BIG IDEA:
INCLUSION IN SPIRITUAL PRIVILEGE NO GUARANTEE OF PARTICIPATION IN SPIRITUAL SALVATION
INTRODUCTION:
We must remember everything said earlier about Paul’s desire to persevere in his Christian life and ministry so as to be a “fellow partaker” of the gospel benefits (9:23) and not to be “disqualified” (9:27). [adokimos is the key determining word in this whole section = “rejected, worthless”] He has salvation in mind in both of those references – consistent with the Calvinistic doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Some might argue that salvation cannot be in view because that would call into question the doctrine of assurance of salvation. How can you have any confidence of your salvation if you need to wait to see if you persevere to the end? Isn’t that adding an element of works to assurance? But the Book of 1 John teaches that there are multiple tracks of assurance. Someone can have assurance on the basis of their faith as soon as they are saved. But there is also another growing track of assurance that is based on your living out a changed life by the grace of God. Assurance on that track can fluctuate some and we are exhorted to make our calling and election secure. So any objections on those grounds would constitute objections against the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints as well.
The difficulty is that there are multiple tracks of application that grow out of the one thread of interpretation. In 9:24-27 as well as 10:1-13, there are different groups of people listening to this message and needing to make different applications. There are certainly the self-deceived and false professors of Christianity who need to be challenged to move on to genuine repentance and faith so as to not miss out on the blessing of God’s rest (Hebrews 3-4). We know that no one whose life is characterized by idolatry or immorality or unbelief or rebellion can enter into the kingdom of heaven. Yet are we going to argue that all of those who died in the wilderness missed out on salvation? Certainly not! Moses was one of those who died in the wilderness. So there are also the large numbers in the audience Paul is addressing who are genuinely saved and need to be challenged to live a disciplined Christian life to the end, not to abuse their Christian freedoms and liberty in Christ, and to beware lest they fall as well. My point is that we do not want to strip away one of the main threats of the passage which is that it is possible for someone to have all types of intimate contact with spiritual privilege and the best Bible teaching and Christian fellowship and yet still miss out on salvation. We need to drive home that warning while still making the application to Christians of the need for careful and diligent pursuit of holiness.
We need more teaching on the important doctrine of the perseverance of the saints so that we don’t shy away from this truth where it is referenced in the passage. (See doctrinal statement below.) Certainly in our day with the prevalence of “easy believism” and many people who have a false sense of security in their salvation, they need to be shaken from their spiritual lethargy with these challenging words and OT examples.
Richard Hays: As we begin reading 1 Corinthians 10, it is important to recall the situation that Paul is addressing. The letter from the Corinthians has appealed for Paul’s support of an enlightened understanding that idols are meaningless. Some of the Corinthians are attending meals and festivities in the temples of pagan gods, just as they had done before becoming Christians. In their view, this is merely a normal aspect of social life in their culture. Such activities entail no spiritual danger, they argue, because they have knowledge: knowledge that there is only one God, knowledge that sets them free from the petty rules and restrictions of ordinary religious life. Perhaps they are also arguing that, having participated in the mysteries of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, they have passed into a zone of spiritual blessedness that makes them immune to any harm from associating with pagan worship. If they are sharers in the table of the Lord, receiving there the elements that Ignatius of Antioch later called “the medicine of immortality,” what possible difference can it make if they accept friendly invitations to other meals that just happen to be located in the shrine of some imaginary god? . . .
Paul’s use of Israel’s story is crucial to his case: the God with whom we have to do, he insists, is not merely some abstract divine principle that sets us free from polytheistic superstition. The God with whom we have to do is the God of Israel, a jealous God who sternly condemns idol-worship and punishes all who dare to dabble in it. The Corinthians who lightly flit about to temples, supposing themselves impervious to harm, are courting destruction.
Daniel Akin: Main Idea: Avoid sin by remembering God’s work in the past among the Hebrews and by depending on God’s faithfulness.
