1 Corinthians 10
10
1Moreouer, brethren, I woulde not that yee shoulde bee ignorant, that all our fathers were vnder that cloude, and all passed through that sea, 2And were all baptized vnto Moses, in that cloude, and in that sea, 3And did all eat the same spiritual meat, 4And did all drinke the same spirituall drinke (for they dranke of the spiritual Rocke that folowed them: and the Rocke was Christ) 5But with many of them God was not pleased: for they were ouerthrowen in ye wildernes. 6Nowe these things are our ensamples, to the intent that we should not lust after euil things as they also lusted. 7Neither bee ye idolaters as were some of them, as it is written, The people sate downe to eate and drinke, and rose vp to play. 8Neither let vs commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and fell in one day three and twentie thousand. 9Neither let vs tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted him, and were destroyed of serpents. 10Neither murmure ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. 11Nowe all these things came vnto them for ensamples, and were written to admonish vs, vpon whome the endes of the world are come. 12Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heede lest he fall. 13There hath no tentation taken you, but such as appertaine to man: and God is faithfull, which will not suffer you to be tempted aboue that you be able, but wil euen giue the issue with the tentation, that ye may be able to beare it. 14Wherefore my beloued, flee from idolatrie. 15I speake as vnto them which haue vnderstanding: iugde ye what I say. 16The cup of blessing which we blesse, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we breake, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17For we that are many, are one bread and one body, because we all are partakers of one bread. 18Beholde Israel, which is after the flesh: are not they which eate of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? 19What say I then? that the idole is any thing? or that that which is sacrificed to idoles, is any thing? 20Nay, but that these things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to deuils, and not vnto God: and I would not that ye should haue fellowship with the deuils. 21Ye can not drinke the cup of the Lord, and the cup of the deuils. Ye can not be partakers of the Lords table, and of the table of the deuils. 22Doe we prouoke the Lord to anger? are we stronger then he? 23All things are lawfull for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawfull for me, but all things edifie not. 24Let no man seeke his owne, but euery man anothers wealth. 25Whatsoeuer is solde in the shambles, eate ye, and aske no question for conscience sake. 26For the earth is the Lords, and all that therein is. 27If any of them which beleeue not, call you to a feast, and if ye wil go, whatsoeuer is set before you, eate, asking no question for conscience sake. 28But if any man say vnto you, This is sacrificed vnto idoles, eate it not, because of him that shewed it, and for the conscience (for the earth is the Lords, and all that therein is) 29And the conscience, I say, not thine, but of that other: for why should my libertie be condemned of another mans conscience? 30For if I through Gods benefite be partaker, why am I euill spoken of, for that wherefore I giue thankes? 31Whether therefore ye eate, or drinke, or whatsoeuer ye doe, doe all to the glory of God. 32Giue none offence, neither to the Iewes, nor to the Grecians, nor to the Church of God: 33Euen as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine owne profite, but the profite of many, that they might be saued.
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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.