In the beginnings of the church, as the gospel bore fruit among the Gentiles, the main difference with believers was that they obeyed the truth and the command of God and therefore stopped worshipping idols. They even started to stop ascribing any reality of divinity to idols. Food sacrificed to idols became a sticking point. As did believers eating with unbelievers. Apostle Paul had to provide some good advice to the first converts to encounter these problems, these converts having been converted from among the pagans. First epistle to the Corinthians has his advice. The two issues were whether to eat food sacrificed to idols and whether to eat with unbelievers. The first he answered in chapter 8 saying not to eat the food sacrificed to idols if doing so caused a brother to be offended, but if no offence is caused and conscience permits, he seems to say go ahead. The second he answered in chapter 10 by saying it is OK to accept an invitation to eat with pagans in their home. Both are odd answers for a Jew to give. Eating food sacrificed to idols is condemned in other parts of NT scriptures. Jewish believers did not condone eating in houses with pagans. Apostle Peter got questioned about doing so when he went to preach to Cornelius. So Paul was dealing with the edge case of current doctrine. Interestingly this was the backdrop for dealing with there being one true God. The truth that there is the one true God, who the converts from pagan idolatry were now worshipping because of the gospel of Christ, is the reason Paul could now break the spell of pagan philosophy and state that idols are nothing. This realisation, this knowledge was an outcome of the effect of the gospel and of witnessing accompanying miracles. In addition, he also admitted there are many gods, but only one Father who is root of responsibility for all creation. And with Him one Lord, Jesus the Christ. This is in contrast to pagan thinking. Interesting that pagan thinking clouded this counsel centuries later with Trinitarian philosophy, bringing back into core Christianity some idolatrous Neoplatonism via their concept of divine hypostasis. Perhaps Trinitarianism is push back from pagan Roman imperialism against Paul’s gospel teaching.
