Let Him Take Heed – I Corinthians 10:12

"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."

We have a propensity, if we are honest, to read scripture mainly for someone else. But in this sobering passage in I Corinthians, Paul is addressing me, because I am someone who truly thinks that she "stands."

There's nothing wrong, of course, in believing that I stand, that is, that I am in right standing with God. The danger, according to Paul, is that we who think we stand still can fall if we stop paying close attention to some very specific threats.

Here is his list of threats:

1. We must not lust after evil things (verse 6).
2. We must not become an idolater (verse 7).
3. We must not commit sexual immorality (verse 8).
4. We must not tempt Christ (verse 9).
5. We must not complain (verse 10).

Paul is basing this discussion on the example of "our fathers," the children of Israel who were led by God through the desert. He begins by noting that this group of people were all in 'right standing.' "All our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ."

"But," Paul reminds us, "with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness." He then tells us they are to be specifically seen as examples for our instruction, so that we might not fall as they did. Therefore I must ask myself continually some important questions.

Am I lusting after something that is evil? In other words, do I desire something other than God Himself or things that are consistent with His nature? In Numbers 11:4 it says that the Israelites "yielded to intense craving" for the food they had known in Egypt. In their hearts they thereby turned from willingly following God, and they lusted for what He had taken them away from and out of.

Am I an idolater? Paul quotes Exodus 32:6, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." This is a reference to the Israelites' response to the golden calf idol Aaron had built. After doing their "duty" to this idol, by rising early and offering sacrifices, they lapsed into riotous self-indulgence. When anything other than God is our god, we will at some point allow ourselves to compromise our devotion.

Am I sexually immoral? In Numbers 25, the Israelites had joined into the immoral lifestyle of some foreign nations. An Israelite man even brought a Midianite woman to the tabernacle and was having sex with her in front of everyone. God responded by sending a plague that killed 23,000 people. What stopped the plague was a brave priest, who stabbed them both through with a spear. God not only wants us to be sexually pure ourselves, but we must also defend sexual purity as an ideal. When we tolerate what God does not, we too are sharing in that immorality.

Do I tempt (test) Christ? The sin here (in Numbers 21:4-9) is impatience and disrespect. God had not provided the Israelites with as much water or with the variety of food they had once enjoyed. In the assumption that God owed them what they desired, they challenged His goodness. He responded again by a severe punishment, but this time it wasn't a plague. Instead, the people were given the opportunity to look at a bronze serpent that represented God, or they would die from the bites of the poison serpents He had sent. We test God when we forget His sovereignty and our total helplessness without Him.

Do I complain? While the Israelites complained against God more than once, probably Paul is thinking of the time when they stood on the edge of the promised land at the end of their journey. But there their gripe wasn't about the food. This time they mourned their entire exodus from Egypt. "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!" (Numbers 14:2). Finally, God had had enough. "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me?" He told the people, "As I live...just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you" (Numbers 14:27,28).

We might see God's decision to allow all but a handful of faithful followers to die in the desert as being the consequence of sin only in the Old Testament. We who have access to the salvation of Jesus are not in the same place. But if it were that simple, why is Paul treating it so seriously? Why does he warn us, in this detailed fashion, to "take heed"?

Far from giving us a pass because of Christ's substitution, Paul says that these ancient experiences were deliberately intended to be an "admonition" (instruction) for those "upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (I Corinthians 10:11). That's us. The difference (in verse 13) is that, unlike the Israelites, we have been given a "way of escape" so we might bear up under the temptations to lust and complain (and so forth) without sinning (verse 13).

Nevertheless, the choice is ours. We must not only "take heed," which means to pay VERY close attention to our lifestyles and habits, but also, Paul reminds us in conclusion, we must actually flee from idolatry (verse 14). This is the primary sin, reflected in the first of the ten commandments, and it is the one thing that requires the most energy and devotion. You see, our enemy will let us rise above a lot of other lesser sins, if it means he is able to keep our attention and priorities centered on anything else but God.