NOTES for Co1 10:23-28
For Paul, Christianity is not a religion, but life with Christ in His Kingdom. This life is not limited by any prohibitions, any rules, or any ritual restrictions. There is only one simple rule: there must be nothing in life that harms it. Nothing that prevents the breath of the Kingdom from breathing freely in the heart and soul. "All things are lawful, but not all things are beneficial. All things are lawful, but not all things build up." The point is building up, constructing life itself as it should be in the Kingdom. Everything that hinders this building must be excluded; that is the Christian's only rule.
It is on this basis that the apostle makes his decision about food sacrificed to idols. In the Roman Empire, all markets were, at least formally, dedicated to the patron god of trade, usually a local one, depending on where the market was located. Therefore, if one approached the matter in a strictly formal way, everything bought in any market automatically turned out to be food sacrificed to idols, dedicated to the god considered the patron of the market where the purchases were made.
And in many other cases, with a purely formal approach, one could find a great deal of food sacrificed to idols, practically on any table. That is why Paul advises not paying special attention to these formalities. What difference does it really make who dedicated the purchased food, to whom, and when, if the person eating it knows nothing about it and is not even thinking of any such thing? Pagan rituals in themselves mean absolutely nothing for a Christian. It is another matter if someone says to him directly: this food is dedicated to this or that god; eat it to the glory of the one to whom it is dedicated.
Here one already has to speak of betrayal of Christ, for the person who eats such food thereby aligns himself with the pagan precisely as a pagan, as a worshiper of one of the pagan gods. And simply put, if pagan gods mean something to someone at the table, then eating something dedicated to them means bearing witness against Christ, bearing witness to one's indifference toward Him. Here one must stop: such a meal may, if not completely destroy a person's relationship with Christ, at least harm it. Therefore it is better to refuse such a meal, no longer for formal reasons, but for Christ's sake.