“These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.” (1 Corinthians 10:11)
In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul is concerned that the Christians of Corinth will lose their faith. He is worried that some of them are so complacent about the strength of their own faith, that they are in danger of slipping into idolatry without realising the danger.
Warning Signs
Sometimes warning signs make me laugh.
On Wednesday I saw a warning sign on Broadstairs beach:
“Caution, Plant and vehicles moving!”
I could see the moving JCB digger, but I couldn’t see any moving plants.
Or here is one from when my children were younger:
“Warning free range children!”
I thought it was only chickens that were free range!
Or what about this particularly worrying sign I found online, which I hope is a joke:
“Warning: Unattended children will be captured and used for medical experiments!”
Of course warning signs are no laughing matter. They have an important purpose, to alert us to the dangers that lurk, to call us to be careful and to avoid dangers that might otherwise harm or kill us.
Warnings for the Christian
One role that the Bible plays for us as Christians, is to lay down warning signs for life. It says in verse 11, talking about the Bible stories just referred to:
“These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us…”
During the week some of our groups looked at our reading from the Bible this Sunday and submitted some questions about it. One group asked a fairly basic question based on the verse that comes just after our reading:
- What is a mature or sensible Christian? (vs. 15)
Is it someone who has been a Christian for a while? Attends church regularly? Reads their Bible a lot? Prays?
One way of answering that is to ask who would you say is a sensible driver. Probably your answer would include, someone who notices the warning signs on the road and drives carefully in response.
In the same way a ‘sensible Christian’ is someone who understands the warnings given by the Bible and lives out their Christian life taking them into account.
But many non-Christians and indeed many Christians struggle to see how the Bible fits together. Indeed, a couple of our groups raised questions along the lines of:
- How do we reconcile God’s acts of judgement in the Old Testament with the emphasis on God’s love in the New Testament?
The Old Testament is the part of the Bible that tells of the history of God and his people before Jesus came. Whilst the New Testament tells us about Jesus and the people of God from then on.
To many it feels like the Old Testament is full of God’s judgement, whilst the New Testament talks about his love. So, for example, verse 6 of our reading, which refers back to the Old Testament story says:
“Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.”
That certainly sounds like a lot of judgement!
The first thing to say is that a more careful reading of the Old Testament shows that there is a lot about God’s love, compassion and faithfulness, not just his judgement.
Also, a careful reading of the New Testament, shows that God is still spoken of as judge and Jesus more than anyone else warns people about being shut out of heaven and stuck in hell.
Secondly, love and judgement are not mutually exclusive. A parent who loves their child will punish them when they do wrong out of love, because they want them to grow up into a good person. Also, when people commit acts of evil, we will want them punished to discourage others from doing the same. We do this to protect the community at large. The punishment of criminals is done out of love for the wider community. True love has to involve judgement when confronted by wrongdoing.
Thirdly, if as Paul suggests here the acts of judgement are to serve as warnings for God’s people, then inevitably there will be more judgement at the start of the story, with God hoping that future generations will learn the lessons without having to face judgement themselves.
The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament and that assumption is everywhere in the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus. As Christians we are not to be embarrassed by the Old Testament, but rather we are to learn from it as part of our Spiritual heritage. Which is just what Paul in his writing here wants us to do.
By linking the Christian life today, with the stories of the people of God led by Moses, he sets up a helpful parallel that can help us last as Christians and so experience the fulness of God’s love.
So let’s try to get to grips with what he is saying.
The Christian Life and the Biblical Story
Blessings for All
God Saves
Paul takes us right back to the story of God’s rescue of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. There they were oppressed by the Egyptians and forced to do hard labour and even had their newborn boys killed in an attempt to control their population growth. They were desperate to be rescued, so God sent Moses to lead them out and he sent ten horrible plagues on Pharaoh the king of Egypt to force him to let the people go.
When he finally did, God led them out by a cloud and through the Red Sea to escape from the Egyptian army. Israel were freed from being slaves and from the oppression of the Egyptians. God did that freely and lovingly for all who fled Egypt through the Red Sea.
