Trinity 9
1
Cor 10:6-13
8/18/19
Do we really believe that temptations
to sin are a threat to our life in the faith?
It’s a question that our text raises because apparently, there were some
Corinthians who didn’t. Corinth was definitely the “problem child” among the
congregations that Paul had founded in his work of evangelization. In both letters that we have from Paul to
Corinth, we see him dealing with a whole series of issues where Corinth was
having problems or causing problems.
Actually, in this particular portion
of the letter, the problem was that the Corinthians didn’t see any problem. All
Christians in the first century lived in a world that was a sea of paganism. The
religious practices of the false gods were woven into the culture, and so
Christians came up against challenges in areas of life that would never occur
to us.
So for example, if you want to get
meat you go to the grocery store. There
you have the pick of anything you want – beef, pork, lamb, chicken – in any cut
or form you want. It was not so in the
ancient world. There, meat formed a
relatively small part of the diet. And in a city like Corinth this meat came
from basically one source: the sacrifices that took place at pagan temples.
Once an animal was sacrificed, the
meat could end up in several places.
First of all, it was eaten at the dining area that was often part of a
temple complex. These dining areas
weren’t specifically settings of worship.
Instead they were places where people met to eat together and to hold
celebrations. But of course, none of
this changed the fact that the meat had been sacrificed to a pagan god, and was
being eaten on the grounds of a pagan temple.
The meat that wasn’t consumed on the
temple grounds was sold to vendors, who then sold it throughout the city. This meant that if you went out to buy meat
in Corinth, it was basically certain that its source was a pagan sacrifice.
These facts raised all kinds of
questions for the new Christians in Corinth.
And in chapters eight through ten Paul deals with several different
aspects. Earlier, Paul has addressed the
fact that Christians who are strong in the knowledge that there is only one
true God, and that the pagan gods are nothing, need to be concerned about
fellow Christians who are still struggling with this.
For some of them, seeing another
Christian eating in one of these temple dining rooms, could lead them on a
course that resulted in the loss of faith.
Paul says in chapter eight, “For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an
idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to
eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person
is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.” Paul emphasizes that in a situation like this
it is necessary to seek the good of the other person, even if it means giving
up one’s own rights. After all, this is what Jesus Christ has done for us. So
Paul can say, “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never
eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.”
But
there was a deeper problem present at Corinth.
Some of the Corinthians had the notion that because of the salvation
that had received in Christ, they were protected from any spiritual dangers.
They had arrived. That had it made. After all, they were baptized into Christ
and were receiving the true body and blood of the risen Lord in the Sacrament.
But
on this, they were completely wrong.
Just before our text Paul has described how Israel had experienced God’s
miraculous saving action through water as the people passed through the Red
Sea. God had worked miracles by
providing food and drink. The apostle says,
“For I want you to know, brothers, 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
drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”
Israel
had received these saving gifts – these types that pointed forward to Holy
Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar.
But this had not prevented the consequences of their willful sin. And so Paul says in the verse just before our
text, “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were
overthrown in the wilderness.”
In
our text, Paul goes on to say that these events in Israel’s past were not just
dusty, ancient history. Instead he asserts, “Now these things took place as
examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.” The apostle says that these experiences of
Israel are examples – they provide a paradigm of what happens when people
engage in a pattern of sin.
And
so Paul takes up the incident of the golden calf at Mt Sinai as he writes, “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.” He points to other
examples of Israel’s sin as he adds, “We must not indulge in sexual
immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a
single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did
and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did
and were destroyed by the Destroyer.”
After
listing these sins from Israel’s past, Paul makes the dramatic statement: “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.” The apostle tells us that these events from
Israel’s history were written down in Scripture for our instruction. They are there to teach us about the threat of
temptation to sin.
So,
do we believe Paul? We are indeed blessed
to receive the pure Gospel- the assurance of forgiveness by grace through faith
on account of Christ. But honestly, sometimes don’t we let a little of the
Corinthian attitude into our lives as Christians? Aren’t we tempted to think that because we
are forgiven Christians, the struggle against sin isn’t really that big a deal?
After all, Jesus has us covered. So if
we sin, we sin.
Paul
says in our text that Jesus does indeed have us covered. He describes us in our text as those “on whom
the end of the ages has come.” For Paul,
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has marked the beginning of the Last
Days. He says in chapter fifteen: “For
as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of
the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made
alive. But each in his own order: Christ
the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”
By
his death on the cross, Christ has redeemed you from sin. He has freed you and
won forgiveness. And in his resurrection,
the Last Day has begun. The wages of sin is death, but in Christ death has been
defeated for us. This salvation is
present for us now. Through baptism you
have received it all. Earlier in chapter six Paul refers to the sins of their
past and then adds, “And such were some of you. But you were
washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Yet
this doesn’t mean that now sin is no big deal.
In fact, Paul says it is quite the opposite. You have received regeneration through the
work of Spirit. You are new creation in
Christ. You live as one who is in
Christ. And therefore you now recognize the temptation to sin
as the threat that it is. The Spirit has taught you through the examples of
Israel as he has recorded them for us in Scripture.
Paul
draws a conclusion from what he has been saying in our text when he says: “Therefore let
anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” Because we are saved; because we are the
baptized children of God we need to take heed. We need to view temptations to
sin with a recognition about how serious a threat they are.
We
are fallen people living in a fallen world.
Temptations to sin will always be present. And in our text, the apostle
offers a word of instruction and encouragement.
He writes: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to
man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your
ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that
you may be able to endure it.”
First
of all, you need to recognize that you
are not that special. Let’s just get
that thought out of the way. The temptations
that challenge you in life are no different from the temptations that confront other
people. And therefore none of us have some special excuse.
But
more importantly, Paul assures us that God
is faithful. The God who sent his own as the sacrifice for your sin; the
God who called you to be his own; the God who created faith through the work of
the Spirit, will not turn his back on you.
God has promised two things. First, he has promised specifically that
you will not be tempted beyond what you able to bear. Second, he has promised
that there will be an end to it – a way of escape – so that you may be able to
endure it. God promises both that we
will only be given what we can bear, and that in God’s timing it will last for
a time that we are able to bear it.
Now
these words are no magic formula for mapping out every temptation. Instead they are grounded in the words, “God
is faithful.” They are a call to believe
and trust in God who has revealed his love for us in the death and resurrection
of his Son, Jesus Christ. And they are
also a call to turn to those places where God gives us grace – where he gives
us spiritual strength. They are a call
to be faithful – and even more faithful
– in the use of the Means of Grace both here in the Divine Service and also at
home.
Such
an approach to the life of faith will aid us in recognizing and resisting
temptations to sin. And guess what? It is also the exact same thing that we need in those times when we stumble, sin
and must repent. We return always to the
fact that we live as those upon the end of the ages has come – the saving death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through baptism and work of the Spirit, we
have received forgiveness – we are saints. In the struggle against temptation,
we always return to the fact that God is faithful.
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