I Corinthians 10

              The apostle Paul ends 1 Corinthians chapter 9 with the command that you and I live the Christian life like the athlete who, desiring the gold medal, trains zealously with that goal in mind.  He continues in chapter 10 by turning to the Old Testament to illustrate the end of those who are lax in their running.  He points to those who were of God’s people outwardly but succumbed to temptation and were judged by God accordingly.  Paul mentions Old Testament types of the sacraments of baptism and of the Lord’s Supper, “the badges by which the Church of God is distinguished” (John Calvin ).  He teaches that the cloud which directed the Israelites’ course through the Red Sea and the wilderness was to them as a baptism, and that the manna and the water from the rock correspond with the Lord’s Supper.  Yet, he says, though the entire nation was baptized and partook of Christ, most were overthrown in the wilderness.  Let these things be examples to you, Paul warns, that you do not fall into the same sins which they did.

                A proper view of the Old Testament acknowledges that although Christ has fulfilled the Old Testament law and sacrifices, the Old Testament scriptures are “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness” (I Timothy 3:16).  In his consideration of the Old Testament examples that are provided to the New Testament saints, Paul mentions specifically five sins into which the Israelites fell in the wilderness.  First he notes their lusting after evil things, bringing to mind the occasions on which they longed for the foods that they enjoyed in Egpyt.  Then he cautions against idolatry, calling to mind the golden calf, and sexual immorality, noting the time that Balaam counseled the Midianites to prostitute their daughters to the Israelites, with the view of estranging them from the true worship of God.  Then he notes a time that the people “tempted Christ” by accusing God of bringing them out of Egypt to kill them in the wilderness and declaring that they loathed the manna that He sent.  And finally, he cautions against grumbling, likely referring to the time when the people grumbled against their God-appointed leaders Moses and Aaron in Numbers 16.  Striking, isn’t it, that Paul lists complaining in the same category as fornication?  This section with a most comforting promise: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

                Paul then returns to the subjects of idolatry and Christian liberty, which he addressed at length previously in chapter 8.  Here he cautions against the outward appearance of worshipping idols, namely, feasting at the idol temples in Corinth.  Not, he says, because an idol is real or a rival to the one true, God, but because there is a danger to the Christian person who participates, even though only outwardly, in pagan rituals.  In this context he lays forth two principles again with regard to our liberty as God’s people.  Paul does so again in reference to eating food that may have been offered to idols.  First, he says, it is lawful to eat, with a safe conscience, any kind of food, because the Lord permits it. In the second place, he restricts this liberty when weak consciences might be injured.   This principle is echoed elsewhere in the New Testament, in passages like Romans 14.  “It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak” (vs 21).  So we are reminded that not all things we are permitted to do are beneficial to us, and in all things, our behavior must be regulated by the rule of love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.