“Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?” (1 Corinthians 10:14-22 ESV)
The context here is that of the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. With most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Why? Because they were idolaters and revelers and drunkards and those who indulged in sexual immorality and who put Christ to the test and who grumbled against God and against Moses. They did not listen to God. They did not heed his instructions and his warnings. But they lived however they wanted to live regardless of our Lord’s commands.
And then what does this tell us? These things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. And they were written down for our instruction. We are not to do the things that they did and thus suffer the same result, which is that they did not get to enter into God’s eternal rest. We will not inherit eternal life. And they did not get to go to the Promised Land because of their sinfulness and their unwillingness to repent of their sins and to obey the Lord and to submit to his Lordship over their lives.
So, if we don’t want to end up the same way that they did, we are to flee from idolatry. And idolatry is the worship of anyone or anything that is not God. It is to give our undying loyalties and devotion to any person or entity or organization or government or possessions, or to any sinful practices, or to being entertained, and regardless of what the Scriptures teach. An idol is anything which pulls us away from the Lord and/or that replaces him in our hearts and minds and devotion, to where he gets pushed aside.
And then we have a reference to the taking of communion, which Jesus instructed his followers to do after his death as a remembrance of what he did for us in dying on that cross so that we can now die with him to sin and live with him in obedience to his commands in holy living, because he was resurrected from the dead. But this was not to be a mere formality or just a religious ritual, for Jesus’ blood was shed for us on that cross to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our slavery to sin so we now honor him.
So this is a time when we not only remember what Jesus did for us on that cross, but when we repent of any known sin and when we recommit our lives to the Lord to dying daily to sin and to walking in obedience to his commands. For, again, this is not a religious ritual we go through. What Jesus did for us needs to be a reality in our every day lives or perhaps we don’t really know him, in truth, and heaven is not our eternal destiny. For many profess his name but they are still walking in sin.
Now if we are idolatrous, and our hearts and minds and passions and desires are being given over to the flesh and to sinful practices and to following and obeying what is not God, in place of God, then it is the devil we are serving and not God. And the Bible teaches that we don’t know God, we are not born of God, we are not in fellowship with God, and we will not have eternal life with God unless we repent and we turn and we follow Jesus in walks of obedience and in holy living and no longer in deliberate and habitual sin.
So, the message here for us is that we cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. We cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. We are either on the side of God or we are on the side of Satan. We are either walking according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. For we can’t be in fellowship with God if sin is our practice. And we can’t even know God if we do not obey his commandments (New Covenant), in practice. Obey idols and not God? You will not have eternity with God.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
Teach Them
An Original Work / May 24, 2012
Based off various scriptures
Open up the blinded eyes of
Those who walk in sin’s darkness.
Turn them to the light of Christ
And to His righteousness.
Turn them from the pow’r of Satan.
Turn them to the peace of Christ,
So they may receive forgiveness
And eternal life.
Teach them to put off their old selves
And their former way of life,
And to put on their new self,
Reborn to be like Christ;
To not copy worldly customs;
Be transformed in life and mind;
Obey freely His word in them,
Pleasing unto God.
Teach them how to love their neighbors
Truly as they love themselves;
Be a witness; share the gospel;
Satan’s lies dispel;
Comfort all who mourn in sadness;
Share Christ’s love and joy today.
Do this through your life and witness
For your Lord always.
https://vimeo.com/125485489
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