Time to Run

The Urgency of Spiritual Awakening

by

John Juneman

Time to Run

The Urgency of Spiritual Awakening

Copyright © John Juneman

LifeMessage International, 2011

lifemessageinternational@gmail.com

http://www.lifemessageinternational.org

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from the New King James Version

Table of Contents

Introduction

Respond (Run!)

Ready

Repent

Resourced

Remember

Recognize

Resolve

Render

Introduction

Having “issues” in the church is nothing new; it has been so across the centuries.  This is partly due to the spiritual warfare that is always being waged against the body of Christ, and partly due to the fact that the church is made up of people!  This fact all the more emphasizes the point of this book --- that the need for spiritual awakening is and always will be urgent in the life of the church.  Paul knew the Corinthian Christians well from having been with them for about eighteen months a few years prior to the writing of 1 Corinthians.  After this extended stay, when the church was started, Paul apparently kept in touch through correspondence and messages via various people.  He wrote 1 Corinthians to address the issues that had been raised to him.  His plain and simple message is that there is only one solution to all of the issues.  There is only one way out for every problem.  There is only one answer to every question.  That answer is the actual, living Person of Jesus Christ.  He is more than a slogan or a bumper sticker.  Paul is not giving to the Corinthians a clever motto or theme for the year.  He persistently tells them that Jesus is their complete answer and provision for everything they need.  Paul is urging them to just seek Jesus and respond to Him with all their hearts, for He is already in pursuit of them.  Would they allow this Jesus to live in them by His Spirit and to demonstrate Himself through them in each and every area of life?  This will be the answer to each and every “issue” they face.

If Jesus is the one answer for their lives, then the Corinthians have been consistently running up against one roadblock in their lives:  their own pride and arrogance.  It is their pride that has kept them from surrendering, being humbled, and responding completely to Jesus.  Lest I think myself superior to them, how often have I let pride hold me back?  How many services have I resisted or dreaded responding to Jesus because I was afraid of how I might look?  Pride has always been a revival-killer.  Paul’s urging of the Corinthians to die to their pride and respond is not in a tone of anger, but is compelled by love.  He is desperate that they would no longer walk the road of spiritual deadness, apathy, pride, and being deceived by the enemy into thinking that “we are fine just the way we are.”  Paul is appealing for them to experience a spiritual awakening in their lives and in their church.  This is nowhere more evident than in chapter 10, where the issue of participating in idol feasts has made their spiritual blindness and need for awakening all too clear.  This book looks at verses 14-22 in that chapter, because we see in this passage some essentials for revival and awakening that apply to all Christians of all times.  Spiritual awakening was the greatest and only need of the Christians at Corinth!

The longer I live, the more I am convinced that this is always our need at every level.  I am completely persuaded that no particular political party, politician, or political policy is the answer for our nation.  I have come to the firm belief that all we really need in our nation is a spiritual awakening.  This was the answer for the Corinthians; why not us?  What if we really sought after Jesus as a whole until that kind of spiritual awakening swept across our nation again?  God brought periods of “great awakening” here before; I cannot see why He would not do it again if we sought after Him and were open to whatever He might do in our lives.  I am likewise persuaded that the church in America, in every denomination, just needs a real awakening and time of transforming revival.  One of the greatest spiritual lessons I have continued to learn in my life is to not be too critical of the church.  For, Jesus loves His bride and there is no one in more need of grace than me.  I am, however, increasingly doubtful of any new strategy, emphasis, theme, plan, method, or anything that we must “do” as the “answer” for what the church needs today.  I believe we need Jesus to do something in us!  I know that we live in changing times.  Yet, surely we are not that much different from the Christians of the past.  The church has always needed the moving of God in spiritual awakening.  As spiritual awakening has always been the answer in the past, I believe it certainly is now.  I completely realize that there is a caution about clinging too hard to the past and tradition, and that there are always things that need to change along with the times.  Yet, I am also aware that there are core essentials of the past that we throw away at our own peril.  There is great danger in thinking of myself as superior to those in “the old days.”  Paul was dealing with this very mindset with the Corinthians in chapter 10, who could not see how they could learn anything from their spiritual predecessors.  May I be humble enough to say that I need increased and ongoing awakening just as much as anyone else or those who have gone before me.  I long for my children to experience and witness a moving of God in our lives that they and my grandchildren will remember and talk about.

It also seems important to recognize that spiritual awakening and revival is not something I can “do.”  Again, what we really need is for Jesus to do something in us.  Paul did not give the Corinthians any steps to follow.  He just kept pointing them to Jesus.  He was running after Jesus in his own life, and was urging them to the same.  Couldn’t it really be this simple?  Get into His Word, seek Him with all our hearts, respond to Him with urgency, and let Him work in our lives however He desires.  Jesus is the only plan for spiritual awakening that Paul presents.  Jesus is the only strategy.  How urgent and single-minded would I be about this pursuit?  Would I be willing to be humbled in a passionate seeking of Him?  Would I respond to Him no matter what the cost?  Would I allow this response to Jesus to become a lifestyle?  Anyone who does so will experience awakening.  “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).”

I feel led to say one more thing about spiritual awakening and revival in this brief introduction.  I am aware than an evangelist writing about revival could almost seem to be like something of a conflict of interests.  It could be seen to be like the guy who is trying to sell something so that he can make his living.  I am deeply conscious of the fact that I certainly need to be mindful about what I push for as a full-time minister.  I suppose someone could easily say, “Sure, you want everyone to have revival because that creates more of a demand for evangelists like you who can preach in revival meetings and other such events.”  I have really searched that out and talked with the Lord extensively about that over the last few years.  And I have come to two unshakable conclusions in my life.  First, as I have already said, I just believe in the urgent need of Jesus and spiritual awakening in my life, the life of my family, the church, and our nation.  I cannot see any other way for us to be what we need to be in this day unless we have revival, and that continuously.  One concept that this book presents is that such response to Jesus and experience of spiritual awakening cannot or need not be just a temporary occurrence.  The New Testament describes something far more.  It pictures a life in Christ that continually increases and grows in Him.  We all have our ups and downs because of human limitations and living in a fallen world.  Yet, there is something that Jesus wants to do in our lives which does not fade; it only increases.  Imagine having something with Him that only gets better, and being able to see Him and know Him more and more clearly.  I believe with all my heart, based on His Word, in an ongoing and spiritual awakening.

A second unshakable conclusion is that I really do want Him more than anything in life.  I want to tell Him and you that I am open to whatever He would like to do in my life in order to bring about revival in me, my family, the church, and our nation.  Furthermore, I would like to tell Him and you that it doesn’t need to be about me.  I began to sense the call to preach as a 17-year-old high school senior in February 1985, approximately one month after giving my life to Jesus.  I did not go and find Him.  As one of my favorite old gospel songs says, “He came to me; He came to me.  When I could not come to where He was, He came to me.”  I knew little about the church in those early days.  I knew even less about what it meant to be a minister and such things as preaching.  I had to ask a pastor such fundamental questions as, “How will you know if God wants you to be a minister?”  I look back now in amazement at those days.  Sometimes I can easily forget who and what I used to be, and it brings a tear to my eye to think of how He has worked in my life.  Since those days, my call to preach and love for sharing God’s Word with people has only increased.  My family can tell you that there is an extra spring in my step and twinkle in my eye when I get to preach.  I believe all of that is just the fruit of God’s call, whatever that may be, in anyone’s life.

However, with all of my heart I say that I am in the process of learning to be content wherever He places me, both when I am preaching and when I am not preaching; whether I am in the pulpit in any given worship service or the partner in the pew who is praying for the one preaching.  Furthermore, He is the provision for my family, and Trina and I decided long ago that we will respond to how He leads and let Him worry about the provision.  I will joyfully accept any opportunity to preach and teach.  But I don’t want preaching or revival meetings or anything else to be my life.  I want Jesus to be my life.  And I earnestly seek for Him be real and evident in me both in the pulpit and everywhere outside of it.  May He be real in household chores, in the car on the way to church, in physical pain, in sorrows, and at all times in whatever situation we find ourselves.  May it be a life message that Jesus shares through us.  I like how the Amplified Bible translates Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:16-18:  “I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.  For I always pray to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation of insight and into mysteries and secrets in the deep and intimate knowledge of Him, by having the eyes of your heart flooded with light.”  This is my prayer for Trina, Chaili, and Carey.  It is my prayer for our nation, for the church, and for you.  May He awaken us and bring revival as you and I have never experienced, and may it only increase from here.  We have never needed it more.  It is time to run.

John Juneman

Watertown, TN

December 2011

Respond (Run!)

1 Corinthians 10:14

It is impossible to understand anything in scripture apart from context as it is the single most important factor in bible study.  1 Corinthians 10:14 and following is a strong example of this.  I have wrestled for some time over these verses.  What I discovered was the desperate need to go back to context again.  In chapter 10, Paul is dealing with extremely deep matters of spiritual truth as he desires to lead the Corinthians into truth so that their eyes can be opened to reality.  However, to get to this point, it is necessary to see that this discussion started over two chapters earlier when Paul began addressing their question of whether or not it is acceptable to eat food that has been sacrificed to idols.  When we look over the entirety of these chapters, we see that Paul has been slowly walking them up a few levels to get the point where he is in 10:14 and following.  This seems to highlight a spiritual truth that we will address even further in the next chapter when we look at verse 15.  This simple principle is that we receive more truth as we respond to the truth that we have already been given.  The more we respond to Jesus, the more we see.  And that “seeing” will include an awareness of things in the heavenly realms that can only be revealed by the Holy Spirit.  Without a constant responding, there can be no awareness of the heavenly realms and the reality of what is really happening in the “unseen.”  This is where Paul has come to in 1 Corinthians 10:14 and following, but it all begins back in chapter 8.

Paul began to address the particular issue at hand back in chapter 8.  The question had come from the Corinthians as to whether or not it was acceptable to eat food that had been sacrificed to idols.  Paul’s approach is to take his theme of the letter and apply it to this situation.  The theme of 1 Corinthians can be found in chapter 6, verse 19:  “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”  The message of the letter is that Jesus wants to live in us through His Spirit so that He may be demonstrated through our physical bodies in every situation.  Thus, this question of eating food sacrificed to idols is not a simple matter of giving appropriate guidelines to be followed.  There is a deeper spiritual issue at hand.  The question was not whether the Corinthian leaders were in the right or in the wrong in their eating of this food, but whether or not they would be willing to surrender their rights to themselves.  Would they allow their lives to be the demonstration of Jesus in whatever way He chooses?  Furthermore, would they realize that they themselves are spiritual leaders of those people in the church that Paul calls the “weak” (those who are new to the faith, new to the church, or not yet believers)?  The call of the saints is NOT to live for themselves, but to be the ones who will be continually caring for others and leading them to Jesus in every way.

Paul then offers chapter 9 as a picture of this kind of spiritual leadership.  It is a testimony of what Jesus has done and is doing in his own life.  Some of the most powerful verses of the New Testament are contained in these passages.  Paul says that “I have become all things to all men, that I might be all means save some (v. 23).”  The key to this entire chapter is to see that this is not something Paul has merely decided to do by his own will or ability.  It is the overflow of Jesus in his life.  Paul’s single heart passion, source of confidence, and reward is Jesus.  Because of Paul’s complete and total response, what is seen in his life is the very love of Jesus flowing to those around him.

After pointing to these truths as the very fundamental of the issue of whether or not to eat food that has been sacrificed to idols, Paul now returns to specifically address the issue of idolatry itself in chapter 10.  Verses 1-13 are a warning to the Corinthians from Israel’s history (Paul must have taught a great deal from Exodus and Numbers in the eighteen months he spent with the Corinthians on his first visit there).  The point is that the Corinthians may see themselves in this “mirror” and recognize the danger of idolatry, which is looking to anything or anyone besides Jesus to meet the needs of their lives.  His provision is overwhelming, as verse 13 makes clear.

Now, beginning in verse 14, Paul now deals more head-on with idolatry and its danger, particularly in the spiritual realm.  What he attempts to do in this verse and the following will be to offer a few key essentials that will help the Corinthians to be awakened to what is really going on in the spiritual realms with this issue of idolatry.  The first of these essentials for spiritual awakening can be clearly seen in verse 14.

The urgency of responding

It has been said that “a picture is worth a thousand words.”  Often times in Greek, it can be said that one word is worth a thousand.  This is partly due to the depth of the Greek language, which is very expressive and visual in nature.  In the case of verse 14, it is also true again because of context and everything that has led up to this verse.  Paul begins this section in verse 14 with an extremely strong word that is very rarely used.  In fact, this Greek word is only used twice in the New Testament, once here in verse 14 and once in 1 Corinthians 8:13.  Interestingly, both of these occurrences are in this same section of chapters 1 Corinthians 8-10, where Paul is dealing with this issue of idolatry.  This tells us something about the seriousness of this issue.  This word that begins verse 14 is generally translated, “therefore.”  However, this is not the “normal” word that is used for “therefore.”  It is something of a “beefed up” version of “therefore.”  In an even stronger way, it points back to what has previously been said and calls for a conclusion based on that.  Two important ideas come to light in this.

First of all, notice that Paul is always basing everything in his life --- and the lives of others --- on truth.  By using this word at the end of chapter 8, he was speaking of his own response to the truth he had been sharing.  Now, here in chapter 10, he is calling for a response from the Corinthians.  Paul always has a reason for what he is doing, and that reason is Jesus and the truth that Jesus has revealed to his own life.  He simply has decided that his life is going to be about the truth of Jesus Christ.  Every area of his living is constantly brought under the authority of the truth.  There is no area of Paul’s life that is “off limits.”  There are no doors to any part of his heart or attitude that are “locked.”  This leads Paul to have a seeker mentality in his life.  He is always open to more truth --- to whatever Jesus wants to say to him next.  The question is always, “What do You wish to speak to or transform next, Lord?  It is all yours.”  And because this is how Paul lives, it is what he is always presenting to others, like the Corinthians.  It is the only way to live.  What a thing it would be for me to take that approach in my life.  We all know what it is like to give our lives to something.  Many of us have given our lives to a career, the pursuit of some goal, a relationship, to the accumulation of money or something else, or many other things.  When we give our lives to something like this, we are willing to subject everything else in our life to it.  Everything else takes a “back seat” to it or is affected in some way by the pursuit.  It is like the Olympic athlete that commits his or her life to be all about a particular sport.  It is commonly known that Olympic athletes “eat, sleep, and drink” their sport and the training for it.  That is how Paul is with Jesus and the truth.  That is why he says at the end of chapter 9, “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”  He paints himself as the athlete who has committed his entire life to this one pursuit of Jesus.  He is inviting the Corinthians to do the same.  Based on all the truth that has been shared leading up to verse 14, will they now respond to it?  Will I also subject my entire life to Jesus in this way?  Would I bring every area, without reservation, under the light of truth and be willing to respond to whatever He reveals?  Will I open myself to Him and His truth and respond no matter what it costs me?  Will I right now surrender to Him any reservation that I have?

A second thing that this stronger “therefore” reveals even further is an urgency that Paul feels about responding.  It says that we MUST respond to truth.  There is no option to just sit still or remain “on the fence.”  Truth always requires a response.  It was this way in chapter 8 when Paul laid out the truth to them about the spiritual responsibility of caring for the “weak” ones in the church.  After sharing all of this, Paul himself was so convicted by the truth that he said, “THEREFORE, if food makes my brother to stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother to stumble.”  We can easily hear the urgency and “no nonsense” nature of this response.  Paul said this with all seriousness because the truth has so gripped him.  This was a man that had been spoken to by God and he was not about to play any games with it.  In chapter 10, Paul is now calling the Corinthians to the same kind of urgency.  They MUST respond to this truth that he has laid out in the previous verses and chapters.  This is no time for delay, distractions, or apathy.  Truth is a life or death matter, and it is urgent that we respond NOW.

This is in contrast to the deception that Satan would have us to believe.  As opposed to urgency about responding, Satan would have to be casual about responding to truth.   This kind of spiritual deception can take hold in our lives and even in a church if we are not careful.  If we do not respond to truth, we can easily slip into a kind of spiritual sleep in which we believe that responding is “no big deal,” or that it is not something to get passionate or excited about.  In an ironic twist, we can find ourselves getting excited or emotional about small things (like the style of music for example), and lax about the important thing, which is the truth.  Satan could convince us that it is not “normal” to be urgent about truth and responding to Jesus all the time.  The lie says that being this kind of really zealous or excited Christian is OK for those who want to be that way, but it is only an extra “option” for Christians and certainly is not a requirement.  In this deception, the belief is that there are three categories of people.  First, there are people who are not saved.  Secondly, there is the zealous type of “super-Christians” (like Paul) who are really into seeking Jesus and responding to truth all the time regardless of the cost.  However, again, this second category is an extra option and not a requirement.  Thirdly, there are “normal” Christians who are good, church-attending folks that accepted Jesus at some point but don’t necessarily respond to truth all the time.  For this group, Christianity is a more laid back thing.  They might say to those in the second category, “Relax.  You don’t have to go overboard.”  This is a deception straight from Satan.  For, in the Word, there are not three categories of people, but only two (see verses like Matthew 12:30 and 1 John 5:12).  The message of the New Testament is that we are either in Him or we are not.  We are either responding to Him or we are not.  There is no third category.  This places a great urgency on how we respond.  There is no room for delay, or even a casual attitude toward the truth and what God may be speaking to me.  I MUST respond, and it is critical for my spiritual life that I allow my heart to be open to Him at all times.  I will respond no matter what it costs, because my spiritual life depends upon it.  Am I willing to be urgent about Jesus and His truth alone?  What would it look like in my life to come to every worship service with this attitude?  How would it affect my daily life and how I look at His Word?  How would it change my priorities and what I really dwell on?

