I am not so much above you as Christ is above me, infinitely surpassing all” (Theophylact). Or, limiting the mind’s gaze to only the subjects flowing in the discourse, the Apostle speaks as if to say: “Rival me in these measures in the work of the economy, because I imitate the Master, who spoke otherwise with the Jews and otherwise with the Apostles, offered one thing to the perfect and another to the imperfect” (Theodoret).

Saint Chrysostom says: “You cannot imitate Christ better than through care for your neighbors. Abstention from sacrifices to idols is in itself a useful work, but I, says the Apostle, did much that was not useful, for example, I was circumcised and offered sacrifices; such actions, if examined in themselves, can even destroy those who do them and deprive them of salvation, but I subjected myself even to this for the benefit that proceeded from it. Thus Paul, being above all in perfection, became lower than all in condescension! Do you see the excellence of his zeal and the greatness of his soul? Imitate him too.”