here<\/a> from the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recordings Trust, listen especially from minute 12 to 14). In handling Scripture, I am against spiritualizing, proof-texting, and misapplication. I believe it betrays at best a shallow understanding of the Word of God and may betray a cavalier irreverence for the God of the Word. We should endeavour always to examine the way we approach Scripture and make our arguments for Christian living in exactly the way Scripture makes them. Let us refrain from proof-texts! Let us eschew slogans!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
As for 1 Cor 10.31, it is evident that many, many commentators take the passage to mean that Paul is here teaching a general principle that applies to every situation of life. For example, here is G. G. Findlay in The Expositor’s Greek Testament<\/i>, a fine set edited by W. Robertson Nicol and published by Eerdmans. (My set has no publication date on it \u2014 I believe it is out of print.) Findlay comments on the verse by saying that “vv. 31, 32 conclude the matter with two solemn, comprehensible rules, introduced by the collective oun<\/i> [see below] \u2026 relating to God’s glory<\/i> and to man’s salvation<\/i>. The supreme maxim of duty, [“all things into the glory of God be doing” \u2013 my translation of Findlay quoting the Greek] applies to all that Christians ‘eat or drink’ (including the idolothyta), \u2014 indeed, to whatever they ‘do’; cf<\/i>. Rom 14.20ff.<\/span><\/i>, Col 3.17.” Findlay proceeds to talk about verse 32 as “A second general rule\u2026” You can see that Findlay is taking 1 Cor 10.31 as a general rule superimposed into the argument of 1 Cor 10. This approach is imitated in one way or another by almost all the commentators. In my desperate search for someone who agrees with me (a true scholar!), I have found no one to ally myself with, including the venerable Charles Hodge and many others. In some of my correspondence, I have described myself as in the minority on this question. It increasingly appears that I am in a minority of one, thus, I may be a theological Don Quixote, tilting at windmills and offering a private interpretation. Nevertheless, I do think that my consideration of the text should at least be examined before it is simply dismissed by ‘majority rule’.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
First Consideration<\/span><\/h1>\n <\/span><\/h1>\nThe first thing to consider in this verse is its relation to its context.<\/p>\n
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***<\/p>\n
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The consideration of the context of the verses following 1 Cor 10.31 show that while Paul is using general language, he is not stating in verse 32 a general rule which applies to every possible action he might do. Rather, Paul is teaching a rule that applies to a limited set of circumstances. I would suggest that the limited set of circumstances is first of all the circumstances that involve meat offered to idols. This is the primary consideration of the context that follows 1 Cor 10.31.<\/p>\n
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Second Consideration<\/span><\/h1>\n <\/span><\/h1>\nThe second thing to consider is the kinds of things that are discussed in this sentence.<\/p>\n
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***<\/p>\n
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If I am right about the meaning of the eating and drinking, that is, eating and drinking as a class of things related to things offered to idols, what then is the meaning of ‘whatsoever ye do’? Is Paul just throwing in a general phrase meaning ‘any old thing you do regardless of the context about which I have been going on for three chapters now’? Or is Paul speaking about a choice in the same category or class as the eating and drinking? I suggest it is the latter. The choices before a believer in someone’s house at a meal first are these: ask or don’t ask. Paul says don’t ask. But he goes on to say, ‘If your host mentions that you are eating something offered to an idol, then don’t eat it.” So on the one hand you choose to eat and don’t ask questions. On the other hand, you choose not to eat. Applying the ‘drinking’ category, you on the one hand may drink and don’t ask questions, but once you have knowledge, you don’t drink. Now comes the principle: ‘Whether therefore you eat or drink [not having asked any questions] or whatsoever you do [having been informed, i.e.<\/i>, whatever = not eating and not drinking], do these things to the glory of God.” There are only really two options. Eat or don’t eat. Drink or don’t drink. The ‘whatsoever’ covers both the ‘don’t eat’ and ‘don’t drink’ category. The context of the passage and the grammatical structure indicate that each of the three actions in the list are all of a sort, all one category, and they are all related to the choice whether to eat meat offered to idols or not.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nThird Consideration<\/span><\/h1>\n <\/span><\/h1>\nThe third thing to consider is the word ‘all’ in the phrase ‘do all to the glory of God’.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n***<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This leaves us with Thayer’s first possibility, “of a certain definite totality or sum of things, the context shewing what things are meant”. What is the definite totality or some of things to which Paul is referring here? What does the context tell us? Eating, drinking, or whatever you do [i.e.<\/i>, not eat or not drink, see discussion above] \u2013 the totality of things Paul is referring to is the list of options he has already provided.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nThe point of the passage is to teach that the choices you make with respect to meat offered to idols is to make those choices glorify God. You do this by having respect to a weaker brother whose conscience you might offend and who you may cause to stumble, or you do this by taking into consideration the importance of the gospel and eschew some things you have a right to since the gospel is more important than your rights, or you are very cautious because of the deceptiveness of your own heart and the examples of others who have gone before reveals that you yourself may easily stumble and be brought under the power of darkness. In every case, you shouldn’t so easily rationalize away your own scruples against doubtful things, but tend to abstain for a variety of reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nConclusion:<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n***<\/p>\n
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Am I merely straining at a gnat on this one? I don’t think so. I think there is a widespread casual use of the Bible that fails to take the Bible seriously. This particular passage is only a small example. There are other examples where the consequences are much more serious. I plan to take up another of them in a new post to come in a few days. The failure to read and understand the Bible in context leads to some bizarre Pharisaisms being imposed on the people of God. Let us be faithful to the Word as it stands in context and as the Holy Spirit intended us to understand it<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have a rather long article on 1 Cor 10.31. I will post highlights here, with a link to the full article in pdf format here. Somehow it is possible to make long posts expand to a separate page, but I can’t seem to figure it out. I think it might have something to do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2fYWj-61","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}