ordinary christianity for the world.
Corinth, A Church Divided: 1 Corinthians 10:1-15, Idle / Idol Worship
Poetic Praise
Idle Idol Worship
1 Corinthians 10:1-15
Chapter ten is difficult to get our minds around, but it will help to remember Paul's general theme of helping the Corinthians see the contrast between the wisdom of Christ and the wisdom of the world. To hear what Paul has to say about the baptism of ancient Israel here we need to understand what he is contrasting it against. Paul continues to show the contrast between Christian thinking and worldly thinking.
To see the contrast more clearly, notice how often Paul uses the word "all" in these first four verses: "all (were) under the cloud, and all passed through the sea" (v. 1), "all were baptized into Moses" (v. 2), "all ate the same spiritual food" (v. 3), "all drank the same spiritual drink" (v. 4). Verse five then provides the contrast for the idea of all. He switches from all to most. "Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness" (v. 5) — all, all, all, all, but God was not please with most. Paul's emphasis on all changes to most.
The contrast Paul is making in these verses is similar to what he was talking about in Romans 9:5-8, "They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.' This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring."
Paul's point in these first five verses of the tenth chapter of First Corinthians is not about the nature of baptism, but about the nature of regeneration. He cites baptism as a symbol of regeneration and as an example of the need for regeneration. Paul was saying that while all of the people of ancient Israel were involved in God's various baptisms, not all of those who had been baptized by God Himself were heirs to the kingdom of God. Paul was saying that they were baptized, but their baptism did not save them. This is a hard lesson to get.
"All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ" (vs. 3-4). Paul said that they all drank from the well of Christ. Did that mean that they were all "saved?" Listen to Paul's answer: "Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness" (v. 5). Though the ancient Israelites had all experienced and partaken of Jesus Christ (the Rock) personally, some of them displeased God. And the result was that God allowed them to perish in the wilderness without entering the Promised Land. That is the lesson and the contrast that Paul was teaching here, and it's a hard lesson to swallow because it runs counter to what we want to believe about God and about ourselves.
Why would God bless His own people with genuine spiritual food, and then let them die in the desert? They were God's people, right? Why didn't God protect them? Why didn't God preserve or persevere with them? Why would God allow His precious baptized lambs to die in the wilderness? That is exactly what Paul was trying to get the Corinthians to see because that is exactly what God had done. So, Paul answered that very question. He said that "these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did" (v. 6).
Did you hear that? They died for our sake, to teach us a lesson about faithfulness, about not wanting the wrong things. Not all of them died, of course. Some lived and some died. That's the contrast Paul was making, and it begs the question — Why did some die? Why did some live? What was the difference between those who lived and those who died? Indeed, the contrast under consideration here is the same contrast that Paul has been teaching from the beginning of this letter. Paul continued to show them the difference between the wisdom (or foolishness) of Christ that is life itself and the wisdom (or foolishness) of the world that is death. The lesson that Paul was teaching is a matter of life and death. It is not trivial. It is not funny. It is serious. And it applies to us today.
Paul then clearly spelled out his central concern, so they wouldn't miss what he was talking about — idolatry. "Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, 'The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play'" (v. 7). Paul quoted from Exodus 32:6, the story of the Golden Calf.
As Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments from God, the people demanded that Aaron make them a Golden Calf to facilitate their worship. Aaron did as he was requested, and the next day the people held a religious feast. About that particular feast Moses wrote, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play" (Exodus 32:6). Paul's concern in these first few verses of chapter ten pertains to this story of Israel's idolatry. He was accusing some of the Corinthians of the same kind of idolatry.
How did God receive this idol worship that came from the minds and hearts of His people? "Twenty-three thousand fell in a single day" (v. 8), wrote Paul. God then commanded that the Levites take vengeance on the worshipers of the Golden Calf on behalf of the Lord.
"Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, 'Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me.' And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, 'Thus says the Lord God of Israel, "Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor."' And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell" (Exodus 32:26-28).
Exodus 32 concludes with this verse, "Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made" (Exodus 32:35). Many more died from the plague. This is not a pretty picture, but it is the picture that Paul painted for the Corinthians to illustrate the severity of their error.
Paul summed up his lesson, "We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did... We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer" (vs 8-10). Who had engaged in sexual immorality? Who put God to the test? Some of those ancient Israelites who had been baptized by God Himself in the cloud, in the sea and in Moses. Notice Paul's contrast in these verses between all and some. All had been baptized, but some of God's own baptized people had been faithless, and God destroyed them. That's the point!
But why would God not protect and preserve His ancient people? Why did God not keep them from sin? Paul tells us. "Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come" (v. 11). God killed them to teach a lesson to those to whom the end of the ages had come — Christians.
This is a very important point. Don't miss it. The Old Testament was written to teach Christians about faithfulness. Another way to say it is that Christian faithfulness is aided by the lessons garnered from the Old Testament. Or this — Christianity cannot be understood apart from the teaching of the Old Testament, apart from learning the lessons of the Old Testament.
The point was that the Corinthians, like the Ancient Israelites, should not trust in their baptism alone. Paul said, "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall" (v. 12). Clearly, Paul meant that anyone who thought that he had a secure standing before the Lord because of his baptism needed to think again, and to repent of such presumption, lest he fall. He had in mind those Corinthian leaders who had opposed him by teaching the wisdom of the world as the wisdom of Christ. He had previously accused them of sexual immorality, here he accused them of idolatry and, ultimately, of faithlessness. This attack by Paul was directed at those who had broken covenant with God, and who had been leading the Corinthian church astray.
