Please explain 1Corinthians 10:27. Does it mean the dietary laws are no longer necessary?
The passage reads, “If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and you be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake.”
Here is another one of those verses that need to be read in their entire context for proper understanding. Going back to verse 18 we see that Paul is discussing the eating of sacrifices that have been offered on the altar. Just as Israel ate of the altar sacrifices and became participants in the rite, so those who deliberately ate of what is offered to pagan deities also became participants in heathen worship.
In verses 19-20 he explains that (clean) food is okay except when that food becomes part of a sacrificial rite. In that case we must not become participants in wrong worship by knowingly indulging in eating such food as part of the sacrificial worship.
What was not eaten in the pagan’s sacrifice was sometimes sold at the market where it could be purchased and taken home to eat. This is what Paul is addressing in verse 27. If you are a guest at a home of an unbeliever, it is unnecessary to inquire as to the source of the (clean) food. But if you are told that it was used in a pagan rite, verse 28, then don’t eat it for the sake of your guest and his learning. Your actions become a teaching tool.
Note verse 31: “Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of Yahweh.” If these passages are discussing eating food that Yahweh has declared unclean then eating of the unclean food would not be for the glory of Yahweh who condemned such. Nowhere are we given permission to eat food that is prohibited in the laws of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.
Our desire is to live clean and eat clean as we are directed by the One who made us.
