1 Corinthians 10:1-13 (NRSV)
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Chapter 10I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, Verse 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, Verse 3and all ate the same spiritual food, Verse 4and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Verse 5Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.
Verse 6Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Verse 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." Verse 8We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. Verse 9We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. Verse 10And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Verse 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. Verse 12So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. Verse 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.
Devotion
In this passage, one can hear echoes from the fourth verse of yesterday’s text, which appears in contemporary translations of the Lord’s Prayer, “and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Although we are redeemed, we are not exempt from evil. The warning from Paul to the Corinthian Christian community is picked up by the writer of Ephesians, who warns the Ephesian Christian community “to put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). Therefore, the Lord’s Prayer, in addition to betraying our neediness, also betrays our vulnerability in that we need to ask God not to lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil.`
Prayer
God, in the midst of our world, where there is no security and thing that will protect us, only your Word can protect and save us. Amen