1 Corinthians 8:5–6

Though there are those who are called gods by their worshippers, they are no more than an unclean dream. Heaven, as well as earth, is stained by idolatrous imaginings. Man makes gods of what God despises and hates. Man chose to forget the living and true God. Since then a darkened understanding has worn itself out in a pointless search for what should never have been lost.

True, there are those "called gods." Man calls them that. Even the Scriptures do: the elders of Israel were called this, only because they were God's representatives on earth (Ps. 82:6; Jn. 10:34,35). But that title never gave them any place of worship. If there were "gods many, and lords many," these were simply like lightless asteroids compared with the sun.

Pagan idolaters have "gods many and lords many" — a god, perhaps, for every virtue and for every vice too; and a lord for every separate place. For the Christian there is no other God but one.

We may not be guilty of bowing down to a god of our own making — "gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man." But other idols are always trying to steal our hearts away from Him... The greatest and most subtle idol is self.

Fallen man imagines many gods and many lords in heaven and on earth. But to us Christians there is only "one God, the Father" and "one Lord, Jesus Christ"... The Father remains in Godhead, and God is the source of all, and all for Him. The Son, while never ceasing to be God, has become flesh, and, in Manhood, has taken the place of Lord. So the One we know as Jesus Christ is the one Lord to Whom we all owe allegiance and submission. He is both the Creator of all things and the One by Whom we have been redeemed.

Deluded men may honour these strange objects and treat them as gods. But we know them as only the work of men's hands, and we know there is no other God but one. In saying this Paul had not forgotten that demons and their power lay behind the idols. He points to this sinister fact in 1 Cor. 10:19-20.

We may say — borrowing the language of 1 Corinthians 8:5 — that however many lords and kings there may be in heaven and on earth, the Lamb is Lord and King of them all, the beast and his followers included. They cannot help but fall before Him; and He has His associates, called, chosen and faithful.

Pagans may worship many gods and lords, but to us they are nothing. We know but one God and one Lord. There is the Father, the Originator and Source of all, and we are for Him. There is the Lord Jesus, the great Administrator in the Godhead. All things, ourselves included, are by Him. So we can refuse to recognise the idols of the pagans in any way, and treat all meats alike — whether offered to idols or not.

This passage completely refutes the idea of a "universal Fatherhood". The apostle says, "for us there is one God, the Father." Who are the "us"? In chapter 1 of the same letter Paul tells us who he is writing to: "all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ". They "wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ", and they have been "called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord". These are the ones who stand in relation to God as Father. So the test of the relationship is the One whom those who spread these errors leave out completely: Jesus Christ our Lord.

In verse 6, the first preposition is the one used for a river flowing out of a source. The second preposition is the one used for a river running into the sea. So we must understand verse 6 more exactly like this: "to us there is one God, the Father, who is the source of the river of all existence, and we into Him". We do not really need John 4:14 to see this. It is by their worship that the saints return the flow to its Source in God the Father. The second part of the verse teaches that the one Lord, Jesus Christ, is the Creator of all things, and perhaps also the One who upholds them. This is His work for "all things" in the first creation, and for the saints in the new creation.

In this passage the words "God" and "Lord" plainly have different uses. It is not the divine nature as such, but the place that the divine Persons hold in what men call the economy of grace. The Father rested in Godhead alone, but the Son has become a man and taken the place of Lord in His manhood… It is not that He ceases to be Jehovah, but He has taken the place of Lord. I point this out, because it is in Christ as Lord that grace is administered to me. I am a child with the Father, but if I am looking for administration, I go to the Lord.

Without a doubt, this verse gives deity to the Father alone, and dominion as Lord to Jesus alone. But it has been well said: "you cannot deny the deity of Christ because the verse calls the Father 'one God,' any more than you can deny the dominion of the Father when it calls the Son 'one Lord.'" We may add: nor can anyone deny the deity and dominion of the Spirit, because this verse does not mention Him at all.

This opens up another thought about unity. The one God, the Father, from whom all things come, and the one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things come, are not two but One — "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). And that is more than mere equality or shared eternity. His words were His Father's words. His works, done in His Father's name, showed who He was.