The Table of the Lord and the Table of DemonsFriday, September 30th, 2011 | Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians | Comments | |
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“The Same Spiritual Food ” In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul wrote about the ancestors in Moses’ days, that they ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. Because those Christians that lived in Moses’ days are our fathers and also our brother in Christ. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea. But many of them died in the wilderness for their rebellion against God that unpleased Him. Even though God gave them spiritual food and drink, they used this blessing from God for the unrighteous purpose to worship the idols. So Paul taught the Corinthian church to not to rebel against God about food and also the immorality like Israel did.
What We Have to Learn from Israelites’ Error Because one of the reasons that theses things happened was for the example for us. So that we will not sin and be punished like Israelites by learning how God punished them. We always have to remember how they sinned and how God judged them for their idol worship and immorality.
The Immorality and the Idolatry In 1 Corinthians, Paul warned against Idolatry and the Immorality. Because these were the sins that Israels had in the wilderness and it was the same sins that Corinthian church was dealing with. This problem in the Corinthian church is quite obvious from what Paul said in previous chapters. For example, in chapter 8 Paul wrote specifically about the food offered to Idols. And again in chapter 10, Paul wrote about the food offered to the idols from the perspective of “what we should eat instead”. We Should Not Eat Like Idolaters As Paul explained in chapter 10, we should not eat or drink like the idolaters. Than how should we eat and drink as Christians? What did Paul say about that in chapter 10? One of the clues of that answer is the words that comes out in verse 3 to 6 “the spiritual food” and “the spiritual drink”. Because “spiritual food” and “food offered to idols” are the complete opposite. There is also a phrase in chapter 10 verse 20, where Paul explained about the idol’s food that “pagans sacrificed their offer to demons”. But it doesn’t mean that these food have some kind of a power in it but Paul told the Christians not to eat them, if it causes problem in the church and make the weak brothers stumble. So Paul taught them that they have to be thankful for whatever they eat or whatever they drink.
The Table of the Lord So how we should act like Christians are to do every thing for Godly purpose, not only about food or drink but everything. So if the food cause problem in the church, and make the weak brothers stumble, we should not eat the food offered to idols. Because the reason that God gave us food is for us to be thankful to Him, so that we will unite through eating and drinking together. The fact that the center of the worship service is the communion made clear that the food was given to us for good reasons. As Paul wrote about the communion in following chapter, the communion is the opposite of the idolatry. In the idol worship, people sacrifice food to gods that doesn’t exist. But in the communion, we eat bread and wine for the purpose to worship the only true God.
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