1 Corinthians 10

Notes

nity, if we indulge ourselves in the like murmuring against what God provides for us, or in desiring what he forbids. Let none of you, therefore, like them at Sinai, partake of idolatrous feasts, or in any direct or indirect acknowledgment of heathen idols, lest God's wrath overtake you, as it did them.— Neither indulge yourselves in uncleanness, as some of them committed whoredom with the Midianitish women, and were punished by the death of 23,000 in a plague, and 1000 more in a legal process of the magistrates.— Neither let any of you distrust the power, faithfulness, and grace of Christ, to help you under difficulties and discouragements, or, through presumptuous sinning, try his patience or defy his power and justice, as they did, and were destroyed by fiery serpents.—Neither indulge dissatisfaction and repining complaints of the dispensations of God, or of the afflictions which ye suffer for Christ, or against the persons, dutiful behaviour, or divine doctrines of any of his ministers, as they often did in the wilderness, and were destroyed by one judgment after another. 11. Now all these public calamities happened to God's ancient professing and favourite people as examples of what we may expect if we imitate them in wickedness: and they are recorded in God's word for warnings to us who live when the Jewish dispensation is just ending, and under the last dispensation of grace which God intends for his church in this world, that we may avoid their sins, in order to escape their punishment. 12. Let therefore self-conceited professors, who pride themselves on their gifts, privileges, attainments, strength, and stability, watch and pray, and, in a dependence on God's grace, use every other mean of his appointment, to prevent backsliding and apostasy. 13 And let those of you who, having no confidence in yourselves, trust wholly to Jesus Christ, and his free grace, for your preservation in the way of duty, remember that no afflictions or ‘emptations have happened to you but such as are common to men in this evil world and imperfect state, the Same, and will not suffer you to be troubled or tempted beyond the measure of strength which he bestows upon you; and knowing that ye cannot always bear up under them, or struggle with them, will in due time grant you an honourable and complete deliverance from them. 14. Therefore, my dear fellow-Christians, awed by these alarming examples on the one hand, and encouraged by the hopes of all needful assistances on the other, detest and avoid to the utmost all idolatry, and all appearances of it, or approaches to it. 15. These solemn warnings I give you, as persons who are acquainted with Christian principles, and even value yourselves upon your superior wisdom and knowledge; and I appeal to your own reason and conscience, and desire you to ponder the weight of what I am going to say. 16. Is not our partaking of the consecrated bread and wine in the Lord's supper an open profession, token, and mean of our joint holy fellowship with Christ, in the benefits of his incarnation, obedience, and suffering,—and a public acknowledgment of our obligations and purpose to yield all holy obedience to him? 17. And does not our partaking of the same loaf or cup signify, that, however different our persons or circumstances be, we are all spiritually connected in the one, mystical body of Christ's church? 18. And did not the ancient priests and Israelites, by eating their respective shares of the peace-offerings, profess their joint fellowship with and dedication to that God to whom part of it was burned on the altar? 19. I do not, by these instances, insinuate that the nominal gods of the heathens have any real divinity in them, or that meats are made any worse in themselves by being offered to them. 20. But what I intend to suggest is, that the heathens, by sacrificing to these idols, and feasting on their sacrifices, do really worship and hold fellowship with devils: and I would by no means have you to hold fellowship with these unclean spirits or their worshippers. 21. For ye cannot, in consistency with the honour of Christ and his Father, or with your feasts. 22. Should we then, who are espoused to Jesus Christ as our spiritual Husband, dare to provoke his jealousy by honouring pretended deities? Are we more able to escape or resist the almighty strokes of his wrath than the Israelites were? 23. No pretence of the indifference of things offered to idols, or of our intending no respect for the idols thereby, can warrant our eating of them: for things very lawful in themselves may become very inexpedient and unedifying in some circumstances, by stumbling others, and drawing them into sin. 24. In such cases Christians must not do what serves their own pleasure, honour, or temporal benefit, but what will tend most to the real and lasting advantage of their neighbours. 25. But though it would be highly criminal and dangerous for any of you to eat meats offered to idols in their temples or idolatrous feasts, yet ye may freely eat whatever is sold in the public market, without any scruple or inquiry whether it has been offered to an idol or not. 26. For God, who is Creator, Proprietor, and Governor of the whole earth and of all its produce, and has now, under the gospel, abolished the ancient typical distinction of meats, allows you to eat whatever can contribute to your health. 27. If therefore any of your heathen neighbours invite you to a meal with them in their own houses, and regard to good manners, and an intention to promote their spiritual edification, incline you to go, eat freely whatever is set before you on the table, without any scrupulous thought or inquiry whether it has been offered to an idol or not. 28. But if he who invited you to the entertainment, or any other, by telling you that it had been offered to an idol, should hint that your eating of it would be a practical allowance of some honour to the idol; then, that neither his, nor your own, nor any other's conscience may be defiled or wounded, and to testify your high detestation of idolatry, eat not of it: for God, who is the proprietor idols. 29. Nor ought ye in such points chiefly to regard your own conscience, but the consciences of your neighbours, that they may not by your conduct be grieved, or emboldened to anything unlawful to them: for why should you or I, by an imprudent and unseasonable use of our Christian liberty, tempt other men's consciences to pass a wrong judgment upon our conduct? 30. For if, through the bounty of God's providence, I have an opportunity, and, through the grace of the gospel, have liberty of feeding indifferently upon whatever food is presented to me, yet why should I indulge myself so far as to give any one occasion to reproach me for eating such meats as I receive with prayer to him for his blessing on them, and with religious thankfulness to him for providing and allowing them to me? 31. To close this argument with some important rules:—Not only in your eating and drinking, but in all your conduct, civil or religious, keep the glory of God before you as your principal and last end, and behave as is most conducive toward this. 32. Always carefully avoid whatever can prejudice the minds and hinder the conversion of either Jews or heathens, or may stumble either Jewish or Gentile Christians, or grieve, discourage, or pervert any church-member, strong or weak. 33. And, on the contrary, in Jesus' strength, labour, after my example, to deny yourselves, and study to do or forbear things, as is best suited to the peace, comfort, spiritual advantage, and eternal salvation of all around you.

