Welcome to this week’s episode, a special rerun from our Speaking of Life archive. We hope you find its timeless message as meaningful today as it was when it was first shared.
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Program Transcript
Speaking Of Life 4017 | Praying for Deliverance
Greg Williams
Does the world seem broken beyond repair? It seems every generation at one point or another feels this way. In smaller ways, we also have times of brokenness in our personal lives when we realize there is little we can do to make things right. Whether looking at the world at large or dealing with a personal crisis, we often come to a place where we feel powerless. Maybe you feel that way today!
Consider this! If a small child is playing with a toy that becomes broken beyond their ability to fix, what do you think most children would naturally do? I think most would not hesitate to take the toy to a parent to fix. I’ve had numerous broken toys brought to me to fix and I’m sure most parents and grandparents have logged many hours fixing broken toys for children.
Today is a good day to remember that we have a heavenly Father who is able and willing to receive and repair all the brokenness in our lives. Feeling powerless can remind us of our need to approach our Father in prayer, bringing him all that is broken in us and in our world. Not only is he more than able to deliver and save us from all brokenness, but he has already done so in Jesus Christ. This means when we pray, we are not asking the Father to intervene in something he is unaware of. We are also not twisting his arm to do something he is not willing to do. We are participating in the Father’s sure deliverance from evil and brokenness. Like the child who brings a broken toy to a parent to fix, the most powerful and effective thing we can do in the face of worldwide brokenness is to bring it to our heavenly Father in prayer.
David concludes with a powerful reminder of the Father’s heart, which is turned towards his children who seek him in prayer:
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
The righteous person may have many troubles,
but the Lord delivers him from them all;
he protects all his bones,
not one of them will be broken.
Evil will slay the wicked;
the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
The Lord will rescue his servants;
no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.”
Psalm 34:17-22
For our own sakes and for the sake of our world, the Lord invites us into his prayer to the Father as the most powerful way to participate in Jesus’ deliverance and restoration of all brokenness. It’s never too late to start praying for deliverance from our brokenness.
I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.
Program Transcript
Speaking Of Life 4017 | Praying for Deliverance
Greg Williams
Does the world seem broken beyond repair? It seems every generation at one point or another feels this way. In smaller ways, we also have times of brokenness in our personal lives when we realize there is little we can do to make things right. Whether looking at the world at large or dealing with a personal crisis, we often come to a place where we feel powerless. Maybe you feel that way today!
Consider this! If a small child is playing with a toy that becomes broken beyond their ability to fix, what do you think most children would naturally do? I think most would not hesitate to take the toy to a parent to fix. I’ve had numerous broken toys brought to me to fix and I’m sure most parents and grandparents have logged many hours fixing broken toys for children.
Today is a good day to remember that we have a heavenly Father who is able and willing to receive and repair all the brokenness in our lives. Feeling powerless can remind us of our need to approach our Father in prayer, bringing him all that is broken in us and in our world. Not only is he more than able to deliver and save us from all brokenness, but he has already done so in Jesus Christ. This means when we pray, we are not asking the Father to intervene in something he is unaware of. We are also not twisting his arm to do something he is not willing to do. We are participating in the Father’s sure deliverance from evil and brokenness. Like the child who brings a broken toy to a parent to fix, the most powerful and effective thing we can do in the face of worldwide brokenness is to bring it to our heavenly Father in prayer.
David concludes with a powerful reminder of the Father’s heart, which is turned towards his children who seek him in prayer:
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
The righteous person may have many troubles,
but the Lord delivers him from them all;
he protects all his bones,
not one of them will be broken.
Evil will slay the wicked;
the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
The Lord will rescue his servants;
no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.”
Psalm 34:17-22
For our own sakes and for the sake of our world, the Lord invites us into his prayer to the Father as the most powerful way to participate in Jesus’ deliverance and restoration of all brokenness. It’s never too late to start praying for deliverance from our brokenness.
I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.
