1 Corinthians 10:7-10 - Grumbling your way through life

10:7,8

The lessons to be learnt from the Israelites in the desert are not just general lessons, two specific areas of sin are highlighted by Paul. The first is idolatry. Idolatry was common in Corinth, as evinced by the question about food offered to idols.The phrase about the people sitting down to eat, drink and play is a quote from Ex 32:6, when the people made a golden calf while Moses was up the mountain. The sexual immorality in v8 is referring to what happened in Numbers 28. Both these sins, idolatry and sexual immorality, were very prevalent dangers, as certainly the latter is in our society. The gospel is not just about God loving and forgiving us, but it is about the way we live our lives as well. Nowadays we seem to be more concerned about avoiding legalism and being judgmental. We should note that the warning against legalism in the New Testament are mostly related to ritualistic matters (usually in the form of circumcision). The New Testament is very clear on the need to live a good life, indeed part of the gift of salvation is the Holy Spirit teaching us to live in a Christlike way, and that involves moral behaviour.

10:9,10

“But God will forgive. “ Indeed He will, but we must not put Him to the test by repeatedly willfully sinning. The Israelites put God to the test at Meribah, and paid the price. Notice that Paul draws an equivalence between our putting Christ to the test, and the Israelites putting Christ to the test. Things that were wrong then are wrong now (this does not apply to food laws and similar things, but does to moral behaviour). There is also the tacit implication that Christ is God, for he says that they tested Christ in the desert. Then grumbling is mentioned as well, and is seen as a most serious sin. Thankfulness is repeatedly commended in the Bible, especially in the Psalms, grumbling is condemned. We perhaps do not see grumbling as that serious a matter. Indeed, it is very much a part of life. But we should beware, for grumbling can reflect a very bad heart attitude, and can lead to our destruction. Let us root out grumbling in our life today.