Run to Jesus

After getting our attention with the strong “therefore” at the beginning of the verse, Paul goes on to give the imperative action that must take place.  Because of the grammar of this verb, there are some things we can know about this action which Paul is urging the Corinthians to take before we even know the definition of the word itself.  First, it is in the imperative mood in Greek.  This is generally the form used when a command or urgent direction is being given.  Notice again how the urgency of all this is being highlighted.  It is no time to be casual.  Secondly, it is in the active voice, which means it is an action that the Corinthians themselves are to do.  This is something for them to really pursue.  Thirdly, it is in the present tense, which indicates that this is an ongoing action that Paul is urging them to take.  It will be not a quick, “one-time” thing.  It will be something that they are always to do or to keep on doing.  What IS this action?  Paul says, “Therefore, my beloved, FLEE from idolatry.”

The Greek definition of the word translated “flee” is not surprising from what we understand of that word in English.  It carries in it the basic idea of running away from something where danger is involved.  Notice once again (and again and again . . .) the tone of urgency in all of this.  Paul is urging in his most serious voice (imperative mood) that the Corinthians would themselves take the action (active voice) of fleeing continually (present tense) from idolatry.  We can imagine someone seeing a loved one in a dangerous situation and shouting to them, “FLEE!”  That is the feeling of what is happening here.  Perhaps an even better illustration of it is another situation in scripture where this same word is used in the same exact form.  It is in Matthew 2:13 after the wise men have just left from their visit with Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus.  “Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, ‘Arise, take the young Child and His mother, FLEE to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.’”  God is warning Joseph and giving him direction in the clearest way possible so that His plan will prevail in the face of danger and threat.  What is so striking about this incident is both the boldness and the clarity of the warning.  It is urgent, and God was not going to let Joseph miss it.  God is always the same on this, and He will not allow us to miss what is important.  This is why it is the same tone Paul is taking with the Corinthians.  This matter is too important to miss in light of the spiritual danger that the Corinthians faced, even if they were not yet altogether aware that they were at risk.  We keep coming back to the urgency of truth and responding to Jesus in whatever He reveals to us.

Jesus Himself is the key to this warning, which is especially made clear one verse earlier in verse 13.  If we were to read verse 14 alone, not in its context, we would only hear an urgent warning to “flee FROM IDOLATRY.”  It could be somewhat disorienting, raising several questions (at least for me) to which I might not know the answers.  What IS idolatry in my life?  What are the things from which I need to flee?  How do I flee?  Where do I run?  There is great comfort and encouragement in verse 13, and without it, our warning in verse 14 would make little sense.  Yet, in light of verse 13 and the previous verses, the warning is not fearful or intimidating.  Rather, it is full of hope.  Verse 13 reads:  “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”  This verse is deep with meaning, and it unlocks the questions of what it means to flee from idolatry.

Underneath all of the truth of verse 13 is the fact of God’s faithfulness, which is stated right in the middle of the verse.  It is not the picture of a distant God who has left us to work things out for ourselves.  The whole reality presented in verse 13, first of all, is of a God who is intimately involved in our lives.  He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able.  This means that He is not far off, but right here with us in the situation where we are tempted.  As we trust in Him and respond to Him, His mighty hand is at work and holding back the floodwaters of what could overwhelm us.  Paul’s words in verse 13 point us back to the very things he reminded the Corinthians of in verses 1-4.  The same God who cared for the Israelites in their Exodus from Egypt is the same God who cares for us.  He is the same provider for us now that He was then, and His provision for us in all things is found in Jesus Christ.  This is the simple message of this entire section of 1 Corinthians.  Why would we look to anyone or anything else as our provision when Jesus is all we need?

Some of the specific wording of verse 13 then gives a very powerful picture of how this provision works in the face of temptation.  Paul says that with the temptation (note that God does not take us out of the temptation, but does something in our lives in the midst of the temptation) God “will make the way of escape.”  Two particular elements in this phrase shine in the original Greek.  First of all, Paul says that God will MAKE the way of escape.  The word “make” is a translation of the Greek verb poieo.  This Greek word, poieo, was used in their ancient culture for artistic activity.  It is the concept of an artist who has been involved in creating a piece of artwork.  I suppose my favorite example of this is to imagine a painter.  This painter has an inspiration or idea inside that no one but he or she can “see.”  This is because the art does not yet exist except in the mind and heart of the artist.  Then, through the creative process, what was inside of the artist comes to be “seen” on the outside as he or she expresses it through the artwork.  Something brand new --- never before seen --- has come into being.  This is the idea that Paul expresses about God “making” the way of escape for us in temptation.  All of us have been in a tough spot before when it seemed there was “no way out.”  We feel like the Israelites must have felt when they were trapped between Pharoah’s army and the Red Sea.  We just can’t see how we can make it.  It is in times of great need, when we can’t “see” the way out, that we are tempted to look to something or someone other than God to meet our need and be our “escape.”  We are just interested in whomever or whatever will save us!  Yet, Paul is reminding the Corinthians that God specializes in making a way when there seems to be no way!  As the old song says, “He works in ways we cannot see; He will make a way for me.”  While we may not be able to see a way out of the “spot” we find ourselves in, God has a way for us all the time.  As we trust in Him, and respond to Jesus in our lives, God will do something that we never could have imagined.  We find ourselves back again to the urgency of responding.

The second element that shines in verse 13 is “the way of escape” that God will make for us.  The Greek word from which this is translated comes from a Greek verb that can mean, “to disembark.”  The image is of getting off a ship.  The “way of escape” is the “gangplank” that you step onto and walk on to get off of the ship.  Paul’s message in all of this is that Jesus is our gangplank in any temptation.  Temptation can be just like a ship that is heading out to sea.  As the Cathedral Quartet used to sing, “Sin can take you farther than you want to go, slowly, but wholly, taking control.”  I can feel that I am stuck on this ship that is taking me where I don’t want to go, and that there is nothing I can do about it.  The beautiful picture of verse 13 is that I have a gangplank --- an escape.  Jesus is my rescue and my deliverance.  I don’t need to go any further on this ship.  As I respond to Him with all of my heart and say “Yes” to Him, God can make a way for me that I could have never imagined.  He may not remove all of the temptations from my life, but He most certainly will make the way for me in Jesus to not be swept away anymore.  I can live in victory.

This means that the way to run away from temptation is to run to Jesus.  On my own, I can try and try to run away from and fight my temptations.  Yet, when I do this, I always seem to lose.  The more I wrestle with them, the bigger they get.  The more I try not to think about them, the more I end up dwelling on them.  That is why Jesus is the answer.  He is my way of escape.  This is why verse 13 is so crucial to our understanding of the warning in verse 14.  “Flee from idolatry!”  How?  Run to Jesus!  I will run to Him with all my energy and strength.  We are not speaking of running to a Jesus who is far away, but a Jesus who comes to live in us through His Spirit --- One who desires to be intimately involved in every part of our lives.  I will seek Him with all my heart and mind.  I will say “Yes” to Him in whatever He speaks in my life, no matter what it costs.  One further benefit in this is that I don’t need to figure out what I need to flee from.  I can easily get caught up in trying to look at my own life and get rid of all my own idolatry or anything that hinders me.  Whenever I try to figure out my own life in this way, it always becomes heavy, oppressive, and burdensome.  I can come up with my own list of all the things in my life that I need to “flee” from in order for me to be “right” with God.  I can spend my whole life running away from things and being miserable the whole time.  In an ironic way, my running away from idolatry in my own life can become its own form of idolatry.  I make an idol out of my own rules, and I trust in that to make me “right.”  What a peace there in just trusting in Jesus and responding to Him.  I don’t have to figure out where the idols are in my life.  I just allow Him to reveal anything in my life that can take His place, and then I run with full speed to Him!

Conclusions

Three very important things stay with me from the warning of verse 14.  First, it is really good to know that this warning is given with the tone of love.  Even as Paul gives this very serious warning, he calls the Corinthians, “my beloved.”  This is not a beating.  Paul is not wagging his finger at them.  He is speaking as a spiritual parent to the people that he loves deeply.  This is as a father speaking to his children in the face of danger.  The Corinthians were getting into dangerous territory, whether they realized it or not.  They were getting into something that would take them further than they wanted to go.  This was a spiritual life or death matter.  Paul is not writing just to yell at them.  He speaks everything with love, and with a deep care for them.  It is good to know that this is how Jesus is speaking to us today.  If there is something in our lives that is a danger or concern, He will be speaking to us to “flee” from it and to run to Him.  This is an invitation out of love, not condemnation or fear.  I can trust Him with my life.

A second thing that stays with me is that I just simply need to continue in the attitude of seeking.  I need to always remain open to what He is revealing.  He will be sure to reveal anything in my life that can be an idol --- anything or anyone I am looking to in place of Him.  He may not reveal everything all at once, but He will do so one thing at a time.  He is gracious in this way.  Relationship with Jesus is a process of growth, and I will grow in Him as I respond to Him each and every time He speaks to me.  He is not finished with me, and I most certainly will not be finished this side of heaven.  There is always more growth.  I don’t need to be afraid to be open to Him revealing anything else in my life that might be an idol.  It might be painful, but there is also great joy in the growth in Him.

Finally, the clearest thing that we hear in this verse is to just run --- to run to Jesus with our entire lives.  There is such urgency in this that it cannot be overstated.  As Paul will go on to describe more, there is great danger out there and around us in the spiritual realm, for everything outside of Jesus is demonic.  Yet, He is our safe place and our deliverance from temptation.  This ought to cause us to run to Him with all urgency and without delay.  For it is only outside of Him that the danger lies.  Satan will attempt to deceive us into believing that we don’t need to go overboard --- that we can be more casual about truth.  Satan can tell us that this kind of running to Jesus may be something that a few super-Christians choose, but it is not what most of us “normal” Christians do.  We can be deceived into thinking that we are OK where we are.  We can be lulled to sleep by assuming that we are OK where we are because others around us are casual also.  This was a part of the issue that Paul will be touching on with the Corinthians.  Just because idol worship is a “normal” part of the Corinthian culture, even for some Corinthian Christians, does not make it safe.  If the Corinthians were going to respond to Jesus and the truth Paul was bringing to them, they would have to make a break with what was seen as “normal.”  They were going to have to run to Jesus and abandon all else.

Will we run to Jesus in this way?  It is not like I have to go looking for Him, for He has always been in pursuit of me.  He desires to live inside and be intimately involved in every area of my life.  Will I make the decision in my life to run to Him?  Will I lead my family in running to Him?  Who am I praying for in these days?  If I deeply desire to see my loved ones know Him, the answer is clear.  I must run to Him.  Jesus is my only safety, and my running to Him points the way to safety for everyone around me.  This is what Paul was doing for the Corinthians, and it is what God wants to do through my life today.  Will I lead the way to Jesus?

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION

1.       What area or situation in my life needs to be brought under the authority of Jesus and His Word?

2.       Am I running to Jesus?  Honestly, how urgent am I in my running to Him?  What people in my life need to be impacted by my running to Him?

3.       What temptation or hindrance would keep me from running to Him?  Will I abandon everything for the sake of running to Him?

Ready

1 Corinthians 10:15

In verse 15 Paul alerts the Corinthians to a second essential of spiritual awakening, which is a readiness to be engaged and open to the spiritual wisdom that is only in Jesus Christ.  The demonic connection that is involved in their participation in the idol feast would be impossible for the Corinthians to comprehend without these essentials or “building blocks” that Paul is laying out in verses 14-22.  Therefore, he is carefully presenting these key essentials so that the Corinthians, if they will be open, will be enabled to see the serious truth which Paul must speak to them.  In verse 14 we saw the first of these building blocks, which is the foundation of everything.  It is that we must run to Jesus.  There must be an urgency at all times in our seeking of and responding to Jesus in our lives.  When we are running to Him in response at all times, everything else falls into place.  We will then find ourselves experiencing the essential which Paul speaks of in verse 15.

Spiritual wisdom defined

In verse 15, Paul re-introduces the concept of wisdom.  “I speak as to WISE men; judge for yourselves what I say.”  Some may believe that Paul is being sarcastic when he speaks this sentence to the Corinthians.  The thought behind this being sarcasm would be that he is not really speaking to them as wise men, but that he is trying to point out how foolish they are.  However, that does not seem to be Paul’s tone in this passage.  Instead, he seems to be revisiting the concept of wisdom that he has addressed earlier in the letter and is pointing out the need for it especially right now in this upcoming section.  Of course, it is not worldly wisdom that Paul is speaking of here, but spiritual wisdom.  This is a contrast that he makes throughout the letter, especially toward the end of chapter one and through chapter two.  Chapter 2 goes on especially to make clear that it is not the wisdom of this age in which we operate, but the wisdom of God.  This wisdom is only through His Spirit, and it is how we come to know the deep things of God.  Our natural, human wisdom cannot help us in spiritual matters.  Human wisdom is the kind of wisdom that is a natural ability from birth.  We all have known someone who seems to have the “Midas touch.”  He or she may have a knack of being in the right place at the right time and of knowing how to do one thing or another.  Those who possess this human wisdom are just very intelligent in some area and always seem to know the answer.  But Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:13-14:

“These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.  But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

It is spiritual wisdom, not human wisdom, for which Paul is pointing out the need in 1 Corinthians 10:15.  Only such spiritual wisdom, sourced by Jesus through the Holy Spirit, will open the eyes of the Corinthians to see what Paul is talking about in the following verses.  Without such spiritual wisdom, they will never be able to see it.  The tendency in Greek culture was to put great trust in human wisdom and ingenuity.  The belief was that humanity could solve any problem that we “put our mind to.”  Yet, we continue to realize the limits of human wisdom.  We realize repeatedly that some things are beyond us.  It is spiritual wisdom that we need.

Realizing our need for spiritual wisdom, it is important to also understand what it is and what it is not.  In many ways, I believe I have had a misconception of what spiritual wisdom is and how it works.  I have treated it as something of a “thing” or a resource to pull out when I needed it.  I am a Christian, and I desire that everything in my life would be according to God’s will.  In honesty, it is also a tendency of mine to prefer that things in life go as smoothly as possible.  With this in mind, I think that I have often asked God for what I thought of as “spiritual wisdom” so that I could make decisions which would have good results (as far as I was concerned).  For example, I may have been in a situation in which I need to buy a car.  Of course I want to be in God’s will, but I also am hoping that I don’t buy a bad car.  I want things to turn out “right” (by my own standards).  Therefore, I pray for spiritual wisdom from God on the buying of a car.  I ask Him to give me insight that is beyond human wisdom which will allow me to see or think what I could not have ordinarily seen or thought.  When I end up with a car that runs perfectly and ends up being a great deal, I know that God gave me spiritual wisdom for that situation.

Of course, we believe that Jesus desires to be in us and intimately involved in every area of our lives.  He cares about the details.  However, I am finding in the Word, especially in Paul’s writings, that spiritual wisdom is something different than what I imagined.  This does not mean that asking God for wisdom in buying a car or a student asking for wisdom when taking a test is wrong.  Yet, there is so much more that God desires to give in spiritual wisdom.  Consider some of Paul’s prayers:

“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of WISDOM and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened . . . (Eph. 1:15-18).”

“For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all WISDOM and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy . . . (Col. 1:9-11).”

The sense of spiritual wisdom in these prayers and in Paul’s writing is about more than just some resource for making a successful decision.  It becomes clear that spiritual wisdom is all about what comes from His Spirit and being sourced by Him.  In other words, spiritual wisdom is all about Jesus and being connected with Him.  It is not about asking Him for something as much as it is about allowing Him to do something in us.   The closer we get to Him --- the more we run to Him – the more we begin to see things the way they really are.  Two things result from this.  First, we see Jesus more and more clearly.  Is this not our greatest need and what eternity is all about?  Paul prays that we have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.  Secondly, the closer we get with Him and the more we respond to Him, the more we will begin to see things from His view.  We will see things not as they have appeared to us, through our faulty lenses, but we will begin to see things the way they really, really are.

This was the great need at this moment for the Corinthians as Paul began to address their idolatry.  They did not need more human wisdom so that they could make successful decisions in this world.  They desperately needed spiritual wisdom so that they could begin to see things the way they really are.  The Corinthians had been acting and living based on a deception – not realizing the spiritual danger with which they had been flirting.  Their need was to wake up and see the danger, and that could only happen by them being open to Jesus and allowing Him to open the eyes of their understanding.

