Paul has spent this letter urging the Corinthians to begin living in a way that will be pleasing to Christ. Thus far, the churches to which Paul has written demonstrate three ways that Christians can respond when we receive the gospel. In the Galatians’ case, they received the message with joy, but came to accept the notion that the law was required for sanctification; they responded by enslaving themselves to it. On the other hand, Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians reveals a congregation that was well on its way to sanctification. 

His words to them were of encouragement and for perseverance. Lastly, we learn that the Corinthians have yet to fully put their old lives away; they are keeping to society’s norms. Paul tells them that this is something that they cannot do if they plan to remain faithful and is something that they cannot do since they are expected to lift one another up to God. In chapter nine, Paul uses himself as an example for the Corinthians to imitate. He has willingly entered slavery and relinquished his rights for their sakes. Here in ten, Paul provides the congregation with a second example—this time of a people who refused to leave their practices, desires, and expectations behind. 

Here Paul includes the Gentile Corinthians into God’s people: “our ancestors”. He could, on the contrary, be referring to himself and/or is people as Jews of the Roman age looking back. My money is on the former: Paul’s statement is inclusive because he wants to warn the Corinthians to no do what Israel did when it was freed from slavery. When Paul states that the Israelites were all “baptized into Moses,” he is not equating the transformative effect that believers undergo at their baptism into Christ with their passage through the sea and “under the cloud”. Through the sea and the cloud Israel became one; they were unified in their freedom from slavery and in their receipt of God’s grace. Protection, liberation, sustenance, and life in the form of water from a rock originated from this grace.

These gifts were not merely symbolic for Paul; they were real and had real effect, but their source was spiritual. They were God’s action breaking forth into the world, hence Paul’s declaration that Christ was with them. However, Israel’s lack of concern for God’s righteousness offering to them indicated their lack of concern for one another. Their example mustn’t be ignored!

In verse seven, Paul quotes Exodus 32:6 from the LXX—concerning the creation of the golden calf. In doing so, he links human craving with idolatry. Although Israel received God’s guidance, protection, and provision as it journeyed from Egypt to the Promised Land, although it had been freed from centuries of slavery, although its identity as the children of Abraham and as God’s friends had been restored, in almost every circumstance this was not enough for them. Their dissatisfaction with the spiritual food that God had provided to them and their longing for meat—symbolic of the desire for worldly things—Paul tells the Corinthians is intended to act as a warning to them that the desires of their hearts must change. What was once important to them mustn’t be any longer!

Here is the golden calf (Exodus 32:6); here is Israel’s men turning to the prostitutes of Moab and worshipping Baal of Peor (Numbers 25:1-3); here is complaining about God’s provision not being desirable (Numbers 21); here is Israel’s rebellion by refusing to trust in God and failing to enter into Canaan—resulting in that generation’s death in the wilderness and failure to enter into the Promised Land (Numbers 14).

Each member of the community must take care to remain faithful. “So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall.” It is an interesting way to start this last exhortation. Paul doesn’t say “whoever is standing” but, “whoever THINKS he stands”. I detect a touch of sarcasm here. Paul has already made it a point to remind the Corinthians that it is a dangerous thing to assume salvation based upon their own understanding. Remember the end of chapter nine, where the apostle tells the church that even he, who has had a person encounter with the risen Lord, doesn’t make such an assumption: He disciplines himself as athletes discipline themselves. We must choose to remain faithful, and we must choose to remain humble. Never forget that Laodicea thought it was fine. This is Paul’s call for us to be honest with ourselves. 

In the same vein, no Corinthian should ever think that his or her obstacles are any different than anyone else’s. Paul notes this, I think, because he is addressing people that have likely spent their whole lives trying to stand out from everyone else. Remember, status and upward mobility is the name of the game in Corinth. Honestly assess yourselves, Paul tells them, and realize that what you face, others have faced before—even other Christians. But never fear because God is with you. 

Finally, just because God is faithful and “will not allow [us] to be tempted beyond what [we] are able [to bear]” this does not mean that we will escape temptation unchanged or unscathed.