1 Corinthians 10:1–17

In our English version the first word of the chapter is "Moreover." But the word is really just "For." That shows that what follows is a direct illustration of the point he is making. The great mass of Israel had the outward forms of their holy religion. Yet they missed its living power completely, because they had no faith.

Notice first the expression "our fathers." It is not used here, as it often is, for God's true and chosen people. It describes the whole nation. Not all who come from Israel are truly Israel, yet all who bore that name were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. The LORD's power in dividing the Red Sea gave the people, who had despaired before, the confidence to follow Moses to the other side. True faith in God Himself kept Joshua and Caleb for the promised land. This faith of the eyes in Israel is a picture of "faith upon evidences," or "rational conviction." It is often found in people who, sadly, show no sign of true life toward God.

The apostle goes on to say, "now these things were our types." That gives us God's own warrant to read Israel's baptism "in the sea and in the cloud" as a picture. Nothing could be more meaningful or practical. They began their wilderness journey as a people baptized in this way. In the picture, they were a people dead to Egypt and all that belonged to it. The cloud and the sea were to them what the cross and grave of Christ are to us. The cloud kept them safe from their enemies. The sea separated them from Egypt. In the same way, the cross shields us from all that could be against us, and we stand at heaven's side of the empty tomb of Jesus.

1 Cor. 10 tells us how the children of Israel "were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." It was as if the wall of water on each side, and the cloud resting on the water, made a dark tunnel for them to pass through. What a deliverance! No more Pharaoh, no more Egypt. On the other side of the Red Sea they were under the leadership of Moses, with supplies from heaven: water from the struck rock to drink, and the daily manna for food.

Israel stands here as a warning to those who professed Christ. Did the Corinthians boast of their privileges and gifts? He shows them how little safety such institutions as baptism and the Lord's supper give to those who rest in them. ... The danger was not only for preachers, but for all who professed the name — not some of them, but all. Look at the ancient people of God. In the same way, they trusted not in God but in His acts and in the rites He had given them, their own special favours. And this was so from the beginning, not only in later days of cold and dead formality. The heart of unbelief is so ready to depart from the living God.

He does not say that we can share in the death of Christ and perish. He says that it is possible to share in the symbols of His death and perish. In this way he exposes the trap that most of the Christian world has fallen into: a sacramental system where salvation depends on taking part in baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Take up what Scripture teaches about baptism, and I think you will find that it nearly always, if not always, means being brought into a place. "They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." That is, they were brought right into relationship with Moses as their leader. The cloud and the sea marked that connection. It stood in contrast with their earlier slavery to Pharaoh.

At that point they definitely committed themselves to the authority and leadership of Moses; just as in Christian baptism, which is in the Name of the Lord Jesus, we are definitely committed to His authority and leadership.

The Greek preposition means "unto" (or "to") as often as "into." Which sense it carries depends on the context, or on the nature of the case. Water baptism is plainly in view in 1 Corinthians 10:2, as a warning to the baptized at Corinth. It is impossible to think that the Israelites were baptized into Moses… Baptism is the symbol of profession. Reality depends on faith, which might, or might not, be true of the person baptized. To say "into" therefore goes beyond God's word. It implies that the rite itself gives life, and Scripture gives no warrant for that.

They began their wilderness journey as a people baptized in this way… In other words, in picture they were a people dead to Egypt and to everything that belonged to it. The cloud and the sea were to them what the cross and grave of Christ are to us. The cloud kept them safe from their enemies. The sea separated them from Egypt. In the same way the cross shields us from all that could be against us, and we stand at heaven's side of the empty tomb of Jesus.

They were under the shelter of the blood. But they did not get out of Egypt until they had crossed the Red Sea. That crossing pictures the death of Christ and the destruction of all enemies. They are safe, but not saved. The blood shelters them from judgment. Yet they must pass through the waters of death before they appear as a delivered people.

The force of "baptism" in the New Testament does not depend on the manner at all. When Israel were "baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea," they were not immersed in either. To read immersion into the passage would turn its solemn meaning into absolute folly. In that wonderful way they were broken off from their past in Egypt and taken into Moses' school.

Israel stand here as a warning to those who professed Christ. Did the Corinthians boast of their privileges and gifts? This passage shows how little security such institutions as baptism and the Lord's supper give to those who rest in them… To presume on the Lord's institutions is fatal, whether the one that begins the Christian path or the one repeated after it… To my mind the aim is to guard those who were baptized, and who joined in the Lord's supper, from the illusion that all was therefore right and safe. The warning stands so that they may not sin grievously and perish miserably.

Thirdly, Paul writes, they ate spiritual food. This stresses two things: the manna came from a supernatural source (Psalm 78:25), and it carries a spiritual meaning. As the Lord Jesus explains in John chapter 6, He is the Bread of Life, and only those who feed on Him have life (John 6:31-32).

The manna, I need not say, is Christ, the bread of God from heaven, to be our food. It is Christ come down, Christ in all the circumstances of an earthly life, to sustain the life of His people... So here we do not have a Christ in glory, but a Christ humbled. In His blessed person there is everything needed to support and nourish us on our wilderness journey.

The subject of 1 Corinthians 10 is privilege, and the responsibility that comes with it for everyone who shares in it, whoever they are. So the words "all ate the same spiritual food" and "all drank the same spiritual drink" say something about the food and the drink. They say nothing about the people who took them, except that they did take them... Yet in the end many of them proved to be unworthy partakers, and we are to take warning from them.

As a question of interpretation, it is clear that when Paul says they all ate the same spiritual food, he is speaking of the fathers, not of the Corinthians or other Christians. His point of warning and instruction is that God took no pleasure in most of them, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. So in these verses he speaks only of Israel. He is in no way saying that their manna and water were the same as our signs of Christ's death, or what men call the sacraments... They held the title of God's people, and they shared in sacred privileges — the very privileges Paul plainly likens to the two institutions so familiar to us in the Christian world. Yet none of this saved the mass of them from being overthrown by God's judgments in the wilderness.

Now he warns those who profess faith that it is possible to be baptised, to share in the Lord's Supper, and yet be lost. He does not say that we can have part in the death of Christ and perish. He says it is possible to have part in the symbols of His death and perish. So he exposes the trap that most of the Christian world has fallen into: a sacramental system that makes salvation depend on having part in baptism and the Lord's Supper.

This passage is not a warning against having a thing and in any way perishing, but against having the signs of the thing and then perishing.

The manna was so pure and delicate that it could not bear contact with earth. It fell upon the dew (see Numbers 11:9) and had to be gathered before the sun was up. Each one, therefore, had to rise early and seek his daily portion. So it is with the people of God now. The heavenly manna must be gathered fresh every morning. Yesterday's manna will not do for today, nor today's for tomorrow. We must feed upon Christ every day, with fresh energy of the Spirit, or else we shall cease to grow.

They are probably called "spiritual food" and "spiritual drink" because God gave them both. They were the direct gift of His grace, and in no sense natural products. But there is another reason: what they picture. The food speaks of Christ meeting the needs of His people on their journey. The drink speaks of life in the power of the Holy Spirit, and without that the journey could not be made.

The words "and the Rock was Christ" work the same way — that is, the rock represented Christ. The rock was struck before the water flowed out. In the same way, Christ was struck on the cross before the Holy Spirit was given.

Some explain the rod as a symbol of God's power. So when it strikes, it shows His judicial power at work. In this striking of the rock, then, we see the stroke of His judgment falling on Christ at the cross. The struck rock is a crucified Christ. And it was the people's sin, remember, that led to the striking of the rock. It is a vivid illustration of the truth that "He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities."

Paul treats the rock of Israel's history as one rock, though many years passed between the two episodes, and it pictured Christ. Christ did not need to be struck twice. Once was enough, and rivers of life-giving water flowed to us.

Wherever they went, the overflowing streams followed them. I do not think the rock moved, but that what came from the rock followed them. Behind, in their track, that shining river came right along. Morning by morning down came the bread, and day by day the water followed them.

Whatever they needed, it was there — a drink, water for cooking, for washing, for all kinds of uses. It kept flowing, ready for every call and every camp. And there was no other resource in the wilderness. No other stream fed that river, and it never ran dry.

It was Christ who followed, as the Rock, His redeemed people in the wilderness, and whom they tempted by their unbelief. It was the holy Person whom we know as the Christ of God, who was there with them in Egypt and through all their wanderings. It was God, God the Son, who was there with them — not shutting out the presence of the Father and the Spirit, but giving prominence here to the Eternal Son.

The sense is not that they were in the very same condition as we are, or had the same sacraments as we have. It is that they all shared the same spiritual food and drink, and yet God had no pleasure in most of them. They held the title of God's people, and they shared in sacred privileges — the very ones Paul here likens to the two practices so familiar to us. That did not save most of them. God's judgments still struck them down in the wilderness.

When the apostle speaks of all eating the same spiritual food, he clearly means the fathers, not the Corinthians or other Christians. The point of his warning is this: God took no pleasure in most of them, for they were overthrown in the wilderness... He speaks here only of Israel. He does not say that their manna and water were the same thing as our signs of Christ's death. They held title as God's people. They shared in sacred privileges, which plainly match the two institutions so familiar to us in Christendom. None of this saved the mass from being overthrown by divine judgments in the wilderness.

Only two of that whole generation came out of Egypt as grown men and lived to enter Canaan. That is a serious warning about what may come from testing Christian profession this way. It is a warning for us all. We have no right to say, "Well, but we are true Christians, and so we need not trouble about these things."

By faith God's people please Him, and by faith and patience they obtain His promise. But Israel, as a nation, did not have faith in God. So when God brought them into the wilderness, their hearts turned back from Canaan to Egypt. They knew God only through their natural senses. The fire and the cloud gave constant witness, yet they failed to see that He was truly with them in that desert place. Because of unbelief they could not enter into His rest.

When we look back at Israel's story, we must remember this: their destruction was the natural and just result of the change they had freely made at Sinai, from grace to law. Up to that time they had complained and provoked God, yet not a hair of their heads had perished. It is the law that works wrath.

The great mass of Israel had the outward forms of their holy religion. They had no faith, so they missed its vital power. They did not keep their bodies under control. They gave themselves up to their lusts and perished miserably. Seen this way, they were types of people firmly settled in the profession of the Christian religion. Such people are still not true believers, and they perish.

This passage is not a warning about having the real thing and then perishing. It warns about having the signs of the thing and then perishing. It speaks to saints, and to all those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus, however bad they might be at Corinth. It would be very dangerous to say that people stand outside these warnings and dangers just because they are so bad.

When the test came, they fell short: they did not finish the race. Where the reality is missing, it will show in the end. If that was true in Israel, it is true today... This is the first of five negatives. It deals with the state of heart at the root of all the evils that follow. The positive antidote is of course keeping "first love" toward the Person of Christ.

What "happened" to Israel is "written down for our instruction." So their failures become warning beacons for us. They are also pictures of the kinds of error that we, as redeemed people, can fall into.

The Apostle has already warned preachers that a man can preach and still be disqualified himself. Now he warns those who profess faith that a person can be baptized, share in the Lord's Supper, and still be lost. He does not say that we can have part in the death of Christ and perish. He says it is possible to have part in the symbols of His death and perish. So he exposes the trap that most of the Christian world has fallen into: a system of sacraments where salvation depends on sharing in baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Lust heads the list, because, as the Apostle James tells us, "desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin" (James 1:15). Lust leads to idolatry, because what we crave becomes an idol between the soul and God. Then the idol ties us into an unholy alliance with the world. That alliance destroys all sense of God's presence with His people, and it leads to murmuring or rebellion against the ways of God.

This is the first of five negatives, and deals with the state of heart that is at the root of all the following evils. The positive antidote is, of course, to keep "first love" for the Person of Christ.

There is, first, a general warning against "evil things." And if we ask, what are these evil things? The Spirit's answer is this: whatever faith does not seek and find in Christ… Faith is the root of godliness. It waits on the living God for its blessings, and is content with what He gives. But Israel craved the meat pots of Egypt, because their souls were "dried up" instead of fed by the food God provided. In the same way, some people profess Christ and yet think that godliness is a way to worldly gain.

One of the first lessons given about the saints is that "bad company ruins good morals." We are all prone to complain about God's dealings with us. But craving Egypt's food is the sure result of mixing with the world. The children of Israel followed the example of the mixed multitude (Num. 11:4); and no Christian mixes with the world without going down to their level and sharing in their desires.

This warning is for all of us. We have no right to say, "Well, we are true Christians, so we need not trouble about these things." As principles, these things matter enormously for us to grasp. There are evil things we may crave, just as they craved. If God keeps the extreme result from us, that is His mercy. But when we ignore the warnings, our lives may be, alas, how greatly spoiled and disfigured, and made quite other than He would have them, by our carelessness!

Aaron announced, "Tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah." How subtle sin is! ... He himself had no idolatrous object in what he did, and idolatry was not the intention of the people either. Aaron's announcement, "Tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah," did no good. The calf, and not Jehovah, had the worship of their hearts.

The real character of what followed comes out in Exodus 32:6: the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Paul quotes this in 1 Corinthians 10:7 as proof that they were idolaters, and a later verse shows how such idolatry at once sinks into loose living and indecency.

The warning before this one is general. Then Paul names one by one the things that were dangerous to the Corinthians. "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.'" First came a giving in to bodily appetite. Then came the excitement of pleasure. That brought the result you see in the verse quoted — the judgment. Were the Corinthians not in danger?

Only some were idolaters, but "the people" were drawn along after their example. The sin became national when Aaron, acting as Jehovah's priest, recognized the calf. Look at the true character of this idolatry, and its essence is not a formal rejection of the living God. It is putting human inventions in the place of the one mediator God chose. The people who had been "baptized unto Moses" now asked for other "gods who should go before them." They had lost Moses, because Moses was with God. Their hearts had too little faith to follow him there, though it was for their sakes that he was hidden from their eyes.

We know that the Spirit of God does not warn us against things we are not in danger of. He would not say to us, "Do not be idolaters," if we were not capable of being such. Idolatry takes various shapes. So it is not a question of the shape of the thing, but of the thing itself; not the outward form, but the root or principle of it. We read that "covetousness is idolatry," and that a covetous man is an idolater. That is, a man who wants more than God has given him is an idolater. He is guilty of the very sin Israel committed when they made the golden calf and worshipped it. ... Whatever commands the heart is the heart's idol, whether money, pleasure, power or anything else.

"Do not be idolaters as some of them were." It is a standing warning, not a temporary one. Let us give it its proper place in our souls. There is only one safeguard: the soul taken up with Him "who is the image of the invisible God." Does the person of Christ have its rightful place in our hearts? Has He no rival there? ... Even service that looks like it is done for Him may draw our souls away from Him.

This scheme failed because God guarded His people. So, on the advice of the wicked prophet, other ways of harming Israel were tried. The people were led "to join themselves" to Baal-Peor and to share in the sensual rites of the gods of Moab. Thousands of them died from the plague that followed. This was a dark page in Israel's history, and Scripture warns about it often.

The order in which these evils are stated is clearly moral and not historical. Lust heads the list, for, as the Apostle James tells us, "when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin" (James 1:15). It leads to idolatry, because whatever we lust after becomes an idol between the soul and God. Then, through the idol, an unholy alliance is formed with the world. That alliance destroys all sense of God's presence with His people. It leads on to murmuring or rebellion against the ways of God.

Our warning is not the events as pictures for us, but the judgments that came from them.

An unlawful union with the world follows. The message to Pergamum in Revelation 2:13 puts this in striking words. The church had shaken hands with the world, so to speak: "I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is." The church, "betrothed to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:2), had given herself to another.

In the history, twenty-four thousand are said to have died in the plague. But there it is not said "in one day," as it is here, where we hear of a thousand less. To me such a difference implies the greatest accuracy.

The Apostle, in searching words, goes on to apply these warnings to professing Christians. He warns us against the natural self-confidence of the flesh: "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." We have taken part in the Lord's Supper. Let us not think that this makes us safe from falling into the grossest sins. But, we are reminded, God is our resource... God never allows us to be tempted without making a way of escape, though, sadly, we may neglect the way.

It shocks those who tremble at God's word, and the pure in heart who see Him by faith, to watch the sinful liberties too often excused as "play." So it is play — but remember, "the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." The saints need to watch against the flesh in the very things their own spiritual judgment and conscience condemn.

Let me remark in passing. When we are walking in His ways, it is sin not to have confidence in the Lord. It is sin not to be quite sure that He will help us, whatever the need may be. The record counts it as sin in the children of Israel that they tempted the Lord when they said, "Is the Lord among us, or not?" ... Whenever there is real need in the wilderness, it is sin to doubt whether God will help us or not. In the middle of the sandy desert we should be as sure of water as if we could see rivers running through the land. If we are not, we are tempting God.

Next, we are told not to tempt Christ. Israel did this by despising the manna as poor, unsatisfying food (Num. 21:5). But the manna is a picture of Christ in His humiliation, as the lowly Son of Man. They played into Satan's hands by doing his tempting work, and serpents destroyed them — the serpent being the symbol of satanic deceit.

It was Christ who followed, as the Rock, His redeemed people in the wilderness, and whom they tempted by their unbelief (1 Cor. 10:4, 9). It was the holy Person whom we know as the Christ of God, who was there with them in Egypt and during all their wanderings.

Another reading here, also very well supported, is "the Lord" instead of "Christ." But there is no need to adopt it. Christ is for us the Lord, the one Lord, and there is no other. We can plainly commit Israel's sin in this very way. We can refuse the light food that Israel asked about — "What is it?" — though it held so much for them.

The Lord allowed the enemy's power to show itself in the serpents that killed them. The same power of the enemy will still show itself against us when we turn away from Christ to the world. It is there that his power is found. He is the prince of this world.

They lusted after evil things, and this led them into idolatry. If I allow my heart to go after any evil thing, that thing will control me. Then comes fornication. If any evil thing controls my heart, it will lead me into sinful ties, and so I lose the presence and support of Christ. The result is that I shall be in danger of putting Christ to the test — of tempting Christ, as they did when they said, "Is the Lord among us or not?" ... If I lose the presence and support of Christ I shall find the way hard and shall murmur.