As we have already said, is this not the real need of my life as well?  My real need is not for some human wisdom so that I can make successful decisions in this world.  My life now has a different purpose because I am in Him and He is in me.  We keep going back to 1 Corinthians 6:19 as a theme verse for this book.  “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”  If my life is not my own, and if my purpose is to know Him and allow Him to work in me, how would this change the way I pray?  Would I not want to pray the kinds of prayers that Paul prays?  And if I did, what might this do to my view of people and the situations of life in which I find myself?  I am a big believer in what I call “Wal-Mart evangelism,” for Jesus is really transforming how I view my visits to Wal-Mart and every other experience of life.  I used to believe that the basic purpose of going to Wal-Mart was to get in and get out as fast as possible.  Essentially, it is a race.  I get my cart and move quickly through the store, taking the most direct routes possible in order to save time.  I want to eliminate distractions and delays as much as possible (this is not a pleasure cruise as my wife and daughter tend to think).  Once I have successfully obtained all the necessary items, the final hurdle is the check-out line.  I have always taken something of the same approach at the check-out lines.  I perform complicated mathematical calculations in my mind in order to determine which line will be the quickest.  You see, you have to take a variety of factors into consideration, including how many people are each line and how many items each one has to purchase.  Based on my calculations, I make a commitment.  I then watch the other lines to see their progress, and get frustrated if I chose a slower line.  “I knew I should have gotten in Aisle 7!” I am really upset when it is my turn to be served by the cashier.  But then something hits me.  How does Jesus want to show Himself to me more clearly today, and how does He view this cashier?  What if this could be an opportunity to know Him more and to be a blessing to someone in their busy day.  Wal-Mart evangelism works for every other area of life also.  My greatest need is spiritual wisdom.

Spiritual light

Since I have such a great need for that spiritual wisdom in my life, how do I get it?  First of all, we must constantly be careful of the thought of getting “it.”  Again, what I really need is Jesus, and He is the source of all spiritual wisdom.  As Paul states in 1 Corinthians 1:30:  “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom . . . .”  The clear teaching is that Jesus is our wisdom.  As I get closer with Him and respond to Him in my life, I will see His wisdom at work in me.  This leads us again back to the building block of verse 14.  The answer for all of life is to run to Jesus.  If I need spiritual wisdom in my life --- the need to see Him more clearly and to see things through His view as they really are --- then the answer is to run to Him with urgency.  As we discussed regarding that verse, there is no time to be casual about responding.  I must be vigilant and urgent in my seeking and responding to Him.

This raises an important spiritual principle that always applies.  When I respond to the light God has provided for me in my life, I receive more light.  In other words, I respond to all of the truth that God is making clear to me at this moment.  He is very gracious, and does not overwhelm me with more than that to which I am able to respond.  That is why my life in Him, from now until the grave and even beyond, is a process of growth.  I respond to what He is saying to me right now, and then He will speak to me about something further.  I can live in constant surrender and response to the truth and always be right where I need to be in my relationship with Him.  What a peace there is in going to bed at night knowing that I am responding to God and walking in the light with Him.  Far from this being a bad or shameful thing, it is a joyous thing.  Some may have been deceived to think that it is shameful if God is bringing new light to one’s life.  He or she may have been led to believe that, as Christians, we should have it all together and have already “arrived.”  Yet, that is not how God works in our lives.  He can perfect our hearts in love, but there is much work left to do with all of the leftover patterns in our lives.  The remainder of our time here in this world is a walk of responding to Him as he gracefully continues to work His redemption out in every part of us.  Therefore, growth is a natural part of the Christian life.  The key to growth is always that we respond to the light we have at this moment, knowing that God never allows us to “skip” truth.  If God is speaking to me about something in my life, it is a point on the line to which He will always take me back if I am to go on with Him in growth and relationship.  If I ever do decide to skip and not listen, I can be sure that He will always bring me back to that issue.  As I respond to that light, I will then receive more.

The principle works in reverse as well.  Those who refuse to respond will not receive more light.  In fact, there is a sense in which those who continue to refuse are becoming more and more blind spiritually.  The more I refuse to respond, the less I am able to see things as they really are.  This is what leads to spiritual deception and death.  This is why it was so urgent for the Corinthians to run to Jesus, and for us to do so now.  Neither pride nor anything else can be allowed to prevent or delay us.  There is too much at stake.  God has so much that He desires to do in us, and, as Paul writes in Philippians 1:6, “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  It is worth repeating that growth is God’s natural design for us.  At every age and every level, God created us to grow.  While we all reach a point of adulthood and may no longer grow physically, it is always true that God has even more spiritual growth in store for us.  It is Satan who comes to steal, kill, and destroy --- to deceive us and lead us to spiritual death.  Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).  If we will continue to respond to Him, there will ALWAYS be more light that comes and brings further growth.  Such growth in Him is not only normal in His kingdom, it is one of the great joys of the kingdom.

Engage

All of this truth of responding and living in the light is so important to Paul that it is something he will speak about all the time.  When we look at verse 15, we find that he uses two different words to refer to communication.  “I SPEAK as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I SAY.”  The reason that these words look different in English is that they are translations of two different Greek words.  It is unclear to me as of yet what the significance is of using these two different Greek words.  However, they are both in the present tense.  One thing this means for sure is that Paul is going to continue talking about this matter of responding and living in the light and he is going to find any way he can to communicate it.  It is urgent.  This is why he instructs the Corinthians to “judge” for themselves what he is saying on this matter.  When we look at the definition of this word in the Greek and the way it is used in the New Testament, the general sense of what it means to “judge” is for someone to give serious thought and to come to a decision.  As I pondered that concept, one word that came to mind was the word “engage.”  “To engage” in something is to get actively involved.  It means to “get in gear” or to “get going.”  It is the opposite of being laid back and detached.  To “engage” in something means that I am really into it.  Think back to a classroom in school when you were young.  Remember that there were different “types” of students who had different “approaches” or purposes for being there in class.  There was the class clown.  There was the kid who slept through class.  There were the socialites --- those who loved to go to school because they got to see their friends.  There was the kid who was only there because he or she had to be --- just fulfilling requirements.  And then there was the kid who was really engaged.  This student often sat up close to the front by choice.  This student came prepared for class, answered questions, and was always ready to learn something new.  He or she was engaged.  A couple of things were true about the engaged kids.  First of all, they were often made fun of or thought of as nerds, geeks, or misfits.  Secondly, however, the engaged kids were the ones who always got what we were there to learn.

If life is a spiritual classroom, which student am I in regard to my attitude to what God wants to teach me at this moment?  It becomes clear from the Bible that this life is not the end, but only the beginning of eternity.  In one sense, our years here are a training camp for what heaven holds in store.  If we miss it here, how can we be ready for it there?  For this reason, God is continually wanting to reveal more and more of Himself to us in this lifetime --- so that we may see Him and also that we may see things as they really are.  C.S. Lewis wrote a wonderful allegory called The Great Divorce in which some people, after arriving in heaven, decided to turn back because they could not accept things as they were there.  This is the urgency of responding and walking in the light right now, so that we may know Him and be prepared for eternity with Him.

There have been times in the history of the church that were called a time of “awakening.”  The name fairly accurately describes what happened in those times.  People responded to truth, woke up out of their spiritual state of “sleeping in class,” and saw things in a way that they had not seen before --- the way things really are.  This is exactly what the Corinthians were in need of as Paul wrote to them.  In some ways they had been sleeping in class, or perhaps just being the socialites.  Whatever the case, they were not seeing things the way they really were.  They had allowed themselves to be deceived and were being led into spiritual danger --- even involvement with demons.  It was time for them to wake up.  They needed an awakening.  Is that not what we really need in our world?  Is it not what we need in our nation?  Even as I watch the current cycle of politics, and the arguments begin anew about which candidate or party will “save” the nation, we must realize there is only One who will save us.  It is another great awakening that we need.  What we need in our churches is not great methods, facilities, or finances.  We desperately, desperately need an awakening.  More than anything I can give them, my family needs an awakening.

But what if that awakening never happens in the world, my nation, church, or family?  What can I do about that?  How can I bring it about?  There is one thing I can do.  If I am open, there can be an awakening in my own life, which may be what prompts an awakening in others.  If I will respond to Jesus, and walk in the light He is bringing to me, I can see Him more and more.  And as I see Him more, I will begin to see things more as they really are, viewing people and situations more through His eyes.  The most wonderful thing about this kind of awakening is that it never has to end!  I can live with Him in an ever-increasing awakening and revelation of Him.  How do I have that?  Awakenings come by running to Him and responding with all my heart, without delay or fear of consequence.  In truth, I am only running to a Jesus who is already running after me.  And I am responding to the One who has come to live inside of me and who knows how to speak to me.  Will I listen and engage?  Would I be willing to be the one who is thought of as a geek, nerd, or misfit?  Yet, the engaged ones are those who will experience awakening.  Which kid in the classroom am I and will I be?

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION

1.       How would it change my approach to prayer today and what I pray for if Paul’s prayers (such as Eph. 1:15ff and Col. 1:9-11) were my focus?

2.       What is the last clear “light” that I had from Jesus to which I responded?  Is He still speaking to me about the same thing, or is there something new He is speaking to me about now?  Remember that growth is His plan.

3.       Which kid am I in the spiritual classroom of this life?  Which do I desire to be?

4.       Is there an awakening happening in my life?  Do I desire for there to be?  Ask Him for that now.

Repent

1 Corinthians 10:16

Jesus, our everything

In verse 16, Paul presents the next crucial essential for the Corinthians to be able to recognize and understand the spiritual reality of their situation.  He has spoken to them about running to Jesus in urgent response and the need for being engaged, which leads to an awakening.  Now, he clearly re-emphasizes the concept that Jesus is everything for us.  In some ways, it is a call to simply return to the fundamentals.  It seems that a call back to fundamentals is always a helpful and vital thing in any aspect of life.  One thing that immediately comes to mind is sports.  Even professional athletes at the highest level of their sport have to always go back and review fundamentals --- the basic things that they were taught when they first began.  Professional teams gather for “training camp” before the actual season begins so that these very skilled players can practice together again on the fundamentals.  Successful businesses and organizations seem to have a clear focus on doing a few basic things right --- the fundamentals.  Military personnel review and practice the basics over and over again --- for their lives may depend upon it.  It is no surprise, then, that the Apostle Paul calls the Corinthians back to the basics if they are to experience an awakening in their lives.  This seems to be an important point to be learned by the church for all times.

The main thing that is made clear in verse 16 is an absolute focus on the person of Jesus.  “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?  The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”  The tone of the verse is that everything is tied to Jesus.  He is the theme.  He is the overarching purpose and content.  He is our everything.  It is as if to say, “We don’t have anything to talk about or focus upon except Jesus.”  What if this was true for us?  What if we didn’t really have anything to talk about except Jesus?  It is a fact of life that we talk about whatever is important to us.  It is our desire that Jesus would continue to grow so big in our lives that He overshadows everything else.  As the old hymn says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus; look full in His wonderful face; and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”  It seems to be true that the older we get, and the longer we walk with Jesus, the less important other things become.  In the crisis moments of life --- those times where we are hit with the temporary nature of our existence here in this world --- we tend to forget about the small and passing things and tend to look to all that really matters: Jesus and our relationship with Him.  What if His presence and an awareness of Him could permeate our lives and every thought in such a way that I was aware of Him in every situation and conversation?  Could I be so aware of Him that I would be constantly turning my heart toward Him with a love for Him and sensitivity to His thoughts, desires, and direction?

This reality of Jesus permeating our lives is reinforced through the particular language of verse 16.  Notice the emphasis on the “blood” and “body” of Christ.  Through expressions like these, Paul strongly communicates to the Corinthians that we are not talking about an idea, a concept, or a philosophy.  The ancient Greeks were a people of “ideas” and philosophies.  Theirs was a culture in which they loved to debate and discuss abstract thoughts.  One thing that Paul strongly states here, as a fundamental, is that we are talking about the actual, living Person of Jesus.  He is the one with whom we are interacting.  In fact, that interaction comes to life through the word “communion,” which Paul uses twice in the verse.  This word is a translation of the Greek word koinonia.  The essence of koinonia is all about relationship and complete involvement.  It is the picture of two or more individuals who have made a decision to be “all-in” on something.  Marriage is, perhaps, the single best illustration of this.  A man and a woman decide for their lives to be united.  It is no longer “mine” and “yours,” but it is now “ours.”  It is the same with a business partnership.  The underlying concept is complete involvement.  This is what Jesus desires with us and offers to us.  It is not a long-distance relationship in which He gives some orders from on-high and I do my best to carry them out.  He is offering to come and live within me and to be completely involved in my life as I surrender it to Him.  It is a relationship of intimacy, closeness, and moment-by-moment fellowship as I respond to Him and He responds to me.  I belong to Him, and He belongs to me.  This relationship is the very most basic fundamental that Paul is communicating in the letter to the Corinthians.  It is what he was expressing when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19:  “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”  This is the theme verse of the entire letter and reveals the answer to every situation the Corinthians faced.  Jesus desires to live inside of them and demonstrate Himself through them in every situation.  He is not an idea or a philosophy.  He is a real, actual, “flesh and blood” person, who is coming to live in their flesh and blood by His Spirit.  As He was revealed to the world in His own flesh through the Incarnation, so He desires to now reveal Himself through their bodies (like Wal-Mart evangelism --- and every other area of life).

Communion with Him is the fundamental of Christianity.  He is the basic training which we need to return to again and again.  He is certainly our “distinctive” in Christianity --- what makes us who we are.  He is the New Testament message.   Apart from Him, we easily lose the reality of what it really means to be a Christian.  He is our everything, and He is worthy of our constant focus.  We must run to Jesus!  I must beware of anything --- anything at all --- that replaces or distracts me from Him.  Is there anything in my life that is distracting me?

Irreplaceable

The Corinthians had, indeed, become distracted from the main thing --- which is Jesus and His indwelling presence.  One thing that clouded matters for the Corinthians (which always happens when we get away from the fundamental of Jesus) is that their distraction seemed like something acceptable or legitimate to them.  In this case, their distraction was their participation in idol feasts at the pagan temples.  This kind of activity was a most common thing in their culture.  I like to say that, to the Greeks living in this time and place, it would be as common as us going to McDonald’s or Wal-Mart.  “What could be wrong with that?  Everyone does it, and you would be considered ‘strange’ if you did not.”  This was apparently the mindset of those to whom Paul is writing.  Yet, it was this very thing, which seemed “OK,” that was distracting them from what really mattered --- Jesus and their communion with Him.  In what way do I allow similar things in my own life?  Are there any things, activities, involvements, or relationships in my life that might be considered by everyone around me to be “normal,” but that are really distracting me from Jesus?

The main problem is that such distractions do not merely remain distractions.  They have a way of becoming replacements.  This was the great danger for the Corinthians with the idol feasts.  The context and the way in which verse 16 is stated suggest a comparison/contrast that should have caught the attention of the Corinthians.  The comparison/contrast is between the Lord’s Supper that was celebrated by Christians over against the pagan feasts.  There were actually many parallels between them.  When the pagan priest sacrificed to the god or goddess and served the meal, the belief was that the actual presence of that deity came to be with and in those eating the meal.  It is believed that many such meals celebrated the drinking of “the cup,” and that there was often significance to the blood of the sacrifice and the drinking of that cup as connected with the life of the deity.  It is interesting in verse 16 that Paul mentions the cup first, when the bread is before the cup in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.  Some commentators believe that the significance of this is to bring out the comparison/contrast with the pagan feast and the cup served there.  The underlying emphasis is that what we celebrate in the Lord’s Supper --- Jesus actual presence in us and our communion with Him --- is the real and legitimate, while everything else is an imitation and replacement.  It is and always has been Satan’s method to counterfeit what is of God and attempt to replace Him.  This pursuit of Satan is recorded beginning in Genesis chapter 3.  Lest we question Satan’s involvement in this circumstance in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, we need only look down to verses 20-21 to see Paul’s strong reference to demonic presence in the pagan feasts.  It seems that Satan often accomplishes deception by making the counterfeit seem to be good, legitimate, reasonable, normal (what everyone is doing), acceptable, or “close enough” (containing enough partial truth to make something seem valid).  This is what some of the Corinthians were being sucked into by participating in the idol feasts.  They were unknowingly accepting the counterfeit (demonic) while being distracted from the irreplaceable.  This is always the nature of idolatry.  It is a pursuit of something or someone besides Jesus to meet a need in our lives.  Satan’s strategy is that Christians would eventually forsake Jesus in favor of what seems to be an acceptable or “close enough” replacement.  The nature of distractions is that, like weeds, they will grow persistently until they take over.  Paul’s urging is that the Corinthians would run back to the irreplaceable Jesus.  It is only in seeing and knowing Him clearly that they will be able to recognize that He is the one irreplaceable and that everything else --- even the seemingly “normal” --- is the counterfeit.  It is only in seeing this that they will experience the awakening in Him that they so desperately need.

