The ninth chapter, as we have seen, is much more than an answer to the earthly-minded Corinthians in their challenge of the apostle Paul regarding his apostleship. From first to last it is designed to reach the conscience, and when this part of the Epistle was read at Corinth the accusers could not but feel that God had a controversy with them, while justifying His servant. The course of Paul is seen to have his Master’s approval, and it is the pattern for the true-hearted servant to follow in the measure in which grace is given him.
Heaven’s realities were before the apostle, and he sought to bring them home to the consciences and hearts of the Corinthians. Using as illustration the Olympian games, he speaks of himself as running the race set before him with one aim: to win the prize.
“I therefore so run, as not uncertainly.”
In combat (for there is that too) he did not beat the air; the power of the devil is arrayed against the Christian, and must be resisted unceasingly with the end in view. Finally, as a contender for a prize in the games is necessarily temperate in all things, so Paul kept his body under-
“I buffet my body and lead it captive, lest after having preached to others I should be myself rejected.”
There were others beside himself who preached; some were false, as undoubtedly in our own times.
“Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name have done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7:22, 23.
Need it be repeated that not one that is Christ’s can ever be lost? This is abundantly shown on many pages of Scripture; among the passages being John 3:15, 16; 5:24; 10:27-30; Rom. 8. With equal plainness God’s Word reveals what lies before those who profess but do not possess Christ (Matt. 24:48-51; 25:11, 12). Profession without reality will be worthless in that day.
The tenth chapter continues the subject with which the ninth closed, beginning rightly with
“For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that all our fathers were under the cloud, etc.”
There were professors in those days, just as now, without the true knowledge of God. Outwardly they were on the same footing as the believers in Israel. All, whether of faith or marked by unbelief, were “under the cloud” of Jehovah’s presence (Ex. 13:21, 22); all were associated with Moses in the cloud and in the Red Sea; “baptized unto Moses”, as it is said here. All ate the same spiritual meat (Ex. 16:4, 5, 14-36), and drank the same spiritual drink (Ex. 17:1-6). But none of these privileges was of any value as touching the soul’s eternal destiny.
Just so in God’s present dealings with man, baptism and partaking of the Lord’s supper give no security for heaven. One might go on all one’s life in an outward observance of Christianity, and be lost. “Ye must be born again.”
A lip service of God, in which heart and conscience are not joined, is estimated by Him at its true worth; so we are told in verse 5,
“Yet God was not pleased with the most of them, for they were strewed in the desert” (N. T.). (See Num. 14.)
Verse 6. “But these things happened as types of us, that we should not be luster’s after evil things, as they also lusted” (N. T.)
How good of God it is to provide in His Word, out of the history of His earthly people Israel, types or figures to serve as patterns for us! Every incident in their history that the Old Testament records, has a purpose of blessing to Christians, if they will receive it.
Have you, young Christian, in your reading of the Bible, found occasion to thank God for the instruction you have received from the history recorded in Genesis and Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, Joshua, etc.? It was written for you.
Verses 7 to 10 deal with things as to which the Corinthians were particularly in danger. The seventh verse takes us to Ex. 32, when in the absence of Moses, a calf was made out of gold and worshiped. Idolaters some of them had been; but how quickly they now turned away from the living and true God to idols!
The eighth verse is connected with the sorrowful incidents of Num. 25. It is interesting to note that while verse 9 in that chapter gives the number that died in the plague as twenty-four thousand, 1 Cor. 10:8 tells how many died in one day,-all but a thousand!
In the ninth verse the reference is to Num. 21:4-9; while in the tenth verse. Num. 11:4-34 and 16:41-50 appear to be referred to.
Idolatry was all around in Corinth; it was part of the life of the place, and of the whole Gentile world of that day. We need not wonder, then, that the believers at Corinth had to be warned against the danger of their becoming idolaters. The world has changed since then, but for Christians the warning still stands in God’s word, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols”: the last verse in John’s First Epistle. The reason is that anything in the heart which takes the place of Christ is an idol. In that sense the world is full of idolatry today, for God and Christ are not in the thoughts of the men of today.
Is self, or any other object in your heart, taking the place there which Christ should have, young Christian? It marks the beginning of decline in the believer’s walk.
Along with idol worship in the world of nineteen hundred years ago, was gross immorality; there is much reason to believe that this sin is increasing rapidly in the world today; and Christians need to be very careful indeed to maintain personal purity (1 Tim. 5:22; 1 Thess. 4:3-7). God’s standards of right and wrong do not change.
Only four times in the New Testament is the Greek word found which is translated in the ninth verse of our chapter “tempt”. The other passages are in the Lord’s words to Satan in the temptations in the wilderness at the beginning of His ministry in Israel’s land,
“It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Matt. 4:7; Luke 4:12).
The reference there is to Deut. 6:16, and thus to Ex. 17. Whether we look at Ex. 17 or Numbers 21, what is seen, is at heart rebellion against God. Let us beware that there be no such spirit in us!