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"We communists have a high casualty rate. We are the ones who get shot and hung and ridiculed and fired from our jobs and in every other way made as uncomfortable as possible. A certain percentage of us get killed or imprisoned. We live in virtual poverty. We turn back to the party every penny we make above what is absolutely necessary to keep us alive. We communists do not have the time or the money for many movies, or concerts, or T-bone steaks, or decent homes, or new cars. We have been described as fanatics. We are fanatics. Our lives are dominated by one great overshadowing factor: the struggle for world communism. We communists have a philosophy of life which no amount of money can buy. We have a cause to fight for, a definite purpose in life. We subordinate our petty personal selves into a great movement of humanity; and if our personal lives seem hard or our egos appear to suffer through subordination to the party, then we are adequately compensated by the thought that each of us in his small way is contributing to something new and true and better for mankind.
There is one thing which I am in dead earnest about, and that is the communist cause. It is my life, my business, my religion, my hobby, my sweetheart, my wife, my mistress, and my bread and meat. I work at it in the daytime and dream of it at night. Its hold on me grows, not lessens, as time goes on; therefore, I cannot carry on a friendship, a love affair, or even a conversation without relating it to this force which both drives and guides my life. I evaluate people, looks, ideas, and actions according to how they affect the communist cause, and by their attitude toward it. I've already been in jail because of my ideals, and if necessary, I'm ready to go before a firing squad."
That student demonstrated a disciplined and committed life, although he was committed to an unworthy and failed cause. Paul shared this attitude toward the much higher cause of Christianity. 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27 clearly indicates his struggle and self-denial for the cause of Christianity.
In chapter 10 Paul seems to introduce an entirely different subject , but a closer look shows continuity with the preceding passage. 1 Corinthians 10 continues to answer the question concerning Christian Liberty that Paul initially addressed in chapter eight.
Paul gave the basic principle of Christian liberty in 1 Corinthians 8:9: "But beware lest somehow this liberty [or this right] of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak." We might reword the principle like this: a believer should relinquish the exercise of any and every right he has in Christ if that right is a detriment to another believer or a hindrance to an unbeliever coming to Christ. Paul taught this principle in response to the Corinthian's question about eating meat that had been offered to an idol. He told them that they had every right to eat meat that had been offered in a sacrifice to an idol. But if eating that meat caused another believer to stumble or to be offended then they ought not to exercise that right.
In chapter 9 Paul illustrated the principle of limiting personal liberty for love from his own life: he had the right to be supported financially but he relinquished his right to further the cause of the gospel. At the close of chapter 9 Paul said that his commitment to this course of ministry did not come easily. It required personal discipline. Our liberty cannot be limited without self-control. Our sinfulness resents and resists restrictions. Paul exhorted the Corinthians to exercise self-denial and effort in order to relinquish their rights and so secure the crown of life. In the first 13 verses of chapter 10, Paul enforced that exhortation by showing how disastrous the lack of self-control was for the Israelites. This passage is a solemn warning to Christians not to follow the Israelites' example by giving way to temptation.
The first word in chapter 10 is "moreover" in the King James Version. In the Greek text, the first word is "for" which connects it with chapter 9. In order to catch the connection we need to look at the last verse of chapter 9.
The key to the immediate context of chapter 10 is the word "disqualified." Paul used Israel to illustrate how the lack of self-control leads to disqualification. The word "disqualified" is from the Greek word adokimos which means unapproved, rejected; by implication worthless (literally or morally); castaway, reprobate. This same word is used in the stringent warning to believers in Hebrews 6. This passage is very similar to 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. Hebrews 6:7-8 (NKJV) "For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected [adokimos] and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned."
The Hebrews passage pictures believers as a plot of ground that belongs to God. God has poured out upon us the blessings of His grace like rain from heaven and has the right to expect that our lives will be fruitful, productive, and useful to men. When believers are fruitful, He blesses them. But, if after the rain has fallen upon a believer's life, if after he has received the blessings of His matchless grace, the believer produces briars and thorns which are the fruit of a sin-cursed world, then God rejects his life. It falls under his temporal judgement and its destiny is to suffer the fire of discipline and chastisement. (Fire generally pictures the temporal judgement of God rather than the eternal judgement of hell.)