I. Spiritual Blessings Do Not Guarantee Us God’s Pleasure (10:1-5).
A. We see God’s guidance (10:1).
B. We see God’s deliverance (10:2).
C. We see God’s provisions (10:3-4).
D. We see God’s wrath (10:5).
II. Spiritual Blessings Do Not Insulate Us from Divine Judgment (10:6-10).
A. God punishes the sin of lust (10:6; cf. Num. 11:18-34).
B. God punishes the sin of idolatry (10:7; cf. Exod 32).
C. God punishes the sin of sexual immorality (10:8; cf. Num 25:1-9).
D. God punishes the sin of testing him (10:9; cf. Num 21:4-9).
E. God punishes the sin of grumbling (10:10; cf. Num 16:41-50).
III. Spiritual Blessings Do Not Protect Us from Personal Temptations (10:11-13).
A. Remember our susceptibility to evil (10:11-12).
B. Remember God’s way of escape (10:13).
In 1948, in a speech to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously said, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” The apostle Paul, no doubt, is in full agreement with Churchill’s warning, as 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 makes clear. Twice he tells us that events in Israel’s past serve as “examples” (10:6,11) warning us not to repeat their sinful behavior, which had devastating consequences for the Hebrew people. Paul has challenged us to discipline ourselves so that we may win imperishable crowns and not suffer disqualification (9:24-27). Unfortunately, such determination and discipline “found no place in the lives of many of the Israelites who followed Moses out of Egypt” (Vaughn and Lea, 1 Corinthians, 99). Though they made a good start, they failed to finish well. Paul wants us to learn from their tragic example so that we do not repeat their history.
Craig Blomberg: The danger of failing to exercise strict self-control in the Christian life (9:24–27) is now illustrated. First Corinthians 10:1–13 uses numerous examples of the sins of the Israelites during their wilderness wanderings to warn against Corinthian participation in idolatrous idol feasts (10:14–22). The parallels prove particularly intriguing, not least because the Israelites demanded meat from Moses (Exod. 16:3; Num. 11:4). Verses 1–5 describe four privileges the Israelites received which did not guarantee subsequent blessings: (a) guidance by God in the cloud, (b) crossing the Red Sea, (c) eating manna and quail in the desert, and (d) supernaturally provided water. Verses 7–10 recall four ways in which many of those same Israelites proved faithless and suffered for their sins: idolatry, immorality, testing the Lord, and grumbling. Verses 6 and 11 punctuate these two sections with parallel reminders that the Israelites’ experience should caution the Corinthians against behaving similarly. Verses 12–13 close off this section by balancing a summary warning (v. 12) with a promise that history need not repeat itself (v. 13).
Paul Gardner: Main Idea: The community of Israel, established by God and given gifts by God, still sinned and was judged. It thus offers a salutary example for the community of Christians at Corinth. They must watch out lest they too, thinking they stand, sin and fall. Ultimately, only dependence upon God’s faithfulness will enable them to bear up under temptation.
I. (:1-5) THESIS PROVED: GOD’S REJECTION OF THE UNBELIEVING GENERATION OF EXODUS WILDERNESS WANDERERS
Transition
“For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren”
(Rom. 1:13; 1 Cor. 12:1; 1 Thess. 4:13)
Robert Grosheide: a litotes, which always introduces an important matter.
Robert Hays: The important point in verses 1–4 is that Israel — whose legacy the Corinthians have inherited — experienced powerful spiritual signs of God’s favor and sustaining power. Paul’s summary narration highlights the fact that these signs were given to all the Israelites: the word “all” appears five times in these verses (a single sentence in the Greek). All were “baptized,” and all enjoyed the blessings of spiritual food and drink. And yet, despite these signs of grace, “God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness” (v. 5). The verb “struck down” conveys the vivid and appalling image of the bodies of the Israelites strewn across the desert sand (see NEB). With that sobering note, Paul begins to develop the hortatory application of Israel’s story to the situation of his Corinthian readers: Just because you have received spiritual blessings, he says, do not suppose that you are exempt from God’s judgment.
Paul Gardner: In these opening verses . . . Paul emphasizes the same points that the accounts of the wilderness traditions in Jewish history have emphasized. Notably, the Israelites were identified as God’s covenant people by the separation from Egypt in crossing the sea (a “baptism”). No Israelite was exempted as they “believed in God and in Moses.” As a people, all benefitted from his “spiritual” gifts of manna and water. Even so, as a people, many were judged for their sin because they desired evil. Significantly, this is the classic way these stories were used by Jewish traditions, a point missed by most commentators. Paul’s comparison then builds on these points, as will be seen in the next few verses. All Christians are identified as covenant people in baptism as they believe in God and in Christ. As his people, all benefit from his spiritual gifts. None is exempt. In the same way, Christians who desire evil will face judgment (v. 6). It is the parallel with “desiring evil” that Paul will first take time to elaborate upon in vv. 6–12.
