SERMON: “Stop Partaking of Demons” (1 Cor. 10:14–22)
“Stop Partaking of Demons”
(1 Cor. 10:14–22)
Series: “1 Cor: Holiness from Messes” #36 Text: 1
Corinthians 10:14–22
By: Shaun Marksbury Date: Sept. 13, 2026
Venue: Living Water Baptist Church Occasion: AM Service
Introduction
Last week, we left off in a hopeful place. We saw that the temptation that feels unique
to you is not. We also saw that God is
faithful, so He won’t not let you be tempted beyond what you are able. With Him, you will find a way of escape from
the bondage of your sin, meaning you can endure temptation.
It’s with that understanding that Paul comes to the command
of v. 14: “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” The hope of the gospel leads to holy
application in our lives. We can and
should endure temptation by the Spirit of God, and that sometimes means running
from temptation!
The temptation here is for idolatry, which seems like it
should never be a Christian temptation.
However, idolatry isn’t just a wrong idea about God. In this paragraph, Paul also defines it as a
table — one with a cup, with food, and with fellowship. And, because the Gentiles use this table as a
place of sacrifice to demons, he tells believers not to become sharers or
partakers with them.
Is that a concern today?
We live in a moment when the church tends to fall into one of two
ditches about demons. Consider:
One ditch is the old Satanic Panic. Some of you might remember that, in the 1980s
and early 90s, a lot of sincere Christians became convinced that daycare
centers were running ritual abuse rings, that rock music records were
recruiting children when you played them backward, and that Dungeons &
Dragons were almost automatic on-ramps into the occult. Of course, there were a couple of real cases
and a real rise in occult curiosity happening. However, most of the panic did not survive
investigation.
The other ditch is more common in churches now: functional
materialism. Demons are a doctrine we
affirm, but a reality we never expect to meet. We tend to think of idolatry as something that
just happens overseas, and that maybe demonic activity occurs among some lost
tribe in the jungle. Meanwhile, the
culture around actively engages in real practices with demons. Plenty of people who would never bow to a
carved idol will still look for power, guidance, or protection from something
other than the Lord — and call it harmless because the object itself is
“nothing.”
Paul won’t let us live in either ditch. He agrees that an idol is nothing, but he also
says the worship attached to it is not nothing. There is a table of the Lord and a table of
demons, and Christians may not have both.
So, we’ll see three ways to stop partaking of demons this
morning. First, Christians must separate
from demons (v. 14), a straightforward command.
Second, Christians must not share with demons (vv. 15–20), which is
obviously the core of the topic today. Third,
Christians must sanctify themselves (vv. 21–22), choosing to set themselves
apart for the honor the Lord exclusively.
Let’s consider the first of these:
First, Christians Must Separate from Demons (v. 14)
Therefore, my
beloved, flee from idolatry.
The word therefore ties this command to everything
Paul just said. He spoke of God’s
judgment on the wilderness generation, presenting it as a cautionary tale for
Corinthian believers[1]
— those who thought they were strong enough to stand or, in this case, sit at pagan
religious functions without compromise.
Paul says they are already accountable before the Lord.
Notice his tone, though. Paul doesn’t condemn them as enemies. In fact, he calls them “my beloved.” The man who will warn them about demons first
reminds them that they belong to Christ and to him. Some think we should not give an inch when
disciplining others, but the Lord’s apostle always demonstrates love, even in
urgency.
Still, the application of Christian freedom to food
sacrificed to idols begins here: flee.
It is present tense in the original language, so we could see it as a
command saying, “Keep fleeing!” This is,
by the way, the same kind of language Paul uses for sexual immorality in 6:18. Some temptations you stand and resist, but this
one you put distance between yourself and the thing.
It may be unexpected to see the word
“idolatry” here, but it’s a key thought for this chapter (cf. vv. 7, 19f). John also affirms the need for us to guard
ourselves from idols (1 John 5:21). One
of the ways in which we grow in righteousness and holiness is to flee temptations
such as idolatry. And this goes back to
the question of meat sacrificed to idols.
So, is he talking about running from the meat
sacrificed to idols? No! In fact, he’ll later say there are instances
where meat in the marketplace or on a neighbor’s table is safe. He’s not even talking about being afraid of
the stone statues. Rather, he’s talking
about eating at the table of a pagan temple with those actively engaged in
idolatry. Christians were fooling
themselves into thinking that was okay!
We’ll see some modern examples of this in a few
minutes. For now, he has a simple command:
Get up from the table and leave the room. Don’t linger to prove how strong you are! Take the way of escape that God provides and
endure temptation by walking out from idolatrous situations. Do so because the Lord commands and so you do
not share with demons, as we see next.
