This devotion originally appeared Feb. 25, 2016
By Isaiah Friesen, a 2017 Spanish and peace, justice and conflict studies graduate who lives in Stillwater, Minnesota
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 (NRSV)
In the devotional scriptures of the past two days, the prophet Isaiah and the Psalmist have emphasized the goodness of God. Today’s passage from 1 Corinthians, however, serves as a history lesson cautioning us that the life of faith, even amid God’s love and mercy, remains wrought with pitfalls aplenty. “So if you think you are standing,” the apostle Paul writes, “watch out that you do not fall.” Lest we lose sight of our own responsibility, we do well to remind ourselves that simply eating or drinking from Christ’s spirit is not all there is in the Christian journey.
While temptation will no doubt look different in our context than it has in the past, as our spiritual ancestors were tested, so we also are and will be tested. Idolatry today, for example, might appear in the form of an overemphasis on our own comforts—perhaps our addiction to entertainment, or our excessive attachment to traditional church structures—while we fail to tend either to the material and spiritual needs of our neighbor or to our own relationship with God. Although attitudes about sexuality may be different in our context than those of Paul or the Israelites, sexual immorality remains as a temptation in a world where sex and the human body continue to be marketed as freely consumable goods. And although we may pride ourselves on not complaining aloud, the world still pressures us to question God’s love and provision in one way or another, not least through economies that prioritize financial gain over right relationship with each other and with the rest of Creation.
Yet in spite of all these struggles, we are also assured of God’s constant love and presence with us, as we cling together to Christ throughout our journey of faith.
Prayer: God, we know that you are faithful, that you always have been and always will be with us. Grant us the courage to face up to our own temptations, and strengthen us for the journey as we pass through the trials of life. Amen.
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 (NRSV)
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3and all ate the same spiritual food, 4and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 5Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.
6Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. 7Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” 8We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. 10And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. 13No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.