In our reading, Paul in alluding to this story, says ALL the Israelites were baptised into Moses. By using the word, ‘baptised’ he links the story of Israel under Moses, to the story of Christians under Christ.
In a parallel way Jesus has rescued us not from slavery to a human king or power, but from the power of our own sin or wickedness and death. He did that through his death and resurrection. In baptism we are becoming one of the people who Jesus saves.
God Provides
But Paul also reminds us that once Israel were in the wilderness, on their journey to the Promised Land, where they could settle, that although it was tough and difficult, God provided for them. He did this miraculously or spiritually through the provision of a daily supply of food called Manna and by bringing water miraculously out of a rock. Again ALL the Israelites received this support freely out of God’s love for them.
Paul again links this to the Christian life, with the rather weird statement: “Christ is the rock.” What he means is something like just as God provided water for the Israelites from a rock in the wilderness, so Christ supports and helps us as Christians through life now. Again God does that freely for ALL who come to him out of love.
Loss for Some
Paul in writing to the Corinthians does not want them to lose out on God’s blessings. So he reminds them of the warning stories from the Old Testament about those who although they seemed to have had God’s salvation and blessing, lost it because ‘they set their heart on wicked things.’
We haven’t time to explore the stories he refers to in detail, but the wickedness of their hearts was expressed in two fundamental ways.
Failure of Loyalty
But although ALL the baptised receive these blessings, many lose out. The warnings are for us not to lose out.
The first was a failure of loyalty to the God who had done so much to save them. Instead of making him their one and only God, they fell into the worship of other gods, what we call idolatry.
This leads to another question from one of the groups:
- What idolatry do we need to flee from today?
Idolatry is something that we allow to take the place of God in our lives. To become the guiding principle by which we live, to be the thing we look to for our ultimate salvation or provision.
In our world, that tends not to be idols worshipped in temples, as it was for the Corinthians Paul was writing to, but things like love of money or pursuing sexual pleasure or putting our trust in some man-made idea, organisation or leader.
At first glance they can seem more appealing, more immediate, more real even than the true and living God, but in the end the salvation and provision they offer is empty and meaningless. Only the God of Jesus Christ can truly satisfy. To abandon him, to risk his wrath and lose the good blessings won for us by Jesus is foolishness indeed.
Let us heed the warning, and remain loyal to the God who truly love us.
Failure of Trust
The second problem was to do with a failure to trust in the God who saved them and provided for them. In verse 10 it says, they grumbled. This led to another question from one of the groups:
- What’s wrong with grumbling? Is it ever legitimate for Christians to complain? (vs. 10)
Well to answer that question we need to look back at the stories of the Old Testament and see what the Israelites were getting wrong when they were grumbling.
Despite seeing the amazing rescue God had given them, they failed to believe God could provide, they looked back at their old life in Egypt and forgetting the slavery and oppression remembered the better food. They looked forward to the life in the promised land that God was leading them toand did not believe they would be able to defeat the people there at the time. So, they grumbled against God and against Moses.
This grumbling was an attitude of the heart that had fundamentally given up on trusting in God. So, yes complaining is fine for Christians, but when it becomes a heart attitude that fails to trust God, then it becomes an insult to God and a failure of faith, which is a disaster.
Why? Because it is through faith in God’s goodness, salvation and provision that we are saved. When we stop trusting in God’s goodness, then we let go of that salvation.
These then are serious warnings for all Christians. You may be baptised, you may have joined a church, you may call yourself a Christian, but true Christians are those whose hearts remain loyal to and keep trusting in Jesus to the end.
God saves us freely and baptism is a sign of taking hold of God’s act of amazing grace. We don’t have to prove ourselves to God to be saved, but we do have to remain loyal and keep trusting if we are to truly reap the blessings promised in baptism.
That sounds hard. But as it says in verse 13, God will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. There will always be a way to remain loyal and trust in him that is within our grasp. But we cannot be complacent, we need to heed the warnings, we need to be sensible Christians and remain loyal to and keep trusting in Jesus.
St. George's Church Ramsgate 