Have I been allowing any “weeds” in my life that have been growing and overtaking my communion with Jesus?  Maybe it has been a thing, activity, attitude, involvement, or relationship that maybe seemed justifiable.  This is a highly important truth.  The culture and experience of the Corinthians told them that the idol feasts were normal, and that anyone who did not participate in something like this was abnormal.  “What could possibly be wrong with it?”  Yet, all the time it was a deadly spiritual danger to them because it was a distraction and threat to replace Jesus in their lives.  Could there be any such thing in my life to which I need awakened?

Repentance

What are we to do about this?  The answer for us is the same that Paul was urging for the Corinthians:  run to Jesus and respond to Him with urgency!  It is only in Him that awakening takes place.  While this message of running to Jesus in response and experiencing awakening in Him may sound very basic and simple, that is Paul’s exact point in verse 16 particularly.  That is why he poses verse 16 in the form of a question.  “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?  The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”  Do you ever remember your parents asking you a question, but it was really a statement?  I have done the same with my children.  I will ask my son something like, “Haven’t we talked about this before?” I am not really asking him a question.  I am really telling him, “We have talked about this before!”  That is what Paul is doing here.  He uses the form of a question throughout his letter to the Corinthians as a dramatic device to point out something that is or should be common knowledge.  Paul’s general purpose in writing in the form of a question is to say, in essence, “This is something that you should know or at least need to know!”  Paul’s consistent message was always Jesus and his resourcing in our lives through the presence of His Spirit.  We can easily imagine that this would have been his daily emphasis when he lived with the Corinthians for eighteen months on his second missionary journey.  It is as if he is writing verse 16 here as a reminder of what he commonly shared with them previously.  “Remember when we talked about this before?  Is it not still true?  Let’s get back to basics!”  Paul’s plea with the Corinthians is simple:  awakening is in running to Jesus and turning away from any replacement or distraction from Him.  Let’s get back to basics.  Let’s get back to Jesus and having intimate communion with Him!

What a simplistic concept this could have sounded like to the Corinthians from the perspective of their Greek culture.  They prided themselves in wisdom, and the ability of humanity to figure out and engineer whatever needed to be accomplished.  Some could have mocked this kind of “revival” concept of getting back to the simplicity of Jesus as outdated, unnecessary, or downright foolish.  “We’ve grown beyond that.”  It would be disastrous for us to take that view in any way in our modern times.  We must realize that awakening and revival are always the result of getting back to the one thing that matters.  Far from being simplistic or outdated, it is crucial to our spiritual survival individually and as a church.  This is why the Apostle Paul was always, always, always coming back to Jesus in all things.  It is important to pay careful attention when studying his letters.  What can often seem to be some kind “to do” list in one of Paul’s letters really goes back to Jesus and what it looks like to let Him be the source of our lives.  It is always about Him.  There is actually something freeing about just getting back to the simplicity of Jesus.  I have often thought of the illustration of playing golf, and I know I have shared it on other occasions.  Golf has always tended to be one of the most frustrating experiences of life for me.  What makes golf so difficult is that you really must do many things correctly at exactly the same time if you want to hit a good shot.  If only one of those things goes wrong, then so goes that shot.  Anyone who has played golf can relate to this.  When Christianity becomes a pursuit of getting a whole bunch of things right all at the same time, it becomes frustrating or even despairing.  When it is all about Him, there is joy and all the fruit of the Spirit.  It is no longer about us getting it right, but about Him living in us and us responding to His moving in our lives.  This is the one thing that matters!

If I am going to keep coming back to this one thing --- back to Him --- it is going to involve repentance.  Repentance is one of those words we can sometimes tend to fear because of a stigma that may be attached to it.  We may think that repentance is for those who are evil or have committed quite awful and explicit sins.  Yet, if Christianity is always about coming back to Him --- back to the one focus --- would not repentance and forgiveness be for all of us?  For, what Christian has not been distracted?  Who among us has not gotten wrapped up in other “good” things and forgotten His presence?  Who does not still have some “weeds” in the garden that can grow bigger if we let them?  Far from repentance being a shame, it is actually a key part of our growth.  Jesus is going to expose and reveal the distractions, counterfeits, replacements, and weeds in our lives.  He does not do so out of anger, but out of love.  He knows the things in our lives that will keep our focus off of Him and will hinder our growth if not worse.  It may never be easy to have our attention brought to these things in our lives.  In fact, Hebrews 12:11 describes it quite vividly.  “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”  What a great promise this is.  It tells us that growth and every good thing that God has to offer come as result of our response to Him in repentance.  Christianity is a lifelong process of walking in Jesus and the light that He brings to us.  He reveals; we respond.  It is a walking in His light in our lives.  That is the awakening, and it is possible to keep living in that if we will keep responding.

I have always had difficulty recognizing weeds, which has always been a point of humor in our family.  I have especially faced this difficulty when taking care of the lawn at the home of my in-laws.  They have always liked flowers and different plants.  I, however, have little knowledge of these things and often have difficulty telling the difference between a plant and a weed.  After having worked on a golf course during the summers during seminary, I enjoy weed-eating and making things look nice.  I am famous in our family, however, for mowing down flowers or plants that I thought were weeds, often to the frustration of my family --- which produces further frustration for me!  “How am I supposed to recognize what are legitimate plants and what are weeds?”  I came to the conclusion that there would be only one way to solve the problem.  I could work freely if someone who knows the difference between weeds and flowers would just walk with me and point out the weeds for me.  Then I could just go for it!

I have the same issue in my spiritual life.  I know that I need Jesus more than anything and I don’t want anything to do with any replacements, distractions, or “weeds” in my life.  Yet, it is often hard for me to figure out what are the weeds that are distracting me from Jesus.  I could easily get all bound up in trying to figure it out – filled with guilt and fear.  But He has offered a solution.  The One who is the way, the truth, and the life has offered to live in us and walk with us every moment.  He is the One Paul is talking about in verse 16.  He is the real, flesh and blood Jesus, with whom we can have this moment by moment communion.  He can live in me through His Spirit and point out the weeds in the right time and in a way I can understand.  I don’t need to figure it out or get it right.  All I need to do is to stay attentive to Him and walk in moment-by-moment communion with Him, always responding to Him with urgency.  He is so gracious.  When I get distracted, I can just run to Him again in love and urgent response --- the One who is running after me.  So basic, I know.  Isn’t it great?

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION

1.       If someone close to me were to look at my life, what might he or she say are the basics or fundamentals of my life?  What is my life about?  What do I desire for it to be about?

2.       Are there any weeds or distractions from Jesus that He is revealing in my life at this time?  Am I in a position and attitude ready to receive that?

3.       Take time to write out or to express to Him right now your need of Him moment-by-moment and your need for His moving in your life.  Take time to pray the same for your family and for those close to you.

Resourced

1 Corinthians 10:17

Oneness

To bring our attention to the next crucial essential for awakening to take place in our lives and in the church, Paul describes the oneness that takes place in Jesus Christ.  In verse 17, there is an unmistakable emphasis on the concept of many being one.  “For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.”  It seems significant in the verse that there are four references to “plural,” while there are three references to “singular” in the same verse.  The four plural references are as follows:  the word “many”; the word “all”; and the use of two verbs in the first person plural --- (we) “are,” and (we) “partake.”  The three singular references are each the use of the adjective “one”:  “one bread”; “one body”; “one bread.”  The verse is an amazing mixture of the plural into the singular.  It communicates that there is a “plurality” in the body of Christ --- that there are “many.”  Yet, there is a unity in the plurality.  The many have become one.  Paul emphasizes this same concept later in chapter 12.

“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ (1 Cor. 12:12).”

“Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually (1 Cor. 12:27).”

This truth of oneness in Jesus Christ is a fundamental of the New Testament and Christianity.  It is so fundamental because it is rooted in the Trinity and the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  While they are each individual in personality, forming a “plural,” yet they function as one.  God is three, yet one.  The three persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit operate together in one mind, one heart, and one purpose.  This is the very nature of God, for God is love.  Love is the laying down of one’s life for the other.   It is this love that is the root of all oneness.  The theological depth of this is far beyond what we have space to address here.  Also, it is a mystery --- both in how it works in the Trinity and then among people like us --- that is beyond explanation.  What is important to know in our study is that because this is the nature of God Himself, it becomes the nature of those in whom He dwells.  That is why Jesus shared this so clearly with the disciples.  John chapter 15 is a plain example of this.  To describe the relationship they are to have with Him, Jesus uses the illustration of the vine and the branches.  They are to abide in Him, and He in them.  He will be their complete source, and He will produce His fruit through them.  What will this fruit look like?  The next section of that chapter goes on to describe that fruit as love for one another.  “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends (John 15:12-13).”  Loving one another --- a oneness among the disciples --- will be the fruit of His nature and sourcing in their lives.  The picture of oneness continues powerfully throughout the book of Acts after the coming of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  We see a “one accord” among people that are vastly different in their cultures and backgrounds.  Paul continues this message of oneness in the body of Christ throughout each and every one of his New Testament letters to individuals and churches.  This is an essential in Christianity.

The SOURCE of oneness

When we look at the early church, and even at our own lives, we wonder how such oneness could ever take place among people.  We are so different in our backgrounds, cultures, and preferences.  Yet, the New Testament is abundantly clear on how this oneness takes place.  If we go back to John 15 again, we cannot miss the truth that Jesus is the source of this oneness.  It is only in abiding in the Vine that His fruit is produced in our lives.  The disciples are enabled by His presence and nature within them to love one another and lay down their lives for another.   The book of Acts is the picture of this being lived out in actual, everyday life.  The early church was an assembly of “many” who came together as “one.”  Jesus was their single focus.  He was their only pursuit.  After Pentecost, it was the presence of His Spirit within them that bound them not only to Him, but to each other in a miraculous way.  All of their differences in background, culture, and preferences were overshadowed in the light of who He is, and they were in “one accord.”  It is absolutely clear that this oneness only took place in Jesus --- through His sourcing in their lives and in their constant response to Him.  They were abiding in the Vine, and He brought oneness among the branches.

In the letter of 1 Corinthians, Paul truly reinforces this message.  It is evident that division was one of the big problems that the church faced in Corinth.  A reading of 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 gives a picture of this division.  Paul writes in verses 10 and 11,  “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.  For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.”  This is so important that Paul puts it at the head of the list of the issues that he addresses with the Corinthians in this letter.  He spends the better part of the first four chapters dealing with this problem of division, which is really rooted in their own pride and self-centeredness.  How can a group like this, so divided, possibly have unity?  The beauty of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is that He gives the answer to all the issues in the first 10 verses of the letter.  There are, of course, many issues he will address throughout the letter, but they all come back to this same answer.  That answer is Jesus.  Paul very specifically names Jesus Christ ten times in the first 10 verses.  It is an absolute emphasis on the Person of Jesus.  We have often said that Paul does here what we were taught to do in a speech class when we were in school.  We were taught that a good speech does three things.  An introduction tells them what you are going to say; the body tells them what you are saying; a conclusion tells them what you just said.  In this “introduction,” Paul tells them what he is going to say throughout the entire letter as the answer to every issue.  Jesus is the answer.  How would the problem of division ever be solved in the church at Corinth?  How could they ever have unity?  Jesus is the answer.  If they will respond to Him, He will produce His nature in them --- and that will be evident in their lives through the oneness that Paul describes both in 1 Corinthians 1:10-11 and later in the letter.

One of the places where Paul later describes this oneness --- that is the fruit of Jesus --- is in chapter 10.  Verse 17 obviously recalls the truth of oneness that is so important in this letter (the “many” being “one”).  Once again, we may ask, “How does this oneness take place?”  In the context of chapter 10 the answer, as always, is Jesus.  He is the SOURCE to which Paul is always pointing.  He is the same “spiritual food” and “spiritual drink” for the Corinthians that He was for the Israelites (verses 3-4).  He is their way of escape from temptation (verse 13).  He is their complete source for everything.  That is why we are to run to Him in urgent response (v. 14).  That is why we need to be awakened and ready to receive His spiritual wisdom --- to see Him more clearly and to see through His eyes.  That is why we need to repent of anything at all that distracts us from Him.  In the context of chapter 10, it is this running to Jesus --- the one who is our only SOURCE --- that brings about the oneness described in verse 17.  He is the “one bread” from which we all “partake.”  It is absolutely and abundantly clear again that Jesus is our source and that He is the only way for the many to be one.  We become His body when we partake of the bread, which is HIM.  He is the focus, and we are running to Him together.

This seems to be a crucial truth to which we need to return again and again.  If it was something that Paul continued to emphasize throughout his writing, is it not true that we would need to be reminded of it again and again?  Perhaps the reason for this need is because “oneness” and unity can be such an elusive pursuit in and of itself.  If we are focused on having oneness, there is a good possibility that we will not have it.  It is not the product of human effort.  We have found that it does not necessarily come from spending more time together.  More activities or “fellowship” events do not necessarily bring it about.  Surprisingly, it does not really even come through common interests.  Oneness is purely the fruit of what Jesus can do among a group of people.  It is when individual members are running to Jesus in urgent response that they discover an amazing and even mysterious oneness between them.  Truly it is a mystery that the very nature and atmosphere of God can come to be in not only an individual, but that it can become exponential through a group of people.  This cannot be explained or produced by anything but Jesus.  He is the source.

The Bread of Life

Since the bread --- that is Jesus Himself --- is the main focus of verse 17, there is one more aspect about this bread that stands out.  The Greek word, metexo, which is translated “partake” in verse 17 (“we all partake of that one bread), carries in it the concept of participation or sharing.  It was used in Greek philosophy to speak of the connection and participation between the natural and supernatural world.  This is the exact idea that is conveyed when this same word is used in Hebrews 2:14:

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He himself likewise also PARTOOK of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.  For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendent of Abraham.  Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people (Heb. 2:14-17, NASB).”

These verses in Hebrews strongly communicate the principle of the Incarnation.  In Jesus, God came and became one of us in every way.  While still being fully God, Jesus yet became fully man.  He “partook” of flesh and blood with us.  He was made like us “in all things.”  Jesus was not a theory, an idea, an image, or a phantom --- as some false doctrines taught.  He was and is actual God, come to be in flesh and right where we live in our real, concrete world.  1 John 1:1-3 says:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and OUR HANDS HAVE HANDLED, concerning the Word of life --- the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us --- that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

We did not have to go find God.  He was not an abstract idea or “force” somewhere “out there,” beyond our reach.  He came to us in our concrete reality.  Jesus came wearing our kind of clothes, listening to our kind of music, and eating our kind of food.  He entered our world right where we are to be involved in our lives and to demonstrate the reality of God in the everyday life of our world.

The use of the word, “partake,” in 1 Corinthians 10:17 speaks of the sharing or participation between the supernatural and everyday life that Jesus brings about in those who receive Him and respond to Him.  He will live within our actual bodies and be involved in our day-to-day concrete living.  This is probably the very most important point of 1 Corinthians --- the theme of the letter.  It is that Jesus wants to live within us and to demonstrate Himself through our everyday living right where we are.  We remember the theme verse of the letter in 1 Corinthians 6:19.  “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”  Paul goes back to this as the solution to every issue and situation for the Corinthians.  The question is always, “Since He actually indwells my body, how, then, does Jesus want to demonstrate Himself through my life in this situation?”

This makes sense of the language of partaking of and breaking bread together.  Many times I asked the significance of bread and breaking bread.  Why is it important?  What does it mean?  Why “break” the bread, as is mentioned in verse 16 and “partake” of bread in 17?  One thing that brings light to this is how bread was “handled” in ancient Palestine.  The phrase, “breaking bread,” in verse 16 reflected the common practice of how things were done in the households of the 1st century.  Instead of bread being cut with a knife, the custom was to break bread with the hands and to hand it to people.  This kind of practice can even be seen in the meals where Jesus ate with disciples.  In Mark 6:41, after feeding the multitude, the disciples brought the remaining loaves to Jesus, who “broke” them and “gave” (handed) them to the disciples.  The procedure can be seen in Emmaus in Luke 24:30 when Jesus broke bread and gave it to them.  In the last supper with His disciples, “Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body (Matt. 26:27).’”  John even describes vividly how Jesus gave a piece of bread to Judas (John 13:26).  In his instructions on participating in the Lord’s Supper together, Paul reminds the Corinthians that Jesus took the bread, and, after giving thanks, broke it (1 Cor. 11:24).  We even see this “hands on” manner of breaking and sharing bread in the day-to-day meals that disciples shared with one another, such as in Acts 2:42.

All of this use of the hands with the bread had never struck me before.  But consider the “involvement” of the hands when it comes to bread.  In ancient times all grain was picked by hand.  Grain was made into dough, being kneaded by the hands.  The baked bread is then pulled apart by someone and handed to you, as in the above examples in scripture.  Nearly the entire process of preparation, serving, and eating of bread all involves the hands to a very significant degree.  Without hands, there is no bread.  The bread that you eat is always being touched and handled by someone!  Is it possible that this breaking and sharing of bread in the Lord’s Supper is a “built-in” reminder from God of the principle of the Incarnation?  Our lives are always touching others, and He wants to so live in us that He can touch people through us in the concrete realities of life.  No wonder that there are 1,847 references to the hands in the Bible.  We use our hands constantly.  Our hands could possibly be the one part of our body that most closely deals with the everyday matters of life and our interactions with people.  We shake hands to greet someone or to agree to a deal; we wave goodbye; we hold hands with a loved one, give a gentle touch on the shoulder or an encouraging pat on the back; we raise a hand when we know the answer or in demonstration of praise; with our hands we nurture the sick or care for the physical needs of the disabled or injured; with our hands we prepare and serve a meal, and do the dishes afterward!