To be disqualified or castaway has nothing to do with salvation; rather disqualification refers to temporal judgement and loss of rewards. Our salvation is secure in Christ: once we are saved, we are always saved. Eternal life cannot be lost because it is eternal life, not temporary life. A teenager asked me several weeks ago where the phrase "once saved, always saved" was in the Bible. I told him the phrase wasn't in the Bible but the idea certainly was. Romans 8 demonstrates the doctrine of once saved, always saved.
The term "forknew" must have a limited meaning, for if it simply means to know ahead of time, then in the context of Romans 8 everyone will be glorified because all whom God foreknew he glorified; the chain is unbroken. The term "foreknew" has the idea of loved, to love before hand. This teaches us that all who are justified are glorified. To be justified is to be saved, and all who are saved will be glorified. This is the golden chain of salvation. Jesus taught eternal security also:
John 10:26-29 (NKJV) "But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand."
Our salvation is secure, and while Paul never worried about losing his salvation, he did worry about being disqualified. To be disqualified is to suffer chastisement and lose our reward for service for the Lord. Paul taught about disqualification in the beginning of chapter 10. No doubt some believers at Corinth had been disqualified; they were secure in their salvation and they were enjoying their Christian liberty to the point of harming others. Paul spoke this somber word of admonition to these believers. This admonition is based upon God's dealing with his chosen people, Israel, almost 1500 years earlier. Paul set forth the example of the Israelites who, although greatly privileged (10:1-4), through lack of self-restraint (10:6-10) died in the wilderness, being disqualified (cf. 9:27) from entrance into the Promised Land. Paul used Israel's experiences as an example that the Corinthians would be wise to heed. Paul was making it clear that being a member of God's community did not insure against disqualification.
In 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 Paul reminded the Corinthians of the great blessings that God's people enjoyed and experienced in their early days.
Paul began with an urgent plea to his readers to remember what happened to Israel in the wilderness. The Greek emphasizes that God guided them all, and this "all" is repeated four more times: all of the Israelites were miraculously guided, protected, and fed yet most of them disobeyed and were destroyed.
(In spite of the fact that many Corinthian Christians were Gentiles, Paul considered the Israelites as their fathers. This ties in with Galatians 3:6-29, where Abraham is said to be the father of all who are in Christ. It also ties in with Galatians 6:16 where the Christian Church is identified as the Israel of God. Passages like this refute modern dispensationalism with its extreme and impossible separation of the Jewish church from the Gentile church of the New Testament age.)
Paul expounded five great privileges that Israel enjoyed.
1. "All were under the cloud". The Israelites were all supernaturally guided and protected by the cloud. The cloud was the symbol of the presence of God and the sign of their election. That cloud guided them out of the red sea and into the wilderness. God's guidance is a privilege that every believer enjoys. The Lord said, "And lo I am with you always," in Matthew 28:20. God's presence is always with us guiding us through our Christian experience. A lack of faithfulness on the part of a believer does not negate God's guidance in his life.
2. "All passed through the sea". Paul reminded the Corinthian believers that the Israelites were all supernaturally delivered from bondage in Egypt. The Israelites had experienced a miraculous redemption described in Exodus 14:21-31. That also is the privilege of every believer. We have been supernaturally redeemed from the bondage of sin and death.
3. 1 Corinthians 10:2 says, "All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea." In this context, baptism means initiation into a new relationship, or identification with Moses. It does not mean immersion--the Israelites were never in the sea at all because they passed over on dry land (Ex. 14:21-22). It was Pharaoh's soldiers who got wet. The Israelites were all united and identified with God as their supernatural leader. Moses was God's appointed leader. Believers also have been identified with God's leader, Jesus Christ, according to Romans 6. The basic Christian significance of baptism is identification with Christ. We are united with Christ, the Son of God, our leader.
4. According to 1 Corinthians 10:3, they all ate the spiritual food. The word spiritual refers to the origin of their food. Manna was God's miraculous provision to the Israelites in the wilderness (see Exod. 16:11-35; Ps. 105:40). Manna typified Christ, the true bread from heaven (see John 6:31-58). Partaking of the same spiritual food is a privilege of all believers. The Lord identifies himself in John 6 as the bread that came down from heaven. Believers have the benefit of feasting on the Bread from heaven who provides our spiritual sustenance.
5."And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4). Once again, the word spiritual refers to the supernatural origin of the water. At the beginning and end of the Israelites' journey they drank water out of the rock. Paul says that the rock was Christ. Behind that supernatural supply of water was Christ. He supplied their food and water as they wondered through the wilderness. There was a rabbinical legend that a material rock rolled along after the tribes, sending forth springs of water whenever the march stopped. Paul did not believe the legend; rather Christ, the supplier of the water, was with them all along the way.