It cannot help reminding us of times that are certainly near, if they have not come already. The Israelites, right at the borders of the land, turned away in complaint from the bread that had kept them alive until that hour. In the same way, people who have long claimed to live on God's gospel will turn right away from it ... On such people the serpent, which seemed dead at the start of their course, will come again with deadly and destructive power at the end.

The order in which these evils are stated is evidently moral and not historical. Lust heads the list, for, as the Apostle James tells us, "desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin" (James 1:15). It leads to idolatry, for that which we lust after becomes an idol between the soul and God. Then, through the idol, comes an unholy alliance with the world. That alliance destroys all sense of God's presence with His people. And it leads to murmuring or rebellion against the ways God uses to chasten men for their evil ways.

The solemn moment came when all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. "And they said to one another, 'Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.'" Here was the complete giving up of the Lord and His servants. And this came at the very moment when those faithful men, men of a different spirit, were urging them to go up and take the land. They despised the pleasant land. They proposed to choose a leader and return to the land of slavery once more — and they were destroyed by the Destroyer.

We generally find out where we are by a murmuring spirit. Nothing is easier than for a murmuring spirit to get into the heart of a believer, or a whole assembly... The murmuring was really against God, and not against the servants of God. Examine any murmuring honestly. It is not against the circumstances, and not against fellow believers. It is always the outcome of downright unbelief towards God. That is the point.

The last of the five warnings here is no less serious — do not grumble. Such murmuring was a dreadful evil. It judged God as untrustworthy, when He had assured them He would enable them to conquer the land. Let the believer remember that all mere complaint is in its essence against God. Is He not caring rightly for His people and all their interests? Notice that here it is not the serpents destroying, but the destroyer. God Himself sent it. It was His own judgment.

Don't murmur, Christian, for it is a most unchristian, a most ungodly thing to do. Nothing dishonours God more, nothing does greater damage to the soul. It was the chief of all the sins Israel committed in the wilderness. It meant they did not believe their God was fit to be trusted. It did not change His merciful care for them, but it aroused His just anger against them.

These children of Israel were so discouraged that they said there was no bread and no water. God rained bread down from the sky, and still they said they had none. The wilderness is indeed a very dry place. Yet here was the stream from the struck rock that followed them wherever they went, stubborn and rebellious as they were. God's goodness never abandoned them for a single moment. Yet they grumbled and murmured. Why do people murmur? Because they are not content. And when people are not content with God's best, it shows they are in a very sad condition.

No rule matters more for reading these Old Testament Scriptures with understanding and profit. The facts happened to them. But God cast them in ordered pictures, or forms of truth, to warn us who live at such a critical point in the world's history. They contain therefore far more than moral lessons, however weighty.

There cannot be a more important canon for our intelligent and profitable reading of these Old Testament oracles. The facts happened to them. But God cast them into a system of figures, or forms of truth, to warn us who live at such a critical point in the world's history. They contain therefore far more than moral lessons, however weighty. They do show man's heart, and they reveal God's mind and affections. But they also carry the larger and deeper lesson of events that illustrate immense principles.

When we use Old Testament facts as figures or types, we must hold our imagination in check. We can never insist on such readings as doctrine. But one passage helps the mind here: 1 Corinthians 10:11, where the word "ensamples" means types or figures. This gives the principle. Then we must only look to the Holy Spirit and divine guidance to use them soberly and rightly.

It is not the "ends of the world" but the ends of the dispensations that are past. Those were the ages of testing, in which man was under trial: in innocence, without law, under law, under law tempered by mercy, and under kings, priests and prophets. Every one of them proves the same thing. Man's sinful state could not be cured or mended. So God had to step in with grace reigning through righteousness, if man was to be blessed.

Since these ages have ended, the types of a past dispensation have begun to speak as never before. This matches what the apostle says elsewhere (2 Cor. 3:16): the veil that was over the Old Testament is now done away in Christ.

The ends of the age have come upon us, as the apostle says. But we who live in them do not now receive the same outward displays of God's will as Israel of old had. Things happened to them, but words are written for us — from what happened to them we get admonitions.

The order in which these evils are listed is moral, not historical. Lust heads the list, because, as the Apostle James tells us, when lust has conceived it brings forth sin (James 1:15). It leads to idolatry, for that which we lust after becomes an idol between the soul and God. Then the idol draws us into an unholy alliance with the world. That alliance destroys all sense of God's presence with His people. It leads on to murmuring or rebellion against the ways of God.

What a wonderful place to stand in, with instruction of this kind from every past generation! How important that we should heed its warning, and how guilty we will be if we ignore it! "Therefore," says the apostle, "let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." That, surely, is a great part of the admonition… All self-confidence is confidence in the flesh. All true confidence is confidence in God alone. That is how we find the ability to stand. We stand indeed, but we stand as He holds us up.

