1 Corinthians 10:14-22

1 Corinthians 10:14-22

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.  As I say to the wise: judge yourselves what I say.  The cup of blessing that we bless – is it not fellowship of the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break – is it not fellowship of the body of Christ?  Because there is one bread, the many are in the body – for all partake in the one bread.  Consider Israel according to the flesh.  Are not the ones who eat the sacrifice in fellowship of the altar?  Therefore what do I imply?  That food sacrificed to idols is anything or that an idol is anything?  Rather that the sacrifices are sacrificed to demons and not to God.  I do not want you all to become in fellowship of the demons.  You all are not powerful enough to drink a cup of the Lord and a cup of demons.  You are not powerful enough to belong to a table of the Lord and a table of demons.  Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?  Are we stronger than He is?

Thoughts for Today

First Thought

Paul begins and ends this section with the same analogy: the table of the Lord.  The cup and the bread in which we partake is the cup of the Lord.  By participating in communion as Christ commands us to do, we are claiming to belong to His table.  So we cannot willingly also claim to belong to another table.  Paul is saying what Jesus says in Matthew 6:24.  A person cannot serve two masters.  Either you belong to the Lord or you belong somewhere else.

Where do you belong?  Are you the Lord’s?  How do you know?

Second Thought:

Paul makes a very neat point here.  Because we all claim to belong to the table of Christ, we are all a part of the same body.  We claim the same bread: the Lord’s bread.  Because we all claim to belong to the same table, we also claim to belong to the same body: Christ’s body, which we also call Christ’s church.  We are a part of His body.  We are a part of His church.  We are His.  But that’s the proper perspective.  We join Him; He doesn’t save us so that our whims can be served.

Do you think of yourself joining Christ’s body?  How is submission naturally tied to this concept?

Third Thought:

We should be a little careful here with Paul’s teaching about demons in this section.  It’s absolutely spot on.  We do not want to be associated with demons.  We do not want to willingly invite demonic power into our midst.  We do not want to be in fellowship with demons!  However, if we make too big a deal out of this passage we will not participate in anything because we will be afraid of sinning!  After all, what can we do in the world that doesn’t run the risk of Satan being able to corrupt?  Paul will go into greater detail on this in the section for tomorrow.  For today, let’s leave it at this.  We do not want to willingly welcome the influence of Satan into our lives.  But we cannot be afraid of the possibility of encountering sin in the world, either.  God is stronger than sin!

Where are you likely to encounter sinful influences that you cannot resist?  What does this tell you?  Where are you likely to encounter sinfulness that you can resist and possibly speak truth into?  What might this tell you?

Passage for Tomorrow: 1 Corinthians 10:23-33