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*1 Corinthians 10:14…* Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
* *
*Commentary*
When the author says, “Therefore” we must ask what is the “therefore” there for?
As always it signifies a context, and instead of just taking passages out of their context and misconstruing the meaning of a passage, we must always link individual verses with those around them to get the full meaning of the passage.
In this case, the “therefore” refers back to all the Old Testament examples that Paul just finished reflecting upon.
The Israelites, in spite of God’s miraculous deliverance and protection of His people, worshipped an image they fashioned, indulged in illicit sexual practices, tried the Lord’s patience, and on top of that, they complained about God!
This constituted idolatry, and because of the way these examples were used, Paul now says to “flee from idolatry.”
The verb form is present imperative, and it is not only a command to flee, but it signifies a /continual/ flight from all that hinders the worship of God and God alone.
If the Israelites had taken flight from their desire to put their own lustful priorities in front of God’s, then Paul would never have used them as examples.
The Corinthian Christians were set free from their freedom to sin.
That’s what salvation brings to a person – it gives them the freewill to /not/ sin.
They were free to eat meat sacrificed to idols, but they were not free to take part in idol worship.
They were free to attend pagan functions, but they were forbidden to take part in the false worship.
Idolatry is the worst of sins, and because it has the basic idea of worshipping something or someone other than the One True God, the first commandment says, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Deut.
5:7).
Idolatry is about putting an idea, a child, a job, a sport, a spouse – anything – before God.
God is a “jealous God” in Exodus 34:14, and He “will not give His glory to another” (Isaiah 48:11).
In Romans 1 God is said to have “given over” all those who put anything before Him.
In Habakkuk 1:16 there is a description of the false worship of the Babylonians, and it was their military prowess.
They worshipped their superior military might.
It was their “net,” and it took the form of a false god in their lives.
Even atheists worship false gods – /they worship themselves/, and all rejection of God is the worship of a false god.
It might be oneself, another person, or it might be a military fortress.
But idolatry didn’t die out with pagan gods.
It takes all kinds of shapes.
*Food for Thought*
Jesus is the Christ, the second member of the Trinity.
He is God Almighty.
He isn’t just “Jesus” – he is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those who believe that God is anything other that who He really is are idolaters.
If a person has any doubts about who Jesus Christ is and his ability to save souls – if his Word is questioned and his promises taken for granted – then this is idolatry.
When we put faces to our God, who is spirit and without form, then we border on idolatry.
God never revealed Himself in a visible form prior to Jesus Christ because He does not want to be reduced to an image.
When we pray to the Father we should visualize nothing, for He has no form.
Idolatry is anything that takes precedence over the worship of God.
Worshipping images is idolatry; the worship of angels is idolatry.
Worshipping the dead who committed “good” deeds during their lifetimes is idolatry.
The insatiable appetite for more – more money, bigger homes, better health, and greater prestige is idolatry.
The worship of family and children is idolatry.
Remember, God is not wanting a balance in your life of Him and something or someone else.
It’s either all Him or it’s idolatry.
Serve your family and serve your church, but do so because you love and are committed to the One God who gives eternal life and has the power to throw us into eternal hell.
Putting anything else before Him constitutes the detestable sin of idolatry.
*1 Corinthians 10:14-17…* Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
15 I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say.
16 Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?
Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.
*Commentary*
Committed Christians are just that – people committed to Christ.
They are in hot pursuit of knowing God in a deeper and more personal way.
As such, they will allow nothing to hinder their pursuit of Him.
If this pursuit is for anyone or anything other than God, then it constitutes idolatry, and Paul says to “flee from idolatry!” – a command with continual ramifications.
In verse 15 the apostle makes reference to the fact that he’s not speaking to unsaved people.
Unsaved folks cannot understand a continual pursuit of God, but those who know Jesus Christ are called “wise men” and are able to “judge what [Paul] says.”
This is interesting in light of the fact that Paul has been all over the Corinthians concerning their childish and immoral behavior as professed Christians.
