Paul taught the Corinthians that natural revelation precedes spiritual revelation and most of us know the maxim, “first the natural, then the spiritual.” Paul wrote First Corinthians in this precise manner. This is why he rebuked them for physical acts of sexual immorality before discussing their spiritual acts of fornication by eating food sacrificed to idols. His discussion of the spiritual ramifications of physical fornication, however, gives us instruction about the results of spiritual adultery. Paul says,

Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. What? know you not that he who is joined to a harlot is one body? for two, says he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body; but he that commits fornication sins against his own body. What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:15-20)

We can think of Paul’s first book to the Corinthians also as an instruction manual for the Thyatira church, for the Corinthians clearly suffered the same sins as those we see in Thyatira in Revelation 2:18-29. As do all the writers of God’s sacred books, Paul seeks to instruct people who will actually obey what he says. His book to Corinth instructs overcomers who want to escape bondage to Jezebel, Babylon the Great, and the ways of this world.

You will recall that Thyatira’s two main sins were sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols. She learned these sins from her harlot prophetess, Jezebel. Even today Thyatira remains characterized by a strong prophetic woman spirit, a spirit which Paul forbade to even speak in his churches. I am not saying the main prophets in Thyatira were then or are today women; I am not saying that women cannot be true prophets; I am saying that “Jezebel” in Revelation 2 represents a lying demon who takes on female characteristics.  She is known for her prophetic ministry and two particular sins that proceed from that ministry, sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols.

We all know what sexual immorality is (or at least we did until fornicating homosexuals were ordained to certain Christian ministries). Fornication with another, says Paul, causes that person to become “one” with the other person. Since Christian believers make up one body with Christ this causes Christ to become one with a “harlot.” And this, says Paul, results from simply natural, carnal fornication, that is, having sex with another person who is not your wife. This is the application of “the natural” as it affects a spiritual reality, our relationship with our LORD and Savior. How much more then ought we to consider and understand spiritual fornication! Yet, after 2000 years the church of Jesus Christ at large does not even know what “eating food sacrificed to idols” means! Thus they can never understand that so many of them regularly commit spiritual adultery. Paul wrote,

 ¹⁴Therefore, my beloved,^(X) flee from idolatry. ¹⁵I speak^(Y) as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. ^16(Z) The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?^(AA) The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? ¹⁷Because there is one bread, we who are many are^(AB) one body, for we all partake of the one bread. ¹⁸Consider^(AC) the people of Israel:^[c](AD) are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? ¹⁹What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that^(AE)an idol is anything? ²⁰No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice^(AF) they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. ^21(AG)You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and^(AH) the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and^(AI) the table of demons. ^22(AJ) Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy?^(AK) Are we stronger than he? (1 Cor. 10:14-22)

“Eating food sacrificed to idols” means to eat food from the table of demons. All of Scripture teaches that “food” in this context means “doctrine,” or “spiritual precepts.”  See especially Hebrews 13:9-10. We should think of “eating food sacrificed to idols” as meaning “eating Satan’s food,” or “walking in the doctrines of demons rather than the ways of God,” or “knowing the deep things of Satan rather than the precepts of God,” or “being moved by every wind of a spirit instead of discerning the spirits by the Spirit of God.” Such behavior by Christians results in them becoming one with the spirit of Satan instead of one with the Spirit of God.

Paul thus uses the term “eating food sacrificed to idols” as a euphemism for having spiritual intercourse with demons. This spiritual adultery defiles one’s soul because by doing this he becomes “one” soul with Satan. Eating food sacrificed to idols ultimately brings a person to the place where he calls good evil and evil good. At this stage he becomes guilty of the unforgivable sin, for so long as a man does not know good or evil, he cannot repent.

This explains why one cannot teach spiritual doctrine to the masses of Christianity. They have eaten the devil’s food for so long that they have no taste for God’s food anymore.