Ver. 1. The object of the apostle seems to be twofold:—1. To contrast the Jewish with the Christian ordinances and privileges. 2. To remind the Corinthians that the observance of ordinances, and possession of privileges, so far from securing church-members from rejection, may aggravate their guilt and their punishment..—Ignorant. Rather, 'unmindful.' ¢.

Ver. 2. By following Moses into the cloud, and through the sea, they acknowledged his divine mission, and received a Jewish baptism, typical of that Christian baptism which the Corinthians had received..—Note, Here there is a baptized church, including both the adult and the infant. C.

Ver. 9. Some MSs. have 'Lord, others "God, instead of 'Christ ;' but they are few, and of little authority. The exhortation affords an irresistible argument for the Godhead of Christ; as it places the temptation of JEHOVAH in the wilderness and of CHRIST in his church upon equal footing. C.

Ver. 11. The ends of the world. The Jews divided the duration of the world into three aeons or ages:—'1) Before the law. '2) Under the law. (3) Under Messiah—the last dispensation of God to men. C.

Ver. 17. The words may be rendered, and perhaps more intelligibly, 'for as there is one loaf, we being many are one body: for we all partake of that one loaf.'—Note, The Jewish paschal loaf, or rather cake, was thin and large, so that a great number might partake of one. See Mat. 26. 26. C.

Reflections.—No visible relation to God, no sacramental privileges, can screen idolaters, fornicators, tempters of Christ, unbelieving murmurers, or any similar transgressors, from his just wrath. And instances of other men's sins and punishment should deter us from sinful indulgences or self-confidence, lest we fall into the like condemnation. Great is the mercy that God's faithfulness and grace secure for his watchful and humble saints, mitigation of, support under, and seasonable deliverance from all their troubles and temptations; that our Redeemer is so mighty, that we may safely trust him; and that he knows best what afflictions we need, and how long we should be exercised with them.— What a great and holy God we have to do with—infinitely jealous of his own honour! And highly do we affront him if in the least we countenance the worshipping of vain idols and impure spirits in them. Marvellous is his condescension and kindness in allowing us intimate fellowship with himself, and appointing solemn ordinances for that purpose. And totally inconsistent with our communion with Christ, and one another as his members, are the very smallest approaches towards fellowship with devils or lusts, or towards giving occasion of grief or sin to the weakest saints or neighbours. Things that are lawful in themselves must never be needlessly freely, or with restraint, as best tends to edification. And his glory therefore, and the spiritual advantage of our neighbours, ought to be our leading aims in all our actions, natural, civil, or religious.