Yet For Us There Is One God

"Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists,” and that “there is no God but one.” For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we are for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we are through him."

 Commentary from the REV

“one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we are for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we are through him.” This verse clearly distinguishes between Jesus and God. There is one God and Father, and there is one man, Jesus, who is our “Lord.” This verse shows how God and Jesus work in unity to get the Church what it needs. God gave Jesus all authority and made him head over the Church, so now we get what we need “through” Jesus.

Some Trinitarians say that this verse supports the doctrine of the Trinity because it says that all things came through Jesus Christ. But what the verse actually says is that all things came “from” God, “through” Jesus. That stands in contradiction to Trinitarian doctrine because it places Jesus in a subordinate role to God. According to this verse, Jesus is not “co-equal” with the Father; the Father is “God” and the ultimate source of all things, and Jesus is not called “God.”

The context is the key to understanding what the phrase “all things came through him” means. There is no mention in either the immediate or the remote context about the creation of the world such that the “all things” refers to the original creation of Genesis. This verse is speaking of the Church. God provided all things for the Church via Jesus Christ.

The whole book of 1 Corinthians is taken up with Church issues, and Paul starts 1 Cor. 8:6 with “for us,” i.e., for Christians. 1 Corinthians 8:4-5 had said that even though there were “so-called” gods, for us “there is no God but one.” The Roman world was polytheistic, and people were used to having different “gods” and different “lords” provide different things in different ways. As the various gods provided things, often those provisions would be mediated and distributed to the people through “lords,” lesser gods or people, such as the priests. That was a major reason the Romans had so many temples and shrines to the different gods and worshiped them all—to curry as much of their favor as possible. But Paul challenged that commonly accepted practice, and boldly stated that there was only one God “from whom are all things,” and only one Lord “through whom are all things.”

By wording the verse the way he does and saying there is one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus, Paul pens this verse in a way that clearly stands against the Trinity. If the Trinity really existed, then this verse would have been the perfect place to say so, and have something such as, “for us there is only one God made up of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost,” or something similar. There is no good reason that the verse would be written in a way that is so clearly non-Trinitarian, calling the Father, “God,” and Jesus, “Lord,” if the Trinity existed. Furthermore, the logical reason that this verse is worded the way it is and the reason that the Bible does not make a clear statement about the Trinity, here or anywhere else, is that there is no Trinity. There is, as this verse says, “one God” and “one Lord, Jesus Christ.”