1 Corinthians 10
10
Warning Against Idolatry
1#Ex 14:29; Ps 66:6I would not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3#Ex 16:35; Dt 8:3all ate the same spiritual food; 4#Ex 17:6; Nu 20:11and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. 5#Heb 3:17; Jude 1:5But with many of them God was not well pleased, and they were overthrown in the wilderness.
6#Nu 11:4; 1Co 10:11Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted. 7#Ex 32:19; 32:4Neither be idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to revel.”#Ex 32:6. 8#Nu 25:1–9; 1Co 6:18Neither let us commit sexual immorality as some of them committed, when twenty-three thousand fell in one day. 9#Nu 21:5–6; Ex 17:2Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. 10#Ex 12:23; Nu 16:41Neither murmur, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer.
11#Ro 13:11Now all these things happened to them for examples. They are written as an admonition to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come. 12#Ro 11:20Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. 13#1Co 1:9; 2Pe 2:9No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, and He will not permit you to be tempted above what you can endure, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.
14#1Co 10:7; 1Jn 5:21So, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 15#1Co 8:1; 1Th 5:21I speak as to wise men. Judge for yourselves what I say. 16#Mt 26:26–28; Ac 2:42The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17#Ro 12:5; 1Co 12:12For we, being many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread.
18#Ro 4:1Consider Israel after the flesh: Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? 19#1Co 8:4What am I saying then, that the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? 20#Rev 9:20But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. 21You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. 22#Dt 32:21; 32:16Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
Do All to the Glory of God
23#1Co 6:12; 8:9“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things edify. 24#1Co 10:33; 13:5Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.
25#1Co 8:7Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no question for the sake of conscience, 26#Ps 24:1; 50:12for “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”#Ps 24:1.
27If any of those who do not believe invite you to a feast, and you desire to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no question for the sake of conscience. 28But if anyone says to you, “This was offered in sacrifice to idols,” do not eat it for the sake of him that mentioned it and for the sake of conscience, for “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”#Ps 24:1. 29#1Co 9:19Conscience, I say, not your own, but that of the other. For why is my liberty judged by another man’s conscience? 30#Ro 14:6; 1Ti 4:3–4If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?
31#Col 3:17; 1Pe 4:11Therefore, whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. 32#Ac 20:28; 1Co 8:13; Ro 14:13Give no offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God, 33#1Co 10:24just as I try to please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
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Military Bible Association
1 Corinthians 10
10
1-5Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God’s fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just experiencing God’s wonder and grace didn’t seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased.
6-10The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—“First the people partied, then they threw a dance.” We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them.
11-12These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence.
13No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.
14So, my very dear friends, when you see people reducing God to something they can use or control, get out of their company as fast as you can.
15-18I assume I’m addressing believers now who are mature. Draw your own conclusions: When we drink the cup of blessing, aren’t we taking into ourselves the blood, the very life, of Christ? And isn’t it the same with the loaf of bread we break and eat? Don’t we take into ourselves the body, the very life, of Christ? Because there is one loaf, our many-ness becomes one-ness—Christ doesn’t become fragmented in us. Rather, we become unified in him. We don’t reduce Christ to what we are; he raises us to what he is. That’s basically what happened even in old Israel—those who ate the sacrifices offered on God’s altar entered into God’s action at the altar.
19-22Do you see the difference? Sacrifices offered to idols are offered to nothing, for what’s the idol but a nothing? Or worse than nothing, a minus, a demon! I don’t want you to become part of something that reduces you to less than yourself. And you can’t have it both ways, banqueting with the Master one day and slumming with demons the next. Besides, the Master won’t put up with it. He wants us—all or nothing. Do you think you can get off with anything less?
23-24Looking at it one way, you could say, “Anything goes. Because of God’s immense generosity and grace, we don’t have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster.” But the point is not to just get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.
25-28With that as a base to work from, common sense can take you the rest of the way. Eat anything sold at the butcher shop, for instance; you don’t have to run an “idolatry test” on every item. “The earth,” after all, “is God’s, and everything in it.” That “everything” certainly includes the leg of lamb in the butcher shop. If a nonbeliever invites you to dinner and you feel like going, go ahead and enjoy yourself; eat everything placed before you. It would be both bad manners and bad spirituality to cross-examine your host on the ethical purity of each course as it is served. On the other hand, if he goes out of his way to tell you that this or that was sacrificed to god or goddess so-and-so, you should pass. Even though you may be indifferent as to where it came from, he isn’t, and you don’t want to send mixed messages to him about who you are worshiping.
29-30But, except for these special cases, I’m not going to walk around on eggshells worrying about what small-minded people might say; I’m going to stride free and easy, knowing what our large-minded Master has already said. If I eat what is served to me, grateful to God for what is on the table, how can I worry about what someone will say? I thanked God for it and he blessed it!
31-33So eat your meals heartily, not worrying about what others say about you—you’re eating to God’s glory, after all, not to please them. As a matter of fact, do everything that way, heartily and freely to God’s glory. At the same time, don’t be callous in your exercise of freedom, thoughtlessly stepping on the toes of those who aren’t as free as you are. I try my best to be considerate of everyone’s feelings in all these matters; I hope you will be, too.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.