A. Tremendous Inclusion in Spiritual Privileges
- (:1) Privilege of Divine Guidance and Deliverance
a. Divine Guidance
“that our fathers were all under the cloud”
David Guzik: The cloud of Shekinah glory overshadowed Israel throughout their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. During the day, the cloud sheltered them from the brutal desert sun, and during the night, it burned as a pillar of fire. It was a constant, ready reminder of God’s glory and presence (Exodus 13:21-22).
b. Divine Deliverance – Tremendous miracles experienced
“and all passed through the sea”
Robert Grosheide: All Israelites enjoyed that favor of God [being led by the pillar]. Even so when they passed through the Red Sea there was no distinction between believers and unbelievers: the entire nation safely reached the other shore.
Mark Taylor: The cloud and the sea were both powerful reminders of Israel’s deliverance through Moses, Yahweh’s appointed deliverer. In the exodus narrative the cloud was more than a mere symbol of Yahweh’s continual presence and leadership; Yahweh himself went before his people “in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way” (Exod 13:21–22). At the Red Sea the cloud moved around behind Israel in order to separate them from the Egyptians (Exod 14:19–20). Other passages parallel Paul’s description of Israel as “under the cloud” (see Exod 14:24; Num 14:14; Ps 105:39).
- (:2) Privilege of Union with Moses
“and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea”
Significance of “baptism” – immersed, identification, union – symbolic
To bring in close relationship with Moses; his ministry and leadership
Anthony Thiselton: All shared in the corporate solidarity of the redeemed community led by Moses. Baptized into Moses indicates their being initiated into a new status of loyalty to his leadership as those who share in the blessings and also the renunciations of the group as a whole.
David Prior: To be baptized into Moses meant that they were voluntarily and unconditionally placing themselves under the leadership of Moses. Paul’s very striking, but unusual, language in this passage emphasizes the parallels between the privileges of God’s people under Moses and the privileges of God’s people under Jesus. In both historical epochs there were two events which were pregnant with meaning:
- being baptized to denote loyalty to God’s appointed leader; and
- being provided with ‘supernatural’ food and drink on a regular basis.
Paul is clearly comparing the presumptuous attitude of God’s people under Moses to the arrogance of certain Corinthian Christians in his own day. They too had been through the waters of baptism, with all the deep significance this carried for allegiance to Jesus as Lord (6:11). They too were involved regularly in common meals, during which they were both physically and spiritually nourished. These Christians, like God’s people under Moses, were on the receiving end of great blessings; but to receive blessing is by no means the same as to enter into the privilege and responsibilities of blessing. They had become so absorbed with rights that they were now presuming on the efficacy of their relationship with the Lord.
- (:3-4a) Privilege of Spiritual Nourishment – spiritual source – Supernatural Provision
a. (:3) Spiritual Food
“and all ate the same spiritual food”
b. (:4a) Spiritual Drink
“and all drank the same spiritual drink”
- (:4b) Spiritual Types Fulfilled in Christ
“for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them;
and the rock was Christ.”
Here Paul makes the connection between the OT experiences and the spiritual reality involved and the NT experience of the Corinthian believers as the OT types are fulfilled in Christ.
Gil Rugh: Ex. 17 and Num 20 – two instances – at the beginning of their journey in the wilderness and at the end; perhaps the rock was an ongoing source of water.
David Guzik: Paul is building on a Rabbinical tradition which said Israel was supplied with water by the same rock all through the wilderness, a rock which followed them.
Charles Hodge: This view of the passage makes the apostle responsible for a Jewish fable, and is inconsistent with his divine authority. . . It is not necessary, however, to assume that either the rock or the water out of the rock followed them. The rock that followed them was Christ. The Logos, the manifested Jehovah, who attended the Israelites in their journey, was the Son of God who assumed our nature, and was the Christ.
Paul Gardner: Paul saw Christ as the fulfillment of God’s faithfulness and the embodiment of his grace (1:4). “In Christ Jesus” the Corinthians received every spiritual gift (1:4–7). In line with Old Testament teaching, Paul regarded the manna and water as gifts from the faithful God who was called “Rock.” But Paul had a new “spiritual” understanding of this. Christ was the source of the water, water that was “spiritual” in that it pointed back to Christ. To ask questions about the manner in which this was true misses Paul’s point and is a question perhaps more prompted by anachronistic sacramental discussions than by v. 4. Paul was direct. The rock was Christ. Detailed analysis of how Christ was there is not addressed. For Paul, the fact is that he was, and that is God’s revelation to Paul. It is thus meaningless to ask whether the Israelites should have seen Christ in the wilderness, for that understanding is precisely what is new to Paul. It is not that “Paul’s readers should see the rock then as an equivalent to Christ now” but rather that they should look at Scripture and see a directly parallel example to their own situation, for the covenant Lord is with his people now as he was with Israel. . .
