Introduction
Have you ever been in this situation? Parents do this a lot; teachers, coaches also revert to it. Someone wants to tell you a story. As you are listening, you start to grow uncomfortable as you realize there is a moral to the story which is about to be applied to you. Paul is telling such a story to the Corinthians.
Temptation
Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
The ways that the Hebrews succumbed to sin serve as warnings for Christians. Note, the concern for the saints is that they not “desire” evil. Paul is addressing an attitude that draws Christians to sin, not merely stumbling over blocks along the path. The Corinth believers are abusing their supposed freedom in Christ to indulge in sinful behavior. Why? Because they had fun!
The examples of sins that Paul gives correspond with the sins of the Corinthians. There are four of them: idolatry, sexual immorality, testing their boundaries, and grumbling. Consider idolatry. 7 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.”
Here is the story Paul is referring to:
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play (Exodus 32:1-6).
What makes Paul concerned that the Corinth saints would abandon God and set up their idol to worship? There is no record of them keeping idols in their homes and where they met for worship. No one spoke of turning away from God or from Christ.
Perhaps not, but this is in effect what some of them are doing by attending the temple banquets. They are sitting before pagan idols and participating in religious rituals through the temple meals. It is not by accident that Paul quoted the second half of 32:6 which speaks of the Hebrews sitting down to eat and drink. He could have chosen the first half, which reads, they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. Presenting sacrifices to the calf is blatant idol worship. Nevertheless, holding a feast was also part of the religious worship, and that is precisely what the Corinth saints are doing. Thus, they are to take warning that they have already slipped into idolatry regardless of their motive and perspective.
The second sin is sexual immorality: 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. Paul is referring to an infamous event recorded in Numbers 25. Here is what the people did: While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. 2 These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel (25:1-3). Through prostitution Moab seduced the Hebrews to commit idolatry. You may want to read the complete story about the punishment that fell upon the people through both plague and execution.
Are the Corinth believers guilty of such sin? Most likely some of them are. In chapter six, Paul is obliged to admonish them for having physical relations with prostitutes. Did they go down to the “Red Light” district of town to find these prostitutes? No, they went to the pagan temples, especially those dedicated to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. In those temples, the sexual act was a religious ritual. It appears that food was not all that enticed some of the Corinth believers to the temples.
What would the offenders have to say? “It doesn’t mean anything. We love our wives; we worship the Lord. It only involves the body. What harm is there in a little physical pleasure?” There is much wrong, but in particular the case Paul is building against them has to do with idolatry. What did the prostitutes of Moab do? They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. What is happening in the pagan temples? Pagan gods are being worshipped. Note in both of the OT instances that eating is connected with sacrificing to gods, and that sexual immorality is involved. The “play” of the people before the golden calf undoubtedly included sexual play.
The Corinthians had better take warning; God will not be mocked. To get his point across, Paul brings up two other sins that brought down judgment. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.
The test takes place in Numbers 21:4, 5: From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”
For some reason, God did not take kindly to the reference of the miraculous manna he provided for them every day as “worthless food.” Nor, after time and time again of providing for them in the wilderness and protecting them from their enemies, does he care for the accusation that he had brought the people out of Egypt in order to die in the wilderness. If his intent all along had been for them to die, he could have taken care of that easily. Here are poisonous serpents as a taste of what they could have received.
As to grumbling, it is harder to pin point one instance, since the people grumbled so often. It seems that Paul is referring to what took place after the twelve men sent to spy out the Promised Land returned and gave a report. Ten of the men warned the people of dire consequences if they should try to enter the land. Two spoke in favor of entering, calling upon the people to trust in the Lord. Here is their reaction:
Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt” (Numbers 14:1-4).
It is then that God declares that none of the grumblers over the age of twenty would live to enter the Promised Land, and he sentences them to forty years in the wilderness. The ten spies who gave the bad report die of plague. Eventually, over the forty years the complete sentence is carried out.
“Connect the dots” Paul then says. 11 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.
The Holy Spirit, who is the author of all scripture, recorded these events to teach Christians in the final age of history. We’ve talked about this view of history already. As Christians, we are living in the final epoch of history. There are no more ages to come that must be fulfilled before Christ returns. Now then, we are to learn from the stories of those who lived in earlier ages. The story of Israel provides lessons for the Church.
What is the lesson here? 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. It is not confidence that Paul disapproves of, but misplaced confidence. As we learned last week, their confidence was misplaced in the sacraments. They gave to the sacraments a protective power that does not exist. This power was that the sacraments protected believers who have little regard for obedience to Christ. Also, in regard to the Corinthians, they put special stock in their charismatic gifts of tongues and prophesy. These signs of sacraments and gifts made them presumptuous about their salvation. They could pretty much do as they pleased without worry about judgment. “Take heed,” Paul warns. “You are setting yourselves up for a fall.”
He then pens what is one of the best known verses in 1 Corinthians and a favorite one that gives hope to Christians struggling with sin. 13 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.
