1 Corinthians 10:6-11

Scripture: 1 Cor. 10:6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.

1 Cor. 10:7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”

1 Cor. 10:8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.

1 Cor. 10:9 We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.

1 Cor. 10:10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.

1 Cor. 10:11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 

Teaching: Paul’s subject in view in these verses is idolatry, and teaching the Corinthians to avoid it. But before he gets to those applications, Paul lays groundwork for his eventual points. In verses 1-5, he reminded the Corinthians that the Exodus generation of Israel experienced Christ in incomplete ways — though they saw with their eyes great miracles and they experienced snippets of Christ in the spiritual food (manna) and spiritual drink (water from the rock), they did not receive the full version of salvation in Christ as the Corinthians have now. The Israelites still rebelled against God, and as Paul says in verse 5, “God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.” By their lack of faith they did not arrive in the Promised Land. 

Paul then explains further in verses 6-10. Paul says God’s intention for these years in the wilderness was to teach his people — both then and now — not to crave evil things. For even though they were experiencing the goodness of God, they still craved the things of the flesh. They ate, drank, and made merry without regard for the Lord, but only indulged themselves. They acted immorally sexually, they put the Lord to the test, and they grumbled continually. Paul’s point is that the Israelites allowed their fleshly desires to control their actions, and that led to serious sin. It is a slippery slope, and what starts as merely indulging our hunger for food or drink can easily grow to indulging the flesh in other ways. 

Takeaway: Satan is crafty. He knows we do not often begin sinning abruptly, as if we turn off the light of Christ in us like a light switch. No, it is a slow dim. We sink into sin more often than we fall. What can begin as indulging our appetites for food or drink can grow in us an incapacity for self-control in other areas of our lives. It is why fasting is such a powerful spiritual enabler. It denies the flesh in the most visceral and immediate way. We can deny ourselves many things for a long time, but when we deny ourselves food, we feel it within hours. Paul teaches us in these verses the dangers of living life with ever-satisfied flesh. This will dull our spiritual strength, it will distract us from Christ. Its will cause us to act against God’s ways and even to put Him to the test to continue to satisfy our flesh. And it has the ever-present risk of allowing Satan to begin to dim our light for Christ, and us not realize we are sitting in a dark room until it’s too late. Thus is it good for us to learn to fast and learn to curb the desires of the flesh so that we do not make the same mistakes as the Israelites in Exodus. As Paul says in verse 11, these things happened so that we would see them as warnings to us.