Psalm 63:1–8 · Isaiah 55:1–9 · 1 Corinthians 10:1–13 · Luke 13:1–9
The third Sunday of Easter Prep. offers more preparation for repentance and change. Regardless of our progress or slipups, we can count on God’s mercy and patience. God’s faithfulness is our theme this week, and our readings show us that while we think we want fairness and equity from God, what we really want is grace. And because we want that for ourselves, we should also want that for others. In last week’s sermon, Paul encouraged Christians to imitate him as an example of spiritual transformation in progress, never forgetting God’s nearness in all our endeavors. This week, Psalm 63 offers praise for God’s companionship and sustenance, both physical and spiritual. God’s faithfulness is expressed in Isaiah 55 as God refuses to give up on Israel and offers his faithful love promised to David. His word goes out and will not return empty. The Gospel account found in Luke 13 illustrates our tendency to associate cause and effect when it comes to tragedies that happen in the world. It’s evidence of our unconscious belief that if we aren’t good enough; God will abandon us. Jesus disputes this, pointing out that we are subject to unwise decisions of others or unjust human systems, which often result in harm that has nothing to do with our own personal choices. Our sermon text in 1 Corinthians 10 talks about the problem of arrogance and its harm to individuals and institutions and the hope that even the harm is held within the loving and faithful arms of God.
When We Aren’t Faithful
1 Corinthians 10:1–13 NRSVUE
“King of the jungle” is a title reserved for lions because of their appearance and hunting skill. One story about a lion who was proud of this title goes like this:
The lion approached a bear and asked, “Who is the king of the jungle?” The bear fearfully replied, “You are, of course, Mr. Lion.” The lion, in search of more compliments, went to a tiger and a monkey and asked the same thing, only to receive the same frightened response. Feeling pretty cocky, the lion came upon an elephant and asked the question again, “Who is the king of the jungle?” Instead of saying anything, the elephant grabbed the lion with its massive trunk and slammed him into a tree before pounding him on the ground several times and then throwing him into a nearby pond. When the lion crawled out of the water, he said to the elephant, “Just because you don’t know the answer is no reason to get nasty about it!”
Our arrogance and pride often lead to a distortion of our perception of reality. This is especially problematic for Christians because we forget how much we need the grace and forgiveness freely offered to us through Jesus Christ. We forget that we are to be dispensers of grace and forgiveness to others, too, as image bearers of Christ. We forget we can be agents of change to upset cultural practices and underlying narratives that don’t reflect the equity we have in God’s sight. And these are some of the predicaments the church in Corinth faced. When we proudly think of ourselves as “the king of the jungle,” we set ourselves up for a fall.
Let’s read our sermon text in 1 Corinthians 10:1–13.
The context of 1 Corinthians 10
The example of ancient Israel’s failure to follow God found in 1 Corinthians 10:1–13 is part of a larger argument about eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols, beginning in 1 Corinthians 8:1–11:1. As Paul explains, he isn’t concerned about eating the food sacrificed to idols because the idols are powerless. He is worried, however, about those believers for whom eating food sacrificed to idols was a part of their former lifestyle and worship of pagan gods. The passage refers to “weaker” members of Christ’s body, those whose faith and life in Christ was new and tender and easily broken.
In 1 Corinthians 9:1–27, Paul provides the first example (himself) to argue that knowledge and freedom in Christ do not have to be exercised if they would be detrimental to others. Paul tells them that despite his superior knowledge, faith, and mystical experience with the risen Christ, he was willing to forego the freedoms he had in Christ so that he didn’t interfere with others’ faith journey.
In our sermon text, Paul repeats this argument that knowledge and freedom in Christ do not need to be exercised if detrimental to others’ faith. [Examples may be helpful.][Give examples.] In this example, Paul uses the negative example of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for forty years after the exodus from Egypt. He compares the Israelites with the Corinthians, who had their own share of interpersonal and inter-community problems such as grumbling and sexual immorality. Paul reminds them of Israel’s unfaithfulness.
For the Corinthian church, refusing to eat meat offered to idols was also tied to the Roman class structure in place. Authors John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan Reed write the following in their book, In Search of Paul: How Jesus’ Apostle Opposed Rome’s Empire with God’s Kingdom:
Most of the problems at Corinth stem … from powerful patrons within the assembly, important people both very good for help, support, and protection, but also very bad for unity, equality, and commonality. It was those whom Paul calls powerful who could take financial disputes outside the Christian assembly and into the civil courts (1 Corinthians 6:1-8), who could countenance marriage between stepson and widowed stepmother to protect patrimony (1 Corinthians 5:1-13), and who could argue for attending celebratory meals in pagan temples, buying such meat in the market, and eating it at private dinners (1 Corinthians 10:14-33). All such problems involved not just their position inside the Christian assembly, but their contacts with friends, freedmen, and clients outside it. Those were problems for the haves rather than the have-nots (408-409).
