# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1855_S354
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

354 Exposition of 1 Corinthians, etc.

heads of households perhaps, mothers, children, were still heathen. The heathen celebrated public festival days with sacrifices in such a way that they burned the fat and skin of the sacrificial animals to the idols, but either consumed the flesh at joyful meals in the temples, or, as the poor and the miserly in particular did, sold it in the meat market. Family festivals at which a sacrifice had been made likewise concluded with meals at which the flesh of the sacrificial animals was eaten. So it was, on the one hand, already very inconvenient to guard oneself against buying sacrificial meat in the market, and yet many Christians — above all the Christians who came from among the Jews, who were accustomed, after the Jewish manner, to regard even the mere touching of idol-sacrificed meat as sin — took great offense that Christians brought such meat to their table. The complaint that arose over this had then led these latter, the more freely minded Christians, to assert their freedom haughtily, to show at every opportunity that they bought and ate sacrificial meat, and so to fall once again into their old pride, and, on top of that, to offend their Christian brethren. It is these whom the Apostle, in chapters 8 and 9, confronted with their sin. On the other hand, there were also Christians in Corinth who could not resist the desire, after the old custom, to take part in the idol-sacrifice feasts, and who, with the excuse that there was, after all, nothing to the idols, sat down at table at heathen festivals with their heathen relatives and friends. It is to these that the admonition closing with verse 14 applies, drawn from the example of the Israelites, together with the preaching that everything happens on God's part so that they might be victorious in every temptation; but to these also applies the preaching of verses 15–22.

The admonition of verse 14, which was a conclusion drawn from the preceding words, becomes at the same time once again the theme and main clause of the words to be expounded:

Flee from idolatry, and therefore also from the meals held at idol sacrifices;

the Apostle grounds this admonition in the following manner:

1. He gives his readers to consider what grace God accounts them worthy of, in that he lets them partake at the table of the Lord. Verses 16 and 17.

2. He then shows them that, in sitting down at table at the idol-sacrifice feasts, they partake at the table of the devil. Verses 18–20.

3. From this there necessarily follows the recognition that the Christian may not take part in the idol-sacrifice feasts. Verses 21 and 22.

This grounding is introduced with

Verse 15. "I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say."

He calls them "wise" with reference to chapter 8:1, and in general because they ascribed to themselves so great a knowledge of Christian freedom and of the nature of idolatry, and sought to demonstrate this knowledge through their free participation in the meals of idol worship. The word translated "wise" means those who draw conclusions, who are able to render judgments—