Paul’s letters speak to us today because they teach spiritual principles, even if the specific issues they raise do not always seem particularly relevant to us. We still participate in the ‘cup of thanksgiving’ and break bread together (a theme he will develop further in 1 Cor 11.) The diversity of people united in Christ is a key theme developed elsewhere (1 Cor 12:12-31, Rom 12:4-8). Our total surrender to God is a requirement that cannot be negotiated; our total service for others is the proof that we are living for the glory of our king.
Divided loyalties are at the heart of much of the reasoning behind Paul’s thinking in 1 Cor 10:14-11:1. The question of ‘to eat or not to eat’ is as nothing compared to the bigger question of idolatry (a theme found in many pages of the Bible.) God’s displeasure at the majority of Israelites whose grumbling and lack of faith led to their failure to enter the Promised Land (1 Cor 10:1-11) and His jealousy at unfaithful hearts (1 Cor 10:22, see also Ezek 16:1-45, Deut 32:15-18, Ezek 8:3) are the real issues we must consider daily.
God’s jealousy is not fuelled by insecurity, meanness or anger, as human jealousy often is. His love for us is pure, fierce, unconditional and everlasting. He knows that only He can satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart and therefore in demanding our undivided loyalty to Him, He is actually seeking our good (just as C. S. Lewis reached the conclusion that God’s exhortations to us to praise Him were not the result of a narcissistic neurosis but that the command to praise is not just so that God can receive something, but is bound up the very giving of God himself, see ‘Reflections on the Psalms’, P 91-97).
Anything which takes our hearts from God is idolatry and Paul’s command regarding that is unequivocal: ‘Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.’ (1 Cor 10:14) Just as we are to flee from sexual immorality (1 Cor 6:18) and covetousness (1 Tim 6:11) and the evil desires of youth (2 Tim 2:22), we are to keep ourselves from idols (1 Jn 5:1), living wholly for God. ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’ (1 Pet 1:15)
Having undivided loyalties is an essential part of inner wholeness and strength. Eugene Peterson calls this ‘congruence’, saying that there has to be congruence between what we believe and what we do (‘the Christian life is the lifelong practice of attending to the details of congruence – congruence between ends and means, congruence between what we do and the way we do it’) for ‘only when we do the Jesus truth in the Jesus way do we get the Jesus life.’ (‘Christ Plays In Ten Thousand Places’, P333) Paul’s key principle is that ‘what is believed in the heart has demonstrable consequences in daily life.’ (Eugene Peterson, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work, P25) We do well to remember this. Any kind of divided loyalty will lead to some inner fracturing that isn’t good for our mental or physical health. Paul shows us, in this key passage, that it will also have spiritual consequences which are harmful to us. By far the best way is to avoid divided loyalties by surrendering whole-heartedly to God.