Second, Christians Must not Share with Demons (vv. 15–20)
I speak as to
prudent people. You judge what I say. Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a
sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not
the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are
one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Look at the nation Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers
in the altar? What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything,
or that an idol is anything? No, but I
say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and
not to God. And I do not want you to
become sharers in demons.
Paul now appeals to their redeemed minds. The word “prudent” is the same word he used in
4:10, when they were treating the apostles as fools and themselves as the wise.[2]
I don’t think the apostle is being
facetious here, teasing them as before.
Instead, here, he believed the “questions that follow would lead
sensible people… to agree,”[3]
and he invites them to do so.
He is not asking them to feel a certain way. He is asking them to judge — to weigh the
argument and come to a logical conclusion. He then lays out three pictures of a sacred
meal — the Lord’s Table, Israel’s altar, and the Gentile sacrifice — and asks
them to discern the one to whom each is offered.
First, Consider the Sharing of the Lord’s Table (vv. 16–17)
Christ truly communes with us in the Lord’s
Supper. There’s a good deal of debate in
church history as to how He is present with us — is He physically present in
the elements, or is He somehow spiritually present? We would lean toward the latter. We don’t have time to parse that discussion
out today, and because Paul will talk about this again, we’ll table that
discussion (pun intended).
Still, we can’t deny His presence. We call it communion because we are sharing
in Him. Moreover, and because we are
partaking together, as the body of Christ. That’s why this was the practice of the early
church (Acts 2:41–42), and it is one of the ordinary means of grace the Lord
uses to bless His people.
Again, Paul will treat the Supper at greater
length in chapter 11, but he raises it here because a religious meal always
means something. The “cup of blessing,” for
instance, is the communion cup for which Jesus gave thanks at the Last Supper
(Matt. 26:27; Mark 14:23; Luke 22:17, 20). MacArthur notes that this was the proper name
given to the third cup during the Passover feast, the cup Jesus “set apart as
the token of salvation blessing.”[4] Thus, the early church followed this custom[5]
in remembrance of Him.
The key word in all of this is “sharing” or koinonia.
It means to have in common, to
participate, to have partnership.[6]
Paul uses the same word for fellowship
with Christ and with the Spirit elsewhere.[7] In other words, by taking the cup, believers spiritually
identify themselves with Jesus, with His sacrificial death, and with the new
covenant in His blood.
Similarly, this applies to the bread. We break it as part of the same meal. It symbolizes His body given for us. By partaking of the bread, believers testify
to their union with Christ — not only His death, but also His resurrection from
the grave.[8] It speaks of our union with Him in death and
our hope of new life.
So, one of the underlying theological
realities here is the importance of Christ’s work on the cross in our
justification from sins. We need the
body and blood of Christ. It’s so important
that we remember it in the Lord’s Supper.
Verse 17 presses the corporate side of
this. This isn’t just “you and Jesus”
but “us and Jesus.” We who are many are
one body, and similarly, we all partake of the one bread. The church is also called Christ’s body
(12:12, 27), and we should be united. Participation
at the Supper points to our unified faith in the gospel message.
Are you starting to see where Paul is
going? Partaking in a meal can hold such
spiritual significance. Those who eat in
the pagan temple, then, are demonstrating outwardly a commitment to idols. It’s naïve for the Corinthians to think they
can sit at temple feasts without being involved in idolatry. Moreover,
those who eat together show unity in belief.
Therefore, we’re already seeing the reason why Christians should avoid
eating in idolatrous temples.
However, if that isn’t enough, Paul moves
onto the next picture:
Second, Consider the Sharing of Israel at the Altar (v. 18)
This is “Israel according to the flesh” (LSB footnote). Under the Old Covenant, the offering was on
behalf of all who ate (Lev. 7:15–18).[9] In other words, by eating, the people
identified with the offering and affirmed their devotion to the God to whom it
was offered. Priests ate, and the altar
was their table.[10] They were “sharers,” “participants” (ESV), or
“partners” (NET) in what they consumed.
The Corinthians need not be Jews according to the flesh — even
Gentile Christians can follow this logic. A sacred meal means you belong to the one
whose altar it is, true of the Lord’s Table and Israel’s altar. It will be true at the Gentile table as well.
Third, Consider the Sharing of the Gentile Sacrifice (vv. 19–20)
Now, Paul knows that he has to back up and qualify what he’s
saying: “What do I mean then?” He anticipates
the objection from chapter 8 by repeating that “an idol is nothing in the
world.” He isn’t contradicting himself
here — that principle stands.
This means that the food itself remains the same. The statue doesn’t transform it through the
process of sacrifice. In fact, he’ll
make it clear that we don’t need to even ask questions about the food to keep
ourselves from potentially consuming the meat (vv. 25–27). The idol is still nothing.