The apostle applies this principle to people who might enjoy privileges such as those of God's house, and who rest in a false security in its outward forms, without having any part in the divine nature. He uses what happened to Israel in the desert as types written for our admonition, and warns against resting in a mere outward profession.

Verse 11 insists that all these things happened to Israel for types. They did not happen by chance, and they are not just handy lessons someone picked up later. God's own wisdom designed that history. He shaped it so that we would have these specific types to learn from. While they may not have been written to us, yet they are written specifically for us.

Did the Corinthians boast of their privileges and endowments? Here they are shown how little security practices like baptism and the Lord's supper give to those who rest in them. It was not only preachers who were in danger, but everyone who professed faith — not some, but all. Look at the ancient people of God. They too trusted not in God but in His acts and ordinances, in their own special favours... To presume on institutions of the Lord, whether at the start or ongoing, is fatal.

See the connection between "think" and "stand." If we think we stand, there is no security whatsoever. On the contrary we are very likely to fall. Our security depends not on our thinking but on faith: "and you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear" (Rom. 11:20). ... The believer need not fall if he takes heed.

The true believer is marked by confidence in God. The simpler and more absolute that confidence, the better. It is just as true that he has no confidence in himself. The deeper his self-distrust, the better. It is when we think that we stand that we are in danger of a fall. It is quite another thing when a believer has confidence that "God is able to make him stand" (Rom. 14:4).

We are not to think of ourselves as incapable of falling. Peter's history, and the history of thousands of God's people, show what happens when self-confidence comes in. "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Sooner than we dream, Satan will use our very confidence to trip us into our fall. How many of us — indeed, can any of us — be sure to stand a single hour without falling?

The day that a believer falls is the day that he ceases to fear to fall. So long as the fear is in the heart, the feet will be kept by God.

"Thinks he stands" has nothing to do with being "in Christ and Christ in us." For those, there is no condemnation. Nor will you find in the New Testament any word of a man being in Christ, or made alive, and lost. But this phrase does not necessarily involve final ruin. Any of us may fall if we are not watchful. We are already on the way to falling if we do not watch and pray so that we do not enter into temptation.

The Apostle warns us against the natural self-confidence of the flesh. Let us not think that, because we have taken part in the Supper, we are safe from falling into the grossest sins. But, we are reminded, God is our resource. The temptations that come upon us are common to man. God never allows us to be tempted without making a way of escape, though we may neglect that way. "Therefore," says the Apostle, "flee from idolatry."

The true believer trusts God, and the simpler and more complete that trust the better. Just as truly, he has no confidence in himself, and the deeper his self-distrust the better. It is when we think that we stand that we are in danger of a fall.

He is speaking, of course, of a soul in the true condition of conscious helplessness before Him. If we are self-confident, we will find even the smallest temptation too strong for us. But if we are in a right condition — which should be normal for the Christian — God will not let temptation grow too strong for us.

No temptation had come to them beyond what is common to man. Christ was tried beyond it while He lived on earth. He was tested at the start of His service as well as at the end. He was tried in all things as we are, apart from sin — and also beyond what belongs to man, tempted for forty days in the wilderness. We can only overcome in our little trials the way He overcame in His great ones. We depend on God and obey His word, and the Spirit arms that word with power against Satan.

When God puts His children in the school of the cross, He deals with them gently. He does not leave them without a promise: "God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability." He will not lay a giant's burden on a child's back. He will not stretch the strings of the instrument too far, in case they break. If God sees it good to strike with one hand, He will support with the other. Either He will make the faith stronger, or make the yoke lighter.

"Way of escape" might make us expect a way out of the temptation altogether. It is not that. It is that God always sees to it that there is a way through, by which we may come out unharmed at the other side. Temptation may be like a long dark tunnel, but the light of day is always visible at the far end.

Notice, God does not promise a way of escape from the trial. He promises a way of escape in the trial, for the sorely tried mind and heart. Through this ministry of grace we can bear the trial to the glory of God.

We can never excuse sin in the least and say, "The flesh is in us, and we could not help it." The Christian's principle is this. We should never find the flesh at work anywhere but in the presence of God. There it is always in the presence of grace and of holiness too. This is the true power of our walk.

First, no one has to yield to temptation, for God is faithful and will always make a way to escape. Writers have often pointed out that the way of escape may be through death. No one can be forced to give way to temptation, since he can always choose to die rather than yield — "In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood."

The Apostle, in searching words, applies these warnings to professing Christians. He warns us against the natural self-confidence of the flesh: "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." We have taken part in the Supper. Let us not think that this makes us safe from falling into the worst sins. But we are reminded that God is our resource. The temptations that come on us are common to man. God never allows a temptation without also making a way of escape, though, sadly, we may neglect that way. "Therefore," says the Apostle, "flee from idolatry." Avoid all that would stir up lust, come between the soul and God, and lead to an outward fall.