In the next chapter, 1 Corinthians 11:17–34, Paul corrects the church for their behavior at the Lord’s Supper where better food and wine were served to those of higher social standing, but inferior food and wine were served to those with lower social standing who arrived later at the end of their work day. The Corinthian church was turning the sacrament intended to celebrate Christ’s death until His return as another way to lock the social and cultural classes in place, even within the church which should have been equal and unified in Christ and not subject to cultural norms:
There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28 NRSVUE
The context of our sermon text is very important; otherwise, it could be used as manipulation to use the fear of punishment as a motivation for obedience. [Examples may be helpful.] This twisted intent is far from the argument Paul is making. Let’s understand the warning and encouragement found in 1 Corinthians 10:1–13.
The warning of arrogance
The wisdom of Ecclesiastes 1:9 says that history can repeat itself:
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9 NRSVUE
Wanting to do what we want to do is not new, and a valid argument exists to enjoy the freedom we have in Christ. However, that freedom is tempered by its effect on the community. Christianity was not intended to be lived solo; it was meant to be lived in relationship, not only with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but with other people.
Paul is making the point that the ancient Israelites participated in a form of baptism by passing through the Red Sea and then [drinking] from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ (1 Corinthian 10:4). They witnessed the miracle of the Red Sea and manna and water from the rock, and still it wasn’t enough to keep them from arrogantly choosing to do whatever they wanted. Barclay’s Commentary says that “it is to history that Paul goes to show what can happen to people who have been blessed with the greatest privileges.” If the ancient Israelites could get tangled up in their proud egos, then the Corinthians were just as susceptible. And so are we. Note what Pastor Scott Hoezee writes:
It’s all very disappointing on one level, of course, and that is perhaps why this sobering and disappointing text is assigned for the sobering Season of Lent. It was bad enough to watch Israel mess up again and again. But at least you could comfort yourself a bit and say “Well, yes, but then again, that was centuries before Jesus was born…” All true. Except that the Church has very often proved itself fully capable of wilderness-like shenanigans, and Exhibit A in the New Testament is Corinth itself. We could wish it were not so but at almost any given moment in any given congregation there is enough hurt, enough animosity, enough complaints against the preacher, the praise team, the worship director to tell us we’re never far from being tempted to do it wrong.
In truth, American evangelicalism has seen its share of scandals over the past fifty years but none so insidious as our tendency to view ourselves as Americans first and Christians second. This can lead to national idolatry. In the New York Times bestselling book The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, author Tim Alberta interviews the Michigan pastor, Chris Winans. His church became divided over Christian nationalism, with most of the congregants leaving to attend another church where conspiracy theories and disinformation, rather than the gospel, were served up as the sermon. Pastor Chris Winans said this:
If you believe that God is in covenant with America, then you believe—and I’ve heard lots of people say this explicitly—that we’re a new Israel. You believe the sorts of promises made to Israel are applicable to this country; you view America as a covenant that needs to be protected … [As a result,] you have to fight for America as if salvation itself hangs in the balance. At that point, you understand yourself as an American first and most fundamentally. And that is a terrible misunderstanding of who we’re called to be” (qtd. in Alberta 28).
There’s a danger of losing sight of anyone who is different from us, and we end up baptizing our own worldview and calling it Christian (Alberta 48).
Easter Preparation offers us a season of introspection to examine our motives, desires, and personal opinions to see if they are founded in love or arrogance. Professor Bryan J. Whitfield writes, “Our outward expressions of idolatry may differ from those of the Corinthians, but our desires for acceptance, power, prestige, wealth, and power betray us still.”
The encouragement to be vigilant
The New Testament church had its share of problems, the same problems we face today, but the Bible doesn’t attempt to whitewash them or diminish reporting their effects on the congregations of that era. But more importantly, our inability to be faithful has had no effect on God’s faithfulness and grace toward us. 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells of God’s faithfulness when we are challenged with our egoic tendencies:
No 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. 1 Corinthians 10:13 NRSVUE
Some mistakenly assume that the “testing” comes from God. However, James reminds us that God does not tempt us:
No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. 14 But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; 15 then, when desire has conceived, it engenders sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. James 1:13–15 NRSVUE
We are more than capable of deluding ourselves to believe we deserve what we want or desire. This requires us to focus on self-awareness and self-examination, two important Easter Prep practices, but useful for any time of the year.
