(1Co 10:13 ESV) 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Paul immediately transitions from the dire warnings of verses 6 – 13 to words of comfort — some of the most comforting ever spoken.
Nothing exceptional in either way had happened to the Corinthians. They had experienced only what is common to man. And God is not simply a spectator of the affairs of life; he is concerned and active. Believers can count on his help. He will always make a way out. This word (ekbasis) may denote a mountain defile. The imagery is that of an army trapped in rugged country, which manages to escape from an impossible situation through a mountain pass. The assurance of this verse is a permanent comfort and strength to believers. Our trust is in the faithfulness of God.
Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale NTC 7; IVP/Accordance electronic ed. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 142.
As is nearly always true, Paul’s theology has deep roots in the Old Testament —
(Psa 125:3 ESV) 3 For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong.
(Jer 29:11-13 ESV) 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Paul now begins to connect the dots, showing how his last chapter and a half makes his point regarding meat sacrificed to idols.
(1Co 10:14 ESV) 14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
Remember that in chapter 8, Paul conceded that idols are fictitious. There is but One God. And yet the lesson from the Exodus is that idolatry destroys. Even if the idols are false, dead gods, idolatry takes us away from the worship of the True God. Indeed, if the idols are real to us in our hearts, it’s just as wrong to worship them as though they really existed.
(1Co 10:15-16 ESV) 15 I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 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?
Paul is obviously now speaking of the “spiritual drink” of the church — the cup shared during the Eucharist (Lord’s Supper, communion). In what sense is taking this cup a “participation in the blood of Christ”?
“Participation” translates koinonia, meaning fellowship, partnership, sharing, community. And Paul could certainly have Christian fellowship with fellow Christians in mind. But the subject continues to be the sacrifice of meat to idols. Therefore,
Paul’s argument, with its emphasis on participation in the blood and body of Christ seeks to stress that where God is (or gods are) invoked as the host or patron (or hosts/patrons) of the meal, the fellowship is not merely with the men and women gathered around the table, but with the deity as well. Through our fellowship with Christ we participate in the benefits of his sacrifice which serves to establish or renew our covenantal relationship with God.
Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians (Pillar NTC; Accordance electronic ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 474.
Notice the correlation. In pagan worship, meals were often eaten at the temple, symbolically with the god. This was a common means of entertaining friends and celebrating events.
Among the Jews, the “blood of the covenant” mentioned by Jesus when he instituted the Lord’s Supper was a common meal shared by the Moses and the other leaders of the Israelites with God (Exo 24). And the Lord’s Supper itself was a meal enjoyed by the apostles with Jesus!
Pagan, Old Testament, and New Testament imagery all converge to show the Eucharist to be a meal enjoyed with Jesus and God.
More than that, though, Jesus himself provides the meal. We eat his body and drink his blood, that is, we consume his sacrifice, becoming sacrifices ourselves. We take on the nature of the Deity with whom we participate. We learn to sacrifice by taking in the sacrifice of Jesus every week.
The wonder of the Christian faith is that our participation in Christ (i.e., in his blood and body) is not based on a sacrifice that we make to please the god (as in the Greco-Roman and other pagan religions), but in Christ’s own sacrifice of his body and blood that we might indeed participate in the life that only he can provide for us through that sacrifice.
Pagan sacrifices offer only a reflection of the human longing for communion with the divine and a human attempt to establish that communion. Christ’s sacrifice of his body and blood for us establishes what we could never achieve otherwise: true communion with God and participation in the life he has won for us through the cross.
Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians (Pillar NTC; Accordance electronic ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 474.
And as we take the elements of the communion, reminiscent of the crucified Jesus, we remember that we died with Jesus on the cross. We were co-crucified with him.
(Gal 2:20 NET) 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
This is the point of communion. Not the only point but one we too often ignore. We want to participate in the resurrection without participating in the crucifixion. We want to pass from life to life without dying in between. We don’t want to share in the crucifixion. We don’t want to learn submission and sacrifice — not at that level.
And yet every Sunday, the tray comes by, filled with bread that is the sacrificed body of Christ. And we eat. And the cup comes by, filled with wine that is the sacrificed blood of Christ. And we drink.
And Paul tells us plainly: This is a participation in those things. We aren’t just appropriating the blessing of Jesus’s death. We’re dying with him on the cross.
Paul’s point, made soto vocce, whispered between the lines, is that we must be willing to sacrifice for one another just as Jesus sacrificed for us. We cannot take the Lord’s Supper while refusing to submit and sacrifice for brothers who need us to do so.
(1Co 10:17 ESV) 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
Now Paul turns explicitly to the horizontal nature of communion. Our fellowship with Christ brings us into fellowship with one another. We share the table! Thus, the table celebrates and reminds us of our essential unity as the singular body of Christ.
(1Co 10:18 ESV) 18 Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?
“Participants in the altar”? Not exactly obvious what Paul is saying. We often don’t realize that many of the sacrifices at the Temple were eaten by those making the sacrifice as well as others they may invite. This was the case for the thanks offering, a voluntary sacrifice of gratitude toward God.
By “participating in the altar” Paul evidently means that those eating the meal from the food taken from the altar are counted as those who offered the worship through the sacrifice that was offered there (and expect to benefit from the efficacy of that offering). The implication for eating food offered to idols is clear. Paul implies that to knowingly eat food that has been clearly identified as such makes one a willing participant of the offering from which it was taken.
Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians (Pillar NTC; Accordance electronic ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 478.
In short, if you eat meat sacrificed to an idol, aware of its history, then you participate in the worship of that idol just as surely as eating the Lord’s Supper or a thanks offering in Jerusalem is an act of worship toward God.
And this fact has profound conclusions for how to live among the pagans.
From “communing” with Adam in the garden, to Abram in Genesis (18) to Moses and the elders of Israel on ‘Sinai (Ex. 24) and more, God shows His desire to be in close fellowship with His people of faith. He wants to eat with US. And in the memorial we share the promise of sitting at the same table as the LORD. That should make our day glorious! The way we have centered on a sermon rather than the Savior should sadden us all — and lead to a call to refocus our attention on a risen Lord who simply asked, “Do this in my memory.” Not too much to ask for, is it? In this (in Paul’s words) we PROCLAIM – (11:26) to ourselves in self confession (of God’s rightful judgment of our sin and that Jesus is Lord, to God in gratitude, and to each other that we family.