What does the Bible say about food sacrificed to idols?

from the old testament

• Any worship outside of worshiping God is a sin. When God rescued the Israelites, He set down commands for what it meant for Him to be their God. One such rule was, “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God ….” (Exodus 20:3–5).
• God is jealous for His name, meaning He will not stand for any challenge to His authority. Participating in rituals intended to honor someone other than God angers Him.
• Idolatry is pledging allegiance to the one being worshiped. Using strong language, God told the Israelites to avoid entering into relationships with the surrounding pagans lest, “when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods” (Exodus 34:15–16). Idolatry is not neutral; it’s a pledge to follow or serve a false god.
• Note that the idols themselves are nothing. Isaiah 44:9–20 speaks of the foolishness of idolatry, in which the thing being worshiped is made by the one who worships it! The issue, then, isn’t the thing involved (such as meat); it’s the heart of the one engaging in the worship.
• However, though the idol itself is nothing, there’s a real spiritual reality. Knowingly or not, idolaters are worshiping demons. Speaking about Israel’s rebellion, we read, “They sacrificed to demons that were not God, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded” (Deuteronomy 32:17). The act of sacrificing food to idols is therefore not spiritually neutral.

from the new testament

• In the first century, the Roman Empire was a pagan empire filled with gods and false worship, including the practice of animal sacrifice. The leftover meat was then sold in the marketplace.
• Some Christians at that time were torn about whether or not it was OK to buy meat from those marketplaces, wondering if that meant that they were participating in idolatry. Other Christians, however, understood that it was just meat and had no problem eating it.
• Paul wrote, in particular to those who felt free to eat the meat, warning them that they were not acting Christlike. Paul argued that they had the right knowledge, but that knowledge alone “puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1b).
• He explained that they were right about eating meat because “as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ‘an idol has no real existence,’ and that ‘there is no God but one’” (1 Corinthians 8:4). He was saying that it was true that idolatry was nothing in the sense that it was the worship of non-existent gods, noting that the true God is also the only God. Since they were nothing, the things used in their rituals, such as the meat, were not spiritually tainted. Therefore, there was nothing wrong with buying or eating meat from the marketplace.
• However, Paul continued, noting that not every Christian understands that. Contextually, many Christians were saved from a pagan lifestyle, so they associated the meat with the idolatry that had gone before. Because of that, some were unable to separate the meat from the practice and believed they were participating in idolatry (1 Corinthians 8:7). Therefore, Paul told the Christians with the correct knowledge to stop making the other believers do what they believed was sinful. If the weaker Christian saw the stronger one eating the food and encouraged the weaker one to eat as well, the weaker one would be participating in idolatry because, in his or her mind, he or she was eating for the idol (1 Corinthians 8:10).
• Paul’s point was that by promoting their freedom to eat meat, they were causing the weaker believers to sin by eating meat they believed was idolatrous. The stronger believers were, therefore, guilty of causing the weaker believers to sin (1 Corinthians 8:12). For the sake of their “knowledge,” they were being unloving. Paul exemplified what their attitude should have been: “if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble” (1 Corinthians 8:13).
• Note that Paul was not saying that there was nothing to the weaker believers’ beliefs. While the idols were nothing and the meat was untainted, all worship is to participate with the one being worshiped. He gave three examples. Christians participate with Christ in communion (1 Corinthians 10:16); the Israelites participated with God through the sacrifices at His altar (1 Corinthians 10:18–19); and the pagans participate with demons when they offer food to idols (1 Corinthians 10:20–21). Therefore, even the stronger Christians were to watch themselves lest they come too close to participating with demons by eating in the temple or otherwise participating in the act of the sacrifice as opposed to just eating it (1 Corinthians 10:22).

implications for today

One may never encounter the specific case of eating food sacrificed to idols, but Paul’s teaching has broad implications for us today regarding differing positions on non-essential aspects of Christian life. Because we live in the world and are regularly in contact with it, we must make biblically informed decisions as to what is acceptable. Because those decisions involve wisdom, there is not always a clear-cut answer. If one is not careful, those differing conclusions may cause conflict between believers.

An example of this is in the area of drinking alcohol. Some Christians believe any drinking is sinful. Others are OK with it in moderation. Some drink any alcohol while others limit themselves to a particular type (such as wine). Some are only comfortable drinking privately at someone’s house, while others believe it’s OK to drink in public places such as bars. In each case, Christians are wrestling with passages in Scripture about drunkenness (Ephesians 5:18), God’s good gifts in this life (1 Timothy 4:4), and one’s public witness (1 Corinthians 10:31–33).

In this passage about food sacrificed to idols, Paul was teaching believers how to navigate these situations with one another. Rather than fighting over the differences, we are to defer to one another in love. We must be willing to give up our freedoms, such as drinking alcohol, when around another believer who feels uncomfortable with that freedom. In short, we should never lord our freedoms over someone else or make them feel bad for not believing as we do.

In the end, we don’t stand or fall with God based on what we do (Romans 14:4). Rather, God makes us stand through His Son and what He has done for us (Romans 5:1). That should unite, rather than divide, us!