Do you notice what is odd about this verse? It doesn’t seem to fit. A verse of comfort is stuck in the middle of a passage about warning. If anything, the passage would have flowed more smoothly if verse 13 did not exist. Read verses 12 and 14 together: Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
It seems that verse 13 serves not so much to provide reassurance, but to anticipate an excuse to sin. The Corinthians might respond, “Paul, you don’t know how tough it is to live a Christian life in Corinth. We live in a city in which the temptations are so great. The sexual temptations are in our faces. As far as idolatry, why, the very way of life and the economy are inseparable with the Greek/Roman religious practices. What do you expect of us?”
Paul expects them to trust that God is faithful who will give them strength to withstand temptation and will provide the way of escape from situations that seem to force them to capitulate. Thus, when the boss invites Christian to a temple feast to celebrate his daughter’s birthday, God will provide a way of escape if Christian remains true and trusts God to take care of him.
Paul also expects them to trust his teaching. He does not speak of this, but in the examples given, the people of Israel were also complaining against Moses. Listen to them: “As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (Exodus 32:1). “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here…? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?” (Numbers 20:3, 4). “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt” (Numbers 14:4).
Lessons
What are our lessons? One involves the way that Jesus is brought into our lives in unexpected ways. You remember Jesus’ parables about the sheep and the goats who will be separated at the Judgment Day. The moral of the story was that our regard for Jesus is seen in how we treat the needy and the outcast. As Jesus said, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). From that same perspective, Paul teaches us that all we do involves Christ.
We don’t think like that. We departmentalize our lives and our sins. There is our spiritual life, which of course involves our relationship with Christ. There is also our daily life, the life we have to live in this world. We might acknowledge that Jesus ought to be involved in that aspect of our lives, but we regrettably leave him out of it. Thus we might do wrong against our neighbors and even ourselves. If we are mature Christians, we will admit that these wrongs are sins against God in the sense of breaking his laws. We might also note that as Christ is present everywhere, he witnesses our sins. But our scripture takes us even further. Our sins are sins directly against Christ.
How so? Let’s use Paul’s examples. As grumbling against Moses was in reality grumbling against the Lord, so grumbling against Paul – the Christ appointed leader of the Corinth Church – was grumbling against Christ; and so grumbling against the duly appointed leaders of a church is grumbling against the Lord who raised them to that position.
Or take idolatry and sexual immorality. To participate in these activities, for all intent and purposes, is to say to Christ, “You are not good enough. You cannot satisfy my need to feel secure nor my desire for happiness.” None of us would say such a thing to our Lord, or even admit it to ourselves; nevertheless this is what our actions convey.
A second lesson is the insidious power of sin. Put this word in your vocabulary. Webster defines it: “operating or proceeding in an inconspicuous or seemingly harmless way but actually with grave effect.” One reason the Corinthians were grumbling against Paul was that he seemed to make too much of a big deal about their behavior. “We are just having a little fun. Lighten up. We are free in Christ. Nobody is abandoning the faith.”
But that is exactly what they were in the process of doing, and it is what we are doing whenever we choose to go down a path that is contrary to a Christ-like life. Whether we do it because it seems fun, or because it seems advantageous – whatever the reason – we have chosen a slippery slope that can and will lead us away from Christ. The Corinthians wanted both pleasures – that of the kingdom of Christ and that of the world – and it can’t be done. Choose whom you will serve; if you don’t choose, I can tell you now, the world will hold you in its grasp.
The third lesson is this: 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. Trust God for this. Do you act like your worldly friends because you are afraid you will have no friends? Trust God to provide. Do you compromise in the workplace because you are afraid that if you don’t you will lose your job or lose your clients? Trust God. Do you follow the world’s ways because you are afraid that you will be unhappy? Trust God.
Think about this. Why do we give in to temptation? Is it not because the temptation offers to meet a need we feel for happiness or security? Idolatry is nothing more than turning to someone or something other than God to fulfill our need. We don’t trust God to provide loving relationships. We don’t trust him to take care of us financially and physically. We look for shortcuts and alternatives to fill in what we don’t trust him to provide.
But God is faithful, and he will not let us be tempted beyond our ability, which means that more often than we are willing to admit, we would prefer he keep out of the way. Now understand what is meant by temptation. We include in the word the urges we feel. “I feel tempted.” Temptation here means the circumstance that could lead us to sinful desires and deeds. What the scripture is saying is that the sovereign God will not put us in situations we cannot handle, and that he will provide a way out of those situations that would seem to bring our downfall. Remain faithful to God, and he will prove his faithfulness to us.
Christ will prove faithful. Christ, the Rock, will provide water when our spirits are dry. Christ, the Cloud and the Fire, will lead the way through the wilderness of temptation. Christ, the Spiritual Food and Drink, will nourish us in our weakness. Christ, the Lamb, died for the forgiveness of our sins. Christ, our High Priest, ever pleads for us. Whatever warning God may give, in Christ he gives more than enough grace to serve him to the end.