When I consider how much I use my hands in everyday life, it leads me to ask, “How is Jesus sharing Himself through my hands?”  Because He lives in me, He desires for these hands to be His hands that express who He is.  If Jesus actually lives in my body through His Spirit, does He not actually touch people through my physical hands?  What about my face?  What about my voice?  What about my eyes?  God has really worked in my life in recent years about my tone of voice, especially when speaking to my family.  I have really taken to heart the many things said in the New Testament about our words and how we speak.  Paul writes in Colossians 4:6 to “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt.”  Jesus has been so gracious to make me more aware of this, and I have been so thankful for the growth in my life in this area.  An incident happened recently in which I had to speak to my son about a situation.  As I have been doing, it did it prayerfully and with the awareness of how my voice would sound --- that it would be with grace.  However, afterward, I could tell that he had still been hurt by something.  I asked him what it was that hurt him.  “Was it my voice or the way I spoke to you?”  His reply deeply affected me.  “It wasn’t your voice, dad.  It was the look on your face.”  Time for more growth in dad’s life!  I am thankful again for God’s grace, and for how Jesus can bring about continued growth in our lives as He reveals new things.  I pray that His grace will be conveyed through my face as well as my voice.

Would I allow my entire body to be the temple of His Spirit, and would I stay so aware and responsive to Him that my life could relate His presence in a very real way to those around me at all times?  Consider what this might do in my family.  Consider what it might do in my church, or in any group of people where God has placed me.  I get to be His hands in my day --- the concrete demonstration of the life of God in our everyday world (remember Wal-Mart evangelism).  He becomes more than just the symbolic bread that we break when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together on occasion.  He becomes in me the bread of life that He told His disciples about in John 6.  Could I be the bread distributor where I live?  I get to be a dispenser of the Bread of Life.

Final thoughts on bread and awakening

Two final thoughts are encouraging in this.  If the focus of this verse is on the bread, Jesus, and how He wants to share Himself in and through our lives, then perhaps this says something new about awakening.  At least it is a new perspective for me.  I have always thought of revival or awakening in terms of the size of the movement or the number of people it included.  In my mind, it has always seemed to be a “mass” movement of some kind.  That can and has been a discouraging thing, however.  While I have deep gratitude and appreciation for the mass movements of awakening in the past, I have been frustrated by what seems to be the lack of it in my lifetime.  I have wondered what it would take for us to have a true awakening in the church, and in our nation.  I have searched and wondered what might be the “critical mass” it would take to “tip” the scales.  Yet, I now wonder if I have been looking at it all wrong.  I have been watching the crowd to measure or to detect the awakening.  Perhaps awakening happens in a more quiet way than I have presumed.  Perhaps it is not in the loud, highly visible, and obvious things that it takes place.  Perhaps…perhaps, awakening takes place as the Bread of Life just demonstrates Himself through us in our day-to-day living.  Please don’t misunderstand me.  I am as hungry as anyone for a mass movement that would bring dramatic awakening to the church, our nation, and our world.  Yet, what I am even more in need of is an awakening in my own life --- where I am fed by the Bread of Life alone.  Maybe the awakening is in the quiet distribution of Him through our lives to those around us.  Just being His hands and face and voice right where we are.  What is encouraging about that is that it could be a mass movement --- but it could also just take place quietly one by one where we live.  Surely the moving of Jesus in our lives one-by-one is what leads to the mass movement.  The good news is that, no matter what is happening around us, we can have awakening!

A final encouraging thought is the reminder that He is the source.  I am not the source of anything in my life.  Jesus is the source of everything.  I can depend upon Him for absolutely everything.  We are not speaking of a God who is far away or uninvolved in our situation.  We are speaking of a Jesus who not only came to us where we are, but has come to actually live in us through His Spirit.  He is in our hands, and cares about the day to day situations of our lives.  This is where He wants to demonstrate Himself --- right where we live.  Do you want to have revival in your life?  Give everything to Jesus and depend upon Him fully.  That will bring revival to anyone’s life --- right now.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION

1.       What is the real life situation I face today that most points me to my need for Jesus to live in my and be my resource?

2.       What am I doing in my life today to seek after Him as that one source?

3.       Is there anyone nearby that needs me to share Him --- the Bread of Life --- today?

4.       Are there any areas of my life He is making me aware in which that really needs to take place?  How I use my hands?  My voice?  My face?

Remember

1 Corinthians 10:18

Remember the Word

After emphasizing Jesus as our source, which produces oneness, Paul builds on that in verse 18 by again bringing the Corinthians a reminder of Israel.  Since we are “all in this together” in Christ Jesus, it is good to recognize that we are also “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses” who have gone before us (Hebrews 12:1), and that we can learn from this heritage.  The first 13 verses of this chapter were based on Israel.  Paul used the history of the Israelites as a mirror by which the Corinthians could see themselves.  He now goes back to Israel’s history again here in order to communicate another strong element of awakening.  “Observe Israel after the flesh:  Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?”  The key idea seems to be the act of remembering.  There are three different aspects of this that make remembering a vital element of awakening.

We recognize the first aspect of remembering by the fact that Paul again mentions Israel here as if it should be something that is familiar to these Corinthians.  It is the same manner he used in speaking of Israel in verses 1-11 of this same chapter.  He talks about the Israelite history almost as if it would be something of common knowledge to the readers of this letter.  This is surprising if we think about it.  Many or even most of those in the Corinthian church were Gentiles.  It is likely that many Gentile people would have little or no knowledge of the history of Israel, at least not at the depth in which Paul is speaking about.  If this is the case, how and why could Paul speak so freely about Israel and use it as an example in such detail?  The answer is in Paul’s first visit to Corinth on his second missionary journey.  We find in this account, in Acts 18, that Paul stayed with the Corinthians for eighteen months, “teaching the Word of God among them.”  The picture we receive of this year and a half visit is of Paul immersing these people in the Word.  If Paul followed his normal pattern, he would have been finding times to share with whomever was available at whatever times were available whenever he was available!  One clue to what he shared with them is found in the references he makes in 1 Corinthians 10:1-10.  If we follow these references to the Old Testament, we find ourselves mostly in the books of Exodus and Numbers.  It is safe to assume from this that these books served as the basis of Paul’s teaching to the Corinthians during those months.  We can imagine that the Corinthians had an eighteen-month saturation in the books of Exodus and Numbers during Paul’s stay with them!  This explains why Paul can speak of this history of Israel in such a familiar tone to the Corinthians.  This is what they had gone over before.  Exodus and Numbers, if not the entire Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible), were the Word of God that he taught among them (Acts 18:11).

As Paul now discusses the need for awakening in the lives of the Corinthians in this middle portion of chapter 10, he again recalls Israel and what they learned from the Word.  This is a crucial aspect of remembering that is vital to awakening.  In short, it may be simply said:  “Remember the Word!”  The Word of God has always been and always will be a key to spiritual awakening.  We see this consistent truth when we look at the history the church since the time of the apostles.  Whenever God’s people have drifted from His Word or become relaxed about the Word in their lives, a spiritual stagnation or deadness has resulted.  Whenever God’s people get back to the Word, revival comes.  Every awakening in the history of Christianity has happened at a time when there was a return to focus on the Word.  This is a timeless dynamic that never fails.  This may sound foolish to the world, and it may be impossible to explain.  Yet, it is real, and has been experienced by Christians across the centuries.  This is why Paul calls the attention of the Corinthians back to the Word, and it is why it is crucial for us to keep coming back to the Word.

This is all true because of the relationship between Jesus and the Word of God.  The written Word is the expression of the Living Word.  When we want to see and know the Living Word, Jesus, we go to the written Word.  Whenever we come to the written Word truly seeking, we are going to experience a revelation of the Living Word.  Therefore, when we come to the Word we are not talking about merely emphasizing a book.  We are talking about the intense desire to know Jesus.  We come to the Word not to find mere information or to support a doctrine.  We come with the simple and earnest motive of wanting to know Him more --- to grow in intimacy with Him and for Him to become greater in our lives.  Whenever we approach the Word with any other motive, our expectations fall short.  We will become bored, frustrated, or disappointed.  However, there is a supernatural dynamic that can take place in the heart and life of any believer who comes to the Word just wanting Jesus.  He will reveal Himself to the sincere and earnest seeker, regardless of his or her ability or level of education.  That is why we see this taking place across the centuries with such varied groups of people.  Revival came to 18th century England among the poorest and least educated people in that society.  But it was clear that John Wesley was a “man of one book.”  Skevington Wood writes, “The sermons that changed a nation came straight from the Book of books.”

The exciting and encouraging thing is that anyone can experience this awakening in his or her life.  We can begin to look to the Word and earnestly seek Jesus.  It does not need to be a legalistic pursuit in which I am keeping track of my time involvement and feeling guilty when I don’t measure up.  Neither does there need to be a pressure for it to be a strongly academic pursuit.  What Jesus is most interested in is relationship and being a part of our lives in everything.  Couldn’t we just begin to remember His Word and make it a part of our daily lives in everything we do?  We all dwell on various things.  We all “remember” something throughout our day.  We all “look” at various things.  What if we could just begin to look at the Word?  What if we could just begin to remember the Word in our lives?  What if we just asked Jesus to make His presence known to us through the Word in our daily lives?  There is absolutely no doubt that I would begin to experience awakening in my life as a result.

Remember our heritage

In addition to remembering the Word, it is clear in verse 18 that Paul is urging the Corinthians to remember what we might call their heritage.  It is extremely clear in the context of 1 Corinthians 10 that Paul’s intent is for the Corinthians to learn from Israel’s history.  In the first 10 verses of this chapter, Paul summarizes some of the history of Israel (a review of what he taught them during his eighteen-month stay there a few years prior to this writing) and, in a sense, presents it as the history of the Corinthians as well.  We note in verse 1 that he writes:  “Moreover, BRETHREN, I do not want you to be unaware that all OUR FATHERS were under the cloud, all passed through the sea.”  The verse has a “family” tone to it.  It is like someone sitting down with the other family members to share the family history.  We also note, then, that Paul plainly states in both verses 6 and 11 that these things are “examples” for the Corinthians.  The entire sense around chapter 10 is that the Corinthians have a spiritual heritage, and that the Israelites were their ancestors.  This holds a great opportunity for the Corinthians as well as a great challenge.

Remembering history is a positive and valuable thing for everyone.  The old quote attributed to Edmond Burke states, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”  I so wish that I had paid more attention in history when I was growing up.  In recent years, especially through the study of God’s Word, I have learned the value of history and of looking back.  We learn and gain so much when we can understand where “we” have been.  What a great opportunity this was for the Corinthians.  They were given the gift of having someone go before them.  Someone had already been down this road and suffered through the mistakes and wrong choices.  By seeing what Israel had gone through and experienced, the Corinthians could learn and not make the same wrong choices.  They could save themselves a lot of heartache and unnecessary pain by reaping from what their ancestors learned.  It is a wise person who learns from those who have gone before instead of having to re-learn everything all over again by himself or herself.  Think of how far “down the road” we can be when we are willing to receive in this way.

Is this not God’s design in family and heritage?  His design is that each generation can stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before.  Jesus can be poured from one generation into the next and then from that one into the next.  We have seen the exponential effect that takes place across the generations of a godly family.  Likewise, we have seen the deterioration and depravation that takes place across the generations of a family that rejects God.  God’s plan is that Jesus, the bread of life, can be handed down from generation to the next as that family’s heritage.  This was the purpose behind the laws and festivals that God established for His people in the Old Testament.  It was all about remembering.  There is something powerful about remembering and having a heritage --- about knowing who you are.  Consider the spiritual heritage of many of those in the Corinthian church before they accepted Jesus Christ.  They had come from homes or families that worshiped idols for generations.  Maybe some had no family at all.  They were lost in life.  No heritage.  Little to remember.  Belonging nowhere.  The truth Paul presents here is precious to anyone who grew up without a godly heritage.  The message is that “You belong.”  You now have a family and a heritage.  The New Testament is brimming with this truth.

“Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.  He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:12-14).”

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you (1 Peter 1:3-4).”

While this message of having a heritage is so precious, it is also a challenge to the Corinthians.  The challenge for them was fueled by their pride.  While Paul is clear in the first ten verses of the letter that Jesus is the one answer to everything, he also keeps coming back to one issue that seems to be the constant problem for the Corinthians:  pride and arrogance.  In the earlier chapters of the letter, Paul uses the term “puffed up” or arrogant to describe the tone and attitude of the Corinthians.  Their culture was full of this pride and “can-do” mind-set, from their philosophy to their athletics.  It permeated every aspect of life, and it is evident in Paul’s letter that it had even invaded the church.  This attitude of self-sufficiency can be detected in verses like 1 Corinthians 4:7:  “For who makes you differ from one another?  And what do you have that you did not receive?  Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”  They considered themselves to be superior, with no need for anyone or anything else.  They supposed that everything they had was the product of their own doing --- of their own wisdom and ability.

For anyone with this attitude, it is difficult to receive or learn anything from anyone else.  This was obviously the case when Paul brought up the “example” of Israel in chapter 10.  I can only imagine the response of the Corinthians when Paul began using the illustrations from the Old Testament.  “What do you have to bring up them for?  What can we possibly learn from them?”  It was clearly for this reason that Paul did not back off from this in his presentation in chapter 10, but instead went right at it.  He is bold to say both in verses 6 and 11 that these things were “examples” for the Corinthians.  Then, anticipating their response, he boldly writes verse 12:  “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”  Paul is strongly and urgently warning them against the trap of self-sufficiency and the sense of superiority.  It is a consistent biblical principle that “pride goes before destruction (Prov. 16:18).”  Paul is pleading with them, as a loving spiritual father, to receive and learn from the heritage God has given to them.  “Just die to your pride and listen!”

I vividly remember my attitude of arrogance as a teenager.  At that time in my life, I just knew there was nothing I could receive or learn from my parents.  Even after I was saved at the age of 17, I carried that attitude with me in varying degrees.  As a ministerial student in college and seminary I sometimes just “endured” teachers instead of really being there to receive.  I have to confess that I sometimes even had a mind-set of superiority as I set out into full-time ministry.  I truly thank God today for every humbling experience he has brought into my life to expose this attitude.  I am thankful for the graciousness of all the people who put up with me over the years, and for our gracious God who is continuing to sand off the rough edges in my life.  How many times have I missed something valuable because I was stuck in my pride?  How many times have I disregarded wisdom because I thought I had my own?  How often have I thrown away the treasure of heritage in favor of my own self-sufficiency?  In His loving and gracious way, perhaps God is saying to me, “Just die to your pride and listen!”  What is the heritage He has placed before me?  What would He teach me today?

Remember the connections

The final thing to remember from verse 18 is what we might call “connections.”  Paul is using the history of Israel --- the heritage --- the show something to Corinthians.  What is he saying to them through this heritage?  It is evident from the grammar of verse 18 that Paul is taking something from Israel’s heritage that is a basic principle applying to people of all times.  Note how Paul refers to Israel, but then states the “principle” in the present tense.  “Observe Israel after the flesh:  Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?”  The two verbs in that phrase, “eat” and “are,” both are in the present tense.  When Paul refers to Israel in the earlier parts of the chapter, he uses past tense verbs.  By using present tense verbs in this statement, he is stating a universal principle that always applies.

This principle becomes clear from breaking down two particular words in the Greek language.  Many Greek words are constructed by adding different prefixes (beginnings) or suffixes (endings) onto a root word.  It is similar to Tinker Toys or Legos.  When we look at Greek words in this way, we can often see what is more difficult to recognize in the English translation.  There are times when, in Greek, we can see a “play on words” or a strong connection between two words.  These kinds of connections are not accidental.  They are planned, and they communicate something.  In the Greek, the word translated “sacrifices” is thusia.  The word “altar” is a translation of the Greek word thusiastarion.  One can see that the second word is a really the same as the first word, with a suffix added on to the end.  The suffix which has been added is (s)tario (the “a” is long sound).  This suffix expresses the idea of something being the instrument or means of an action.   This is what gives us the actual meaning of the word “altar.”  An altar is what is used as the instrument or means of making a sacrifice.  What Paul is pointing out to the Corinthians is the connection between the altar and the sacrifice, between the “means” and the “end.”  This has great importance in the subject he is discussing with the Corinthians.  There is a universal, timeless principle at work here.  There is a strong connection between the act of the sacrifice and the result of the sacrifice itself.  As Paul says in verse 18, “Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?”  The word “partaker” here is the Greek word, koinonos, meaning “partner.”  When you eat of the food that was sacrificed on an altar, it is as if you participated in the actual sacrifice event itself.  You cannot separate the two.

This has strong application for the Corinthians who were participating in the idol feasts, and it really provides the basis of what Paul is going to say in the following verses.  In this letter, we find that the Corinthians are often prone to separate things.  For example, in chapter 5, the Corinthians were looking the other way when there was sexual immorality taking place among their membership.  Paul speaks strongly against this and rebukes the entire church for this.  His reasoning is that there is a connection in the body of Christ.  “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump (1 Cor. 5:6)?”  Therefore, he goes on to instruct them how to deal with this situation so they can be pure.  In chapter 6, we find that some of the men are going to visit harlots during the week and coming to church on Sunday as if everything was alright.  They based this disconnected activity on the belief that the spiritual life and the physical life are separate, and have nothing to do with one another.  Paul’s entire point of chapter 6, which carries over into the remainder of the letter, is that the physical and the spiritual ARE connected and affect one another!  The theme verse of 1 Corinthians 6:19 boldly states this principle.  In chapters 8-10, in this situation involving the eating of idol sacrifices, we can easily see the Corinthians falling into this same error.  We can imagine them saying something like, “I am only eating the food that was sacrificed, but I had nothing to do with the sacrifice to the pagan god.”  Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 10:18 is simple and clear.  You cannot separate the sacrifice from the altar.  If you are eating the food, then you are a participant in the sacrifice itself.  It is like you were there in the ceremony itself, whether you were physically present or not.  You cannot separate the means and the end.  Everything is connected!

Is there any way I could be doing this kind of “disconnecting” in my life?  It sometimes could seem easy to separate things instead of seeing the spiritual connection between them.  If things “seem” to turn out OK or have a “good” purpose, I could almost turn a blind eye toward what may have been a less than holy “instrument or means” for getting there.  Perhaps I can sometimes find a way to reason around or justify something that I know isn’t completely in line with what would be pleasing to God.  “It turned out OK.”  “I had nothing to do with the bad part of it.”  “I wasn’t there.”  “It wasn’t me who was doing the talking.”  Satan will offer many excuses for us.  But God sees and knows the connection, and He deeply cares about every detail of our lives.  He wants to be in every word, thought, and activity.

This is an extremely strong and integral part of the message of the New Testament.  It is the concept of holiness.  Holiness is the very nature of God Himself.  He is pure, consistent, and blameless in all He is and does.  He is love.  There will never be a time in which God acts or speaks in a way that differs from who He is.  His actions always match His Word; in a manner of speaking, God’s “walk” always matches His “talk.”  We see this so clearly in the life of Jesus.  This is not something God “tries” to do.  It is just who He is.  One of the wonders of Christianity is that this holy God wants to live within us.  The same mighty God who dwelt in the holy of holies of the Old Testament tabernacle and temple wants to make us His temple.  We are to be the actual temples of the Holy Spirit:  the living Spirit of Jesus Christ.  God desires to be in intimate relationship with us and to demonstrate Himself through us in all of life.  That is Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians.  He takes every issue that the Corinthians had brought to his attention, and addresses those issues through the lens of holiness.  The question in each circumstance is:  How does Jesus want to live in us and demonstrate Himself through us in this situation?  As my son and I were reading in Ephesians together recently, we were both really struck by the words of chapter 1, verse 4:  “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”  That has always been His plan --- always!  Think of the awesome reality of being chosen by God and getting to be the “temple” through which God demonstrates His presence and holiness in our world!  This means that we will take on His purity, consistency, and blamelessness.  We realize that we have many weaknesses and human limitations, and that we are all in the process of growth.  He perfects our hearts in surrender, and then takes a lifetime to work that out in every area of our lives!  Yet, holiness means that there is an increasing consistency with God’s nature and His Word that is obvious in the life of a Christian.  The “walk” matches the “talk.”  It is not something we have to “try” to do, but just find ourselves being.

I admit that I did not enjoy geometry class in high school.  But one concept that has since stood out is the principle of congruity.  Congruity, or congruence, means that two objects are so identical that when you overlay them, it appears that there is only one object.  For instance, if two triangles were congruent, and if we laid one over the top of the other, they would match so perfectly that it would appear as if there was only one triangle.  That is the essence of what holiness is about.  It means that there is a congruity between God’s Word and our lives.  Who we are and how we live --- in the reality of day-to-day life --- is a demonstration of who He is and how He lives.  Jesus is so permeating our lives that He is producing His walk in us.  People around us may know that we are imperfect and have weakness.  Yet, they see something of a congruency between the walk and the talk.  It is that congruency that is the greatest evangelistic appeal we have in our world today.  The world will not really be won by clever slogans, programs, or high-polished presentations.  What will eventually (we have to think of ourselves as missionaries) will win people to Jesus will be His holiness and how they see the congruency of that in our lives.

God is so displeased with sin, incongruity and disconnection in our lives for two reasons.  First, it misrepresents Him.  If consistency in the Christian life is the greatest evangelistic appeal we have in our day, then incongruity is the factor that drives the most people away.  There is no greater turnoff to Christianity than when someone who is not a believer sees spiritual disconnect in the life of someone who claims to be a believer.  They saw someone whose walk did not match the talk.  This was such a strong point that Paul was making to the Corinthians.  Their lives were not their own, and it was crucial that their behavior not become a “stumbling block” for others, particularly for those who are the “weak (see 1 Cor. 8:9-13).”  This matter was of the utmost importance to Paul, and he considers it a spiritual life or death issue.  Equally as crucial, and the second reason why God is so displeased with sin, incongruity, and disconnection, is that such behavior opens us to spiritual influences and bondage that are far stronger than we can understand.  We are in spiritual danger anytime we attempt to live outside of Jesus and participate in anything that is not of Him.  Paul is strong in this passage to say that the Corinthians’ partaking in the idol food was really a fellowship with demons.  Could there be any such thing in my life that is a source of bondage?  Could there be anything in my life that has not been pleasing to God?

Two things are very certain.  First, God will be gracious to reveal anything that is displeasing to Him, especially when we are seeking and open toward Him.  He will not be hard or harsh.  He will be kind and loving in the process of correction.  The writer to the Hebrews reminds us:  “Whom the Lord LOVES He chastens, and scourges every son whom He RECEIVES (Heb. 12:6).”  Remember that He has chosen us.  His plan has always been to be in intimate relationship and for us to be the display of His presence and holiness.  His love for us surpasses knowledge, and His grace is sufficient.  I do not have to comb through my life to figure out anything that is displeasing to Him.  I don’t have to identify the weeds!  If I just remain sensitive and responsive to Him, He will not let me miss it.  The more light we respond to, the more we receive.  This is the excitement of Christian growth.  Even though “it is not joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Heb. 12:11).”

The second thing for certain is that the same God who gives us light through Jesus will also be faithful to do the work in us.  He is able to fix whatever He reveals!  He can and will make our lives holy and without blame if we are willing.  We have a powerful and precious promise in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24:  “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”  I don’t know how to make my life consistent and pleasing to Him.  There is a terrible burden in trying to do so.  But, if I will run to Jesus in response and abandonment, He will produce His holiness in and through me.  It is certainly a process that takes place across the months and years as I continue responding, but He is faithful and will do it.  The heart can be perfected in a moment by His work of grace, but holiness permeates the entire being of the saint over a lifetime.  What a relief and encouragement all of this is.  It is more than possible to really know an indwelling Jesus Christ, to be filled with His holiness, to be fully pleasing to Him, and to be His witness in our world.  In fact, the New Testament tells us that we can expect these things for anyone who puts their trust in Him.  This will be the fruit for all those who are experiencing awakening and growth in Christ.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION

1.       What am I doing in my life at this time to specifically remember the Word?

2.       What “heritage” has God placed in my life for me to learn from?  Is there any way in which my pride is keeping me from receiving and learning from others?

3.       Are there any unholy “connections” God is revealing that I need to confess?  Is there any spiritual disconnect or incongruence in my life that God is speaking to?  Will I allow the God of peace to sanctify me completely?  He is faithful, and He also will do it.

Recognize

1 Corinthians 10:19-20

Address to the careless

As Paul begins to really get down to the bottom line of this plea for awakening, he speaks in extremely plain terms about the reality of the situation in which Corinthians have allowed themselves to be.  It is imperative that they recognize what is actually going on in this idol feasts instead of remaining blind to the spiritual danger.  In short, they need a complete attitude adjustment that only Jesus can bring.

This is why Paul writes verse 19 in the manner he does.  “What am I saying then?  That an idol is anything or what is offered to idols is anything?”  There are two things that Paul does (literary devices) in this verse that are common for him in writing to the Corinthians.  One of those is to pose questions.  We already noticed that he had done this very thing back in verse 16.  What we found there was that he could have easily written verse 16 as a statement instead of posing it as a question.  Why pose it as a question?  It is for dramatic effect.  Asking a question that is a really a statement is like saying, “You should already know this.”  Paul does this very commonly in this letter.  One of his most common phrases, especially in chapter 6 is, “Do you not know?”  What this really means is, “You should know!”  Paul is now doing the same here again in chapter 10 verse 19.  By posing this in the form of questions, Paul is already alerting the Corinthians to the fact that this is something they should already know.  They knew what to expect when they saw a question from Paul!

A second thing Paul does is verse 19 is to use a method that was common in Greek dramas of their day.  Drama was a large part of the Greek culture, and large crowds regularly gathered in the great amphitheatres or other facilities to watch the Greek plays.  One form of play was a drama in which a single actor played multiple roles.  He or she could portray two characters at once who were having a conversation with one another.  We can easily picture this actor or actress going back and forth speaking each side of the dialogue.  Paul also uses this method in some of his writings to the Corinthians.  For example, a few verses later in 1 Corinthians 10:23 (as also in 6:12), Paul begins with the statement, “All things are lawful for me.”  Paul is here reflecting a statement that is commonly made by the Corinthians --- it was like a motto to them.  They believed that they could do anything they wished as long as they weren’t breaking any laws.  He then answers this statement:  “But all things are not helpful.”  He goes on to do the same thing again in the last half of 10:23 as well as in 6:12.  What we are seeing is Paul quoting the Corinthians first, and then answering their “motto” with his own position.  I believe Paul is doing something of the same thing in 10:19 when he asks the questions, “What am I saying then?  That an idol is anything or that what is offered to idols is anything?”  I believe that Paul is somewhat reflecting the attitude of the Corinthians, if not an actual quote from them.  What we see in this is an attitude among the Corinthians that was asking, “Why are you making such a big deal about idols and what is offered to idols?  What could be wrong with that?”

In all of this --- these literary devices in verse 19 --- what comes clear is an attitude of carelessness among the Corinthians.   In short, they were freely participating in the idol feasts when it was something that they should have been questioning for themselves.  Instead of a seriousness and openness to the possibility that God may be speaking about this, they were consistently demonstrating an attitude that may be best summed up as, “It’s no big deal.”  It is clear throughout Paul’s letter to these Corinthians that this goes to the heart of every issue they were facing.  It was their attitude of carelessness that allowed for division in the church.  It was their attitude of carelessness that allowed them to bring lawsuits against one another.  It was most certainly an attitude of carelessness that created an environment for sexual immorality to take place among Christians and be tolerated within the church.  It was an attitude of carelessness that was weakening their marriages.  And now it was an attitude of carelessness that allowed them to freely participate in idol feasts, which were really demonic worship, without questioning anything.  We can easily picture the Corinthians shrugging their shoulders toward Paul regarding any of these issues and saying, “What’s the big deal?  It’s no problem.”

If we can be sure of one thing it is that such a careless attitude will kill revival and spiritual awakening in anyone’s life.  It is such carelessness that leads to the apathy and spiritual dullness that most needs awakening.  It is always about my attitude and how open I am to Jesus and what He is saying to me through His Word.  Have we not found that attitude is the key in every area of life?  In any school setting, attitude is what makes the difference.  Any teacher will tell us that a student may or may not be the smartest in the class, but that any student can move forward if he or she will come with an attitude of readiness to learn.  Attitude makes all the difference in any workplace.  Where there is a positive attitude among the workers, positive things always happen and it is a pleasant place to work.  I know of coaches who have made the decision to only recruit players who have good character and a positive attitude.  They have found that the benefits of character and attitude far outweigh talent every time.

This is Paul’s point and call to the Corinthians in this passage.  It is a call to an attitude of openness to Jesus and what He is saying to them.  It is this kind of attitude that always leads to spiritual awakening, and cannot fail to do so.  Anyone who comes with such an attitude of openness will have awakening.  So, Paul urging to the Corinthians is for them to be open to an attitude adjustment.  Would I be open to such an attitude adjustment in my own life?  Would I be willing to pray something like, “Jesus, please adjust my attitude and just give me Your attitude”?  Such an openness makes all the difference and is sure to lead to spiritual awakening in our lives.  It is absolutely crucial that we have this attitude adjustment and spiritual awakening.  Why?  That is what Paul answers in verse 20.

To see reality

Paul’s urging for the Corinthians to be open for an attitude adjustment is so that they can recognize two things.  The first of these is that they may be enabled by Jesus to recognize spiritual reality and to see everything in the light of truth.  It is this desperation and the urgency of this situation that compels Paul to explain in verse 20:  “Rather, the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.”  If these words seem drastic or severe, it is because the situation is critical.  Paul is desperate that the Corinthians see what is happening in the light of truth instead of through the lens of their culture and spiritual blindness (“It’s no big deal”).  It is a far different thing to recognize spiritual reality in the light of truth instead of going on only what we can see with our human eyes.  A simple illustration of this is dust.  The air that we breath constantly contains particles that we most often do not see.  However, there are moments when a ray of sunshine comes through the window and illuminates the particles floating in the air.  They were there all the time, but we just could not see them until they were illuminated by the light!

It is the same with spiritual reality.  Human eyes alone cannot recognize the reality of what is taking place in the heavenly realms all around us.  It is only when we are illuminated by Jesus and see things in the light of truth that we can be aware of what is really happening.  This is why Paul’s prayers for churches centered in these very thoughts.  Consider parts of his prayers for the church in Ephesians and Colossians:

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and REVELATION in the knowledge of Him, the EYES OF YOUR UNDERSTANDING BEING ENLIGHTENED . . . (Eph. 1:17-18).

“For this reason also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all WISDOM AND SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING . . . (Col. 1:9).”

We notice that Paul’s prayers for the churches are nearly always along this line.  He intercedes for them, that God might enlighten them to be able to live and walk in the truth.  As a side note, it would seem well for me to learn something from this about how I pray for people.  What do I request for them?  Is there anything more important that could happen in their lives than what is being asked for in the prayers from Ephesians and Colossians?

It was critical for the Corinthians to be able to see, in the light of truth, that their seemingly “no big deal” idol feasts were actually a time “fellowship with demons.”  Again, what an outrageous claim this must have seemed like to them.  Yet, it was reality.  And it was crucial for the lives of the Corinthians that they be able to recognize the reality of the heavenly realms and the nature of the battle that was taking place around them.  Is this need not just as critical for us (a Paul-like statement being posed in the form of a question)?  Yes it is!  We realize that there is something of a balance that needs to be maintained when it comes to discussing spiritual warfare.  I have probably swung to the extremes at different times in my own life.  One camp tends to assert that there is little reality to this spiritual warfare business, or at least that it is exaggerated and that it is really “no big deal.”  Notice that this resembles the attitude of the Corinthians and that it represents what Paul calls, “the wisdom of this age (1 Corinthians 2:6).”  The opposite camp can tend to be altogether consumed with the spiritual battle and be looking for a “demon behind every bush.”  Neither approach is healthy, helpful, or even accurate.  I believe we maintain a healthy balance and perspective by sticking with the Word of God.  Paul makes two things abundantly clear in his letters.  One is that the heavenly realms do exist and that there is a battle taking place for our souls.  There are demonic beings against whom we need to be armed.  The second irrefutable fact is that we are safe in Jesus Christ.  For those who are in Christ and dressed in His armor, we are more than conquerors and need not be afraid in the least.  What an encouragement this is!

The key in this issue, as with all areas, is see everything in the light of truth of the Word and what is really happening in the heavenly realms.  This is why Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:

“Therefore we do not lose heart.  Even though the outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.  For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Consider what it would do in my life to live in the way Paul is describing.  I am already fully aware of what it is like to live in the opposite way --- to stare at the things which are seen.  How discouraging, depressing, and even debilitating it can become to live by looking only at the things which are seen.  I look at my bank balances compared to the needs.  I look at my physical health.  I look at the economy.  I look at the condition of our world.  I look at my job.  Besides temporary or part time work, my full-time work for the past twenty years has been in the ministry, both as an evangelist and a pastor.  I don’t always know how this truth applies to everyone else, but I can definitely relate to it from the perspective of a pastor and evangelist.  It can be downright discouraging if all I did was to focus on the results of what I can see or the numbers that I can count (which, unfortunately, is often how we are “measured”).  Yet, what if I could see things in the light of truth and had an awareness of what is really happening in the heavenly realms?  For, Jesus is doing far more in the heavenly realms than these human eyes and worldly wisdom and can see.  He is at work for our good and He is winning!  If I could just trust Him, respond to Him with all my heart, and trust Him!  He is working in finances in ways I cannot see.  He is doing something through my health that I cannot yet understand (see 2 Corinthians 12).  He is working in my family, even when I can’t see it.  He is working in our world.  And He is working in the church and in the ministry in ways that I cannot see, and may never get to see in this lifetime.  What freedom there is to focus not on the seen, but on Him.  Encouragement instead of discouragement.  Praise instead of depression.  Joy instead of gloom.  No wonder Paul prayed for the churches that they have may a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him!