By calling Christ the Rock, Paul transferred to Christ a title that is commonly used of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the Old Testament. The Old Testament often speaks of the Rock of Israel, referring to both God's protection and provision (Deut. 32:4, 15, 18, 30-31; Ps. 78:20-35). Paul called Jesus the Rock and so recognized the deity of Christ. The same Christ who supplies all our physical and spiritual needs accompanied Israel and his provision for them never failed. We need to note again the repetition of the word all in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4. These privileges were shared by all the Israelites in common. And we likewise have these privileges. (In light of what follows, it may be possible that the expression, "spiritual meat" and "spiritual drink" are intended to parallel the elements employed in the Lord's Supper. Many commentators believe this, however it is uncertain.)
The Israelites enjoyed such wonderful blessings that their prosperous future seemed guaranteed. But 1 Corinthians 10:5 tells us differently: But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
This must be one of the understatements of the Bible. We know that God was not well pleased with any of the Israelites of military age, twenty years old and upward, apart from Joshua and Caleb. Out of all of the hundreds of thousands of Israelites that came out of Egypt, only two entered into the promised land. Although all were under the cloud and ate the bread and drank the water, although all of them were blessed, God was displeased with all of them but two. As for the rest of the Israelites, their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Literally, "they were strewn in heaps," a graphic description of the disastrous consequences of their sin. The word scattered is from the Greek word katastronnumi which means to strew down, overthrow. It is the root from which the English word catastrophe comes. It does not mean damnation because Moses was clearly a saint, yet even he was disqualified from entering the promised land. The wilderness from the edge of Egypt to the border of the promised land was scattered with corpses.
A little simple arithmetic will show that this graphic picture is not an exaggeration. If we take the total number of men who were twenty years and older, 603,550 (Numb.1:46), and assume that there were an equal number of women, we have a total of 1,207,100. Next we divide that total by 38, the number of years that Israel spent in the desert after the curse (Numb.14:23). That is 31,766 deaths per year. Further calculation gives an average of 87 deaths per day for that entire period. That is a lot of funerals and grim and daily reminder of God's anger!
The proportion of Israelites who entered the promised land to those who died is very closely related to what we saw in 1 Corinthians 9:24: "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it."
A hundred contestants may run the race, but only one gets the prize. Although there were thousands of Israelites who were blessed by God and given many privileges, only two entered into the land. The disqualification at the end of 1 Corinthians 10:27 is not an imaginary thing. Disqualification is a real potential for all of us. Paul dreaded it and guarded against it.
Why is it that so many Israelites were disqualified? Paul tells us in the following verses. This is to serve as a warning to all of us because the things that disqualified them are the same things that disqualify us. We face the same dangers that they did.
Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. (1 Corinthians 10:6)
The lesson from Israel's history warns Christians of what will happen to us if we also, with all our privileges, live carelessly. "We should not lust after evil things." Evil desires are mentioned first, since they are the cause of the other sins listed in the next four verses (cf. James 1:14, 15). One example of Israel's evil desires is described in Numbers 11:4-6,33,34. They began to lust after the food they had eaten in Egypt. The Egyptian food they wanted was not in itself bad, but the Israelites were wrong to demand what God had not given them and to be discontented with the manna God had provided. God was so displeased with their attitude that he sent a plague and thousands of them died. The admonition against lusting after evil things was appropriate for the Corinthians for they too were lusting after their old way of life.
Paul went on in verse seven to specify some of the dangers that the ancient Israelites and Corinthian believers shared: And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play."
Idolatry was a specific outgrowth of their evil desires. The Israelites sat down, ate, and drank at the feast to the golden calf idol in Horeb (Exod. 32:6). They referred to the calf as the god who had brought them out of Egypt: they thought they could use a pagan idol to worship the true God. As a result of their sin, 3,000 corpses were strewn in the wilderness.
Although the Corinthians were not deliberately worshiping idols, they were exposing themselves to the danger of slipping back into idolatry by joining in the pagan temple feasts. In the latter part of chapter 10 Paul made it very clear that to go into the temple and participate in the idol feasts was to engage in idolatry because demons were behind those idols.
This is a solemn warning to the Corinthians and to all of us. An idol is anything that a believer loves more than Jesus Christ. Anything that takes our first loyalty and allegiance is an idol. We need to take this warning to heart. Colossians 3:5 says, "Covetousness, which is idolatry." Covetousness, the love of pleasure, and putting family before God are a few idols. Even Eli, who God said honored his sons above Himself, was guilty of idolatry. America is filled with idolatry. What idol do you worship? Wealth, comfort, popularity, leisure?