Chapter 8 asserted the believer's liberty about meats offered to idols. This verse balances the matter by stressing the enormous evil of the idols themselves. We are not simply to avoid idolatry; we are to flee from it, as something utterly hateful.

There are certain things we are to flee from. "Flee youthful passions" (2 Timothy 2:22). "Flee from idolatry" (1 Corinthians 10:14). "Flee from sexual immorality" (1 Corinthians 6:18). "O man of God, flee these things" (1 Timothy 6:11). But, as far as I know, we are never told to flee from the devil. On the contrary we read: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).

To count idolatry impossible for a Christian is to trifle. This the Corinthians were doing. They knew, they said, that the idol was nothing. So it meant nothing to them to eat meat offered to heathen idols. They could even go a step further and sit and eat in the heathen temples. The apostle, on the contrary, holds to the principle that you can share in an evil you do not commit yourself, above all in sacred things. The true wisdom in such cases is to keep completely clear. It is a misuse of knowledge to take part, or even appear to take part, in what is religiously false.

The same thing was true in principle of the idol sacrifices of the Gentile world. The idols they revered represented demons; and these demons were only subordinate officers of Satan. By their sacrifices they entered into the communion of demons. Now such a communion as this the child of God is to flee at all costs.

An idol, though itself a nothing, is a visible expression of the deadliest of evils. Idolatry, the habit of false worship, is the chief snare of the tempter, and we must shun it. Real refuge from its power is found only in the service of the living God. So, to guard his brothers against this ever-present danger, he turns at once to the chief distinctive act of Christian worship. As they consider their position and holiness as partakers of Christ, they may shrink with readier horror from any fellowship with the way of darkness.

It has been asked whether "flee from idolatry" applies to us now. It certainly does; the last warning in 1 John 5:21 is "Keep yourselves from idols." An idol is anything that takes the place of God in the heart... It is because He loves us so much that the Lord is jealous; He cannot bear to see our hearts divided. We share in the Lord's table all through the week; the Supper on the Lord's day is its outward expression. It means we are identified with all the value of Christ's sacrifice before God, and we should refuse everything that is not according to Him.

Scripture never addresses men as "wise" in the sense of having philosophic minds. The New Testament has two words translated "wise," and their meanings are quite different. The word phronimois in 1 Cor. 10:15 has the force of "sensible," "sane" or "having common sense." It stands in contrast to "foolish," a word the apostle used freely at the start of the letter. I make no claim to speak as a prophet, but merely as a man of common sense to people of common sense.

Up to this point in the letter the Apostle had addressed the Corinthians on the ground of their responsibility. So he assumed that some among them might not be real. At verse 15 he shifts his viewpoint a little and addresses them as "wise men." Not every true Christian could be described that way, we fear, and certainly no unconverted person could be. He speaks to the true members of the body of Christ. They have His Spirit, so they can judge what he is now going to put before them.

To count idolatry impossible for a Christian is to trifle. This the Corinthians were doing. They said they knew the idol was nothing, so eating meat offered to idols meant nothing to them — and they would even sit and eat in the heathen temples. The apostle holds the opposite principle: you share in an evil by joining in it, even when you would not do it yourself, and especially in sacred things. The true wisdom in such cases is to keep wholly aloof. It is a misuse of knowledge to take part in what is religiously false, or even to look as though you take part in it... At once the apostle makes them the judges. He puts them in the presence of the central and permanent institution of church fellowship. Where was their practical understanding now?

There is, perhaps, a touch of irony in these words. If so, it soon fades as he moves into the subject of the verses that follow. Here he is calling on his fellow believers to use that power of spiritual judgment which really does exist in every genuine believer. In some at Corinth it was weakened and held back by the tangle of natural vanity and self-conceit. He asks them to decide for themselves how far any tampering with idolatry could fit with true spiritual worship.

The more the Lord has given them special gift, the less they need to fence themselves round with the claim of authority. That authority lies, after all, in the word they bring. It must find its confirmation in the conscience and heart of those who listen to it... The more sure they were that the truth they held was indeed from God, the more freely they could take the ground of one of these apostles: "I speak as to wise men" — sensible men, as we say — "judge what I say." The outcry against the mind, so often raised by assumed spirituality, goes completely against God. He has made us altogether for Himself... Mind is not a product of the fall, though the fall has darkened and weakened it.

Judging things, or judging teaching, is not forbidden but encouraged — as we see, for instance, in 1 Corinthians 2:15 and 10:15. Judging persons is forbidden... As soon as we start judging others, we become blind to our own faults. The most profitable form of judgment for each of us is self-judgment.

