AP

1 Corinthians 8:5-6  For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

Unsurprisingly, the fledgling Church in Corinth was sharply divided over whether it was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ (or ‘neither’) to eat food that had been offered to idols at the pagan temple butcher shop.  But, whereas Paul’s line of argument here is relevant to that debate, it also has a wider area of application for us today.

To a large extent our culture, while calling for tolerance in all things, has zero tolerance for the idea or concept that “there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live”.  For us to even put this forward as a philosophical possibility is not acceptable in the field of ‘ideas’.  So when we attempt to set forward the fundamental truths of the Christian Gospel to challenge people we gain no traction with the world around us – we are ‘speaking a different language’, ‘using a different set of log tables’!

So it is good for us to ‘own’ this real-world situation as a reality, but not to give up speaking the truth anyway (think of the circumstances under which all the Old Testament Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel spoke).  In today’s one sentence above, the apostle Paul presents several non-negotiable truths on which our gospel stands: there is only one real God who is the source of all that exists and whom we will all one day face as his subjects; he sent his Son into our world in real time-and-space history; he has established this One Jesus as Lord over all, and is his Promised Messiah (Christ) as our only Rescuer/Saviour and source of Life.

We must take every opportunity today to make this clear to a confused, easily deceived world, if we are going to lead people to put their trust and eternal hope in Jesus alone as Saviour.  “There is no other name in heaven can be found through whom we are redeemed, through whom your grace abounds.  No other name can save but Jesus Christ our Lord.  My joy in sorrow’s tears, my strength to cast out fears; no other name but Jesus, Jesus.  My hope in darkest night, my broken soul’s delight; no other name but Jesus, Jesus. … … No other throne endures, no other song remains, but ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was for sinners slain’; when every knee shall bow and tongue confess you are Lord, you are Lord” (Trevor Hodge).  The Early Church had to work and fight hard to counter several, often subtle heresies in order to hand us down the true gospel – let us not fail our generation.

– Bruce Christian