The Description of a Christian’s Lifestyle (Part 1 of 2)

Fleeing Idolatry

The Apostle Paul turns his attention to the lifestyle of a Christian, specifically in response to idolatry. Last week, we saw that real Christians are resilient—they endure temptation. Temptation is an opportunity to sin, with two outcomes: resist and remain sinless, or give in. When tempted, remember verse 13: God is faithful. He provides a way of escape to endure, not escape from, temptation.

Now Paul switches focus to the Christian lifestyle of fleeing idolatry and participating in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. This is not limited to monthly communion. Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper to be observed as often as possible. The emphasis is continual participation in Christ's blood, celebrated in communion—a lifestyle, not a ritual.

Verses 1-13 illustrate enduring temptation; verses 14-22 exhort fleeing idolatry, summarizing all sin as idolatry. No temptation has overcome you except what is common to man, but God is faithful, providing escape to endure. Therefore, flee idolatry.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 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 the demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

—1 Corinthians 10:14-22

Paul describes the fact of fleeing: "Flee from idolatry." In verse 13, God provides escape through temptation to endure it. But for sin itself, he says flee—run away. Idolatry is not just external pagan worship; it's any sin. As Ezekiel 14:3 notes, Israel took idols into their hearts.

Jesus echoes this in the Sermon on the Mount: lust is adultery, hatred is murder. Idolatry starts internally before external expression. We risk heart-idols today—no golden calves needed. Any sin can be an idol, internal first.

How do you flee internal idolatry? The Greek pheugō means to flee, avoid, shun, or make cease to be visible. Turn away physically and mentally—make idols invisible to eye and heart. In privacy, get as far away as possible. The wicked plan sin in bed, fixating internally.

Pharisees hide internal idolatry behind external religion. Temptation is constant; we stumble unaware or dishonest about heart-idols. Repentance alone isn't enough—cease visibility. As long as idols are accessible in memory or environment, they persist.

Jesus said: If your right eye causes sin, pluck it out; right hand, cut it off. Hyperbole—remove life's stumbling areas. Better enter heaven maimed than hell whole. Extreme, counter-cultural sacrifice is needed. Don't attack idolatry; that keeps it visible. Flee—turn away. Greatest Christians may seem cowardly: no smartphone, TV, or shows if they stumble.

It's awkward missing cultural references, feeling excluded. Better heaven clueless than hell entertained. TV often presents sin directly. All passes away—nothing enters eternity. No shows in heaven or hell.

Moses chose Christ's reproaches over Egypt's pleasures (Hebrews 11). Mockery with God's people beat luxury, knowing it was temporary, valueless eternally. Flee idolatry the same way.

The Foundation of Fellowship

Paul describes the foundation of fellowship with common-sense Christianity: "I speak as to sensible people." The cup we bless is participation (koinōnia) in Christ's blood; bread, his body. One bread makes us one body. Israel eating sacrifices shared the altar.

To flee idolatry, don't just eliminate—replace with Christ. Make Christ's work visible, idolatry invisible. Pagans sacrifice to demons, not God. Don't fellowship demons. Put gospel central: Christ's broken body heals, spilled blood forgives.

Constantly realize Christ's work. Without it, we grow nearsighted, forgetting cleansing from sins (2 Peter 1).

Constant Realization of the Gospel

If you don't have a constant realization that Jesus Christ died upon the cross to save you from your sins, you will have a greater degree of amnesia with respect to your forgiveness of sins. That's a constant reminder of your sin and your forgiveness of sin. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. It shows you the heinousness of sin, the reality of sin—specifically your sin—and what Jesus Christ specifically accomplished to forgive you of your sins.

When you engage in that on a constant basis, it enables you to remember that you've been forgiven from sin and saved unto Christ's righteousness. There's never a point in your Christianity where you take faith to make it real. It's the lifestyle of a Christian to realize that it's real on a constant basis, to know that it is real. He actually did that. He didn't potentially do that. He specifically died upon the cross for your sins. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God.

It's the constant activity of the Christian to put that before our eyes and to think about it constantly. Faith really is nothing more than that which a person realizes about Jesus Christ, the truth of Jesus Christ. There's not a shred of faith that we can conjure up on our own that causes God to do anything. The work of God is what causes our faith to even exist.

This is why in the book of Galatians the Apostle Paul bemoaned the utter irrationality of the Galatians, who had before their eyes Jesus Christ publicly portrayed as crucified, and then turned from that to something that's not a gospel at all. Many of those Galatians probably did not see Jesus Christ physically crucified. So the only way Paul could make that statement has to relate to the preaching of the gospel, even to communion, because that's a visible declaration, a visible demonstration of the realities of what Jesus Christ accomplished upon Calvary's cross.

For the Galatians, they had as good a gospel as if they were physical eyewitnesses. When you have a public display of Jesus Christ crucified in your life on a daily basis—not just Friday nights or Sunday mornings or Wednesday evenings or in a home fellowship, but a daily display—then if you were to turn to another gospel like the Galatians did, it would be so perplexing that our heads would explode. How could you, having physically seen through the preaching and the ministry of the gospel and the means of grace that the Bible prescribes, turn from that to something that is no gospel at all?

As Christians, we should be in constant activity of realizing what Jesus Christ has done for us, having the gospel before our eyes and in our hearts and on our minds as regularly as possible. And that, dear friends, is one of the ways in which we flee idolatry.

Fulfillment of Fellowship

Number three: Paul describes the fulfillment of fellowship in recognizing the foundation of fellowship, the actual existence of Jesus Christ, and then applying that specific fellowship to the subject matter at hand—the positivity of recognizing what we have in Jesus Christ.

There's the negativity of recognizing what actually occurs in idolatry, what actually occurs in the practice of sin. That's why he goes into this dichotomy, this comparison between participating in communion, participating in the gospel, and showing what pagans are actually doing in idolatry. It almost seems like he's correcting what he said previously about eating food sacrificed to idols—there's no sin in that whatsoever. But now he discusses idolatry. Even though he says the food offered to idols is nothing and the idol itself is nothing, he compares eating the body of Jesus Christ symbolically in communion, drinking the cup symbolic of His blood, to food sacrificed to idols, which they sacrifice to demons.

The whole reason for this comparison is to show what somebody practicing idolatry is actually doing. Since he had previously defined idolatry as any kind of sin, he's using physical idolatry to teach us what we're doing negatively in participating in idolatry. It's not just sinning. It's harmless? What's the big deal? There's no harm in looking at something I shouldn't, participating in something I shouldn't. Nobody's going to know. It's not that big of a deal. I did that a week ago and I'm moving on. What's the harm?

Verse 20: No. Food sacrificed to idols is nothing. An idol is nothing.

Psalm 115: The idols are silver and gold, they have hands but can't feel, feet but can't walk, mouths but can't talk, ears but can't hear; those that make them become like them.

It's literally nothing, an inanimate object. I love it in Isaiah when God calls all idols into His courtroom, compares Himself to idols, and makes them look stupid. The God of the Old Testament is awesome when He debates them and proves them pathetic compared to our God.

It's interesting that in verse 19 he says the food offered to idols is nothing and the idol itself is nothing, but what the pagans sacrifice—even though he said food is nothing—is fellowshipping with demons. They're not fellowshipping with God; they're offering it to demons. By their worship of idolatry, by their action of idolatry, they're fellowshipping with demons.

Think about this the next time you engage in a particular sin. It's not harmless because it's offensive to God, breaks His commandment, neglects His goodness, says no to His graciousness. It's worthy of His discipline, and if unbelievers, His punishment. But here, Paul says it's more than that: it's fellowshipping with demons.

Examples from Revelation

Give me another example: Revelation chapter 2, starting in verse 20.

But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works. I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches mind and heart.

What are the chances that in a book riddled with symbolism, Jesus is specifically denouncing sexual immorality and food sacrificed to idols? This may have been a specific woman named Jezebel in the historical church of Thyatira, or symbolic of people in any church who commit adultery—internally, as Jesus taught, or externally through sexual immorality. He searches mind and heart, giving to each according to their works.

In verse 24: To the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I lay no other burden.

Sexual immorality, adultery, lack of repentance, food sacrificed to idols as the expression of adultery and idolatry. Some understand this as the deep things of Satan. It's not just the things of Satan, but the deep things belonging to that sin. It's not innocent, harmless sinning that doesn't affect anyone. In Christ's teaching on sexual immorality, adultery, and idolatry, it's engaging in the deep things of Satan—a higher, more intimate fellowship with Satan.

True Spiritual Warfare

From time to time I meet people obsessed with the demonic realm, tying everything to angelic battles. If something bad happens, Satan is winning; when better, God broke through. But real spiritual warfare may be less about physical health—which could be God testing your faith, as in 1 Peter 1 or James—than people describing to Satan what God is doing.

The real ongoing spiritual engagement may not even be warfare, but demonic fellowship—hanging out with demons, going deeper into knowledge and fellowship with Satan himself. You can't drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. Sharing the Lord's Supper was fellowshipping with Him. You can't fellowship with the Lord while fellowshipping with demons.

If we're not fleeing idolatry but participating, we're fellowshipping with the demonic realm. Next time you see a movie like Paranormal Activity, recognize it ain't close to the truth. Demonic interaction in sin is not hostile; it's pleasantries—and far scarier than any horror film.

The exhortation, the lifestyle of the Christian, is to run away from demonic fellowship, from idolatry, and run headlong into the arms of Jesus Christ in fellowship with the gospel. That's one reason we'll participate in communion more regularly in the weeks and months to come, in means of grace and youth ministry, for more gospel in our lives through preaching and visible representation.

Beloved, flee from idolatry.