Becoming

In addition to recognizing spiritual reality, Paul is urging that the Corinthians also be aware of what they are becoming.  At the end of verse 20, Paul uses the Greek word, ginomai, which is normally translated, “to be born” or “to become.”  If we were to recognize this word in our translation, the end of the verse would read something like:  “and I do not want you to become partners (those who fellowship) with demons.”  It is no accident that Paul places this verb, “to become,” here.  When we stand back and look at the context, it is a real emphasis of this section.  We find that Paul used the same word back in 7 of chapter 10.  “And do not BECOME idolaters as were some of them.”  It is also used in chapter 11 verse 1.  A literal translation of that verse would be, “BECOME imitators of me just as I also Christ.”  The reason Paul so greatly emphasizes this word is that he is concerned about what the Corinthians are becoming.  It fact, we are all becoming something.  No one is really staying exactly as he or she is.  There is a dynamic progress that takes place in each human life where we are, in a sense, heading in a direction.  That only question is, “What am I becoming?”  There are only two possibilities, as Paul really presents through this letter to the Corinthians.  We are either becoming more like Jesus or less like Him.  We are either drawing closer to Him in intimate relationship or moving further away.  We are either becoming disciples or idolaters.

Paul’s great concern was the direction he was seeing in the lives of some of these Corinthian Christians.  He was concerned that they not proceed toward becoming idolaters, which, in reality, is demonic involvement.  There can be no doubt that the direction in which the Corinthians were heading would take them away from Jesus if they did not repent and respond to Him.  The process in which the Corinthians had allowed themselves can happen to anyone who take the “no big deal” approach to spiritual matters.  Satan is subtle, and sin can overtake us incrementally if we are not living in response to Jesus.  The illustration of the frog in the kettle gives a good picture of what can happen to a Christian who hangs around where he or she does not belong.  The heat can get turned up so gradually that we are being cooked without realizing it.  No one becomes a full-fledged addict overnight.  The full-fledged addiction is the result of a long line of responses to the “idol” which we expected to meet our need.  It is the continual response over and over again to that idol that results in the addiction.  One does not wake up one day as a full-fledged addict.  One becomes an addict.  One does not wake up one morning as an idol worshipper or participant with demons.  He or she becomes that by ignoring truth and continuing participation in something that is dangerous for a Christian.  You get cooked by staying in the kettle.  That is why Paul is so emphatic on the importance of running to Jesus and responding NOW!  As verse 13 in this chapter clearly describes, God will make the way of escape for anyone who will respond, but the response must be urgent and definite.  There is no time for delay or a casual attitude.  Jesus is the only way out, and He will be the gangplank off of the ship (or out of the boiling pot!) for anyone who will respond to Him.

For those who continually respond to Jesus, there is a different kind of becoming taking place.  Discipleship is not an arrival, but instead is a becoming.  While relationship with Jesus and transformation in Him begins with an initial response, it continues and grows with the ongoing response to Him and the new light that He will bring to our lives.  The Apostle Paul did not wake up one morning as the person who wrote the letter to the Corinthians.  He has been and is becoming that.  It is the continual response to Jesus over and over again across the weeks, months, and years that makes a disciple.  The greatly encouraging thing about this truth is that God loves us and is not finished with us yet.  I do not have to be what I have always been.  I can be becoming something different than the old patterns of my life.  How?  Respond to Jesus now, and I can’t miss it!  God has brought me to this moment as a key moment in my life.  He has something wonderful that He desires to do.  As I respond to Him, He will be doing the transforming.  He who calls us is faithful, who also will do it (1 Thess. 5:24).  We are all becoming something.  What am I becoming?

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION

1.       Is there any way it which it has been obvious that I need an attitude adjustment?  What would my family say about that?  Is there any sense in which I have had a “no big deal” about some things that really matter?

2.       What is one area of my life in which it would change my outlook by focusing on Jesus and the unseen instead of focusing on only what I can see?

3.       Take some quiet moments in which I can really listen to the Holy Spirit.  What comes to mind when I am asked the question “What are you becoming?”  How would those who know me best answer that question for me?

Resolve

1 Corinthians 10:21

Mutually exclusive

The Apostle Paul seems to have been one who was inclined to speak plainly and come down to the “bottom line” in every situation.  This seems to be especially true with the Corinthians.  With the love of a spiritual father (1 Cor. 4:14-15), Paul frequently “lays it on the line” with them and just “says it like it is.”  There must be something we can learn from this manner of speaking the truth in love and how God would like to do the same in our lives and relationships.  Paul makes the same kind of blunt conclusion toward the end of this plea for awakening.  In verse 12 he uncompromisingly states:  “You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and the table of demons.”  While such a statement must have seemed somewhat radical, intolerant, or even unreasonable to the Corinthians, Paul was compelled to speak the truth.  The bold truth is that idol worship, which is really demonic participation, cannot mix with Christianity.  Life in Jesus Christ and idol worship are mutually exclusive.

This is a fundamental truth of the New Testament as it was such an important issue in the time of the early church.  In Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council concluded that there were only a few crucial things that the new converts needed to know:  “that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.  If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well (Acts 15:29).”  The message of mutual exclusivity (cannot be mixed) between light and darkness --- between what is of God and what is not of God --- is emphasized throughout the New Testament.  Paul is careful to express this in his letters to the churches.  After spelling out some of the works of darkness (which includes idolatry), Paul then writes in Ephesians 5:6-14:

“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.  Therefore do not be partakers with them.  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.  For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.  But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.  Therefore He says:  ‘Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’”

In a way that even more clearly addresses the situation of idol worship in Corinth, and perhaps which is a follow-up, Paul boldly states in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18:

“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.  For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?  And what communion has light with darkness?  And what accord has Christ with Belial [Satan]?  Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?  And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?  For you are the temple of the living God.  As God has said:  ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them.  I will be their God and they shall be My people.’  Therefore, ‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord.  Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.’  ‘I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

It is possible that we could get confused by these verses and come to believe that we are to completely close ourselves off from the world and forget about all those in the world that need Jesus.  But we must look at the whole context and remember this is the same Paul who in 2 Corinthians 5 (just before the above passage) speaks of being compelled by the love of Christ to be an ambassador of Christ and a minister of reconciliation to the world.  This is the same Paul who speaks in 1 Corinthians 9 about being all things to all men that by all means some may be saved.  Yet, while Paul loves people deeply and has the heart of Jesus to see all people come to Christ, he will not use this as an excuse for himself to participate in sin and darkness.  The call of the New Testament is that Christians would be witnesses IN the world without being OF the world.  This is why Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write as he did in the 2 Corinthians 6 verses that those in Christ are not going to be yoked together, have fellowship, communion, accord, or a part with anything that is not of Jesus.  Those terms all indicate intimate connection and participation.  One can be a witness in the world without intimate connection and participation in what is not of Jesus.  It is why Jesus prayed for the disciples:  “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world just as I am not of the world (John 17:15-16).”  There is a clear call in the New Testament for Christians to be holy.  Holiness is not about a list of do’s and don’ts.  It is not a legalistic standard by which Christians seek to keep themselves away from and superior to the “unwashed masses” of the world.  Holiness is really about a purity --- that our lives would be a pure demonstration of the Jesus who lives in us by His Spirit.  It is certainly not about outward perfection, for we all have human limitations and patterns which Jesus is still working on (thank you for that, Lord!).  Yet, holiness means that there can be a pureness of heart, attitude, and motivation which causes us to always want to respond to and live in the light of who Jesus is.  This leads to there being a clear difference in what the life of a Christian looks like in contrast to those who are still of the world.  This is the point Paul is making in all these letters, including 2 Corinthians 6 and the stark statement of 1 Corinthians 10:21:  the mutual exclusivity (cannot be mixed) between light and darkness; between what is of God and what is not of God; between the life in Christ and idol worship.

This serious point about difference, or mutual exclusiveness, is especially important as Paul writes to the Corinthians because they had a tendency to try to mix things together.  The practice of syncretism (the mixing together of different religions or philosophies) was not uncommon in the ancient world.  It is how the Romans kept the Pax Romana (“The Peace of Rome”) in their expanding empire.  They would just add new religions to the “pot” as they conquered new groups of people, and every religion was accepted under two conditions:  first, that everyone worshiped Caesar, and secondly, that you did not question anyone else’s religion.  What often resulted in people’s lives was a kind of “buffet” religion, where you just took what you liked from each religion and mixed it together.  It was this kind of mentality that allowed the Corinthian church to accept various sinful practices in their midst, including sexual immorality.  “It’s no big deal --- anything is OK.”  This was the heart of what Paul is addressing with his uncompromising statement in 1 Corinthians 10:21 about the incompatibility of idol worship (demonic participation) and the Lord Jesus.  The Corinthians were attempting to mix it together and “have it all.”

Are there any ways in which the church of today is doing this very thing?  Do we attempt to mix Christianity together with the philosophy, practices, or even religions of this world for the sake of either surviving or even “winning” the world?  Is holiness still the call for Christians and for the church in our day, or do we end up, in some ways, being so indistinguishable from the world that there is little or no real witness?  Are we at least as much concerned about what we are winning people to as we are about how many we are winning?  The New Testament has far more to say about what kind of disciples we are than it does about how many we are.  Surely this is because it is only the holiness of the life of Jesus through us that will really win the world in our day and always.  Far more than asking these things of the church, they need to be asked of my own life.  Are there any ways in which I am trying to “mix” Jesus with the world in my own life?  Is there any area in which I am trying to have it both ways?  Am I allowing Him to make a difference in my life?  Is holiness a reality in me?  I am so very thankful for the promise of 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24:  “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  HE WHO CALLS YOU IS FAITHFUL, WHO ALSO WILL DO IT.”

Prohibition or principle?

In some ways, Paul’s strong statement of 1 Corinthians 10:21 could seem harsh or heavy-handed.  It could sound like the military commander who has barked out his orders for the church people to follow.  However, when we look more closely at his wording in the original language of verse 21, we find that he is making more of a statement of reality than giving a command.  “You CANNOT drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you CANNOT partake of the Lord’s table and the table of demons.”  Notice that in both statements, Paul does not say, “you shall not.”  He says, “you CANNOT.”  The words “you cannot” are a translation of the Greek verb, dunasthe, which is the 2nd person plural form of the verb, dunamai.  The literal translation of this verb is “to be able, capable, or strong enough” to do something.  In addition to this, it is important to know that this verb is in the present tense, which means it is an ongoing action or reality.  When we look at the verse from this perspective, we realize it is not a prohibition that Paul is giving.  “You shall not try this . . . .”  It is just a principle or reality that he is stating plainly.  Maybe a better way to translate it for our understanding would be:  “You ARE NOT ABLE TO drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you ARE NOT ABLE TO partake of the Lord’s table and the table of demons.”  Paul is just stating the reality that it just doesn’t work to mix together idol worship with the Lord Jesus.  They just don’t mix and it can’t be done!  Anyone who attempts to do so will find that they “are not able.”  It is similar to the physical laws that God built into nature.  Oil and water will never mix, no matter how hard someone may try.  We can attempt to defy the law of gravity, but we will always find ourselves “not able” to win that battle.  It is impossible to touch a fire with the unprotected human hand and not be burned.  This is what Paul is saying about idol worship and Jesus --- about the work of His Spirit and the works of darkness.  There is no balance that can be sustained between light and darkness.  Jesus told His disciples:  “Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going (John 12:35).”  Anyone who tries to mix darkness and light and attempts to walk in both, having it both ways, will find himself or herself being “overtaken” (Jesus’ word) by darkness.  It will happen as definitely as an object falls to earth under the force of gravity.

It is important to note again here that Paul’s manner is not that of the military commander or with an “I told you so” tone.  There is no sense of finger wagging or nagging from someone who is annoyed or has more interest in the act of correcting than in the person being corrected.  From the context of this chapter and the entire letter we know that Paul has a deep love and care for these people.  As recently as verse 14, the foundation verse of this section calling the Corinthians to awakening, Paul calls them “beloved.”  His concern for them is as their pastor, as a brother in Christ, and as their spiritual father.  It is true that these Corinthians could well have been Paul’s most difficult church with all the problems and issues they were facing --- and that stubborn pride of theirs.  Yet, that does not seem to hinder his love for them.  When he speaks to them in what could seem to be a severe tone, it is really like that of a parent who sees his or her child heading into danger.  It would be comparable to the sound of a parent who is calling out to a young child who is ignorantly wandering out in front of an oncoming vehicle.  “Stop!!”  “Wait!!”  “Please don’t --- it will hurt you!”  “You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and the table of demons.”  May Jesus make this to be the tone of our lives.  May the message of the gospel always be full of grace in our lives.  Even in difficult moments, including those involving confrontation, may our speech always be with the kind of grace of that Paul speaks of in Colossians 4:6, and may the truth always, always be spoken in love.  It will surely make a difference in our witness when people know that we truly love them.

Genie in a bottle

This approach of grace toward our world is important as we realize that people are just searching for something in their lives.  The reason behind all idolatry is that people are looking for something or someone that will meet a need.  Of course, the answer of 1 Corinthians 10, as well as the entire letter of 1 Corinthians and the New Testament, is that Jesus is the answer for our every need --- really.  Yet, for those who have not yet experienced Him or fully trusted Him for every need, they continue to look to other people and things.  Though I can get frustrated with the Corinthians, this is probably a better light in which to see them.  This is what had opened them up to demonic involvement through participation in the idol worship.  It is hard for us to conceive how “normal” mythology and idol worship were in Greek culture.  It was the very common belief among the people that gods and goddesses or spiritual beings (which were really demons) of a wide variety had a direct bearing on everyday life.  The philosopher Socrates believed in a spiritual being that was constantly with him, that suggested thoughts to him, and protected him.  The prevalence of this kind of belief was the reason for the sacrifice rituals at the pagan temples and the popularity of the idol feasts (besides being the only place in town to go out to eat).  Some of these supposed spiritual gods and goddesses or spiritual beings were not always well-tempered.  You would always want to do everything you could to stay on his or her good side so that they did not mess up your life too much (as in the movie, “Clash of the Titans” --- I have not seen the remake, but always enjoyed the original from 1981).

Perhaps the best way to understand this mentality in their culture is to think of the proverbial “genie in a bottle.”  These spiritual beings (demons) had the power to grant your wishes and give you the desired things in life.  The Corinthians, like all Greeks, looked for all of these good things of life, including health, wealth, success, and happiness.  They looked to these “genies” as the source or providers of the keys to life.  When seen in this way, it kind of begins to sound familiar.  There is always some “genie in a bottle” kind of thing or person that is sure to be the “answer” for what I am looking for in life.  As Christians, we should always be alerted whenever we begin looking to another person or thing to be the answer for anything in our lives.  According the Word of God, Jesus is our complete provision, and fulfillment is in Him and in His fellowship.  The warning sign of idolatry or “genie in a bottle” mentality is when I become aware of any ways in which I might be saying, “If I could only have that (thing or person), then everything will be OK.”  I am not necessarily saying that any of those things or people is demonic.  However, is it not a demonic distraction in my life when I become consumed with anything aside from Jesus?  And cannot a consuming focus on any person or anything, no matter how “good” that person or thing is, become demonic, dangerous, and destructive?  Are there any “genies” that I have been looking to as the solution instead of Jesus?  Is there any person or thing that I have hoped would bring a magical outcome, resulting in some kind of success, outcome, wealth, or health?

Resolve

Paul is urging the Corinthian Christians to a choice.  No fence-riding.  No keeping a foot in each world.  No attempt to mix light and darkness.  No having it both ways.  Again, it is not a tone of uncaring command.  It is the love of a spiritual parent that says, “You will not be able to do this.  You will be overtaken by darkness if you continue.”  It is an urging to full embrace of Jesus as the answer and provision for their lives, turning away from everything else.  It is a looking to Him and Him alone, without glancing to the side for some magical result from somewhere else.  Instead of a back and forth existence between Jesus and the world, Paul is urging these Christians to a resolve in their hearts that affects their entire lives.  Jesus is my source, and Jesus only.  He does not merely give us answers or solutions --- He is the answer and provision.  I can live in absolute confidence and security in Him as the source of my entire life.  Christianity does not necessitate a hermit existence.  Turning away from everything else besides Him does not mean removing myself from the world or closing it out.  As we discussed earlier, it is Him being real in my life and doing something in me while I am in the world, but not of it.

The very language that Paul uses here in verse 21 and in chapter 10 is helpful.  In verse 10, Paul speaks of drinking the cup of the Lord and partaking of His table.  As we learned back in verse 17 with partaking, Jesus wants to be real in my actual life, where the “the rubber meets the road.”  As we will see later in chapter 11, the Lord’s Supper is more than just a ritual for Christians.  It is representative of a reality --- that the actual Person of Jesus Christ comes to live in our real flesh and be our sustenance.  After sharing that He is the “bread of life,” Jesus boldly stated to the larger crowd of disciples in John 6:56-57:  “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.”  While this was an offensive message that forced a decision (and many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more after this – v. 66), it got down to the same core message that Paul is telling the Corinthians.  We all need to make a decision.  Will Jesus be our only sustenance or not?  Will I let Him be everything I need and trust Him for the outcome?  Will I cling to Him as my bread of life and not go looking elsewhere?  Will I choose Him, forsake every other apparent “solution,” and not look back?

