Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Corinthians 10:22

"Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?" — 1 Corinthians 10:22 (ASV)

Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? That is, should we, by joining in the worship of idols, provoke or irritate God, or excite him to anger? This is evidently the meaning of the word parazhloumen, translated "provoke to jealousy." The Hebrew word, usually translated this way by the Septuagint, has this sense in Deuteronomy 32:21; 1 Kings 14:22; Ezekiel 8:3; and Psalms 78:58.

There is a reference here, doubtless, to the truth recorded in Exodus 20:5, that God is a jealous God, and that he regards the worship of idols as a direct affront to himself. The sentiment of Paul is that to join in the worship of idols, or in the observance of their feasts, would be to participate in that which has always been regarded by God with peculiar abhorrence, and which more than anything else tended to provoke his wrath.

We may observe that any course of life that tends to alienate the affections from God, and to fix them on other beings or objects, is a sin of the same kind as that referred to here. Any inordinate love of friends, property, or honor has substantially the same idolatrous nature and will tend to provoke him to anger.

And it may be asked of Christians now, whether by such inordinate attachments they will provoke the Lord to wrath? Whether they will thus excite his displeasure and expose themselves to his indignation? Very often Christians do thus provoke him. They become unduly attached to a friend or to wealth, and God in anger takes away that friend by death or that property by the flames. Or, they conform to the world, mingle in its scenes of fashion and gaiety, and forget God; and in displeasure, he visits them with judgments, humbles them, and recalls them to himself.

Are we stronger than he? This is given as a reason why we should not provoke his displeasure. We cannot contend successfully with him; and it is therefore madness and folly to contend with God, or to expose ourselves to the effects of his indignation.