1 Corinthians 10
10
Lessons from Israel’s Idolatry
1I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters,#10:1 Greek brothers. 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. 2In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. 5Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, 7or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.”#10:7 Exod 32:6. 8And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day.
9Nor should we put Christ#10:9 Some manuscripts read the Lord. to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. 10And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death. 11These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.
12If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. 13The 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.
14So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. 15You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am saying is true. 16When we bless the cup at the Lord’s Table, aren’t we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren’t we sharing in the body of Christ? 17And though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body. 18Think about the people of Israel. Weren’t they united by eating the sacrifices at the altar?
19What am I trying to say? Am I saying that food offered to idols has some significance, or that idols are real gods? 20No, not at all. I am saying that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don’t want you to participate with demons. 21You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too. 22What? Do we dare to rouse the Lord’s jealousy? Do you think we are stronger than he is?
23You say, “I am allowed to do anything”#10:23 Greek All things are lawful; also in 10:23b.—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial. 24Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others.
25So you may eat any meat that is sold in the marketplace without raising questions of conscience. 26For “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”#10:26 Ps 24:1.
27If someone who isn’t a believer asks you home for dinner, accept the invitation if you want to. Eat whatever is offered to you without raising questions of conscience. 28(But suppose someone tells you, “This meat was offered to an idol.” Don’t eat it, out of consideration for the conscience of the one who told you. 29It might not be a matter of conscience for you, but it is for the other person.) For why should my freedom be limited by what someone else thinks? 30If I can thank God for the food and enjoy it, why should I be condemned for eating it?
31So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32Don’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles#10:32 Greek or Greeks. or the church of God. 33I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved.
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1 Corinthians 10
10
1And I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,
2and all to Moses were baptized in the cloud, and in the sea;
3and all the same spiritual food did eat,
4and all the same spiritual drink did drink, for they were drinking of a spiritual rock following them, and the rock was the Christ;
5but in the most of them God was not well pleased, for they were strewn in the wilderness,
6and those things became types of us, for our not passionately desiring evil things, as also these did desire.
7Neither become ye idolaters, as certain of them, as it hath been written, ‘The people sat down to eat and to drink, and stood up to play;’
8neither may we commit whoredom, as certain of them did commit whoredom, and there fell in one day twenty-three thousand;
9neither may we tempt the Christ, as also certain of them did tempt, and by the serpents did perish;
10neither murmur ye, as also some of them did murmur, and did perish by the destroyer.
11And all these things as types did happen to those persons, and they were written for our admonition, to whom the end of the ages did come,
12so that he who is thinking to stand — let him observe, lest he fall.
13No temptation hath taken you — except human; and God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able, but He will make, with the temptation, also the outlet, for your being able to bear [it].
14Wherefore, my beloved, flee from the idolatry;
15as to wise men I speak — judge ye what I say:
16The cup of the blessing that we bless — is it not the fellowship of the blood of the Christ? the bread that we break — is it not the fellowship of the body of the Christ?
17because one bread, one body, are we the many — for we all of the one bread do partake.
18See Israel according to the flesh! are not those eating the sacrifices in the fellowship of the altar?
19what then do I say? that an idol is anything? or that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything? —
20[no,] but that the things that the nations sacrifice — they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not wish you to come into the fellowship of the demons.
21Ye are not able the cup of the Lord to drink, and the cup of demons; ye are not able of the table of the Lord to partake, and of the table of demons;
22do we arouse the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than He?
23All things to me are lawful, but all things are not profitable; all things to me are lawful, but all things do not build up;
24let no one seek his own — but each another's.
25Whatever in the meat-market is sold eat ye, not inquiring, because of the conscience,
26for the Lord's [is] the earth, and its fulness;
27and if any one of the unbelieving do call you, and ye wish to go, all that is set before you eat, nothing inquiring, because of the conscience;
28and if any one may say to you, ‘This is a thing sacrificed to an idol,’ — do not eat, because of that one who shewed [it], and of the conscience, for the Lord's [is] the earth and its fulness:
29and conscience, I say, not of thyself, but of the other, for why [is it] that my liberty is judged by another's conscience?
30and if I thankfully do partake, why am I evil spoken of, for that for which I give thanks?
31Whether, then, ye eat, or drink, or do anything, do all to the glory of God;
32become offenceless, both to Jews and Greeks, and to the assembly of God;
33as I also in all things do please all, not seeking my own profit, but that of many — that they may be saved.
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