Read 1 Corinthians 10:14-22.

Corinth was a dark, entangling pagan culture. But God freed the Corinthian Christians, calling them to salvation through Christ Jesus. As God’s chosen people, the believers in Corinth were to witness to the Truth of the Gospel in their society. But instead of witnessing, they fought over leadership, doubted Paul’s apostleship, and treated the Lord’s Supper as an opportunity to boast. With such behavior, they were poor ambassadors for Christ, distracting others from the Gospel message.

Some of the Corinthian believers were even dining at the temples of false gods—attending the temple festivals. Paul had already addressed the issue of eating meat sacrificed to idols, declaring it a matter of conscience (see 8:4-8), but in this chapter, Paul addresses a different scenario. Some Corinthian believers were actually participating in pagan worship. If the Corinthians’ unbelieving neighbors saw them eating and drinking at a table to a pagan god, what could their conclusion be but that their lives were no different than before?

Today our worship and witness can be tarnished in similar ways. We may not be worshiping at a pagan temple, but how many of us worship at the altar of wealth, status, or approval? We need to look to Christ to remember who we are. By the power of the Holy Spirit, He will give us undivided hearts and create in us a desire to boldly witness for Christ in the midst of our own spiritually dark culture.

Prayer: Lord, help me to identify the idols I worship in my life. May I lay them down by the power of Your Holy Spirit so that I can keep my heart set on You—the only one worthy—and bear witness to Your incomparable majesty. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

“You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons” (1 Corinthians 10:21).