1 Corinthians 8:5 is Paul’s acknowledgment that many things in the ancient world were called gods and lords, even though only one God is truly God. He wrote it to the church in Corinth, a city full of temples and public feasts where meat had often been offered to idols first, and the question was whether believers could eat that meat without compromising their faith.
For though there are things that are called “gods”, whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many “gods” and many “lords”…
1 Corinthians 8:5 (WEB)
What 1 Corinthians 8:5 Means
The verse begins with “For though there are things,” which tells you Paul is conceding a point before he qualifies it. People in Corinth really did speak of many gods, whether the deities of the heavens such as the sun and moon, or the local gods and spirits of the earth connected with shrines, households and civic life. Paul does not deny that these names were used or that people believed in them.
The phrase “called gods” is the key. Paul puts the word in quotation marks in the Greek sense of “so-called,” meaning these beings carry the title but do not possess the reality of deity. The verse says there are many “gods” and many “lords” in the sense that the culture recognizes them, and it sets up the contrast he will state in verse 6.
What the verse does not promise is that the spiritual powers behind these names are harmless or imaginary in every sense. Paul will later warn that sacrifices offered to idols are, in some way, offered to demons (1 Corinthians 10:20). The verse teaches that the idols are nothing as rivals to God, not that every pressure connected to idolatrous worship can be dismissed casually.
The Context of 1 Corinthians 8:5
The letter was written by Paul, traditionally dated to the mid-50s AD, to a young congregation he had founded in Corinth. The believers were a mix of people from different backgrounds, and they disagreed about what their freedom in Christ allowed. Some felt secure enough in their knowledge to eat meat sold in the marketplace, which often came from pagan sacrifices, while others, whose consciences were still tender, found this troubling.
Verses 2 through 4 set up the problem by stating that knowledge without love is incomplete and that the one who loves God is known by him. Verse 4 then introduces the monotheistic confession that there is no other God but one. Verses 7 and 8 bring the issue back to the weaker conscience and to the point that food does not commend us to God. Read this way, verse 5 is a step in an argument about love and conscience, not a free-standing statement about the nature of spiritual beings.
Key Phrases in 1 Corinthians 8:5
1 Corinthians 8:6
Yet to 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 we live through him.
(WEB)
This verse completes the thought begun in verse 5 by affirming one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things come. It is the positive statement that answers the “many gods and many lords” of the previous verse.
Deuteronomy 6:4
Hear, Israel: The LORD is our God. The LORD is one.
(WEB)
This is the Shema, the foundational Jewish confession that the Lord is one. Paul’s monotheism in 1 Corinthians 8 draws on this deep Old Testament root, showing that his confession of one God is continuous with the faith of Israel.
A Short Prayer From 1 Corinthians 8:5
Lord, you are the one God, and there is no other who deserves the place in my heart that belongs to you alone. Show me the things I have quietly crowned as lords in my life, the worries, plans and desires that ask for more of me than they should. Give me a clear mind and a loving heart so that my knowledge serves others and never becomes a reason to wound them. Keep me anchored in you, the Father from whom all things come, and in Jesus Christ, through whom I live. Amen.
