1 Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, about our ancestors. All of them were under the cloud and all crossed the sea.
2 All underwent the baptism of the land and of the sea to join Moses
3 and all of them ate from the same spiritual manna
4 and all of them drank from the same spiritual drink. For you know that they drank from a spiritual rock following them, and the rock was Christ.
5 However, most of them did not please God, and the des ert was strewn with their bodies.
6 All of this happened as an example for us, so that we might not be come people of evil desires, as they did.
7 Do not follow idols, as some of them did, and Scripture says: The people sat down to eat and drink and stood up for orgy.
8 Let us not fall into sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them fell dead.
9 And let us not tempt the Lord as some of them did, and were killed by serpents;
10 nor grumble as some of them did and were cut down by the destroying angel.
11 These things happened to them as an example, and they were written as a warning for us, as the last times come upon us.
12 Therefore, if you think you stand, beware, lest you fall.
13 No trial greater than human endurance has overcome you. God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond your strength. He will give you, together with the temptation, the strength to escape and to resist.
14 Therefore, dear friends, shun the cult of idols.
15 I address you as intelligent persons; judge what I say.
16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a com munion with the blood of Christ? And the bread that we break, is it not a com munion with the body of Christ?
17 The bread is one, and so we, though many, form one body, sharing the one bread.
18 Consider the Israelites. For them, to eat of the victim is to come into communion with its altar.
19 What does all that mean? That the meat is really consecrated to the idol, or that the idol is a being.
20 However, when the pagans offer a sacrifice, the sacrifice goes to the demons, not to God. I do not want you to come into fellowship with demons.
21 You cannot drink at the same time from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons. You cannot share in the table of the Lord and in the table of the demons.
22 Do we want, perhaps, to provoke the jealousy of the Lord? Could we be stronger than he?
Practical solutions
23 Everything is lawful for me, but not everything is to my profit. Everything is lawful for me, but not everything builds up:
24 let no one pursue his own interests, but the interests of the other.
25 Eat, then, whatever is sold at the market, and do not raise questions of conscience about it.
26 Be cause: the earth and whatever is on it belongs to the Lord.
27 If someone who does not share your faith invites you, go and eat of anything served to you without problems of conscience.
28 How ever, if somebody tells you that the meat is from the offerings to idols, then do not eat out of consideration for those warning you and for the sake of their conscience.
29 I say: “In consideration of their conscience,” not of yours, for is it convenient that my rights be misinterpreted by them and their conscience?
30 Is it good that I bring on me critics for some good thing I am sharing and for which I will give thanks?
31 Then, whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.
32 Give no offense to the Jews, or to the Greeks, or to the Church of God,
33 just as I try to please everyone in everything. I do not seek my own interest, but that of many, this is: that they be saved.
------------------------------------------------------------
Comments 1 Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 10
• 10.15 And the bread that we break, is it not a communion with the body of Christ? (v. 16). Paul will return to speak of the Eucharist in 11:18. This communion through the body and blood of the Risen Christ, be sides being a personal encounter with Christ, makes of all of us one body. We form one body. This does not only mean that we feel united, but that the Risen Christ unites us to himself and, so doing, gives the community new strength.
The idol is nothing. The idol in itself was just a material thing, like an image. Yet the Jews thought (and Paul also mentions it) that the cult of idols was addres sed to the devils. In fact, when people are now being drag ged along by crazy trends or rhy thms, or attitudes, and sacrifice to their idols what their families need for survival, and make themselves dependent on “mortals,” we know that in reality they are serving the devil.
• 23. Everything is lawful for me, but not everything is to my profit (v. 23). Paul draws the same practical deductions as in 8:1-13. Except in the cases mentioned, where the believer refuses to share directly in something evil, the supreme rule of conduct will be to seek what is good and respect the conscience of others.