Professor of New Testament Carla Works summarizes Paul’s solution in this way:
At the end of this larger argument on whether or not it is acceptable to eat food that has been sacrificed to idols, Paul will give a guiding principle: “do [everything] to the glory of God” (10:31). Like their ancestors in the faith, this predominantly Gentile Corinthian church is called to live in a manner that is faithful to the one who is the very source of their life and existence. Living faithfully to this God includes considering one’s witness to others for whom Christ also died.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit offer us grace when we trip on our fragile and self-centered egos. They are constant companions and deliver us from our arrogance. When we aren’t faithful, we can rely on God’s faithfulness and grace. God “will also provide the way out;” Jesus is the way out.
Call to Action: As part of your Easter Preparation practice of self-examination, consider if you have ever succumbed to arrogance and offended others, whether believers or not. Practice recognizing slip-ups such as these, asking God for a sensitive heart that is quick to recognize and repent of arrogance and privilege.
For Reference:
Alberta, Tim. The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. HarperCollins, 2023.
Crossan, John Dominic, and Jonathan L. Reed. In Search of Paul: How Jesus’ Apostle Opposed Rome’s Empire with God’s Kingdom. HarperSanFrancisco, 2004.
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dsb/1-corinthians-10.html
https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2016-02-22/1-corinthians-101-13/
Cathy Deddo—Year C Easter Preparation 3
Listen to audio: https://cloud.gci.org/dl/GReverb/GR059-Deddo-YearC-EasterPrep3.mp3
March 23, 2025 — Third Sunday in Easter Preparation
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
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Program Transcript
Cathy Deddo—Year C Easter Prep 3
Anthony: Let’s pivot to our next pericope of the Month. It’s 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the Third Sunday of Easter Prep and Lent which is March 23. Cathy, read it for us please.
[00:40:54] Cathy:
I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. 6 Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do 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.” 8 We must not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. 10 And do not complain, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 These 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. 12 So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. 13 No 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.
[00:42:21] Anthony: Well, this month, we have two warning passages. Lucky you, Cathy, you get to deal with the warnings. So, what should we make of the warning given in this passage to the church in Corinth about the ancestors of spiritual Israel?
[00:42:38] Cathy: Take a breath. All right. So again, I think it kind of helps to consider the letter as a whole to understand this passage. What were the Corinthians dealing with and what were Paul’s concerns with them?
So we’ve talked a little bit about already Corinth, because we’ve had other passages. Let me just say again, the city was characterized as a self-sufficient and self-congratulatory culture, obsessed with peer group prestige and success and competition. One of the funny things about them is they prized a good rhetoric, which they actually defined as being able to be persuasive more than being truthful — kind of reminds me of today.
The church itself was quite diverse and included Jews and Greeks, wealthy and poor, masters and slaves. The tendency to boast in one’s status, wealth, pervasive powers, plagued the young church coming in from the society as a whole. And this is obvious when you read the whole letter.
Overall, they were a gifted congregation, but the temptation to trust in their own wisdom and strength of character was a strong one for some of them. So, from Paul’s words over the whole letter, it would seem that some of them at least were tempted to trust in their knowledge about Christ rather than in Christ himself.
This led to a misunderstanding and misuse of their freedom in Christ. They thought that their knowledge about Jesus and his work in their lives led to a freedom to accommodate the culture in ways that didn’t conform to life in Christ. For instance, some boasted in their supposed liberty to eat foods offered to idols as sacrifices at the pagan festivals.
So, you could say they had their doctrine down, but they would then turn and live as they saw fit. Because they were proud of having their doctrine down, Paul had taught at length in the preceding passages that to live in the freedom of Christ is to live in the ongoing relationship with the living Lord, trusting only and only in him, receiving always from him. And then only on that basis, helping others do the same.
He warns against misusing and abusing their freedom since that route would only lead them back into the slavery of sinful ways of thinking and acting. So, then looking at the passage itself, Paul is holding up as an example or a type for the Corinthians and for us, what happened to the generation of Israelites who did not get to enter the promised land but died in the wilderness.
He is warning here that they, as the Church, were not to desire evil as the Israelites did or be idolaters as they were or to grumble as they did. They were not to put Jesus to the test as those Israelites had put God to the test.
Okay, well, what does all that mean? That’s what we’re asking. Well, before these four admonitions, Paul talks in the first five verses about the Israelites all sharing in the reality of God’s presence and working in their lives. They had all passed through the same cloud and the same sea. They had all partaken of the same spiritual bread and drink that sustained them through their wilderness experience. And he further explains that the ultimate source of their sustenance was Christ himself.
