1 Corinthians 8:4 - Meaning and Application

In this passage, Paul shows how empty idols really are. When he speaks about eating food offered to idols, he says that “an idol is nothing in the world,” or that it can do nothing in the world. The wording in the original is shortened, but the meaning is clear: pagan idols have no real divinity in them. That is why the Old Testament often calls them lies and vain things, or empty, false gods.

These idols are only imagined gods, and many of them are not even that much. They have no power to make God’s creatures unclean and therefore unfit for God’s children or servants to eat. Every creature of God is good if it is received with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:4). The emptiness of pagan idols cannot change the nature of what God has made.

Paul adds, “there is no other God but one.” Heathen idols are not gods, and they should not be treated as gods, because only one true God exists. The unity of God is a basic truth in Christianity and in all true religion. The gods of the nations must be nothing, with no real divinity in them, because there is only one God.

People may speak of many gods and many lords. Some of these were thought to be in heaven, others on earth. The heathen had celestial gods of the highest rank, and earthly ones, including men they turned into gods to act as mediators and manage earthly matters. Scripture often calls such false gods Baalim. They had many gods and many lords, but all of them were only names and images, not real deities or mediators.

For us, there is one God, the Father, from whom all things come and for whom we exist. Christians know better. We know there is one God, the source of all being, the maker, preserver, and ruler of the whole world. Everything comes from him, and everything is for him. Paul calls him the Father here, not to deny the Son and the Spirit, but to speak of God as distinct from all created things. In other places, Scripture shows that the work of creation belongs to the Father, Son, and Spirit together.

There is also for us one Lord, one Mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ. There are not many mediators, as the heathen imagined, but only one. Through him all things were made and continue to exist, and all our hope and happiness depend on him, the man Christ Jesus. He is a man, yet joined to the divine Word, or God the Son, in one person. God has made this very man both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). In his human nature and in his role as Mediator, Jesus has received authority from God. He has been given a name above every name, so that every knee should bow at his name and every tongue confess that he is Lord.

So Christ is the only Lord and the only Mediator Christians acknowledge. He is the only one who stands between God and sinners, governs the affairs of the world under God, and speaks for men before God. All the so-called lords of the heathen are only imaginary. It is a great privilege for us Christians that we know the true God and the true Mediator between God and man, the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent (John 17:3).