Warnings from the Past
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Today we are in 1 Corinthians 10. Please open your bibles or bible apps to that passage.
1 Corinthians 10 has a couple verses which are at least familiar to many Christians.
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
And,
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Context?
Context?
We use these passages a lot in our lives, and they do apply broadly to life. However, we need to remember that no verse is without a context.
1 Corinthians 10 begins with, “For.” This word signals that the following is a reason for the thoughts that came before. We need to keep in mind what Paul has been talking about in the context order to really understand this passage.
Let’s remember the context because we will see the argument began in 1 Corinthians 8, continued and come full circle here in 1 Corinthians 10.
The Historical Context
The Historical Context
Meat sacrificed to idols, and sold in the market place.
Business dealings were done at the temples.
Some Christians felt free to eat the cheaper meat: Idols are not real. There is only one God
Other Christians, having just come out of idol worship, felt that eating that meat, or going to a meal at the temple was getting involved in idol worship. Seeing other Christians do it, led them to live in their old life, worshiping God and worshiping idols.
They argued.
The Scriptural Context - Knowledge vs. Love
The Scriptural Context - Knowledge vs. Love
Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.
Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.
The Scriptural Context - Rights vs. Love
The Scriptural Context - Rights vs. Love
Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.
So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.
When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
Paul’s conclusion:
Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.
That’s easy for you to say. You don’t have to do it. You don’t live here.
The Scriptural Context - Giving up Rights for the Gospel
The Scriptural Context - Giving up Rights for the Gospel
16 questions, rhetorical questions showing how Paul gave up his rights to come and share the gospel with them that they might be saved.
If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.
Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.
I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
Giving up my rights for the sake of others and the gospel is not easy. It goes against my very nature. It takes work.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.
No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Paul ends with this phrase, not wanting to be disqualified for the prize.
Earlier he mentioned “I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”
What does he mean by that?
That is where Paul picks up in what we call chapter 10. Remember, Paul did not write in chapters. He wrote a letter without breaks as we have them in our Bible. He continues his explanation in chapter 10, by saying, For...
Let’s read it together, and discuss it as we go.
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.
They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
They all ate the same spiritual food
and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.
Examples
Examples
In talking about being disqualified, Paul uses the illustration of Israel. They were all saved coming out of Egypt. They all were led by the same cloud. They all went through the Red Sea. They all experienced God’s miraculous salvation and divine guidance in their lives. They all experienced God’s provision for them physically and spiritually.
Paul also makes the observation that Christ was the spiritual rock that led and provided for them. Christ is found all through the Old Testament, long before He was born as a human baby and named, “Jesus.”
However, even though they all had these same advantages, many of them died in the wilderness. Why?
God was not pleased with them.
God’s Discipline
God’s Discipline
God disciplines His people when they sin against Him.
We saw that with Israel, and we saw that earlier in 1 Corinthians 5, when there was a brother engaged in sexual immorality. This one was to be handed over to Satan to be disciplined. We are going to see it in 1 Cor 11, when we cover Communion. There, Paul will speak of some in their church who had died because the Lord was disciplining them for not living as they ought as Christians.
The Lord does discipline those He loves, right? Paul was saying in chapter 9, that he disciplines himself in giving up his rights for the sake of the gospel because he did not want to face God’s discipline, and thus miss out on some of the blessings of salvation.
Paul was not speaking of losing his salvation, but the discipline of God.
Example of child missing out of blessing.
Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.
Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”
Discipline Warning - Idolaters
Discipline Warning - Idolaters
Exodus 32 They wanted to worship the Lord, the God who brought them out of Egypt. Aaron made an idol and all it God. They worshiped, and it went south because they worshiped the way they worshiped the idols, the gods, of Egypt.
Idol - idols are anything more fundamental than God for our happiness, meaning, and identity. They are inordinate desires for even good things such as material possessions, a career, family, marriage, achievement, work, independence, political cause, financial security, human approval, romance. All of these things are good in and of themselves. But what ends up happening for many people is that these created things become ultimate things.
Stephen T. Um, 1 Corinthians: The Word of the Cross, ed. R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 179.
We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.
Discipline Warning - Immorality
Discipline Warning - Immorality
Numbers 25.
Already addressed in this letter.
We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.
Discipline Warning - Testing Christ
Discipline Warning - Testing Christ
Numbers 21. Testing. Knowing God has, and can, approaching Him to test if He will do what we want, rather than approaching with humility and faith.
And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
Discipline Warning - Grumbling
Discipline Warning - Grumbling
Numbers 16. Grumbling against the leader Moses.
These were examples to us.
These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Warning - This is for you when you take your stand
Warning - This is for you when you take your stand
1 Cor 8.1-2 “Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.”
Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.
Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.
Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?
Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?
No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.
Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
Warning - Fleeing is better than Standing
Warning - Fleeing is better than Standing
Those idols are nothing… however, your actions are viewed from other’s eyes. You have an audience. What message are you sending?
So, about eating food sacrificed to idols...
Don’t sin against a brother by exercising your rights (sinning against Christ) | Flee any form of sin against the Lord
Give up rights for the Gospel | Seek the good of others
“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.
No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.
Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience,
for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”
If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience.
But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience.
I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience?
If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—
even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
God’s glory is more important than my rights.
God’s glory is more important than my rights.
Theodore Monod, Looking Unto Jesus,
Looking Unto Jesus … Unto Jesus ... and not at the interests of our cause, of our party, of our church -- still less at our personal interests.
The single object of our life is the glory of God; if we do not make it the supreme goal of our efforts, we must deprive ourselves of His help, for His grace is only at the service of His glory. If, on the contrary, it is His glory that we seek above all, we can always count on His grace.
What about me?
What about me?
Flee any form of sin against the Lord
Give up rights for the Gospel - Seek the good of others
Do everything for the glory of God
Suggested verses this week:
Suggested verses this week:
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—
even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—
even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.