So, however we understand exactly what he’s referring to here, I’m not going to go into that. The point Paul is making is that they were all led by the same reality. They all passed through a kind of baptism to live to the God who faithfully and fully provided for them. But despite God’s faithfulness in various ways, they chose not to live in ways that counted on and corresponded to the living reality of God’s provision and guidance that he was providing for them.
In other words, they decided to live as if God really wasn’t who he said he was, and as if he really wasn’t providing for them the way that he was. And this is the temptation that Paul is warning the Corinthians again. They have Christ, but some are tempted not to live fully on the basis of his real living presence and work each day.
Some were not submitting to his guidance, continually turning to hear his word to them and act on his faithfulness. Instead, they were tempted to trust in their doctrines of Christ or their wisdom about spiritual things rather than Christ himself. Their competence was in their sophisticated knowledge or their ideas about Christ.
And sometimes I think they were really regarding him more as a principle or an abstract power or an impersonal and universal force they could tap into. And thinking about him this way justified their continuing to be more concerned about their reputations, their success, or their status in their culture.
When they were tempted to trust in their wisdom about Christ or their principles, they were in danger of actually moving away from Christ of becoming like the Israelites, having idols, grumbling, putting God to the test. What they were really starting to do is trust in themselves. Christ himself, his active will and way, is the reality they were to conform to in a daily living worship relationship of prayer and trusting obedience to his word.
Paul is saying this is the only way to true freedom and joy that he offers us. So, it seems that what Paul has been saying is that one is only free when they are fully compelled to live in Christ, under Christ, and in trusting, fellowship, and communion with him. By trusting in something else other than the present living out of Christ every day, they were in danger of being enslaved by their own desires for good reputation They need to make good impressions on others to be influential and successful in the eyes of others. That’s the strange thing — trusting in things about Christ leads us away from Christ We are to have all our strings attached to Jesus.
We are under him alone. And in all ways, we are not living in real freedom when we live apart from him, but only when we are living in and under him, when we are free from all these idols, including ourselves. No other authority will lead to real freedom.
[00:49:27] Anthony: Well, Cathy, I want to read verse 13 again, because I’m going to ask for your exegetical commentary on it. And it says, “No 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.”
It seems to me there’s assurance there; there’s hope there. There’s a chance to exhale because a lot of people are going through heavy things. What say you?
[00:50:02] Cathy: Yeah, this is actually a very interesting verse, and it would take a lot longer than we have to unpack it totally, but I certainly like to give a stab at it. So, we live in a world where we encounter constant temptations, right?
We’ve been talking about this all the way through, to stop counting on Christ’s real presence and work in our lives and in our fallen world. We may be having issues from external circumstances, like you were just mentioning, like sickness, accident, persecution, and we usually refer to these things kind of more as trials.
But we can also be having issues more internally, as desires to commit sinful thoughts or actions, and we usually call these temptations. Paul is really talking, I would say here, about both avenues. But it’s best to translate this probably temptations, because he is most concerned about the common danger of both, of all of this, which is to distrust God and instead start placing our trust in other forces, powers, or even trusting in ourselves, because life is hurting right now.
Well, this was the same for the Corinthian Christians. The temptation to secure their reputations or to be secure and safe, as I said, suffer less, would be coming at them from their surrounding society, from the people they were dealing with every day, maybe even from family members. But such temptations can play on our own strong internal desires and fears both, right?
We have what’s going on outside, kind of how we’re responding to it. It was these kinds of temptations that played on the Corinthians confidence in themselves so that some of them were putting themselves in compromising situations, such as participating in pagan festivals, that’s the immediate context.
And paradoxically, it would seem that there were some in the church. Who also wanted to justify their succumbing to substance abuse temptations by claiming it was such an unusually strong temptation and no one else had ever faced anything like this before. How do we deal with this? Paul’s addressing basically, I would say kind of three things.
One is we will encounter temptations and trials in life, and they will oftentimes tempt us to stop trusting God. One of those temptations is to so trust in ourselves that we pridefully place ourselves in compromising situations. And then three, the temptation to attempt to justify why we couldn’t resist a sin and fall into the temptation.
So, what is Paul’s answer to these three facts that the Corinthians and we and all persons face? Well, Paul’s first point here is to disabuse ourselves of the belief that we are alone in any of the temptations we face. We all struggle at times to trust God in the middle of whatever we’re dealing with. I think that is the crux of the Christian life in this fallen world.
