The Peril of Presumption
I Corinthians 10:1-12
Introduction:
In the context Paul has been talking about our freedom in Christ. As Paul is
encouraging the Corinthians to live out the implications of the gospel in their
lives and in the church, he wants them to be truly “free.” What does that mean?
Some, it seems, were interpreting it to mean that they could live any way they
wished, that grace meant they were no longer under any constraint. They were
saved, right? They were a part of the church were they not? Have you ever had
someone, with whom you were sharing the gospel, say, “I believe in God! I am as
religious as you are!” Remember the words of Paul at Mars Hill in Acts 17:22, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are
very religious.” How much is
“religion” worth in terms of pleasing God? Here, Paul warns against the sin of
presumption. In the previous context, 9:24-27, he made it clear that he was
striving to grow and learn and to be faithful in the mission God had given Him.
As he expressed in Philippians 3 his heart was to “…press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward
call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14).
The Big Idea: Outward religion alone does not please God, but
rather He desires a heart that constantly depends on His grace and consistently
seeks His glory.
I. Outward
Religion alone is not what God desires
(1-5).
I want
you to know, brothers, 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 drank from the spiritual Rock that
followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5
Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown
in the wilderness.
As Paul begins this chapter, knowing
that he is about to bring a stern warning and call on his readers to examine
their hearts, he appeals to them as “brothers” and identifies with them on the
basis on common faith in the God of Israel. Surely the church in Corinth was a
mixed group, both Jewish converts and gentiles believers. He appeals to them as
“brothers” and refers to their “fathers.” He reminds them of the biblical revelation
that they have believed and makes it clear that all of that history ultimately
points to and finds its fulfillment in Jesus. By the way, I hope we all embrace
that perspective of the church, we are, at the deepest level, a family. Paul is
writing a rather stern letter confronting some problems in his church family in
Corinth, but he never stops loving them, seeking to encourage them. Look around
you, brothers and sisters, we’re a family. So we love one another, encourage
one another, build each other up.
“All
were baptized into Moses…” Five times in four verses Paul repeats the word “all.”
He is emphasizing that the Hebrews in the wilderness, at least outwardly, had a
common religious experience. I don’t
think the point is whether they were “immersed” or “sprinkled” though Baptist
and Presbyterian commentators have debated the point! The Exodus account makes it clear they passed
through on dry ground! Paul is using
metaphorical language, he saying that the people were identified with Moses through the Exodus and through the revelation
that God would give through him, i.e. the Law. In vv. 3 and 4a he is not
talking about the manna and water God gave the people in the wilderness, that
is only an illustration. He speaks of “spiritual
food” and “spiritual drink.” He is referring to the spiritual sustenance that
was made available through God’s revelation and presence. He is saying that all
of those people who left Egypt were part of the community, part of the people
of God.
It is kind of interesting that there
was a rabbinic tradition that developed of a rock that gave life giving water
following the people through the wilderness. It may be that Paul is reflecting an
early form of that tradition by saying that, yes, there was a “Rock” that accompanied
the people, the Rock of Ages, the pre-incarnate Christ. So we see that Paul is
looking to Israel of the Old Testament and using them as an example and an illustration
of outward identification with the people of God, sharing in and experiencing
the blessings and provisions of God. They “all”
had a common religious experience. But then Paul makes a startling point in
v.5, “Nevertheless…”, in spite of the
plentiful and abundant provision and “tasting” of the blessings of God, “with most of them God has not well pleased.”
God has a way of sometimes making
dramatic understatements! Think about the reality: of the generation that left
Egypt, all of the adults, those around 25 or older when they passed through the
sea, hundreds of thousands of men and women, all of them except Joshua and
Caleb, died in the wilderness. Even
Moses and Aaron and Miriam did not enter the land! Paul is writing to his
spiritual family in Corinth, and he is pointing to this illustration from Old
Testament history and warning them against the sin of “presumption.” He is not saying that if you are saved you
can somehow lose your salvation. That would contradict the overall teaching of
Scripture regarding the grace of God and the perseverance of the saints. He
is saying that we should not be content with going to church and identifying
outwardly with the people of God.
Jesus said “My sheep hear my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give to them eternal life,
and they shall never perish…” Hearing His voice means believing God, taking
Him at His Word. It means recognizing that the Bible is true and receiving it
in faith, which includes responding to it. He knows us (and when God is the
subject, knowing, loving, and choosing are inseparable truths), and we follow
Him. To “follow” is to be a disciple, to live like we really believe that He is
our Master and Lord.
The Jews
in the wilderness were judged, it seems to me, essentially for unbelief. They
were outwardly identified with the nation, but they didn’t believe God, they
failed to take Him at His word. Outward
religion alone does not please God, but rather He desires a heart that
constantly depends on His grace and consistently seeks His glory.
II. Outward
religion alone does not address our need and change our hearts (6-10).
6 Now these things took place as examples for us,
that we might not desire evil as they did.