This is Paul’s concern for the Corinthians. He sees parallels and patterns at multiple levels between the covenant community of the wilderness generation and that in his day in Corinth. Both communities have been mightily blessed by God, who has poured out his gifts on both. The Corinthians lacked no grace-gift and had been enriched “in all speech and all knowledge” (1 Cor 1:5). But God killed many of the Israelites in judgment. Now Paul will write of the reasons why they were judged and show the parallels yet again, for the Corinthians face the very same dangers. Ellis rightly says that Paul, having presented God’s grace in 10:1–4, moves in the verses that follow to “judgment typology.”
David Garland: The idea of the rock evokes a number of OT images.
- First, “Rock” is a title used for God in the Song of Moses (Deut. 32:4, 15, 18, 30, 31), a passage that forms the foundation for Paul’s arguments against the Corinthians’ participation in idolatry. The figures of “the Rock of salvation,” “the Rock that begot you,” “our Rock,” and “my rock and my redeemer” (Ps. 19:14) all easily transfer to Christ. Israel’s idolatry also spurned the Rock that had delivered and sustained them throughout their wilderness trek (Deut. 32:15). These “rock” texts may nudge the reader to remember Israel’s deplorable idolatry and rejection of God, who emancipated and cared for them, and Paul would have regarded them as particularly applicable to the Corinthian situation, where they have been dallying with idols.
- Second, the metaphor of the Rock emphasizes God’s stability and permanence (Craigie 1976: 378) and underscores God’s covenant faithfulness in choosing a covenant people (P. Gardner 1994: 125, 147). The image accentuates God’s unchanging nature in contrast to the erratic, impulsive, and unreliable nature of God’s covenantal people (Oropeza 1998: 62).
- Third, the image of rock in the Scriptures, recalling the miraculous provision of water (Deut. 8:15; Neh. 9:15; Job 29:6; Ps. 81:16; 105:41; Isa. 48:21) or as an epithet for God (Ps. 78:35; 89:26; 92:15; 94:22; 95:1; Isa. 30:29; 44:8; Hab. 1:12), was associated with God’s saving work. It harks back to God’s redemptive achievement for the people of the covenant.
B. Shocking Rejection of Participation in Spiritual Blessing
- Extent of the Failure
“Nevertheless, with most of them”
Classic understatement – all but 2 men! Vs. millions
- Evaluation of Their Spiritual Condition
“God was not well-pleased”
Gil Rugh: God’s sovereign pleasure; context of God’s sovereign work of divine election; Look at word usage in NT:
Ephes. 1:5,9 “kind intention” – according to what pleased His will
Phil. 2:12b “for His good pleasure” – according to what pleases Him
Heb. 10:36-39 “you have need of endurance” – If you don’t do the will of God you won’t receive what is promised; “and if he shrinks back my soul has no pleasure in him”
Robert Gundry: Christians who do misbehave in such ways won’t enter the Promised Land of eternal life, but “will pay a penalty, [namely,] eternal destruction away from the Lord’s face” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
- Execution of Severe Judgment
“for they were laid low in the wilderness”
“Spread out; scattered”
Charles Hodge: Would God permit those to perish for whom he had wrought so signal a deliverance, and for whose sake he sacrificed the hosts of Egypt? Yet their carcasses were strewed in the wilderness. It is not enough, therefore, to be recipients of extraordinary favours; it is not enough to begin well. It is only by constant self-denial and vigilance, that the promised reward can be obtained. This is the lesson the apostle intends to inculcate.
David Prior: Their Punishment (10:5-10)
This can be summarized in three dramatic and tragic phrases: they were struck down (5); they fell (8); they were destroyed by the destroyer (9–10). The last example is a similar situation to that described in 5:5 (cf. Num. 16:41–49). Destruction of the flesh, in this case of thousands, did not necessarily involve eternal destruction as well. These people did not see the Promised Land, but nothing is said of their eternal destiny. Paul wants these beloved, but boastful, brethren to be the very best that they can be for the Lord.
II. (:6) THESIS APPLIED BY WAY OF WARNING: GUARD AGAINST THE LUSTS OF THE FLESH = MAJOR PITFALL
A. Value of OT Warning Examples
“Now these things happened as examples for us”
David Garland: In ethical discussion, “a typos is a model, hardly different from an example” (Spicq, TLNT 3:387). It reveals a pattern or correspondence, observed after the fact, that contains a teaching (cf. Rom. 6:17). The word clearly means “example” in Phil. 3:17; 1 Thess. 1:7; 2 Thess. 3:9; 1 Tim. 4:12; Titus 2:7. The phrase “so that we might not be” confirms that they were not types but “examples for guidance” (Robertson and Plummer 1914: 202–3; R. Collins 1999: 370; contra Goppelt 1982: 146; TDNT 8:251–52). Paul’s high view of the church living under the new covenant in the last days emerges here. These things occurred so that they might be warning examples for his readers.
