Tuesday, March 13, 2007

1 Corinthians 10:1-13 (The Message)
1-5Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God's fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just experiencing God's wonder and grace didn't seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased.
6-10The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—"First the people partied, then they threw a dance." We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them.
11-12These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don't repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don't be so naive and self-confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence.
13No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.

Paul, a follower of Jesus, wrote the letter of 1 Corinthians to the people who went to the church in Corinth. In this passage Paul reminds the Corinthian people of how their ancestors had fallen into temptation. Falling into temptation had consequences for them. Paul’s reason for bringing this up is that he wants the Corinthians to learn from the mistakes of the past. We might sum it up this way: “You saw how our ancestors messed up. Let’s learn from what they did and be careful, or we might mess up, too.”

Have you ever learned from someone else’s mistake? What was it?

Have you ever not learned from someone else’s mistake and made the same error?

Verse 13 is a great verse for us to remember. In it, Paul tells us that we will never be tempted any more than anyone else has been. When we are tempted we should remember that God never leaves us to face temptation alone. God will always help us resist temptation.

How can verse 13 help you the next time you are tempted to do something wrong?