But he’s saying, God is faithful. And he is available and with us, even as we face trials and temptations. All the temptations out there are common to humanity. They’re not unique to us. We are not having greater temptations than people did years ago. Our particular time is not different, and none of it is a surprise to God.
God is never calm, certainly at their root. All the temptations, as I’ve said, is to not trust that God is here. That he loves us, and he is working this out for our good.
[00:54:02] Anthony: Hallelujah. Praise God.
[00:54:04] Cathy: He will be faithful to redeem it, and to deliver us. I’m sorry.
[00:54:09] Anthony: Nothing to apologize for.
[00:54:11] Cathy: And isn’t that what he says?
God is faithful. There is never a time where God will not act according to his character and purposes. It’s just not going to happen. He reassures them that God will not allow the temptation or trial to be so strong that they cannot escape because he will provide a way out. That doesn’t mean they have to find it — they’re not in an escape room.
In other words, when you’re being tempted, where is God? The answer is right here. Right here. He never left. You are not on your own with God watching from a distance to see how you will do. He is acting. He is available by his word and Holy Spirit. So, as we face whatever temptations and trials we’re in, we can take his living presence seriously.
We can look away from the temptation to God, trust he has a way out, look to see what he is providing because he’s sufficient. I didn’t think I’d get through this whole thing without crying, but there we go. Yeah.
[00:55:14] Anthony: I as you were talking and thinking through this, my mind went to 1 John where we’re assured that God is love. Not that he has love, like this is one of his tools in the toolbox. His very essence, nature, and substances is love. He is love and God can only do who he is. He cannot act out of character else he would be a liar, and he is not a liar.
[00:55:44] Cathy: No, he’s not a liar. We’ve been going through our own trials, and I’ve been realizing again and again, no trial is visited on us except by the God who loves us.
We are his love. He is making us more able to receive it. We can trust him no matter what it is we’re going through. Doesn’t mean it’s easy. It’s kind of a wrestling, but that’s what it is.
[00:56:11] Anthony: And it’s interesting to me because as we transition into the homestretch and our final passage of the month. I was going to ask you to make the text personal, but you’ve already done that for us.
I’ll still ask you to do it again. But that’s, I think, a word for all of us. That’s when there’s congruency with what the text is telling us, with what’s going on in our lives. And we keep coming back, as you said repeatedly through this podcast, that if we just continue to trust, to trust in the one who is looking at us, who is with us, it makes all the difference. He is not only making a way, but he is the way, he’s the way out, the rescuer and deliver.
Program Transcript
Cathy Deddo—Year C Easter Prep 3
Anthony: Let’s pivot to our next pericope of the Month. It’s 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the Third Sunday of Easter Prep and Lent which is March 23. Cathy, read it for us please.
[00:40:54] Cathy:
I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. 6 Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do 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.” 8 We must not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. 10 And do not complain, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 These 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. 12 So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. 13 No 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.
[00:42:21] Anthony: Well, this month, we have two warning passages. Lucky you, Cathy, you get to deal with the warnings. So, what should we make of the warning given in this passage to the church in Corinth about the ancestors of spiritual Israel?
[00:42:38] Cathy: Take a breath. All right. So again, I think it kind of helps to consider the letter as a whole to understand this passage. What were the Corinthians dealing with and what were Paul’s concerns with them?
So we’ve talked a little bit about already Corinth, because we’ve had other passages. Let me just say again, the city was characterized as a self-sufficient and self-congratulatory culture, obsessed with peer group prestige and success and competition. One of the funny things about them is they prized a good rhetoric, which they actually defined as being able to be persuasive more than being truthful — kind of reminds me of today.
The church itself was quite diverse and included Jews and Greeks, wealthy and poor, masters and slaves. The tendency to boast in one’s status, wealth, pervasive powers, plagued the young church coming in from the society as a whole. And this is obvious when you read the whole letter.
Overall, they were a gifted congregation, but the temptation to trust in their own wisdom and strength of character was a strong one for some of them. So, from Paul’s words over the whole letter, it would seem that some of them at least were tempted to trust in their knowledge about Christ rather than in Christ himself.
This led to a misunderstanding and misuse of their freedom in Christ. They thought that their knowledge about Jesus and his work in their lives led to a freedom to accommodate the culture in ways that didn’t conform to life in Christ. For instance, some boasted in their supposed liberty to eat foods offered to idols as sacrifices at the pagan festivals.