B. Purpose of OT Warning Examples – Guard Against the Lusts of the Flesh
“so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.”
David Garland: Paul connects the selfish craving of the wilderness rabble to the Corinthian desire to eat (meat?) in idol temples.
III. (:7-10) THESIS ILLUSTRATED FURTHER: FOUR OT EXAMPLES OF
MORAL FAILURE AND DEVASTATING JUDGMENT
(UNGODLY BEHAVIOR ON THE PART OF THE SPIRITUALLY PRIVILEGED . . . FOLLOWED BY DIVINE JUDGMENT)
(Examine how Unbelief lies at the core of each of these manifestations of Rebellion)
Anthony Thiselton: Four Instances of Destructive “Craving” (10:7-13)
A. (:7) Guard Against Idolatry (Ex. 32:1-6)
“Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written,
‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.’”
Steven Cole: The verb translated play suggests sex-play in Hebrew . . . and therefore we are probably to understand drunken orgies.” (commentary on Exodus)
J. Scott Lindsay: Exodus 32 talks about this incident. And it is interesting that of all the things that Paul might have quoted from Ex 32, the one thing he chooses to quote is verse 6, “And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play”. Now why quote this? Because of the parallels with the Corinthian situation. The people of Israel were engaging in blatant idolatry, eating and drinking in the presence of a golden calf – an idol – and doing other things as well. God’s anger and judgment against them on that occasion were great. And what were the Corinthians doing? They were insisting on their “right” and freedom to eat and drink food, in an idol temple.
Richard Hays: There are two ways of understanding the function of the first part of the quotation (“the people sat down to eat and drink”) within Paul’s argument. The eating and drinking could refer to the Israelites’ eating and drinking the spiritual food and drink provided by God (vv. 1–4). In that case, the point of verse 7 would be to emphasize their appalling ingratitude: “Even though they ate and drank the spiritual nourishment that God provided, nonetheless they rose up to commit idolatry.” The advantage of this interpretation is that it permits us to see the whole of verses 1–12 as structured upon this single quotation. Alternatively, the eating and drinking of verse 7 could refer not to their consumption of God-given food and drink but to their feasting in the presence of the idol. In that case, the point of verse 7 would be to emphasize that participation in the idol feast leads on to other immoral behavior. “They ate and drank before the golden calf and rose up to commit other offenses against God.” There are two major advantages of this second interpretation: it is in keeping with the contextual meaning of the sentence in Exodus 32 (unlike the first interpretation), and it relates directly to the problem that Paul is addressing in 1 Corinthians 10:1–22 — eating sacrificed meat in a pagan temple. All things considered, the second reading is to be preferred. By quoting Exodus 32:6, Paul deftly identifies the “eating” of the temple food with the act of idolatry that brought God’s wrath upon Israel.
B. (:8) Guard Against Immorality (Num. 25 or Ex. 32?)
“Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did,
and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.”
Possible answers to apparent discrepancy in numbers here with 24,000 of Numbers 25:9: (“those who died by the plague were 24,000”)
Charles Hodge: Moses and Paul were accustomed, like most other men, to use round numbers; and they used them when under the influence of inspiration just as they used other familiar forms of statement. Neither intended to speak with numerical exactness, which the occasion did not require. What a wonderful book is the Bible, written at intervals during a period of fifteen hundred years, when such apparitions of inaccuracy as this must be seized upon to impeach its infallibility!
John MacArthur: Having just quoted from Ex 32 in vs. 7, this very likely also refers to the incident in Ex 32, not to the incident at Shittim in Nu 25. Apparently 3,000 were killed by the Levites (Ex 32:28) and 20,000 died in the plague (Ex 32:35).
C. (:9) Guard Against Insurrection (Presumption – Testing God — Num. 21:5-6)
“Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did,
and were destroyed by the serpents.”
Anthony Thiselton: The common factor between Israel in Exodus and in Numbers and “the strong” in Corinth appears to be the presumptuous attitude of provoking God to the very limit in the confident, complacent assumption that God will protect his people and not let them go. Their overconfident attempt to play off God’s protective love against their willful craving failed to work. They found destruction by the snakes (v. 9b).
