I want to spend some time looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The reason for this study is in response to my observation of how too many Christians spend too much time pointing too many fingers at the world in which they live. The world is acting just as it is supposed to. The question I want to ask is, “Are you, the Christian, acting as you are supposed to?"

A friend of mine recently said, “I’ll clean up my side of the street before I worry about yours.” Jesus said it like this, “Why do yo see the speck in you brother’s eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is a beam in your own?”

Much of the judgement found in the Bible is not focused on the world but rather on the “follower” of God who lives outside of God’s standards. I was recently reminded of this as I was reading 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

This section of Paul’s letter begins like this, “For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters…” Another way to read this is “For I do not want you to be unaware, my fellow Christians…” (1 Cor 10:1 NET). Paul is clearly speaking to the follower of Jesus. Notice his main point in this section. It is found in verses 1-5.

"For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were all drinking from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 5 But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were cut down in the wilderness.” 1 Corinthians 10:1-5

Quick question. In this passage, who is God not pleased with?

The world?
Nope.
God was not pleased with his people, the Israelites. To explain his point, Paul offers four examples of God’s judgement towards his very people, the Israelites. (We will look at these in tomorrow’s blog)

Before we jump right into Paul’s four examples, I want to direct you to what Paul says in the end of chapter 9. You will probably recognize it. It is a very famous passage.

"Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air. Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-26

Paul is speaking about living a life of purpose. We, the followers of Jesus, have to stop swinging at the wind. We must learn to live on purpose. One way we do this is by understanding that our relationship with Jesus is very personal. I believe that before God wants to use you to do something big, He first wants to do something big in you. However, this is impossible to accomplish if your focus is on what other people should be doing. Stop focusing on them and focus on you…specifically what God is trying to communicate to you.

When you read Paul’s letter without chapters and verses (like he originally wrote it) you can get a little more of his thought process.

"Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air. Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified. For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were all drinking from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were cut down in the wilderness.”

All of God’s people were running the race.
But something was wrong.
Somehow they begin to swing at the wind.
They got distracted.
Something was taking place that was causing many of them to be “cut down in the wilderness.”
Tomorrow I will introduce you to these four mis-steps. Until then, live on purpose.

Blessings,
Pastor Mat