Sexual immorality was the next pitfall of Israel's history that Paul illustrated his point with: Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell (1 Corinthians 10:8).
Spiritual defection leads to moral defection. If a believer is not in communion with God, he has no defense against immoral temptation. Since sexual immorality was closely associated with pagan idol feasts, the temple prostitutes may have been a temptation to some of the Corinthian Christians who continued to go to the temple of Aphrodite. Just to live in Corinth was to be tempted to fornication. Paul reminded the Corinthians and us that immorality not only displeases God but it disqualifies us. This admonition is very appropriate in our immoral and decadent society. Many Christians fall into moral problems simply because they are overconfident in themselves. They enter into relationships that are not necessarily wrong but which offer strong temptations. And when the temptations come, they think they can handle them, often to find out too late that they could not. Please understand this: violating God's principles of morality displeases the Lord and will disqualify you.
Paul reminded us of the result of the Israelites' sin: in one day twenty-three thousand fell. We think of the Oklahoma City bombing with its 168 deaths as a great tragedy, and it was, but here in one day 23,000 people died. Numbers 25:9 says that 24,000 people died. The discrepancy has been explained by saying that each writer simply used round numbers; the actual number may have been somewhere between 23,000 and 24,000. Or, since 23,000 was the death toll for one day, perhaps another 1,000 died the next day, making 24,000 the total number of deaths due to the plague. For lack of information all such explanations remain theories.
Verse 9 gives another disqualifying action: nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents.
Since Christ was the spiritual Rock that accompanied them in their journeys (10:4), he was also the One that the Israelites taunted. Furthermore, when the Israelites tempted Christ and were bitten by the serpents, God's provision for their affliction was the brass serpent on the pole, a symbol of the crucified Christ (John 3:14). Thus, the one they tempted became their Savior. Paul taught that the preexistent Christ accompanied the Israelites during their desert journey.
What does it mean to tempt Christ? This sin consists of doing evil with the purpose of seeing what God's reaction will be. By testing God's grace and mercy, this sin reflects skepticism about whether God will discipline his people for their sins. Those of you who have children see examples of this on a regular basis. Have you ever told your little child not to do something and he did it just to see how you would respond? That child was tempting you to act. To tempt Christ is to put him to the test to see if he will really discipline us. It means to see how far you can go. That's what the children of Israel had done by their constant rebellion. So God sent serpents and thousands of them died in the wilderness.
Paul warned the Corinthians not to tempt Christ as the Israelites did. This is an appropriate admonition for us; believers today are constantly trying to see how far they can go before they are judged. Do you tempt Christ? Do you see how far you can go before God disciplines you? Don't disqualify yourself. A believer's attitude should be to see how close he can get to God, not how far away from Him he can get.
In the next example Paul gives, 14,700 corpses lay in the wilderness. They died because they complained! Does that seem harsh to you? This is one we all better pay attention to:
By complaining against Moses and Aaron, the people complained against God (Num. 16:28-35, 41-50). This may have been a warning to those who had been challenging Paul, Christ's apostle. They may not have liked Paul's teaching about limiting their liberty, but they had better not complain against it. Our complaining not only displeases God but it disqualifies us from his service.
You may not feel that you are guilty of idolatry, fornication, and tempting Christ, but who of us is free from this sin? Complaining has become the great American pastime. People gripe and complain about everything. It's interesting that the most indulged society is the most discontent society. The word complain is the Greek word gogguzo which means to grumble, or murmur. It is an onomatopoeia, a word that sounds like its meaning. Other onomatopoeias are buzz, hiss, zip, hum. Gogguzo is always associated with rebellion. Complaining is a symptom of a deep- seated spiritual problem. It is a failure to trust God and a failure to submit to His providential provision. Murmuring is dissatisfaction with God's sovereign will for our lives and the lives of others. Every complaint against our circumstances, every grumble about the weather, about the way people treat us, about the daily trials of life, is directed against the One "who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph.1:11). All murmuring is against God, and it is a sin that He does not take lightly. 14,700 people were destroyed by the destroying angel because of complaining. May God help us!
"Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Corinthians 10:11). Some of the children of Israel were slain, some were overcome, some were disqualified, some were set aside as a lesson for the rest of the Israelites of what God thought of lusting and fornication and idolatry and complaining. But that is not the only reason that the Israelites were judged: Paul said those things were written for our admonition, that we should not be careless and complacent about our way of life. The Old Testament was written to instruct us. The history of Israel tells us of God's faithfulness while warning of the consequences of sin. Our God is the same as Israel's God, and neither he nor his standards have changed. He still hates complaining.
The last phrase of verse 11, "upon whom the ends of the world [ages] are come," does not mean that God's people have come to the consummation. Rather, the end times have now begun. His words not only concern the Corinthians but all those who live after Christ's incarnation. We are included in Paul's admonition.
Paul used Israel's history to say to the Corinthians, "In spite of your election, in spite of your redemption, in spite of your spiritual blessing, if you do not discipline the flesh, if you do not bring your body into subjection by the energy of the Holy Spirit, you will so displease God that He will discipline and disqualify you". In light of that principle, he wrote a key text in our passage this morning: "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (verse 12).
Who was Paul speaking to? He directed his application to all the readers but especially to those people who proudly thought that they had the freedom in Christ to do anything or go anywhere. The application is addressed to him who thought that he was a strong Christian, who could exercise his Christian liberty at the expense of the weaker brethren. The one who thought, or assumed, that he in himself was in a right standing with God. Confidence in our own ability to please God and withstand temptation can only lead to failure and sin. We never come to the place in our Christian walk where we are free from temptation and potential failure. Our faith must cling not to ourselves but to God; our security depends on God's faithfulness, not our own. No one is so liable to fall as he who thinks he is strong. Self-confidence is a great danger. "I would never do that" are words that indicate immaturity. A mature believer recognizes that the flesh is capable of any sin.
Is the warning to "take heed lest he fall" a warning of falling from salvation? If Paul was saying that he would be denying the promises of the Word of God. Our salvation is secure in Christ. If Paul meant that a believer could fall from his salvation, then he denied the prayer of Christ in John 17.
If one of those whom God gave to Christ were ever to be lost, then the prayer of Christ would be unanswered. If Paul was saying that a believer would fall from his salvation, then Paul was denying the provision of Christ. The provision of Christ is that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Judacially we are cleansed and stand in the righteousness of Christ.
Eternal Security is one of the most beautiful doctrines in the Word of God. But it is also a very misused doctrine. We must never allow our security in Christ to cause us to be complacent in our Christian lives. That is why Paul says, "Let him who thinks he stands secure in his election and salvation take heed lest he fall under the discipline of God and be disqualified by God for a reward at the judgement seat of Christ". Disqualification in the race of the Christian life is the context of this passage. There is no place for carelessness and complacency in our Christian lives. The Armenians charge the Calvinists that by preaching eternal security we give to people a licence to sin. Paul himself faced this charge often (Rom. 6:1). Eternal security is a doctrine of the Bible and must be taught, but we must also teach that for a Christian to live in sin is to bring judgement and disqualification on himself. Sin is never ignored by God and to sin is to bring God's chastening.
Since that is so, how can any of us live our Christian lives without coming under judgement and being disqualified with all the temptations we face? Paul tells us in the 13th verse.
The word temptation is peirasmos which means to test and prove. It can mean a trial or test or it can mean a solicitation to evil. Whether a peirasmos is a trial or a temptation depends on our response. God tested Job and his righteous response ensured that the testing was a trial rather than a temptation.
Every temptation that you face is something that is common to man. You will never face any thing new. Whatever your trial or temptation is today, it is common to man, there is nothing unique about it. There are many who have gone before us who through the strength of God have stood victorious in the temptation. Deuteronomy 8:2 (NKJV) "And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not."
The privations of the wilderness were designed by God to test his people, to bring out their true character. The temptations of Corinth and the temptations that we face today can serve the same purpose.
"But God is faithful who will not suffer [allow] you to be tempted above that ye are able." Paul encouraged the Corinthians by reminding them of God's faithfulness: he would protect and provide for them just as he did for Israel. Paul was also refuting any complaint that they "couldn't help" sinning. God knows what you are able to bear and he tailors your trials and tests so that they will never be more then you are able to bear, as long as you are relying on His strength. God is faithful.
Not only will the trial be within your ability to bear it, "but will with the temptation also make a way to escape." The phrase "the way" is formed by the definite article and a singular noun. In other words, there is only one way. In early Greek use, the term "way," ekbasis, had the sense of a landing place. It was a nautical term.
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