7 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." 8 We must not indulge in sexual
immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single
day. 9 We must not put Christ
to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them
did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.
First, Paul
points to Israel, and essentially calls on the Corinthians to learn from the
past (or they would be in danger of repeating it’s mistakes!) (6). “These
things took place as examples for us…” That is a powerful statement
regarding God’s work through Israel and His plan for the nations. Their story
did not simple “unfold” as it did by chance, but God in His sovereignty was
thinking of subsequent generations and the lessons that people needed to learn,
positive and negative, from their example.
“That
we should not desire evil things…” The word “desire” is not common, in the
Septuagint translation of the Old Testament it appears in Numbers 11:34 to
describe the people who complained about the manna God had given and had an
“intense craving’ for meat, and God gave them quail. While the meat was still in their teeth God
struck them down with a plague. This
entire series of warnings tie to similar examples, warning the Corinthians to
avoid the sins of the Jews of the wilderness. If God judged them, it would be
presumptuous to think grace implies license to live in any way we wish!
“Do
not become idolaters as some of them were…” (7). The context is Exodus 32.
Moses had gone up the mountain, and received the Ten Commandments written on
tablets of stone by the finger of God. [Keep in mind, the first one of those
commandments said to love and worship the Lord alone. When Moses delayed in returning the people
went to Aaron and asked that he make them “a god” to go before them – Moses was
gone, they had no idea if he was ever coming back. There is something
interesting in that passage, Aaron made the golden calf, then he said “Tomorrow
will be a feast day to the Lord (Yahweh).” It was an idol made by man, yet Aaron was
calling it the Lord. It is not
enough to say we are following the God of the Bible, or even to say “I believe
in Jesus,” if we are not worshipping God as He is, as He has revealed himself
in his word, we are making an idol. If
we start to question what the Bible says, or begin to ask if God would really
say the same thing to us today, in our culture and setting, we are falling into
the pattern of the first temptation, questioning, like the serpent to Adam, “Did God really say…?”! Here, as the nation “rose up to eat and drink, and turned to play,” the Old Testament
text seems to describe a wild scene, like an out of control party, an
orgy. That leads into the next phrase…
“We
must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three
thousand fell in a single day” (8). The reference is to Numbers 25 when the sons of
Israel prostituted themselves with the daughters of Moab, and God brought
judgment against them. The connection between idolatry and sexual immorality
would have resonated with the Corinthians. Remember, they had a temple to
Aphrodite that according to one ancient source had a thousand temple
prostitutes connected with it. In this context he has been talking about
freedom, and the abuse of freedom, and he tells them to avoid the sin of the
Israelites-flee sexual immorality! The
world has its own ideas about morality, about sexuality, and what is
acceptable. “Standards” seem to be
flexible, and depend on what culture finds acceptable. Listen: There are
absolutes of right and wrong, God is our maker, and God makes the rules! He has
absolute standards. He is the God who never changes. Paul has made it clear, as
does the teaching of the Bible as a whole, that God designed sex to be
expressed in the context of a marriage between one man, and one woman. No
matter what society accepts or SCOTUS declares, God made us, and God alone makes
the rules!
Next,
Paul warns against “testing God.” “We must not put Christ to the test, as some
of them did and were destroyed by serpents…”
(9). The idea seems to be, pushing
the limits of grace… In Numbers 21 the people were questioning God’s goodness
and testing His patience with their complaints. In response to their unbelief,
God sent fiery serpents among them, so that whoever was bitten would die.
5 And 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 loathe this worthless
food." 6 Then the LORD
sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many
people of Israel died. 7 And
the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken
against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the
serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the LORD said to Moses,
"Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten,
when he sees it, shall live." 9
So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit
anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live (Num 25:5-9).
[We can’t read that without mentioning that Jesus referred
to that text in John 3:14,15 when he said that “Even as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whoever believes in Him may have eternal
life.”] The idea of “testing God” made me think of the experience of Jesus when
he was tempted by the devil for 40 days in the wilderness. We read in Luke
4:9-12,
9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the
pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw
yourself down from here, 10
for it is written, "' He will command his angels concerning you, to guard
you,' 11 and "'On their
hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a
stone.'" 12 And Jesus
answered him, "It is said, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the
test.'"
Jesus warned about “testing
God,” pushing the limits to see what He will do. That would be the sin of presumption,
and that was what the enemy was trying to cause Jesus to do. With this temptation, like the others the
devil used against Jesus, the Master used Scripture to reply, citing part of
Deuteronomy 6:16. God calls us to faith,
to believing Him, taking Him at His word.
