Day 135: Escaping temptation – 1 Corinthians 10 vs 1 – 14
1-4 I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptised as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that travelled with them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, or worship idols as some of them did. 7 As the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.” 8-10 And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death. 11 These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.
12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. 13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. 14 So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. (New Living Translation) English Standard Version link.
A quick reminder of the people Paul was writing to will help us better understand what he says in these verses. Some Christians at Corinth said it didn't matter if you went to places where the unsaved people gathered to honour their idol-gods and to join in their feasts. The problem was that many of these festive parties got rough and were more like wild stag or hen parties. So, in vs 1-4, Paul reminds them of Israel's history. They were all saved out of Egypt, and they all shared in a spiritual journey towards the land God promised. But what does he say in vs 5?
In vs 6-10 he reminds the Christians at Corinth of some things the Israelites did that made God angry with them. He speaks of revelry at pagan feasts, sexual immorality, and even grumbling against God. All of these things were similar to the way some Christians were behaving in Corinth. But how does Paul say that Christians should view what happened to those Israelites of old? (vs 6 & vs 11)
I think vs 6 is the key. “These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, or worship idols as some of them did.” That seems to be what some Christians in Corinth were struggling with. The pagan activities and temple prostitutes were luring them away from faithfulness to Jesus Christ. In the same way, many things in the world today can cause Christians to stumble in their walk with Jesus. Things like pornography, casual sex, booze and drugs are the easy to see examples. But there are other temptations as well. The desire for wealth and success can be a snare for many. So what other warning did Paul give to these believers? (vs 12).
Three things can be seen from this. Firstly, Christians can and do face temptation. How we wish our hearts and minds were so pure that wrong desires and thoughts would never enter in. Sadly that is not the case. And some Christians may find certain temptations extremely difficult to avoid. Secondly, we mustn’t kid ourselves that we would NEVER give in to temptation. That was the reminder of vs 12. If we rely on our own strength we may come horribly short. Thirdly, God is so faithful that He will not leave us to fight temptation on our own. (vs 13) He will show us ways of escape, or ways to endure the pressure we may be under. That's a wonderful promise – but it doesn't take away responsibility on our part. What does vs 14 imply.
That's right – God promises help – but we also need to run as fast as we can from any temptation we know we could give in to.