1 Corinthians 10:11-13

July 22, 2018

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

Download the bulletin.

Download the Kids’ Korner.

The sermon starts at 16:25 in the audio file.

Or, Dangerous Lusts of the Blessed

A long time ago I was told (by a successful triathlete who had her own poster) that if you’re serious about running, you don’t talk about going for a “jog,” you go for a run. This does not mean that you must sprint every mile, it does not mean that you must run every stride as hard as you can, but it means that you are serious about the work.

Paul exhorted the Corinthian believers to run to win. It takes self-control. It requires discipline. You cannot win while getting everything you want, even when what you want is reasonable, even when you have religious reasons for what you want. This isn’t a sight-seeing trot with Brazilian meat stations at every quarter-mile marker. Restrain yourself, including your rights, for sake of the race.

Who really wants to do that, though, am I right? Isn’t it easier to open up the bag and snack on a handful of salty, petty criticisms? “That brother/sister needs to grow up already.” Or maybe someone brought in a whole box of a dozen, cream filled gossip donuts. Slander is like a tasty morsel that goes down deep (Proverbs 18:8); it does not increase love handles. Or what about cutting a corner in the race, taking advantage in a business deal because after all, it’s EDB: how Everyone Does Business. Not only does God not mind, He the sovereign God of the system, so He clearly approves.

The church-goers in Corinth must have made similar arguments, and Paul makes a case from the Old Testament scriptures that not all who run, win, and some who wander are lost. In the first 10 verses of chapter 10 Paul shows how the generation of Jews that exited Egypt failed to run well. Though they had received great blessings of deliverance from God they also turned away from God. They stumbled in idolatry, sexual immorality, impatience, and grumbling.

In verses 11-13 Paul moves from teaching by examples to teaching by exhortation. Here we learn things about the benefit of the Old Testament, about humanity, about God Himself, and about types of temptation.

The End Is Near (verse 11)

Verse 6 and verse 11 begin with the same idea: Now these things happened to them as an example. Following verse 6 Paul worked through the types of temptations and sins that caused the exodus generation to stumble in the wilderness. Now in verse 11 and following, gives the reason for the review of the examples.

Reviewing these temptation types is good for us, and God graciously recorded the stories for our benefit: they were written down for our instruction. When it comes to reading the Bible, it’s true that nothing is about us, but it is all for us in one way or another. We get instruction, which is a word (nouthesia) that is more than information, it is “counsel about avoidance or cessation of an improper course of conduct” (BAGD). In some contexts it could be reproof or rebuke. It is warning (Colossians 1:28). The types of temptation we read about admonish us to run a better course. Do we not run better because we do not read better?

We need the instruction because we are those on whom the end of the ages has come. It’s probably better to understand it as “the ends of the ages” (NASB). We (still, almost two-thousand years later) live in a crucial time of history. We run between Christ’s advents. We need to run well.

The point is: get your head on straight. Running is physical but, like all disciplines, it is even more mental. Learn from the example of those who fell before you fall.

Fear When There Is No Fear (verse 12)

Verse 12 is short, it is also the center of Paul’s concern. The examples concentrate on this application: Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

In oth[...]