1 Corinthians Chapter 10

vs 12

It is not a matter of clawing your way to the top, and then sitting pretty. Any Christian, no matter how mature, can fall. There's no point naming the big names, because most of us aren't big names. Instead, think of the heaps of people who you thought were Christians, but stopped coming to church, or who drifted away from God. That's probably more like us. We've got to make sure we are not in that position.

vs 13

You will never be the first person to be tempted by whatever it is. Temptation has been around since, well, the beginning. But God knows what you can and can't stand, and he won't allow temptation to tempt you so much that you are uncontrollably destined to fall from God. He promises here that he will always give you an out. Sometimes, taking that out can mean something really bad happening to you - think of Joseph running from Potiphar's wife, he ended up in jail. And I know I've been in situations where I thought a really bad thing would happen to me if I didn't do something I knew I shouldn't. And sometimes we end up rationalising. But what we should be do is standing firm by taking God's out.

vs 14

In the Corinthian case, Paul is telling them that they can flee from idolatry, and God will give them an out from it. Idolatry could be heavily pressed on you by the culture - if you weren't game to worship idols, your social circle became a hell of a lot smaller back then.

vs 15

Paul does admit that the Corinthians are pretty smart - but he wants them to use that smarts with Godly wisdom, instead of thinking that smarts alone is going to make them spiritually mature. A lesson I could certainly learn.

vs 16

Why is the Lord's supper linked with, or put up against, idolatry? I guess because most idolatry is done around a table with food - and in the same way the Lord's supper was taken back then. So Paul is showing that if you are taking God's meal, you are participating in Christ's sacrifice. A participation in Christ should mean you don't need to participate with an idol by eating their food.

vs 17

The sharing of one loaf of bread symbolises the one body of the church, which is Christ's body. If we are united together with the church and with Christ through taking his bread, then would we not be uniting ourselves to pagans and to pagan gods if we take their food (at their table)?

vs 18

Again, the example comes from Israel - those who participated in temple sacrifice also ate the food.

vs 19

But Paul isn't saying that the idols are to be feared, or that the food sacrificed to them is anything especially evil. It's not so much about the food itself. And of course, any idol is not really going to be anything compared to God's power.

vs 20

The problem with being involved in a pagan offering is that those offerings are made to demons. And God doesn't care, because it's not like we can, through our offerings, make demons more powerful than him or anything. He's God. But it does mean that we are actively participating in giving demons stuff. And that's an insult to God.

vs 21

You can't do both - you can't offer something to God on the one hand, and then offer something to demons on the other. That's not faithfulness. A man isn't seen as being faithful to his wife if he sleeps with her AND sleeps with his secretary.

vs 22

In the end, all we are doing is peeving God. And God isn't the sort of person you want to annoy or make jealous.