So, you could say they had their doctrine down, but they would then turn and live as they saw fit. Because they were proud of having their doctrine down, Paul had taught at length in the preceding passages that to live in the freedom of Christ is to live in the ongoing relationship with the living Lord, trusting only and only in him, receiving always from him. And then only on that basis, helping others do the same.
He warns against misusing and abusing their freedom since that route would only lead them back into the slavery of sinful ways of thinking and acting. So, then looking at the passage itself, Paul is holding up as an example or a type for the Corinthians and for us, what happened to the generation of Israelites who did not get to enter the promised land but died in the wilderness.
He is warning here that they, as the Church, were not to desire evil as the Israelites did or be idolaters as they were or to grumble as they did. They were not to put Jesus to the test as those Israelites had put God to the test.
Okay, well, what does all that mean? That’s what we’re asking. Well, before these four admonitions, Paul talks in the first five verses about the Israelites all sharing in the reality of God’s presence and working in their lives. They had all passed through the same cloud and the same sea. They had all partaken of the same spiritual bread and drink that sustained them through their wilderness experience. And he further explains that the ultimate source of their sustenance was Christ himself.
So, however we understand exactly what he’s referring to here, I’m not going to go into that. The point Paul is making is that they were all led by the same reality. They all passed through a kind of baptism to live to the God who faithfully and fully provided for them. But despite God’s faithfulness in various ways, they chose not to live in ways that counted on and corresponded to the living reality of God’s provision and guidance that he was providing for them.
In other words, they decided to live as if God really wasn’t who he said he was, and as if he really wasn’t providing for them the way that he was. And this is the temptation that Paul is warning the Corinthians again. They have Christ, but some are tempted not to live fully on the basis of his real living presence and work each day.
Some were not submitting to his guidance, continually turning to hear his word to them and act on his faithfulness. Instead, they were tempted to trust in their doctrines of Christ or their wisdom about spiritual things rather than Christ himself. Their competence was in their sophisticated knowledge or their ideas about Christ.
And sometimes I think they were really regarding him more as a principle or an abstract power or an impersonal and universal force they could tap into. And thinking about him this way justified their continuing to be more concerned about their reputations, their success, or their status in their culture.
When they were tempted to trust in their wisdom about Christ or their principles, they were in danger of actually moving away from Christ of becoming like the Israelites, having idols, grumbling, putting God to the test. What they were really starting to do is trust in themselves. Christ himself, his active will and way, is the reality they were to conform to in a daily living worship relationship of prayer and trusting obedience to his word.
Paul is saying this is the only way to true freedom and joy that he offers us. So, it seems that what Paul has been saying is that one is only free when they are fully compelled to live in Christ, under Christ, and in trusting, fellowship, and communion with him. By trusting in something else other than the present living out of Christ every day, they were in danger of being enslaved by their own desires for good reputation They need to make good impressions on others to be influential and successful in the eyes of others. That’s the strange thing — trusting in things about Christ leads us away from Christ We are to have all our strings attached to Jesus.
We are under him alone. And in all ways, we are not living in real freedom when we live apart from him, but only when we are living in and under him, when we are free from all these idols, including ourselves. No other authority will lead to real freedom.
[00:49:27] Anthony: Well, Cathy, I want to read verse 13 again, because I’m going to ask for your exegetical commentary on it. And it says, “No 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.”
It seems to me there’s assurance there; there’s hope there. There’s a chance to exhale because a lot of people are going through heavy things. What say you?
[00:50:02] Cathy: Yeah, this is actually a very interesting verse, and it would take a lot longer than we have to unpack it totally, but I certainly like to give a stab at it. So, we live in a world where we encounter constant temptations, right?
We’ve been talking about this all the way through, to stop counting on Christ’s real presence and work in our lives and in our fallen world. We may be having issues from external circumstances, like you were just mentioning, like sickness, accident, persecution, and we usually refer to these things kind of more as trials.
But we can also be having issues more internally, as desires to commit sinful thoughts or actions, and we usually call these temptations. Paul is really talking, I would say here, about both avenues. But it’s best to translate this probably temptations, because he is most concerned about the common danger of both, of all of this, which is to distrust God and instead start placing our trust in other forces, powers, or even trusting in ourselves, because life is hurting right now.
Well, this was the same for the Corinthian Christians. The temptation to secure their reputations or to be secure and safe, as I said, suffer less, would be coming at them from their surrounding society, from the people they were dealing with every day, maybe even from family members. But such temptations can play on our own strong internal desires and fears both, right?