This doesn't mean that God doesn't protect and preserve His people. He does! It does not mean that baptism is not important, or that it is not an aid to faithfulness, because it is! Baptism is important and it is an aid to faithfulness. But that doesn't mean that God's people get to escape difficulties in this life. It doesn't mean that Christians escape testing and the need for the personal, ongoing discipline and practice of faithfulness. God accomplishes His purposes, not ours. God tests His people to prove them — and to improve them. God accomplishes His will, not ours. God does persevere with the saints, and part and parcel of God's preservation is our ongoing perseverance in faithfulness.
The old adage should be rewritten, "Once saved, always being saved." God's salvation is a process. It began before time itself and will culminate when the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven (Revelation 21:2). It has begun but it has not finished. It's ongoing, moment by moment, 24/7. And its not just that God is engaged moment by moment, but that God's people must be similarly engaged in the process. Once God begins a thing it will be completed, but Paul's point was that salvation is in the process of completion. It was both a done deal and yet still in process. Sometimes Paul spoke of salvation as a fact, and sometimes he spoke of it as a process not yet finished.
In verse 13 Paul turned his attention from the faithless to the faithful. Part of the confusion we find in this chapter (and elsewhere) is the result of the fact that Paul was speaking (writing) to two different groups of people, both of whom were members of the Corinthian church. That is what Paul was talking about in the first five verses — the difference between faithful Christians and faithless Christians. Some of Paul's words were aimed at the faithful Christians and some were aimed at the faithless Christians. Our task is to discern the difference.
As the Kingdom continues to unfold, some of the faithful will be revealed to actually be faithless, and some of the faithless will join the ranks of the faithful. There is some traffic between these two groups, and that is the issue that Paul is getting at.
"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (v. 13). The temptation is real and effects both groups — the faithful and the faithless. Note the abrupt change in tone. Paul has turned from addressing those with whom God was not pleased to those who had faithfully received the strength of Christ in order to provide for them what they could not provide for themselves.
God tests everyone, the faithful and the faithless. And the way in which people respond to those tests points to the difference between the faithful and the faithless. The faithful are encouraged and strengthened in the midst of trials and difficulties, the faithless are not. The faithful lean upon Jesus, who carries them to safety. The faithless do not, nor do they find safety. The trials of the faithful are productive, whereas the trials of the faithless are destructive.
God's faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, provides the model for faith. God's people are saved by God's faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, who will not — cannot — fail to bring all of His people into the Kingdom. The purpose of temptation, the trials and difficulties of the saints, is to drive them to greater dependence upon Jesus Christ, who provides the only safe passage through the troubles of this life. Those who will not rely upon Jesus Christ are driven away in anger and frustration — their own anger and frustration, I should add. God does not make them mad, rather they get mad at God of their own accord.
Paul, then, singles out the faithful among the unfaithful and counsels them, "Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry" (v. 14). Flee from those who are tempting you to idolatry. Flee from idolatry into greater faithfulness by fleeing from those who preach and practice idolatry in your midst. Flee! The Greek word is pheugo and means run away.
"I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say" (v. 15). Paul was not speaking to all of the members of the Corinthian church, only to those who were sensible, those who understood what he was talking about. The Greek word is phronimos and means thoughtful, sagacious, discreet. But it doesn't mean intelligent. The difference between the faithful and the unfaithful is not intelligence. It has nothing to do with intelligence. Rather, the difference is more like sensitivity or concern — better yet, a kind of common resonance, a common understanding. He was speaking to those who could resonate with what he was talking about, those who had been regenerated and were growing in grace through the Holy Spirit, those who were inhabited by the Holy Spirit. He was speaking to those who had been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, not to all who had been baptized.
How can that be? Because there are two aspects to baptism. There is the outward ceremony of baptism, and there is the inward reality, what is sometimes referred to as the baptism of or in the Holy Spirit.
As I said, this is a hard lesson, not because it is difficult to understand, but because it is difficult to accept. Just as Jesus had criticized the Jewish leaders for their faithlessness, so Paul accused the Corinthian leaders for the same reasons. Is it surprising that a Christian church had apostatized so early in Christian history? Not really. Paul cited the example of those who fell into idolatry before Moses had returned from the mountain with the Ten Commandments. Human nature had not changed between the time of Moses and Christ, nor has it changed since.
The only thing that changes human nature is Jesus Christ, and He does so through regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Regeneration is symbolized by the ceremony of baptism, but the ceremony of baptism does not make regeneration real. It's the other way around, regeneration makes baptism real.
What can we learn from all this? That our salvation is a done deal in the eyes of God only as we persevere in the trials of faithfulness. In other words, we can continue in our paltry efforts to be faithful because those efforts are guided by the God who cannot fail. But we must not presume on the success of our salvation, and think that it cannot be lost. We must persevere in the disciplines of faithfulness because that is what God's Holy Spirit has empowered us to do. To fail such perseverance is an acknowledgment of the absence of God's Holy Spirit. Only in Christ are the means and the will — the ability and the desire — to actually live as a Christian.
