1Corinthians 10:7
"Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written,
The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play"
The history of Israel shows that people who enjoyed the greatest privileges of God were far from being safe from temptation. Paul reminds the Corinthians, that it is no guarantee of being safe from temptation. Let's look into the temptations and the failures that Paul singles out.
There is the temptation to idolatry. We do not worship idols so blatantly now; but if a man's god be that to which he gives all his time and thought and energy, men still worship the works of their own hands more than they worship God.
There is the temptation to fornication. So long as a man is a man there come to him temptations from his lower self. Only a passionate love of purity can save him from impurity.
There is the temptation to try God too far. Consciously or unconsciously many a man gambles on the mercy of God. At the back of his mind there is the idea, "It will be all right; God will forgive." It is at his peril that he forgets that there is a holiness as well as a love of God.
There is the temptation to grumble. There are still many who greet life with a whine and not with a cheer. My friends, temptation will come. That is part of life. It is something designed, not to make us fall, but to test us, so that we emerge from it stronger than ever. Any temptation that comes to us is not unique. Others have endured it and others have come through it, "So Can We." No man needs to fall to any temptation, for with the temptation there is the way out, and the way out is not the way of surrender nor of retreat, but the way of conquest in the power of the grace of God.
There is the temptation to idolatry. We do not worship idols so blatantly now; but if a man's god be that to which he gives all his time and thought and energy, men still worship the works of their own hands more than they worship God.
There is the temptation to fornication. So long as a man is a man there come to him temptations from his lower self. Only a passionate love of purity can save him from impurity.
There is the temptation to try God too far. Consciously or unconsciously many a man gambles on the mercy of God. At the back of his mind there is the idea, "It will be all right; God will forgive." It is at his peril that he forgets that there is a holiness as well as a love of God.
There is the temptation to grumble. There are still many who greet life with a whine and not with a cheer. My friends, temptation will come. That is part of life. It is something designed, not to make us fall, but to test us, so that we emerge from it stronger than ever. Any temptation that comes to us is not unique. Others have endured it and others have come through it, "So Can We." No man needs to fall to any temptation, for with the temptation there is the way out, and the way out is not the way of surrender nor of retreat, but the way of conquest in the power of the grace of God.
Amen!
Reading: (1 Cor. 10:1-13
Ref: (HG SB, DSB)
May God Bless You
And Your Family
Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.
The Cross Life Ministry
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