Food does not bring us closer to God

Never heard of it

What an unusual Bible text, that 1 Corinthians 8:8. It is very likely that you have never heard a speech about it before. Yet I think it has something important to say to us.

In this post, we will briefly go over the background and explanation of the 8th chapter. You can find more about that here: < Food does not bring us closer to God >.

Food does not bring us closer to God

Now to the text at hand, verse 8. If we omit the words inserted by HSV, we get the following text, "Now food does not bring us closer to God, for whether we eat, we have no abundance; and whether we do not eat, we suffer no want."

It's about the question of having abundance or lack. And not in a literal sense, of course, because then it does matter whether you eat or not. If you don't eat then you eventually die. But in the context we have to think of experiencing more or less the presence or nearness of God. That is what idolatry is all about. Feeling that you have contact with "god," with the invisible world. You can apparently experience that abundantly but you can also lack it.

Paul then argues that food does not bring us closer to God. Food offered to the gods does not help you experience more of God. The believers to whom Paul wrote this knew this. But for those with "weak consciousness," it was a serious trap.

Experience God's presence?

For us it means that there are no means or ways by which we can experience the presence of God. No music, drama, flags, candles, silence, walking or nature, whatever you can think of, it is not something through which God can be experienced. You can be touched or touched in your soul by these things, but those are normal human reactions, that's not God. And if you do open up to something 'supernatural', you are walking on thin ice, as is also clear from 1 Corinthians 10:20.

God's Word tells us here that "food does not bring us closer to God." It is striking that the first what we hear satan say in the bible is, "in the day that ye eat thereof . . . ye shall be like God" (Genesis 3:5). It has been his misleading story from the start. 

In short, there are no means or ways to experience 'God's presence'; that is the first lesson we must learn in connection with Paul's theme.

The Eucharist or the Lord's Supper then?

Just as an aside, this. So according to Paul, the Eucharist is not a means of drawing near to God, nor the rituals that go with it. According to the Roman Catholic Church, however, it is a sacrament through which you can experience the sacred. While the Word of God calls this idolatry.

But the Lord's Supper is also not a means to experience God. The Lord Jesus instituted it as reminderbecause we so easily forget how wonderful His work on the cross of Calvary was!

The entrance to the holy

The only way we can draw near to God is through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only way. Look at the tabernacle. The way into the sanctuary went past the altar of burnt offering, in the picture the place where the Lord Jesus offered His sacrifice. You have to pass by that. Next, you have to pass by the laver. When the priests were consecrated, they were washed completely there (Exodus 29:4), a picture of rebirth. Only then were you allowed to go in to raise incense to God. But the fire you needed for that had to necessarily come from the altar of burnt offering! In other words, the only thing of value before God that allows us to appear before Him is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If we engage more with Him and with His work on Calvary's cross, we will come to know our God more and our thanks to Him will increase. May He grant us that grace!