We have what’s going on outside, kind of how we’re responding to it. It was these kinds of temptations that played on the Corinthians confidence in themselves so that some of them were putting themselves in compromising situations, such as participating in pagan festivals, that’s the immediate context.
And paradoxically, it would seem that there were some in the church. Who also wanted to justify their succumbing to substance abuse temptations by claiming it was such an unusually strong temptation and no one else had ever faced anything like this before. How do we deal with this? Paul’s addressing basically, I would say kind of three things.
One is we will encounter temptations and trials in life, and they will oftentimes tempt us to stop trusting God. One of those temptations is to so trust in ourselves that we pridefully place ourselves in compromising situations. And then three, the temptation to attempt to justify why we couldn’t resist a sin and fall into the temptation.
So, what is Paul’s answer to these three facts that the Corinthians and we and all persons face? Well, Paul’s first point here is to disabuse ourselves of the belief that we are alone in any of the temptations we face. We all struggle at times to trust God in the middle of whatever we’re dealing with. I think that is the crux of the Christian life in this fallen world.
But he’s saying, God is faithful. And he is available and with us, even as we face trials and temptations. All the temptations out there are common to humanity. They’re not unique to us. We are not having greater temptations than people did years ago. Our particular time is not different, and none of it is a surprise to God.
God is never calm, certainly at their root. All the temptations, as I’ve said, is to not trust that God is here. That he loves us, and he is working this out for our good.
[00:54:02] Anthony: Hallelujah. Praise God.
[00:54:04] Cathy: He will be faithful to redeem it, and to deliver us. I’m sorry.
[00:54:09] Anthony: Nothing to apologize for.
[00:54:11] Cathy: And isn’t that what he says?
God is faithful. There is never a time where God will not act according to his character and purposes. It’s just not going to happen. He reassures them that God will not allow the temptation or trial to be so strong that they cannot escape because he will provide a way out. That doesn’t mean they have to find it — they’re not in an escape room.
In other words, when you’re being tempted, where is God? The answer is right here. Right here. He never left. You are not on your own with God watching from a distance to see how you will do. He is acting. He is available by his word and Holy Spirit. So, as we face whatever temptations and trials we’re in, we can take his living presence seriously.
We can look away from the temptation to God, trust he has a way out, look to see what he is providing because he’s sufficient. I didn’t think I’d get through this whole thing without crying, but there we go. Yeah.
[00:55:14] Anthony: I as you were talking and thinking through this, my mind went to 1 John where we’re assured that God is love. Not that he has love, like this is one of his tools in the toolbox. His very essence, nature, and substances is love. He is love and God can only do who he is. He cannot act out of character else he would be a liar, and he is not a liar.
[00:55:44] Cathy: No, he’s not a liar. We’ve been going through our own trials, and I’ve been realizing again and again, no trial is visited on us except by the God who loves us.
We are his love. He is making us more able to receive it. We can trust him no matter what it is we’re going through. Doesn’t mean it’s easy. It’s kind of a wrestling, but that’s what it is.
[00:56:11] Anthony: And it’s interesting to me because as we transition into the homestretch and our final passage of the month. I was going to ask you to make the text personal, but you’ve already done that for us.
I’ll still ask you to do it again. But that’s, I think, a word for all of us. That’s when there’s congruency with what the text is telling us, with what’s going on in our lives. And we keep coming back, as you said repeatedly through this podcast, that if we just continue to trust, to trust in the one who is looking at us, who is with us, it makes all the difference. He is not only making a way, but he is the way, he’s the way out, the rescuer and deliver.
Small Group Discussion Questions
- How do arrogance and pride distort our perception of reality? How do they disrupt relationships?
- Is the larger context of 1 Corinthians, regarding the eating of meat offered to idols, important to situate our sermon text? How have you seen passages like 1 Corinthians 10:1–13 used prescriptively (i.e., to dictate personal behaviors) rather than as an admonition of how easily we can fall prey to arrogance?
- The church at Corinth struggled with letting go of social class, affecting their ability to care for others and convey the equity found in Christ. In our modern context, are we hindered by cultural norms in our efforts to care for others as Jesus did?
- Paul admonishes us to “do everything for the glory of God.” Can that help us analyze our motives, desires, and personal opinions and become more self-aware of ways that we convey arrogance or an attachment to social class and privilege?