Richard Hays: The third exhortation (v. 9) alludes to the story of Num. 21:4–9. Once again, food is the issue, though here there is no direct reference to idolatry. The sin seems to be primarily the sin of complaining against God: “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 detest this miserable food’ ” (Num. 21:5). This time the punishment takes the form of poisonous serpents. Psalm 78:18 may provide a link to Paul’s interpretation of the story, because it speaks of the people putting God to the test by their desire for food: “They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved.” But why does Paul say, “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did” (1 Cor. 10:9, NRSV)? (The NIV, following a different Greek text, reads “test the Lord”; however, the reading adopted by the NRSV is clearly the more difficult and therefore more likely to be original.) The likeliest explanation for this odd turn of expression is that Paul is thinking primarily of the action of the Corinthians in the present time: they are putting Christ to the test by attending pagan temples and participating in the idol meals. That is what Paul insists must not be done. The formula, “as some of them did,” already established in verses 7 and 8, is repeated for the sake of rhetorical parallelism, even though the Israelites in the wilderness were not, strictly speaking, putting Christ to the test (but cf. 10:4).
Paul Gardner: “Testing” God describes the sin of not trusting him for his provision or not trusting in his promises. Yet it is more than this. The Israelites did not trust the Lord to provide, but even then, when he did provide, they held his provision in contempt: “We detest this miserable food” (Num 21:5). It is this contempt for the Lord and his gifts and provision for the community that draws down immediate judgment in the form of the snakes (v. 6). Once again, the result is that many died.
David Garland: With the dreaded image of vipers striking unsuspecting victims and causing painful deaths, Paul deliberately heightens the horror of the punishment that will smite those who affront God.
D. (:10) Guard Against Ingratitude (Discontent — Num. 16:3-41)
“Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.”
Look at how this common sin is thrown in here at the same level of importance with the others. Grumbling, murmuring, discontent are huge problems. Don’t minimize these. It is an attack of unbelief against the Goodness and Wisdom of God.
Charles Hodge: To murmur is to complain in a rebellious spirit.
Anthony Thiselton: The Greek word and the context in Exodus and Numbers suggest a constant grumbling, griping, groaning, murmuring, whispering, and complaining that expresses discontent with what God had provided. Thus this was in part a sin of ingratitude, in part a disloyal sowing of seeds of discontentment among others. In 1 Corinthians 8–10 it pinpoints, first, an ungrateful discontent with the generosity of God’s grace; and, second, a behind-the-back unsettling of those who would otherwise have accepted what God’s grace has assigned. In all probability the insecure in the church in Corinth felt, with good reason, that some of the “strong” whispered about their confusions and doubts behind their hands.
Richard Hays: Paul’s heaping up of examples from the Pentateuchal narratives has demonstrated emphatically that God is not to be trifled with. Those who defy God’s authority by flirting with idolatry and “craving” idol-tinged food will suffer catastrophic consequences.
David Garland: Paul perhaps singles out “grumbling” because the Corinthians have been guilty of murmuring against him (so Robertson and Plummer 1914: 206; Moffatt 1938: 132; Oster 1995: 235), particularly because of his hard-line stance against their participation in idol feasts (Fee 1987: 457). As Moses protested the peoples’ idolatry, so Paul has protested the Corinthians’ participation in sacrificial meals. As the people of Israel grumbled against the leader appointed by God, so also Paul insinuates that the Corinthians are no less guilty of rebelliously grumbling against him and refusing to listen to his counsel.
IV. (:11-13) THESIS APPLIED BY WAY OF ENCOURAGEMENT: WATCH OUT! BUT WITH AN ATTITUDE OF HOPE NOT DISCOURAGEMENT . . .
NO EXCEPTIONS . . . NO EXCUSES
A. (:11) Relevance of These OT Examples
- History Has a Purpose for Us
“Now these things happened to them as an example”
- Scripture Provides Authoritative Instruction for Us
“and they were written for our instruction”
- Time Is Running Out for Us
“upon whom the ends of the ages have come”
Anthony Thiselton: Paul’s appeal to the “eschatological” situation of Christians clinches this. Christians are those upon whom the ends of the ages have come. The traditional understanding of this is that Christians live “in the last days.” But Paul is more precise than this. He refers to “the two ages” of both Jewish apocalyptic and Pauline thought. Christians stand on the borderline between the continuing “age” of the present world order and the new age of the last days and new creation. These “intersect” where “the close of the old coincides with the beginning of the new” (Weiss, Der erste Korintherbrief, p. 254).
