How many gods are there?
The question sounds simple, but Scripture answers it on two levels at once: how many real Gods exist, and how many things people actually treat as gods. Commentators handle both — the unity of the one living God, the emptiness of the idols set beside Him, and the way the one God has made Himself known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
One God, not two
The title "the living God" is itself an answer to the question. It marks Him off from everything else that has ever been worshipped.
C. E. StuartHe directed attention to the living God. That speaks of one, and only one, Divine Being. There are not two living Gods. Now their fathers had understood the meaning of this title, which defined their God, the Lord Jehovah, as completely different from the idols of the nations. Those had no life. "They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell" (Psalm 115:5-6).
"Gods many and lords many"
Paul admits that the world is full of beings people call gods. He does not admit that any of them rival the One.
Leslie M. GrantAn idol is nothing in the world: there is only one God. True, there are those "called gods," whether by men, or even in the Scriptures, where the elders of Israel were called this simply because they represented God on earth (Psalm 82:6; John 10:34-35) — but never in a way that gave them any place of worship. If there were "gods many, and lords many," these were only like lightless asteroids compared with the sun.
Nothing — yet not harmless
If idols are empty, why does Scripture treat idolatry so seriously? Because something real hides behind the empty image and takes the worship for itself.
William KellyIf such products of man's invention have no existence, and their images neither see nor hear, demons are very real. They take advantage of man's imagination or his fears and claim the idol-sacrifices for themselves. So the emptiness of idols is no reason for eating meat sacrificed to them, for "what they sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God" (see Deuteronomy 32:17). The idols and their sacrifices may be completely powerless, but the demons hiding behind them can and do shut out the true God from souls and seize the honour due to Him alone.
Whatever rules the will becomes a god
Satan is called "the god of this world" in 2 Corinthians 4:4. One writer explains why that title fits — and it sets a test anyone can apply to themselves.
A. PridhamBy refusing the One who now speaks to men from heaven by His Son, the "crooked and twisted generation" of this present age of grace shows, by turning away from the way of life, that their minds are governed by another god. For whoever men surrender their wills to has the right to be called their god.
One God, three Persons
Christians speak of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Commentators are careful to say this does not add up to three Gods.
A. J. PollockThe Father is God; the Son is God; the Spirit is God — the Spirit equal in nature and substance to the Father and the Son. If the three Persons of the Godhead are each of them God, it does not follow that there are three Gods. That would be impossible. There can be only one God, supreme and unique... We may not — indeed cannot — fully grasp this. It is a mystery hidden in the Godhead, yet the Godhead is pleased to reveal Itself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Darby puts the same truth from the side of revelation: we only know the one God because the Son has made Him known.
J. N. DarbyThere could be no full revelation of God except through the Son by the Spirit, and in that way of the Father. The full revelation of the one God is only this — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This, and this only, is what the one God is: one identity of will and being, so that they are essentially one and one only, yet distinct in willing and acting.
The Christian's own confession
Paul's answer in 1 Corinthians 8:6 is not an abstract count. It names the God Christians belong to and the Lord they obey.
Hamilton SmithFallen 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 is 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 obedience.
Summary
- One. There is one living God and no second; every rival is measured against Him and found to have no life at all.
- Nothing. The gods people name are real to their worshippers but empty in themselves — faint lights beside the sun.
- Demons. Behind the empty image stand real spirits who take the worship meant for God, which is why idolatry is never a harmless mistake.
- Anything. Whatever a person hands his will over to earns the name of his god — the test reaches past carved images to every modern heart.
- Revealed. The one God has made Himself known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit — three Persons, never three Gods — and the Christian confesses Him as one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ.