Our God is a jealous God! He calls for single-hearted devotion among His people. We must worship Him and Him alone. We must treasure Him above any other person or thing. We must not be idolaters as many in Israel were (1 Cor. 10:7).
In the passage we are considering this morning (1 Corinthians 10:14-22), Paul warned the church at Corinth not to participate in ceremonies in which sacrifices were made to idols and the meat of those sacrifices eaten. Some of the Corinthians were idolaters before being saved (6:9), and Paul warned them not to return to that lifestyle.
There were many temples in Corinth dedicated to the worship of idols. And though Paul seems to permit attending a banquet in such temples where idol meat was served (8:4, 8-10, 10:27), he certainly prohibited participating in the worship of idols. Such participation involved them in the worship of and fellowship with demons. Paul supported his prohibition by comparing such worship with participating in the Lord’s Supper. Eating the Lord’s Supper indicates one’s communion with Christ and His people. Attending a worship service in a temple where sacrifices were offered to an idol, and then eating the meat which was offered indicated one’s communion with demons. Paul wrote, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.” (1 Corinthians 10:21) Our devotion must be to Christ alone! There must not be a close second! Paul concluded this section referring to God’s jealousy. “Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?” (1 Corinthians 10:22)