Bishop's Epistle: An Exegesis of First Corinthians 8:6-7

by Bishop Jerry Hayes

Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. 7 However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. (1Corinthians 8:4-7)

Our focus is vv6 and 7. However, I have given vv 4-7 in order to present the context of the vv under consideration. The context is eating food offered to idols, and the One God of the Christians as opposed to the many gods of the non-believers.

In v6 Paul declares the Father to be the only God. Then he proceeds to mention Jesus Christ as the Lord. Jesus is mentioned separate from the ONLY God, who is the Father. Paul does not call Jesus God here (although he does at: Ro 9:5,Titus 2:13. Col 2:9, Acts 20:28) , nor is he referencing Jesus as God. In this place, Paul speaks of Jesus in His role as the Son of God, i.e. the human Christ. (The term “Lord” is in the sense of a human Lord — not as LORD God. Lord, in the sense that He, as a human, has won the victory over all evil and is humanly Lord of all the human sphere. Lord of sin, because He conquered sin, Lord over death because He conquered death. One should see Romans 8:3, He condemned sin “in the flesh;” Ephesians 2:15, He abolished “in His flesh the enmity... ;” Colossians 1:21b-22 He has “reconciled in the body of his flesh” the believers through His death; but, especially Hebrews 5:5-10, “So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him:“You are My Son,Today I have begotten You.”6 As He also says in another place:“You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek”;7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, 8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, 10 called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek.” This may be a difficult understanding to grasp, if one is of the opinion that the term “Lord” [when associated with Jesus] is always an indicator of His deity; which view, has been among the Oneness believers, almost from the beginning of the last century; but, I, personally, do not feel it is the most correct view.)

The phrase, “Of whom are all things” (Gk, ex ou) means “out of”, or “from whom;” the Father is the “source of the the universe,” as in Romans 11:36, and Colossians 1:16.

The pharse “and we for Him” (KJV has “we in him”) is the Gk “ei auton;” means that God is our goal.

Concerning the Son of God (the humanity of Jesus), when the text says, “by whom are all things” (KJV) the Gk is “de ou: is speaking of the “instrument” of creation. Here the text says that all things were made “by” the Son; as in Ephesians 3:9; Hebrews 1:12. Now we know, from Scripture that Father God created all things. So, how is it, then, that the worlds were created “by” the Son, if the Son is man, not God? The way the Trinitarian explains this is that the Father (God the First Person) created through the Son (God the Second Person) as a agent; as one might hire a carpenter to build a house. The owner could say that he build the house through the carpenter, as his an agent. (But a more correct statement by the owner would be to say that he “had” the house build.) This does violence to Scripture, because the Father says in Isaiah 44:24, “I am the Lord, who makes all things, Who stretches The proper way to think of the Son creating is that He was the “instrument” of creation. God could not have created except “by” the work of the Son — on the cross. That is why the Bible states clearly that the Son was crucified BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD (Hebrews 4:3; 1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8). God knew His universe would fall into sin, therefore all of creation was predicated upon that finished work of the Son of God — redemption. The Sonship, then was the “blueprint” (the instrument) by which God the Father created!

There is a very real sense in which the humanity of Jesus cannot be excluded from the creation any more than can wisdom or understanding. Proverbs 3:19 states: “The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.” If we are not to understand that neither wisdom nor understanding physically made the worlds, then why should not the same discernment be applied to the statements concerning the worlds being made by the Son. In fact, this is seen to be reasonable by the Greek text of the passages under consideration. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon, Edinburg, 1901, pages 133 and 134: Greek dia as found in Hebrews 1:2 and translated in the KJV as by, is the instrumental cause; of the ground or reason of which anything is or is not done; by reason of, because of… . Therefore, God the Father created by (dia) the Son. That is to say, With the Son in view, as the cause – the ground – the reason – and the instrument of creation (Hebrews 4:3; 1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8).

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Bishop's Epistle

Thursday, February 28, 2013

An Exegesis of First Corinthians 8:6-7

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