That matters, because Christians can become either
superstitious or overly scrupulous. Some
idols may even appear frightening, with many arms and teeth, but they cannot
get up and chase you! In Jeremiah 10:5
(a passage talking about making idols, not Christmas trees!), the Lord says, “Like
a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, and they cannot speak; they must be
carried because they cannot take a step! Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, nor
can they do any good.” Moreover, distant
association with an idol is not the same as present worship.
Now, how might we apply this, since we don’t
often run a risk of our meat being sacrificed to an idol? Well, Christians ask similar questions almost
every holiday about whether it is right to engage in celebrations. Sometimes, they engage in the genetic fallacy
— if there is even a possibility that Christmas, Easter, or even Halloween are
linked to pagan practices, then we are being pagans today by acknowledging
them! That is also often historically
inaccurate, based on bad information, but it doesn’t matter, because this isn’t
what Paul would have us believe anyway.
This could also apply to certain stories
Christians sometimes argue about. The
possible evil feels more palpable
because it’s in the narrative. So, they
fear that, if their kids are reading certain narratives — even Harry Potter,
but also The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings — they’ll fall prey
to witchcraft because it depicts magic.
However, Scripture itself tells of Pharaoh’s magicians, the witch of
Endor, Simon Magus, and the sons of Sceva without becoming a how-to manual. Depiction is not participation, and imagination
is not invocation. The “mature”
Corinthians were not entirely wrong.
I know Christians disagree on this, but here
is where I see the line: practice. When
the game or the fandom stops being make-believe and people begin referencing actual
spell books and root work, people cross the line. Our kids dressing as superheroes and getting
candy is one thing, but them gathering on Halloween for a séance is quite
another. We don’t want to violate what
God forbids and open ourselves for malevolent spiritual influence. While the idol is nothing, the worship is
not.
This is where we get into further
application. Our materialistic age does
not respect the spiritual enough, and that includes people within the church. It’s true that some Christians go too far and
see demons hiding behind every bush, but that doesn’t mean we should be
unconcerned. And, more to the point, while
some of you might not engage in the kind of temple idolatry the Corinthians did,
you may dabble in occult practices thinking there is no true harm.
Consider v. 20 with this, the hinge of the
paragraph. The Gentiles don’t sacrifice
to nothing — they sacrifice to demons (and not to God). That is an allusion to Deuteronomy 32:17, and
the same thought appears in Psalm 106:37. In Deuteronomy 32, Moses calls God “the Rock” —
the term Paul already used of Christ in verse 4. The Jews were ignorant or perhaps overlooked
the demons that were present in their sacrifices, though, and the Corinthian
Christians needed to learn from their error.[11] The Gentile pagans are likewise ignorant, and
Christians must know better.
Remember that Paul already said in 8:5–6 that
there are many so-called gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the
Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ. Christians understand that God is sovereign
over all, but that there are also lesser spiritual beings in the universe. As one study notes, “False religions are not
just created by humans. They generally
have demonic power behind them (see Deut. 32:17).”[12] It’s not that there are actual other “gods,”
but demons often play the part.[13]
So, Paul says, “I do not want you to become
sharers in demons.” As the Reformation
Study Bible notes, “Although idols are nothing (v. 19), behind pagan
rituals is the reality of Satan’s work, and Christians should have nothing to
do with that.” Christians who sit at the
table of idolatrous sacrifice aren’t neutral — they are sharing with the demons
there, in direct violation of the Lord’s command. They must, therefore, separate and not share,
lest they fall into the Lord’s severe discipline.
The Lord’s Supper and the table of demons are
mutually exclusive, bringing us to final point.
As we consider this, we’ll also consider some of those further
applications. We must be set apart as a
holy people.
Third, Christians Must Sanctify Themselves (vv. 21–22)
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. Or do we
provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we
stronger than He?
“The temple of God” has no agreement with idols (2 Cor.
6:16), and there can be no union for good between Christ and Belial. Isaiah 65:11 pictures those who forsake the
Lord as setting a table for Fortune and filling cups of mixed wine for Destiny.
Paul contrasts the table of the Lord and
the table of demons.
Some of you might not actually go to pagan temples and have
a meal there, though there are opportunities today in the United States. Yet, again, you may think that, because we
shouldn’t be superstitious, we can dabble in divination.
For instance, there may be some of you who
read horoscopes, have astrology apps, use tarot cards “just for insight,” engage
in palm reading, or figure out some numerology. Deuteronomy 18:10–12 and Isaiah 8:19 put this
in the same category as consulting the dead: seeking hidden knowledge from
creation or spirits instead of from God, and there are spirts involved. Even certain personality tests like the
enneagram reportedly originated from mystical practices mixed with automatic
writing from guiding spirit. Pew and
similar surveys keep showing a large share of self-identified Christians accept
at least one of these.
