1 Corinthians 10:1-13–St. Paul pleads with his hearers to turn from their
sin (repent) to avoid destruction. He uses lessons to be learned from the
Israelites’ experiences in the wilderness. The gist of Paul’s pleading: don’t
think that just because you were baptized and receive Holy Communion, you are
safe from sinning. Look at the Israelites who were baptized into Moses and ate
supernatural food. They perished for their sins. Christians can sin, too. Pride
goes before a fall. Do not be smug and think you have it made, that nothing can
happen to you, and that you are safe from God’s judgment. Yet God will provide
an escape from temptation to sin that you need not perish. As Christians, you
need to live a life of daily repentance.
Paul encourages his readers to turn from sin, to
repent to avoid destruction. He cites lessons to be learned from Israel’s
experience in the wilderness.
Paul writes a warning to Christians to beware of
indulging in immorality. He cites the example of the Hebrews in the wilderness
who had the supernatural food of Christ; according to Paul, and still failed
morally to the point that God was not pleased with them and overthrew them.
Paul warns that the Israelites were confident of themselves, but they fell
away, and goes on to warn Christians to take care lest they, too, fall.
Fifty million freshmen can be wrong! Truth and the
issues of life are not determined by majority vote. Lent is a reminder of this
very fact, as we can see in our text that God was not pleased by the attitudes
and actions of most Israelites who had been set free from Egyptian bondage. The
greater part of this special people was wrong and so perished. The apostle
introduces these “fathers” as examples and warns us v.6 of the false security
and even indifference that have their source in the failure to realize that the
majority can be wrong.
A prayer for
newness of life in Christ – Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the
works of darkness and put upon ourselves the armor of life, now in the time of
this mortal life, in which Your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility,
that in the last day, when He shall come again in glory to judge both the
living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal.[1]
Today is St. Patrick’s
Day a man used by God to spread the Gospel to the people of Ireland. On this
day we pray for the same missionary zeal in our own day.
[1] Collect for newness of life in Christ, Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis
[2] Icon of St. Patrick copyright © Google images
[3] ibid
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