But he knows that they’re saved (cf. 1 Cor.
1:1-9), and because he knows this he can call them “wise men.”
Wisdom begins with understanding the message of the cross of Christ.
These people can now “judge” – or decipher – what Paul is saying in reference to comparing the sins of the Israelites of the past and their own sin of taking God’s grace for granted through overconfidence in their own abilities and freedoms.
Paul raises a question in vv.
16-17 by using the Communion table (Lord’s Supper, Eucharist, etc.) as an example.
He asks, “Is not the cup of blessing a sharing in the blood of Christ?”
The “cup of blessing” was actually the proper name of the third cup of wine consumed during the annual celebration of the Jewish Passover feast.
It might also have been the final cup which was commonly drunk at the end of any meal the Jew’s ate as a final offering of thanksgiving to God for their food.
It was likely this third “cup of blessing” that Jesus referred to on the night he died as a symbol of his soon-to-be shed blood for all mankind.
When believers in Christ partake of the “cup of blessing” they remember the shed blood of Christ for their own sins.
Likewise “the bread which we break” is a “sharing in the body of Christ” as v. 16 tells us.
Though the breaking of bread represents Christ’s body, the actual breaking of it does not signify that Christ’s body was broken because his body suffered no breaks.
Philippians 2:7 says that Christ “emptied himself” so as to live among us, suffer as we suffer, and be tempted as we are tempted.
We partake of Christ’s body by eating bread so as to remember what he did for us at the cross.
Participation in the Communion table is commanded by Jesus in Luke 22:19 and Paul in 1 Cor.
11:24-25.
This sacrament is the ultimate in Christian fellowship, it is done in memory of our Lord’s death on the cross, and it reflects the perfect fellowship we’ll have in heaven with Christ.
It is a “sharing” in Christ’s body and blood – a fellowship with Him and His people.
*Food for Thought*
We must remember that as professed Christians we are identified with our Savior Jesus Christ – our Lord.
When we participate in the Communion table and so identify ourselves with Christ by remembering what he did for us, we are pledging allegiance to him and to him alone.
We are not free to worship our families (by putting them first before God) and material wealth.
To do so would be to worship idols, and it negates the holy sacrament of remembering the Lord’s death.
In the same way that Israel of old enjoyed God’s blessings, His miracles, His food, His water, and His leadership – yet forsook Him by adding idols to their worship of Him, so too do we when we allow the world to hinder our worship of God and take His place in our hearts.
*1 Corinthians 10:18-22…* Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?
19 What do I mean?
That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
20 No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.
21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?
We are not stronger than He, are we?
*Commentary*
Again Paul calls attention to the nation of Israel – a nation God called through Abraham to be a beacon of light to the world.
We are to observe God’s calling of them, what He did with them, what they did with God, and how God dealt with them as we read through the Old Testament (and how God will deal with them in the future in Romans 11:25-27).
Paul called attention to, in vv.
16-17, the Christian Communion table as a sacrament in the sharing of the life of Christ, and in v. 18, he calls attention to Israel to parallel the Christian Communion table with the sacrificial system in Israel.
He asks, “Are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?”
Those who offered sacrifices gave some to be burned on the altar, some to be eaten by the priests, and some to eat for themselves.
In this way they all partook, or “shared; fellowshipped,” with God and one another.
They were all one body through their participation in the sacrifice in the same way that Christians come together as one through observance of the Eucharist.
The entire point Paul makes here is that to participate in idol worship is to identify with it, and God will not share His glory with another.
To worship an idol AND worship God is to reject God.
Now in v. 19 Paul clarifies what an idol actually is.
When folks dedicated their meat, homes, or whatever they dedicated, they weren’t exactly accomplishing what they thought they were.
Bowing down to a carved idol or a graven image (modern examples would include all relics likes crosses, the Virgin Mary, saints gone before, etc.) is nothing because those images are simply that – images.
However, v.
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