Anyone who has ever gone on a diet can relate to the fact that it is not easy.  We may have become addicted to one kind of food or another --- or to food as a whole!  There are those leftover cravings and patterns in your body.  There is the temptation around you, especially when you go to the buffet or the potluck at church!  The tendency can be to look around and see what I think I am “missing out on.”  I get the same image of a child who wants something he or she has seen on TV or at a friend’s house.  There is the constant temptation to look around and see what I don’t have and feel that I have been cheated!  Cannot the same thing be true in our lives as a whole and how it affects us spiritually?  We know we have Jesus and that He is good, of course.  But sometimes we are tempted to look around at what others have or what I wish I had.  I can be taken down a road of believing that I am cheated, shortchanged, or at least at missing out on something really good!  This is when the Satan’s temptation to look to various “genies” has its greatest power.

But there is something about spiritual growth and maturity that causes us to learn contentment in what we have.  “Contentment” can sound like a bad word in the view of the world, like we are settling for something.  But, Paul was not expressing disappointment or a “settling for less” in Philippians 4:11, when he wrote:  “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be CONTENT.”  The source of his contentment was Jesus.  This was the man who wrote in the same chapter:

“Rejoice in the Lord always.  Again I will say, rejoice! (Philippians 4:4)”

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).”

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).”

“And my God shall supply all your needs through His glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).”

There is something that happens to a person who abides in Jesus Christ.  “The things of earth grow strangely dim.”  “The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows.”  The closer we get to Him and the longer we walk with Him, we find Him to be more and more sufficient.  The appetites for other things fade.  The temptations to other sources (genies), though still there, diminish.  There is something about Jesus that becomes “sweeter as the years go by.”  He grows in solidness and satisfaction.  He provides a stability, growth, peace, joy, and all the fruits of His Spirit.  What a contrast this is to the non-committal way of the world, always flitting about from one idol to another to try to find the magical formula.  This is why Paul was pleading with the Corinthians to make the choice for Jesus.  Anyone who attempts to mix darkness and light will be consumed by darkness.  But ANYONE who will run to Jesus will experience awakening and more than could ever be expected.  What a relief it can be to just continue to choose Him as my only source, forsaking all else.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION

1.       Are there any ways in which I could be mixing the ways of the world into my life, attempting to live both in Christ and of the world?  How has that been going?

2.       In honesty are there any “genies in a bottle” that I have looked to or thought of for some solution to my life, instead of looking to Jesus to be that answer?

3.       How have I chosen Him or renewed my resolve for Him in my life lately?  Have I told Him?  How is that affecting my life?

Render

1 Corinthians 10:22

A God of feelings

In the final verse to this passage, Paul asks a couple of questions that provide the undercurrent and overarching feeling of the entire plea to awakening.  He writes, “Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?  Are we stronger than He?”  The element that stands out is the strong feelings that God has for us.  What we read here brings to mind what is spoken throughout the Old Testament especially.  “For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God (Exodus 20:5).”  It confirms for us that God is real and has real feelings.  We experience emotions as human beings because we were made in His image.  God is not passive or neutral toward us.  We find over and over again in the Word, as we do here in 1 Corinthians 10:22, that He is passionate about us.  We are reminded throughout the Old Testament that our God is not a God of stone or some inanimate object as the idols that others worship.  He is real, alive, and active.  The Psalmist writes:

“But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.  Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.  They have mouths, but they do not speak; eyes they have, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear; noses they have, but they do not smell; they have hands, but they do not handle; feet they have, but they do not walk; nor do they mutter through their throat.  Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them (Psalm 115:3-8).”

What an amazing thing it is to know that our God is real, alive, and active.

Paul’s question/statement about Him in 1 Corinthians 10:22 is strikingly similar to what is written back in Deuteronomy chapter 32, where the Israelites “provoked Him to jealousy (Deut. 32:16).”  It is not surprising that Paul would quote from Deuteronomy, if that is what he is doing here.  It is my belief that Paul taught the Corinthians from the books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy when he was with them for eighteen months on his second missionary journey.  There are many references from these books in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.  If we look back to Deuteronomy 32, and see the essence of that being repeated in 1 Corinthians 10, we see two very clear things stand out.

“For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance.  He found him in a desert wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.  As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, so the Lord alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him.  He made him ride in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields; he made him draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock; curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs; and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the choicest wheat; and you drank wine, the blood of the grapes (Deut. 32:9-14).”

The first thing we see very clearly is the tender love of God for His people.  The picture of this care is so beautiful.  It gives the picture of a God who so affectionately cares for and protects them.  Does it not give a sense of security for those who belong to the Lord?  Yet, it is His love that is so overwhelming.  I am personally captivated by the phrase, “the apple of His eye.”  I have heard that phrase many times before and suppose I never realized before now that it had its origin in the Word of God.  It has the sense of being one’s favorite --- the joy of his or her life.  It carries the sense of being absolutely cherished and treasured.  I get the image in my mind of grandparents who count the days and hours until they get to see that precious grandchild.  “The apple of His eye.”  What a thought it is that this is what we mean to Him.  He is not a God of stone.  He is not passive or neutral toward us.  He is passionate.  We are His favorites --- the joy of His life.   No wonder Paul speaks so much about the love of God in His letters.  No wonder this is the core of the gospel message.  No wonder Paul prays for the churches as in Ephesians 3:17-19:

“That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height --- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

How crucial for us to really comprehend (“to seize” or “lay hold of”) this truth.  What a difference it would make if we could live in the constant awareness of this passionate and tender love that God has for us.

The second thing we see very clearly in the Deuteronomy 32 passage is the overwhelming provision of God for His people.  His provisions are so complete, generous, and thorough.  When we look at the imagery in the passage, I find myself asking, “What else could they need?”  It all sounds so plentiful and gracious.  This is the very point that Paul wants to emphasize to the Corinthians in chapter 10 of his letter to them.  The same God that provided overwhelmingly provided every need for the Israelites in the wilderness had done the very same for the Corinthians --- in Christ.  In the first four verses of chapter 10, Paul gives the vivid description of the God who gave them guidance, was their protection, and provided their food and water.  He then makes it clear that the “spiritual Rock that followed them . . . was Christ (v. 4).”  Jesus was the provision for the Israelites, and Jesus was the provision for the Corinthians.  God’s provision in Jesus in not half-way or someone “just enough.” It is overwhelming and plentiful.  As the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir sings, “He’s More Than Enough.”  We recall again that Paul prays in Philippians 4:19:  “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory BY CHRIST JESUS.”  This same Jesus who was more than enough for the Israelites and the Corinthians is our complete provision as well.  He is not “second best” or the substitute for something; He is an overwhelming provision.

Jeshurun kicked

Yet, in spite of this overwhelming provision, Israel turned away from God to foreign gods.  Instead of responding to His love and trusting in His overwhelming provision, they sought other sources to meet the need of their lives.  We read in Deuteronomy 32:15-18:

“But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese!  Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.  They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger.  They sacrificed to demons, not to God.  To gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear.  Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you.”

The imagery of Israel’s disregard of God is striking.  We read that “Jeshurun grew fat and kicked.”  Jeshurun is a term of affection used for Israel in a few places in the Old Testament, meaning “upright one.”  In the Deuteronomy 32 passage, it is used in a context with several references to livestock, and so Jeshurun takes on the characteristics of an animal growing fat and kicking.  My family owns a horse named Storm, a nine-year-old gelding who came to us with an attitude.  Like working with a child, we have been able to correct most of his behavior and help him to have a more respectful attitude.  He does not do it near as much as he used to, but there are still times when he wants to demonstrate that he is his own boss.  When he is really mad, one of the ways he will demonstrate it is to run around his pasture and kick his back heels high in the air.  It is an amazing thing to watch a horse throw a tantrum.  This is the picture we get of Israel in Deuteronomy 32.  Jeshurun kicked.  Israel had an “attitude” toward God and, in essence, said to God, “We are our own boss and don’t need you.”  They ran around their pasture and did their own thing.

Of course, the Corinthians did their own share of kicking their heals up.  One of the things evident in Paul’s letter to them is that they also had an attitude of, “We are our own boss and don’t need you.”  There is the sense that Paul’s leadership as an apostle and “father” of the church was being challenged, and that they were wanting to do their own thing.  I believe this is a part of the reason Paul takes time in chapter 9 to clarify his position and rights as an apostle.  “If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you.  For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord (1 Cor. 9:2).”  Their rebellious attitude was certainly why Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:14-20:

“I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you.  For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.  Therefore I urge you, imitate me.  For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.  Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.  But I will come shortly, if the Lord wills, and I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power.  For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.”

As the loving spiritual father, Paul says, “I am coming and we will see about this attitude of yours.”  Just as the Israelites, the Corinthians had become “puffed up,” which means “arrogant”, and were kicking against what God had for them.

Is there any way in which I have been “kicking”?  Is there any way I have “grown fat” spiritually, as in the imagery of Deuteronomy 32?  Is there any way in which I have been fighting God, or have turned to look to other sources --- idols --- to satisfy my need instead of just trusting in the overwhelming provision of who Jesus is?  The question that nags at me is, “Why?”  Why would the Israelites turn from Him when He provided so much?  Why would the Corinthians have such an arrogant attitude and resist what God had for them?  Why would anyone turn to anything or anyone but Jesus when He is so wonderful, complete, and more than enough?  Why have I turned to idols in the past and why are there still moments where I can tend to look to someone or something else as the solution instead of trusting in Him?  I have to confess that I cannot comprehend the answer to these questions.  However, it does point to one clear reality.  It reveals the urgency for spiritual awakening and the constant need for this among us.  It shows that revival must be a lifestyle.  The history of God’s people exposes a vulnerability to growing cold in relationship with Him or losing focus on Him at times.  We may think of ourselves as superior and not susceptible to that, but we would be foolish to think so.  This was the very same kind of arrogant thinking that was the root of every issue for the Corinthians, and it was why Paul used the history of Israel as a lesson for them.  As Os Guiness wrote, “Those . . . who treat their ancestors as fools are likely only to demonstrate that the heritage is alive and well.”  We need the constant moving of God in our lives and in the church.  We need more than just special events and emotional highs.  We need the ever increasing revelation of Jesus through His Word that brings us into deeper and more intimate relationship with Him.  We need ongoing growth in Christ, and this only comes in a continuous seeking of Him, a constant response to the truth that He reveals to us, and willingness to be humbled and changed.  That is spiritual awakening!  It is wonderful that it does not have to be a short-lived or temporary thing in which we are constantly looking for the next thing to get us through.  We know there are “valleys” that we must walk through in this life, and that we all naturally have human emotions and deal with many things.  Yet, the New Testament presents us with a life in Christ that is constantly new, unfolding, and increasing.  This is what the Apostle Paul experienced in his own life.  It is what he was urging for the Corinthians.  It is available for us.

God desires this for us more than we can imagine.  In fact, He is going to press this in our lives, because it is what we need so desperately.  It is an amazing truth that we do not have to create revival or awakening.  There is no formula or pressure on us to “whip it up.”  It is the way in which God naturally works if we will respond and allow Him to do so.  I believe this is the sense of the second question Paul poses in 1 Corinthians 10:22.  “Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?  ARE WE STRONGER THAN HE?”  There can be no doubt that God created us with free will and that He will not force us to choose Him.  However, He loves us so much that He is not going to leave us alone.  He is going to be active and moving in our circumstances, sometimes drastically, to get our attention.  It was an auto accident in January 1985, which could easily have taken my life, that finally got my attention enough for me to give my life to Jesus.  I can certainly testify that he was “after me,” not in a bad sense, but in a sense of relentless pursuit.  Indeed, I found that I was not stronger than He.  I certainly could have said “No” to Him at that time.  But He had already been wrestling with me and was not going to let up. I felt what Paul may have felt himself when confronted by Jesus on the Damascus Road in Acts 9:3-5.

“As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.  Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are your persecuting Me?’  And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’  Then the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.  It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’”

Here we have what seems to be another “livestock” illustration.  I have always wondered what “goads” are, as it is not a word we use in our everyday conversations.  The best I can understand, goads seem to be something comparable to spurs:  sharp instruments intended to “motivate” a large animal to move.  I have seen rodeo events, and those spurs sure do seem to have their desired effect.  It is hard for a strong-willed horse to do its own thing when it is trying to fight against those spurs.  Jesus had confronted Saul (Paul), and Saul certainly could have said “No” to Him.  But it would have been an increasing struggle and fight, because Jesus was after Him.  Paul found that he was not stronger than God.  He surrendered his life to the Jesus who had been in pursuit of him.  He responded to the One who passionately loved him and would not leave him alone.  He said “Yes” to the God who was going to do far in more in his life that Paul could ask or imagine.  God will not give up on us, and He will reveal Himself to be stronger than us as needed.

Render

Because we are often colored by our bad experiences in this world, we might be tempted to ask, “What does God really want?”  When we look at His Word, we can only come to one conclusion.  He is after US because He LOVES us.  As Paul is pointing out in 1 Corinthians 10:22, He is a God of deep and holy feelings.  He is jealous for us.  It is not our money that He is after.  Despite what I may arrogantly believe, it is not my service to Him that He cannot live without.  What He is really after is us.  Again, true love like this --- agape love --- is something that we may have never before experienced and may always be difficult for us to understand.  Yet, God just loves us deeply and longs for us.

God does not love us conditionally, temporarily, or with some other end in mind.  He is in it for the long term --- eternity.  His desire is for a relationship in which we respond to Him and love Him in return.  It is the kind of relationship that is not merely a one-time thing.  That is not to downplay the crisis moments of our spiritual lives, which were the watershed times of decision.  Yet, we realize that every real and growing relationship in love is more of a constant choosing.  Every marriage begins with the vows on the day of the ceremony.  But real marriage comes in the living out of those vows in the years and even decades to follow.  I chose her once and for all on that day.  Yet, real love is that I continue to choose her and affirm that love to her on a daily basis.  She is not another object that I acquire.  “I love my house.  I love my car.  I love my dog.”  Our world is used to treating anything and everything as an object to be used and discarded.  We can treat people, including our spouses, in the same way.  He or she is an idol to give me want I want and to be put away when no longer of use to me (“Don’t call me; I’ll call you”).  Paul paints a dramatically different picture of marriage in 1 Corinthians 7 (note how idolatry touches every area of life).  In verse 3 he writes, “Let the husband RENDER to his wife the affection DUE her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.”  Paul uses some potent language in this verse.  It communicates that idea that a husband literally “owes” affection to his wife (and likewise a wife to the husband), like it is a debt, and that he would literally be robbing her to not “render” this to her.  The strong point is that the marriage relationship is an ongoing commitment, a daily life, and a continuous choice of one spouse for the other.  What would it mean to my wife to just walk up to her today and say, “I am so thankful for you in my life and just want you to know that I would do it all over again”?  “I choose you.”

That is what God desires with us.  He loves us and has chosen us, forever.  All He desires is that we would love Him in return --- that we would choose Him.  He is not a God of stone, but a God of feelings.  Have I chosen Him lately?  How long has it been since I knelt before Him, spent a quiet moment, raised a hand, shed a tear, or spoke a loving word to Him?  “I choose You.”  Is He an object that I can get out and put away as needed – a god of stone?  Or is He the real and living object of my life and devotion?  How could we not respond today to the One who loves us so?  The words of a Larnelle Harris song express the depth of what I feel:

Your love endured the cross

Despising all the shame

That afternoon when midnight fell

Your suffering cleared my name

And that sin-swept hill became

The open door to paradise

The cost was great yet you paid the price

You paid much too high a price for me

In tears and blood and pain

To have my soul just stirred at times

Yet never truly change

You deserve a fiery love

That won't ignore your sacrifice

Because you paid much too high a price

Your grace inspires my heart

To rise above the sin

Of all the earthly vanity

That seeks to draw me in

Then to tell a jaded world of love

That truly saved a life

A love that paid

Much too high a price

It is time to run to Him with abandon --- not to a Jesus “out there” somewhere, but One who comes to live within us by His Spirit.  It is time to respond to Him without fear or shame.  It is time to seek Him and love Him with a passionate love.  Those who do so will experience the awakening we desperately need.  It is high time for an awakening that our children and grandchildren will remember.  It is time to run.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION

1.       Do I realize today the love that God has for me?  Consider praying Ephesians 3:14-21 as a prayer for your own life.

2.       Are there any ways I have been “kicking” against what God has for me, and looking anywhere else besides Jesus as the provision for my life?

3.       When was the last time I “rendered” my love to Him and expressed to Him that He is my choice?  Would I be willing for this to become an ongoing lifestyle for me?

Table of Contents

Copyright

Introduction

Respond (Run!)

Ready

Repent

Resourced

Remember

Recognize

Resolve

Render