The apostle is dealing with the question of idolatry. The Jews shared in the altar; the Gentiles drank the cup of demons. What we Christians share in is communion with the sacrifice of Christ. We are identified with that sacrifice, and we cannot be identified with the cup of demons too.

Here we are to understand blessing rising to God from His people. The phrase that follows, "which we bless", shows that the Spirit of God means blessing given by the worshippers, and not blessing given to them. The words also match the Jews' cup of blessing, which clearly meant blessing rising to God. The Passover service in the apostles' time included a Cup of Blessing. It was called that because those who took the cup said the words, "Blessed are You, Jehovah our God".

For us the cup is a "cup of blessing", a symbol of the blood of Christ. It reminds us of His death, when at the Cross He shed the blood that cleanses from all sin. For Him it was a cup of judgment. But the cup that brought judgment to Him secures blessing for us. For this cup we can bless, or give thanks. Blessing the cup here carries no thought of one person consecrating the bread and the wine, as corrupt Christendom imagines.

That is the cup for which we give thanks at the Lord's Supper. The cup comes first because we can only get right with God on the ground of redemption by blood. That is why the Spirit stresses the fact of death here, by putting the cup before the loaf.

The first appeal rests on the blood of Christ. That blood is the answer of divine grace to the deepest need of a soul that stands guilty before God and covered with defilement. Was this to be treated lightly? … Here he does not say "the blood" or "the body of the Lord". We find that in 1 Corinthians 11. Here it is Christ, because the matter is one of grace. "The Lord" brings in the idea of authority.

There are two expressions of fellowship here — fellowship with and fellowship of. We usually speak of fellowship with one another, more in the sense of 1 John 1:7. But here it is not communion with, but communion of. The words "communion" (verse 16), "partakers" (verse 18) and "fellowship" all stand for the same root word in the original, which gives the idea of sharing in common. … The fellowship, or communion, of the blood of Christ is the sharing in common with all God's children in all the value of His wonderful death.

There is no need, however, for fanciful ideas about the bread. Let us be clear that the material is bread, and that it stays bread. He said, "This is My body," using a figure of speech, as He often did. … When He said "This is My body," He gave the loaf a special meaning as His memorial.

Israel by natural descent ate of the altar, and by eating they identified themselves with it. In the same way, if you share the table of the Lord, you have a common part in it with others. Eating is not itself identity with the body, but the sign of it. You cannot share in Christ and in demons at the same time. This is a moral "cannot".

The bread which we break was nothing less than fellowship with the body of Christ. At the same time it set forth the close unity of His saints on earth. What could be more inconsistent than to own this truth in the breaking of bread, and then to disown it by feasting in idol temples?

The blood of Christ awakens the gravest thoughts in the Christian. The body of Christ speaks of the closest unity possible, since we, the many, are one loaf, one body, and we all partake of the one loaf. The bread does not become the body of Christ, nor is the body joined to it. It is the loaf that we break, and it is the one loaf of which we all partake. It stands for the one body of Christ; and if the loaf is that body, then we, the many, are that one loaf too.

Read that verse with care. It states that we, who partake of the cup and the loaf as we should, are one bread — or loaf — that is, one body. The sign of that fact is that we all partake of the one loaf. The loaf is the symbol of the holy body of our Lord, given up in death as a sacrifice for us all, and of that alone.

It has been said that we do not have the unity of the church shown in the one loaf, but only in our partaking of that one loaf (Christ). But when we remember that there were twelve loaves on the table in the tabernacle, and that these symbolised Israel's national unity presented before God in Christ, we can hardly fail to connect the unity of the church in Christ with what is represented in the one loaf.

At its simplest, the word communion means a common participation. Here it is the saints, as members of the one body, sharing together at the Lord's Table in what the blood and the body of Christ set forth. Eating or drinking implies identification with the thing eaten or drunk. So the apostle says, "Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?" That is, by eating what they had placed on the altar as a sacrifice, they became identified with the sacrifices.

In partaking of the "one bread", we set forth our identification with the one body. Christ is the Head of that body, and all believers are members of it. The "one bread" does not only mean that those who partake at any given time are one. It does not only mean that believers in one place are one. It sets forth the unity of the whole body, which includes every true believer.

So in partaking of the one loaf, the Christian who is taught by God owns his union with all true believers across the whole earth. Their ignorance, weakness, or Christ-dishonouring divisions do not change that. But even so, he can only have fellowship with those who seek to walk in obedience to the word, and apart from evident evil. The Holy Spirit of God would certainly never seek to keep outward unity at the cost of inward holiness.