The practical point, therefore, is twofold:
(1) because Christians still live within the continuing world order, they must guard against presumption and heed moral exhortation; but
(2) because they belong to the new age, they have access to a definitive disclosure of God’s will and access to divine grace in Christ.
Their relation to the old underlines the need to take warnings seriously (v. 11b); their relation to the new addresses doubt and anxiety on the journey of pilgrimage, self-discipline, and growth.
This double perspective paves the way for the two complementary halves of vv. 12-13.
(1) To the complacent, overconfident, and cocksure, Paul gives the warning, Whoever thinks that he or she is standing fast, watch out lest you fall (v. 12a). Christians are still on the journey of the pilgrim where temptation and danger still lurk.
(2) On the other hand, whatever temptations come, these are no more than what arise as part and parcel of being human, and God, who is faithful, will not allow you to be tempted beyond your powers (vv. 12b-13a). Furthermore, since God’s purpose in such experience is for Christians to attain maturity by bearing up under temptation rather than suffering destruction, God will make an exit path alongside the temptation (v. 13).
Again, as Moltmann urges in Theology of Hope (p. 21), the two “sins” to resist are those of presumption and despair. Each respectively relates to the problems of the “strong” and the “weak” in Corinth.
(1) No doubt some appealed to claims that they suffered “special” temptations. Paul replies that their experience is simply part of being human, alongside all misplaced desires, misdirected passions, self-deceptions, and illusions.
(2) Paul also insists that we can never say, “There is no way out.” God would not allow a temptation that is in principle irresistible, without their being some way of skirting around it or escaping it.
Craig Blomberg: Verse 11 repeats the warning of verse 6, all the more crucial since Christians live in the climactic era of human history for which all previous ages were preparing.
Verse 12 summarizes the significance of these warnings for the Corinthians—even those who think they stand securely should take care, like Paul in 9:27, lest they fall and be disqualified. After all, the pagan temple feasts in Corinth involved similar idolatry, sexual sin, and trying God’s patience. And the Corinthian quarrels could certainly qualify as grumbling against one another. Nevertheless, verses 1–12 are all balanced by the marvelous promise of verse 13. The circumstances that tempt us to sin are never qualitatively different from those which God’s people of every era have experienced, and we never have to give in to them. There is always an escape-hatch, which is defined as a way to persevere without sinning in whatever difficult situation we find ourselves.
David Garland: The earlier generations lived at the beginning, when God’s promises were being announced. Christians stand at a point when God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ and the veil has been lifted (2 Cor. 3:14–18). Hidden realities have been revealed (1 Cor. 2:9–12, 16) — for example, that Christ was the prime mover in these events (10:4). Christians need to recognize how these realities apply to the present.
B. (:12) Central Application – Warning Against Spiritual Overconfidence – Need for Careful, Diligent Pursuit of Holiness
“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”
- Primary Application to the Unsaved
- Secondary Application to the Saved
Paul Gardner: This is the Corinthian problem. Some feel secure and think they “stand” safely in the covenant community without fear of judgment. They are arrogant in that they do indeed “think they stand.” Paul insists with an imperative (βλεπέτω) that they must “watch out!” or “take heed” lest they fall. The danger is real and deeply disturbing for Paul, as he has made clear. . .
There is surely considerable irony here in that the elitists, who thought they stood but were causing people to “stumble” (8:8, 11), were in fact themselves in danger of “falling.” Paul’s comment, “anyone who thinks he stands” (ὁ δοκῶν ἑστάναι) provides another link back to 8:2, “if anyone thinks he knows” (εἴ τις δοκεῖ ἐγνωκέναι). This person in 8:2 is the arrogant “knower” who is reminded by Paul that he does not yet know as he ought. The person in 10:12 is surely the same: those who think they stand must be reminded that they are in danger of falling.
C. (:13) Faithfulness of God Provides for the Perseverance of the Saints
- No Unique Temptation that God Cannot Defeat = Provides Hope
“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man”
- Character of God Provides Hope
“God is Faithful”
- Limitation of Man No Excuse
“who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able”
- Endurance is Possible and Sovereignly Enabled
“but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also,
so that you will be able to endure it.”
James Boyer: If Christians once learn the meaning of I Corinthians 10:13 they never again will say, “I couldn’t help it.”
David Prior: The way out (ekbasis) is almost exactly the same word as ‘exodus’, and Luke (Luke 9:31) describes the redemptive death of Jesus as the ‘exodus’ he will achieve at Jerusalem. God himself provides the oppressed and sorely tried with his exodus. He is not vindictive. He is not waiting to hit the presumptuous with punishment. Nor are we on our own; we are in this situation along with countless others, for whom the time of testing is equally, if not more, nerve-racking. It is the certain consummation of an exodus already achieved that enables us to endure: we see the light at the end of the tunnel and we press on.
