Lessons From Israel’s Failures
1 Corinthians 10Now I do not want y’all to be ignorant, siblings, that our fathers were all under the cloud and 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 all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were cut down in the wilderness.
Now these things were our examples, so that we would not crave evil things as they did. Y’all don’t become idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”+Exo 32:6 Let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell. Let us not test Christ, as some of them did, and perished by the serpents. Y’all don’t grumble, as some of them did, and perished by the destroying angel. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our warning, on whom the outcomes of the ages have come. Therefore let anyone who thinks they stand be careful that they doesn’t fall.
No temptation has overtaken y’all except what is common to humankind. God is faithful, and he will not allow y’all to be tempted beyond what y’all are able, but with the temptation will make the way of escape, so that y’all will be able to endure it.
The Table of Demons or the Table of the Lord
Therefore, my beloved, y’all must flee from idolatry. I am speaking as to wise people. Y’all must judge what I say. Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing of the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing of the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf of bread. Y’all consider the people of Israel. Aren’t those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?
What am I saying then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything or that an idol is anything? No, I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I don’t want y’all to become sharers with demons. Y’all can’t both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. Y’all can’t both partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons. Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
Permissible vs. Beneficial
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things build up. No one should seek their own good, but the good of the other person. Y’all should eat whatever is sold in the butcher shop without asking any question of conscience, for “the earth is the Lord’s [YHWH], and its fullness.”+Psa 24:1 If a believer invites y’all to a meal, and y’all want to go, y’all eat whatever is set before y’all without asking questions of conscience. But if someone says to y’all, “This was offered to idols,” don’t eat it for the sake of the one who told y’all, and for the sake of conscience. I am not saying for your own conscience, but for the other’s. For why is my liberty judged by another’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced for something I give thanks for?
So whether y’all eat or drink, or whatever y’all do, y’all do all to the glory of God. Y’all must not become a stumbling block, whether to Jews, to Greeks, or to the church of God; just as I also strive to please everyone in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved.