10
“They Were Written Down as Warnings to Us”
1 In this regard+ I want to remind you,+ brothers and sisters, about what happened to our ancestors+ in the wilderness.+ All+ of them were led by the very+ pillar of cloud itself.+ All of them, too, passed through what?+ Through the Red+ Sea.
2 All of them, too, were “baptized,” so to speak,+ in the cloud and in the sea,+ into union with Moses in a shared deliverance.+
3 It was all of them who ate the same God-provided food,++
4 and it was all of them who drank the same God-provided drink.++ Indeed, they were drinking from the God-provided Rock+ that was accompanying them (that Rock was the Messiah).+
5 Yet how many+ from that generation+ did God ultimately approve to enter the land?+ Only a few.+ Most were “struck down in the wilderness.”+
6 As for these events, it was+ as foreshadows of things to come, for our instruction,+ that they took place, warning us not to crave wicked things, as did those people.+
7 You must not become idolaters,+ as did some of them; as it is written, “The people feasted and danced in honor of a pagan god.”+
8 And we must not commit sexual immorality, as did some of them+—resulting in the death, in a single day,+ of twenty-three thousand!+
9 Nor are we to put the Messiah to the test, as did some of them+—and were killed, as a result,+ by snakes.+
10 You must not grumble and complain, as did some of them+—and as a consequence died at the hand of the destroying angel.+
11 As for these events, it was+ as foreshadows+ of things to come that they happened to our ancestors.+ They were written down, moreover, as warnings to us, on whom is about+ to come the very+ culmination+ of the ages.+
12 So then, if+ someone thinks he is firm in his loyalty and faith,+ he must be careful, lest he go astray.+
13 You are no less susceptible to temptation+ than any of the rest of weak+ humanity.+ Yet God is faithful,+ and he won’t allow you to be tempted beyond your ability to resist; when the temptation comes, he will provide, too,+ a means of escape, the strength to endure.+
14 That is indeed why, my dear friends, you must flee from idolatry!
15 It is+ as to sensible people that I am speaking. Weigh out for yourselves the truth of what I’m about to say.
16 The cup of blessing we use in the Lord’s supper, over which we offer prayers of blessing:+ When we drink it,+ we are in fellowship+ with the Messiah, are we not, as we share in his blood?+ The bread we break: When we eat it, we are in fellowship+ with the Messiah, are we not, as we share in his body?+
17 There is one loaf, showing that+ we are, though many,+ a single and united+ body. All of us, you see, partake+ of that one loaf.
18 Consider the people of Israel.+ Those who eat their portion of the sacrifices in the sacrificial meal+ are in fellowship,+ are they not, with the one true God at whose altar the sacrifices are offered?+
19 Now am I suggesting by these things that food sacrificed to idols is, in itself,+ of any importance?+ Or that an idol is, after all,+ something other than a worthless, man-made object?+
20 Not at all. My point is that the sacrifices offered by idol-worshipers at pagan altars+ are sacrificed “to demons and not to God,”+ and I don’t want you to be in fellowship+ with demons.
21 You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and+ the cup of demons. You can’t partake of the table of the Lord and+ the table of demons.
22 Or do we dare arouse the jealous anger of the Lord?+ Do we really think he will let us defy him and get away with it?+
23 “All things we are free+ to enjoy”+—yes, but that doesn’t mean that all things necessarily lead to what is good.+ “All things we are free+ to enjoy”—yes, but that doesn’t mean that all things necessarily build others up.+
24 It isn’t+ his own benefit that each person is to seek, but that of others.+
25 Eat whatever is being sold in the meat market,+ without raising any questions of conscience at all.+
26 “It is+ the LORD,+” after all, “to whom the earth and everything in it belongs.”+
27 Suppose an unbeliever invites some+ of you for a meal and you decide to go—go ahead and eat whatever it is you are being served,+ without raising any questions of conscience at all.+
28 If someone, however, to ᵖyou, says, “this meat comes from an animal sacrificed to one of the gods,”+ then don’t eat it, as an act of love+ toward that person who pointed it out, and to help avoid a violation+ of conscience—
29 the conscience, I mean, of the other person, not yours. (Why should my freedom, after all, be called into question+ by another+ person’s conscience?+
30 If, on my part, it is+ with thanksgiving that I am participating in the meal, why should I be criticized over something for which I myself am giving thanks?)+
31 Whatever you do, therefore, whether it’s eating or drinking or anything else,+ everything, here is how+ you are to do it: In a way that will bring honor+ to God.+
32 Don’t become a stumbling block,+ to Jews, or Gentiles,+ or God’s assemblies,
33 just as I, too, constantly take it upon+ myself to serve+ people of all kinds, in all things,+ seeking what is beneficial not+ for my myself, but for as many people as possible,+ so that they may be saved.