“Nor
let us grumble…” (10). I.e., complaining about God… Perhaps the most
shocking thing about the narrative of the Exodus is how quickly it came to
this. The people complained they didn’t have food, and God sent them manna and
gave them water. Then they complained about the food! They missed the leeks and
cucumbers of Egypt and grew tired of the bread from heaven. They murmured
against Moses and Aaron, and ultimately against the Lord. How could they? We would never grumble… would
we? Grumbling is unthankfulness, a sense
of entitlement, perhaps even questioning God’s goodness. It’s thinking that focuses on “me,” what has
God done for me lately, what is in it for me, rather than focusing on God and
His amazing grace. Outward religion
alone does not please God, but rather He desires a heart that constantly
depends on His grace and consistently seeks His glory.
III. We
should learn from the example of Israel and take a hard look in the mirror (11,12).
11 Now these things happened to them as an example,
but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has
come. 12 Therefore let anyone
who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
God allowed their struggles as an
example to us - Actually the ESV implies
a two part “purpose,” first, these things happened as examples, they taught
their fellow Israelites at the time and subsequently about God’s character and
what he expects of us, warning them against presumption and complacency. And secondly, “…but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the ends of the
ages has come.” In other words, God inspired Moses to record this events
knowing that one day the church, the people of God at “the ends of the ages,” or as the writer of Hebrews says, “these last days…” Yes, we have a blessed hope that still lays
ahead, the promise of the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus
Christ. But it also true, that in this
age we are already participating in kingdom blessings, somehow, as Paul told
the Colossians, “We have been translated
out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God’s Son.” Or as he told
the Corinthians in his second letter, “If
any man be in Christ—a new creation!” (2 Cor 5:17). What a blessed privilege, the future is now! God story has reached
a climactic point, and we have been included in the cast!
Let’s look at the second phrase a bit
more: they were written down for our instruction… Remember the words at the end
of John’s Gospel, “Many other signs did
Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book,
these things were written that you might believe… that you might have life…”
They were recorded in Scripture so we could learn. We need to remember that throughout history
God has guided the revelation and the preservation of his truth in Scripture. Paul here is saying that very thing: As God
guided Moses to write down particular stories he had us in mind as well, he
knew exactly what we needed to learn about Him and about what he requires of
us. Do we value the Bible as God’s revelation? “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ…” (Rom
10:13); “…you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable,
through the living and abiding word of God (I Peter 1:23); it is
the Word of Life, the Word that abides forever, and so we should “…long
for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation…” (I
Peter 2:2).
“The
end of the ages…” is an interesting phrase here, since Paul was writing
nearly 2000 years ago. Was he mistaken? Did he somehow misunderstand the imminence of
the return of Christ? Not at all. The
point is that in Jewish thinking the arrival of the messianic age was the
beginning of the last days. Peter indicated that in his Pentecost sermon in
Acts 2 when he quoted from Joel 2 and added a phrase to the quotation: “In the last days, says the Lord, I
will our out my Spirit on all flesh…” Peter added the temporal descriptor,
indicating that from his perspective, the future age that the prophet had
predicted, the messianic age, had arrived. “This
is that” he was saying. The writer to the Hebrews began his
epistle contrasting the previous revelation given in times past through the
prophets, and the revelation “in these
last days” in the Son. When we consider God’s story as it unfolds in
Scripture, we live in a blessed position, we have the fuller revelation given
in Christ and though His apostles. We are that much closer to the “blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of
our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”!
The warning gets specific and personal in verse 12: Therefore, in light
of the history of Israel and the repeated examples of people falling into sin, if
God knew we needed this revelation to teach us about Him and about ourselves, take
heed! Many times I have heard people
express confidence that they would never be vulnerable to certain temptations,
it couldn’t happen to them! The book of
proverbs warns that “pride goes before destruction, and haughty spirit before a
fall.” Some of those same people later met me and tried to justify their sin, “You
don’t know what I’ve been through…” or worse, “I prayed about it and I think
God understands, this situation is different…” or “Don’t I have a right to be
happy?” That last one is a real killer
since we somehow seem to be implying that we know better than God where we can
find true happiness. The painful truth is, every time we resist the Spirit,
every time we willfully sin, we are guilty of excusing or rationalizing our
choice in the same way. Are you “religious?”
What is God
saying to me in this passage? Outward religion alone does not please God,
but rather He desires a heart that constantly depends on His grace and consistently
seeks His glory.
What would God have me to do in
response to this passage? Do these
warnings to the Corinthians, based on illustrations from the Old Testament, cause
you to pause and think? I believe they should evoke introspection in all of us.
Someone said “an unexamined life is not
worth living” and I believe God intends for each one of us to regularly turn
the lens of Scripture on ourselves. How much is “religion” worth? Well, we don’t want our “religion” to be merely external, going through the motions,
complacent. We had better not be dependent on our goodness, because, as Paul
said, “None is righteous, no,
not one; 11 no one
understands; no one seeks for God. 12
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good,
not even one…” (Rom 3:10-12).
Because of His amazing grace, because He first loved us, we love him in
return. The more we love Him, the more we’ll embrace the mission He has given
us, to seek His glory as we declare the riches of His grace to the world! Think about that, AMEN.
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