We might also seek objects or techniques for
extra spiritual power. For instance,
some Christians carry crystals for energy, protection, or healing. Some use sage smudging to “clear space.” Some look to energy work and chakra
balancing. Inviting a “guide” or
“energy” to work is the same exchange Paul describes: treating a created thing
as a channel that belongs to God alone.
Others look to manifestation and “the
universe.” For instance, years ago, when
Oprah was promoting The Secret, Christians were getting into the
law of attraction. There are those
treating “the universe” as a personal power that rewards intention. That is a rival providence, for James 1:5 and
the Lord’s Prayer already tell believers where wisdom and daily bread come
from.
Some get into spiritualized yoga and other
Eastern techniques. Of course, I don’t
want to go overboard in naming the problems — stretching is stretching. However, the historic practice is one arising
from various Indian religious and philosophical traditions, such as the yoking
the self to Brahman, opening the energy centers, and sometimes invoking
deities. Some report encountering spirit
guides. When the class includes mantras
or kundalini language, it is not a neutral gym routine. The same principle as the idol meal — the
form can look ordinary, but the meaning attached to it is not, and it might
bring one into communion with a demon.
There’s so much more we could list here. Christians sometimes engage in the wrong kind
of entertainment. Ouija boards, seeking mediums
“for a laugh,” WitchTok spells, and protection jars should not be named among
believers. Paul does not say the danger
is only for people who believe the idol is a god — the danger is simply sitting
at the table. And, to be clear, we’re
not talking about vague “maybes” like they were during the Satanic Panic —
we’re talking about clear violations of Scripture.
Some Christians might think they have wised
up, though, by creating “Christian” versions of these things. For instance, Christian leaders have promoted
the enneagram as a discipleship tool, trying to redeem it. There are professed believers who try to
engage in “Christian” manifestation, and others who use “destiny cards” instead
of tarot. Others promote contemplative
techniques borrowed from sources that empty the mind or seek unmediated voices
as prayer practices. There are some who
think we can speak things into being, that God has given us the ability to
shape reality around us for good or ill.
Just as one example of that, since we’re going through the book of Job,
note that Kenneth Copeland said that Job gave the devil license when he said
“God giveth and God taketh away,” with Copeland saying Job was mistaken to say
this. A supposed Christian sitting at
this demonic table is practicing idolatry.
I hope you’re seeing that the associations
are more present than others. Verse 22
asks the question that should end the argument: “Or do we provoke the Lord to
jealousy? Are we stronger than He?” That is Deuteronomy 32 again, where Yahweh’s
jealousy at Israel’s unfaithfulness is followed by consuming fire, calamity,
famine, plague, and the sword. God
tolerates no competition and will not allow idolatry to go unpunished.[14]
The “strong” in Corinth were flirting
with the same discipline Israel received after the golden calf, and so are we
if we don’t stop engaging in such practices. We are not stronger than God!
The Lord sanctifies us. However, He also calls us to set ourselves
apart from such practices in holiness.
Conclusion
How might we think differently about the
practices in which we involve ourselves?
A useful test might be to ask: Are we seeking knowledge, power, or peace
from something other than through the Lord speaking in Scripture and ruling by
His Spirit? If yes, then we are sitting closer
to the table of demons than we think — even if everyone in the room thinks it’s
okay. We must avoid such things.
Paul’s pastoral call is not to panic — it’s
to holiness and faithfulness in the Lord. The cup and the bread already mean fellowship
with Christ and with His body, so there’s no need for a second cup. We must keep fleeing idolatry — not because
demons are stronger than the Lord (v. 22), but because He is a jealous God.
You cannot drink from two cups, so drink from
the Lord’s alone.
[1] F. Alan Tomlinson, CSB
Study Bible: Notes, 2017, 1825.
[2] See Legacy Standard Bible translation note on
φρόνιμος in 1 Cor. 4:10 and 10:15.
[3] David K. Lowery, The
Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, 1985, 2, 527.
[4] John MacArthur Jr., Ed., The
MacArthur Study Bible, electronic
ed., (Nashville, TN: Word Pub., 1997), 1743–1744.
[5] J. I. Packer, Wayne Grudem, and Ajith Fernando, Eds., ESV
Global Study Bible, (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway, 2012), 1617.
[6] MacArthur, 1744.
[7] Packer, 1617–1618.
[8] John D. Barry, Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael
S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R.
Grigoni, and David Bomar, Faithlife
Study Bible, (Bellingham, WA:
Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), 1 Co 10:16.
[9] MacArthur.
[10] Packer, et. al., 1618.
[11] Tomlinson, 1826.
[12] Packer, et. al.
[13] MacArthur.
[14] Ibid.