1 Corinthians 10
Paul uses Israel's history to warn Christians
1 My Christian friends, remember what happened to our Israelite ancestors. Moses led them out of Egypt long ago. While they followed Moses, they all walked under the same cloud. All of them walked across the Red Sea. 2 It is as if God baptized all of them in the cloud and in the sea. In that way, they became people who followed Moses. 3 All our ancestors ate the same spiritual food. 4 All of them drank the same spiritual drink. They drank water from the spiritual rock that went with them. Christ was that rock. 5 They all received the same help from God, but most of them did not please God. God caused most of them to die in the wilderness.
10:4See Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 20:2-13. God gave food and drink to the Israelites in the wilderness. They could see that God himself was taking care of them. 6 We must learn from the things that happened to our ancestors. We must not want to do very bad things, like they did. 7 Do not worship idols, as some of them did. The Bible says: ‘The people sat down to eat and to drink. After that, they got up from their meal and they danced.’
10:7The people danced to worship their false gods. See Exodus 32:6. 8 We must not have sex in wrong ways. Some of our ancestors did that, and 23,000 of them died in one day as a result.
9 We must not do bad things to see whether the Lord will punish us. Some of our ancestors did that, and God sent snakes to destroy them.
10 Do not complain against God. When some of our ancestors spoke like that, God sent an angel of death to kill them.
11 All these things happened to our ancestors so that we would learn from them. They are written in the Bible to teach us important lessons. We are people who live at a time when all things will become complete.
12 If you think that you are standing strongly against sin, be careful! Do not fall down! 13 The things that test you are the same things that test other people too. You can always trust God to help you. When you want to do something wrong, God will make you strong in your spirit. When something bad tests you, God will not let it be too strong for you. He will show you a way to escape, so that you do not do anything wrong.
Christians must be careful not to worship idols
14 So, my friends, keep away from idols. Do not worship them. 15 You are people who think carefully about things. So think about what I am saying to you. 16 When we eat the Lord's Supper together, we remember that Christ died on our behalf. We thank God for the wine that we drink from the cup. In that way, we remember that we all belong to Christ because of his blood. We also break the bread and we eat it together. In that way, we remember that we all belong to Christ because of his body that died on the cross. 17 We are many people, but all of us eat part of the same loaf of bread. This shows that we are one group of people. We belong together because Christ died on our behalf.
10:16Supper was the meal that people ate in the afternoon or the evening. The Lord's Supper is when Christians eat bread and drink wine together. They do this to remember Jesus' death on the cross. See Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:19-20. 18 Think about Israel's people. They eat part of the animals that the priests offer on the altar as a sacrifice. This shows that they share together in the sacrifice. 19 So think about food that people offer to idols as a sacrifice. I am not saying that the idols are real gods. The food that people offer to them is not special food. 20 But the people who offer food to idols are worshipping demons. They are not worshipping God when they do that. I do not want you to join with demons in any way. 21 If you drink anything from the cup of demons, you cannot then drink wine from the Lord's cup. If you share a meal with demons, you cannot also share in the Lord's meal. 22 If we do things like that, we will cause the Lord to be angry. We should worship only him. You know that we are not stronger than he is!
Christians should live in a way that pleases God
23 Some of you might say, ‘We are free to do anything that we want to do!’ But I tell you that not everything is good for you to do. You might say, ‘We are free to do anything!’ But not everything helps us to be strong as believers. 24 Do not think about the things that will help you. Instead, each of you should think about what will help other people.
25 You can eat any meat that people sell in the market. Do not ask questions about the meat. Do not worry about whether it is right or wrong to eat it. 26 The Bible says, ‘The earth, and everything in it, belongs to the Lord.’
27 Someone who does not believe in Christ may ask you to eat a meal with him. Agree to go to his home, if you want to. Then you should eat whatever food he gives you. Do not ask questions about the food. Do not worry about it. 28 But someone there might say to you, ‘People have offered this food to an idol.’ If someone tells you that, do not eat the food. It might cause the person who told you to be upset. 29 It might not cause your own thoughts to be upset. But the other person may think that it is wrong to eat it.
Perhaps you will say, ‘Why should another person's thoughts decide what is right for me? I am free to do what I want to do. 30 I thank God for my food before I eat it. If I do that, nobody should say that it is wrong for me to eat it.’
31 Whatever you are doing, give honour to God. That includes when you eat food, or when you drink anything. 32 Do not live in a way that causes problems for other people. That is true whether they are Jews or Gentiles, or people who belong to God's church. 33 Copy my example. Whatever I do, I try to please other people. I do not try to do what will help me. Instead, I want to help other people. I live in that way so that God will save many people.