David Garland: This verse serves as both warning and encouragement (P. Gardner 1994: 155), but the emphasis lies on comfort (Robertson and Plummer 1914: 208–9; Willis 1985b: 157). After the gloomy, threatening example of Israel, Paul urges perseverance with a note of assurance. When one puts God to the test, it will inevitably result in catastrophic judgment, as it did for Israel. But when one is tested and places one’s trust in God, God provides a way through the testing. Calvin (1960: 214) writes, “Therefore, once He has taken you under his own faithfulness . . . , you have no need to be afraid, so long as you depend wholly on Him.” This assurance strengthens the Christian to endure unto the end (cf. Mark 13:13).
Paul Gardner: The function of v. 13 is the same as the function of the stress on God’s covenant faithfulness in those traditions. The logic goes like this: God “tested” (πειράζω) his people so that they would learn to rely on him (cf. Deut 8:2). When they failed this test, they were guilty of “tempting” (ἐκπειράζω) or “proving” God (Ps 78:18 [77:18 LXX]; cf. 1 Cor 10:9). Thus, the whole situation was hopeless if God himself, who had originally chosen them, did not remain faithful to them. This was what Paul had acknowledged in 1:8–9, but it needed repeating if the warnings against arrogance and false security from the past were to be understood.
At first glance this verse seems out of place. Verse 14 could follow reasonably easily from v. 12. Godet commented, “This verse is undoubtedly one of the most difficult of the whole Epistle, at least as to the logical connection joining it to what precedes and to what follows.” However, the problem is greatly diminished when it is remembered that the faithfulness of God, despite the people’s rebellion, is common to almost all the accounts of the wilderness events. Earlier it was suggested that the idea of Christ as the “rock” (10:4) was drawn from the epithet “Rock” that was applied to God, especially in Deuteronomy 32. It served clearly as a reference to the covenant Lord’s faithfulness in providing for his people in the wilderness. In fact, the description of God as “the faithful God” appears only twice in the LXX. In Deuteronomy 7:9 God is called “a faithful God” (θεὸς πιστός), “who keeps covenant and steadfast love.” Then in Deuteronomy 32:4 we read, “God [“the Rock” in Hebrew], his work is true, and all his ways are justice, a faithful God [θεὸς πιστός], and without unrighteousness, just and right is the Lord.” The covenant ideas abound here. Even as the Israelites are warned of God’s judgment, God’s nature to be faithful to and protective of his people is emphasized. Thus, the exodus, when God brought them out of Egypt and brought his people through “testing,” all the while remaining faithful to them, is stressed.
The temptation Paul has in mind may be the general sin of “desiring evil” (v. 6) or the more specific sin of idolatry (v. 7). This would then lead easily into v. 14: “Flee from idolatry.” However, though the sin of idolatry is indeed addressed next, it seems more likely that in this sweeping text Paul is thinking generally of the sin of self-pride seen in those who believed they “stood” when they did not. For his covenant people, however, God faithfully provides the “way out” (ἔκβασις) of this sin. God’s kind faithfulness to his people will enable them “to bear up under” (ὑπενεγκεῖν) the temptation; that is, it will prevent them from “falling.” The special faithfulness of God is seen in the way God providentially oversees the life of his people so that they will not be tempted “above what they are able” (ὑπὲρ ὃ δύνασθε). In other words, the sin of which Paul speaks is not inevitable. Paul is not describing a counsel of despair and hopelessness. Rather, as they return to the Lord, he not only forgives but also enables by his Spirit the life of holiness to which he calls them (cf. Rom 8:4, 13; 1 Cor 6:19; Gal 5:16, 25; cf. 2 Pet 1:3).
Gordon Fee: The concluding affirmation of this paragraph helps to put things into perspective. The warning, based on the tragic examples of Israel, is straightforward and powerful. Some sins are so incompatible with life in Christ that sure judgment, meaning loss of salvation, is the inevitable result of persistence in them. These are not matters of being “taken in,” as it were, by temptation, thus falling into sin. These are deliberate acts, predicated on a false security, that put God to the test, as though daring God to judge one who has been “baptized” into Christ. Such heady disobedience, Paul assures us, is headed for destruction. But on the other side is the faithful God, ready to aid those enduring trial, assuring them that there is a way out, an end to it. And in the meantime God is there to apportion the necessary ability to endure, appropriate to the trial, to which our appropriate response is, “thanks be to God!”