1 Corinthians 10:21

1 Corinthians 10:21

19 What am I saying then? ^aThat an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything?

20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles ^asacrifice ^bthey sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

21 ^aYou cannot drink the cup of the Lord and ^bthe cup of demons; you cannot partake of the ^cLord’s table and of the table of demons.

22 Or do we ^aprovoke the Lord to jealousy? ^bAre we stronger than He?

All to the Glory of God

23 All things are lawful¹ for me, but not all things are ^ahelpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things² edify.

24 Let no one seek his own, but each one ^athe other’s well-being.

25 ^aEat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience’ sake;

26 for ^a“the earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness.”

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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1 Corinthians 10:22 >>

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord—really and spiritually; though ye may outwardly (I Kings 18:21).

cup of devils—in contrast to the cup of the Lord. At idol feasts libations were usually made from the cup to the idol first, and then the guests drank; so that in drinking they had fellowship with the idol.

the Lord's table—The Lord's Supper is a feast on a table, not a sacrifice on an altar. Our only altar is the cross, our only sacrifice that of Christ once for all. The Lord's Supper stands, however, in the same relation, analogically, to Christ's sacrifice, as the Jews' sacrificial feasts did to their sacrifices (compare Malachi 1:7, "altar . . . table of the Lord"), and the heathen idol feasts to their idolatrous sacrifices (Isaiah 65:11). The heathen sacrifices were offered to idol nonentities, behind which Satan lurked. The Jews' sacrifice was but a shadow of the substance which was to come. Our one sacrifice of Christ is the only substantial reality; therefore, while the partaker of the Jew's sacrificial feast partook rather "of the altar" (I Corinthians 10:18) than of GOD manifested fully, and the heathen idol-feaster had fellowship really with demons, the communicant in the Lord's Supper has in it a real communion of, or fellowship in, the body of Christ once sacrificed, and now exalted as the Head of redeemed humanity.

**Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 Corinthians 10:21:**

Leviticus 17:10
Song of Solomon 1:12
1 Corinthians 10:7
2 Corinthians 7:1

<< 1 Corinthians 10:20

1 Corinthians 10:22 >>

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