Third Presbyterian Sunday Morning Bible Study - June 28, 2020

Below is the Bible Study written by Jim Rudiger for his Sunday School Class which meets at Third Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia. It's based on 1 Corinthians 9:24–10:13.

Growing up all of us guys dreamt of playing in the major leagues even if it was for the Washington Senators or the St. Louis Browns.  We worked hard at throwing a baseball beside my house on Maycox Avenue or hitting fly balls in the field at the end of the block.  No matter how hard we worked, a sad truth was always there - to play major league baseball took talent and talent was in short supply among us guys.  The closest we would come was when, as members of the Norfolk Tars Knot Hole Gang, we got to sit in the dugout at Bain Field and play a three inning game before the start of the Norfolk Tars game. In front a crowd at Bain Field, we got to spit in our gloves and knock the dirt from our spikes with a genuine Norfolk Tar bat.  Even after seventy-four years, I can still remember that night. 

In today’s lesson we meet a guy who was a big sports fan and used sports to make his point about what it takes to be a good Christian.  Paul was probably a sickly guy who was more comfortable debating rather than running or wrestling, but, he admired the effort that athletes made to win and saw in that effort, the same thing that is needed in winning one for the Christ. 

Last week, we went on a tour of Corinth and saw most of the important sites.  There was one place that I didn’t take you to.  In the northern part of the city was the sports stadium.  It was a large round structure that dominated that part of the city.  Corinth was the home of an athletic event known as the Isthmian Games.  These games were second only to the Olympic Games which were held in Athens.  By the time of Paul, the Isthmian games had taken place for over six hundred years.  The Games consisted of both short and long distance running, chariot races, horse races, boxing, wrestling, throwing the discus and the javelin and lots of other events which are still part of our modern day Olympics.  Contests for women athletes were held there too.  There was something for everyone. 

Like in the Olympics now, athletes came from all over the world to compete.  The winner would have a wreath of olive leaves placed on his head.  That was all he got for all the work and effort he put into winning.  No gold, silver and bronze medals.  Just a banquet of olive leaves. Like today, these athletes were adored by the crowd and held up as role models.  The really great athletes had bronze statues made of them and those statues were located all over the city.  It’s like going to Yankee Stadium and seeing all the plaques in center field honoring all of the Yankee greats of the past.  The Games not only brought in athletes from all over, but, fans who, just like today, boosted the economy of Corinth.

With this background, let’s see what Paul has to say today.

1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize?  Run in such a way that you may win it.  25 Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one.  26 So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air;  27 but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.

Our study today is part of a discussion that Paul started in Chapter 8.  One of the main points Paul makes in Chapter 8 is that those strong in the faith have a responsibility for those who are weaker.  If you are strong in the faith, then you realize that the gods of this world really don’t exist.  Since they don’t exist, Christians don’t have to worry about food which had been sacrificed to the gods.  Since the gods didn’t exist and weren’t really there, they could not have contaminated the food.  Knowing that this was absolutely true and factual was causing a division in the church, because there were weaker Christians who still wrestled with dealing with the man-made gods although they recognized that they were not real.  Paul’s message was that while a mature Christian knows that eating meat sacrificed to unreal gods won’t hurt them, weak believers who are still torn about phony gods might think that eating this kind of food invited the god into their body.  Paul’s point was that it was better not to eat the meat if it distresses other new Christians.

In the first 23 verses of Chapter 9, Paul defends his credentials as an apostle.  Remember when we started this study, the people were divided on who was giving them the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  Was it Paul, Peter or Apollos?  Paul reminded his readers that he was independent of the factions because he didn’t depend on the Corinthians in the church for his support.  So he was able to preach the Gospel without having to meet the dopey standards of the people who considered that their superior knowledge of Christ gave them a step up on everybody else.

Now here’s why some in the Corinthian Church had a problem with Paul.  He didn’t have a “job description.”  Being a missionary wasn’t, as yet, a category that Gentiles knew much about.  So, what were the categories that a Corinthian Gentile would recognize?  Paul obviously taught them about Christ, so was he a teacher?  He worked as a tent maker, so was he a business man?  Some of the things he said sounded like one of the those deep thinkers in Athens, so was he a philosopher?  The closest category that he fell into was philosopher.  Corinthians, being mainly Greek and Roman, knew what it took to be a philosopher.  They knew that philosophers paid the bills by one of four ways:

(1) A wealthy patron paid his bills.  The great artists, Michelangelo and De Vinci, were able to create masterpieces because rich men footed the bill.  It is unfortunate in our day that wealthy patrons are most often seen supporting politicians.

(2) Charging students fees.  Socrates and the great Greek philosophers charged people for listening to their lectures.  This is not too far from the tuition that a person pays to go to college and learn from smart professors.

(3) They could beg and rely on the generosity of people passing by.  This is by far the riskiest way of making ends meet.  There would be good days and bad days.  But, if there aren’t any patrons or students, then this would be an option.

(4) He could get a job to meet his expenses.   If you had an independent means of paying the bills, then you had complete freedom say what you wanted and didn’t have to satisfy somebody else.  Having students meant that time had to be set aside for preparing lesson plans, tackling subjects that the student was willing to pay for and making the presentation interesting so more students would enroll.   Having another job meant that more time could be spent tackling the important issues that he felt God wanted him to talk about.

Corinthians would have expected Paul as a philosopher to have followed one of the first two methods because it was more intellectual and high brow.  Paul chose the fourth method because working at a trade made him independent of people who would want to control his message.

As we start verse 24, Paul is no longer defending his life style.  Instead he is recommending it.  He recognizes that he is speaking to people who loved their sporting events.  Everybody in Corinth looked forward to the Isthmian Games which were held every two years.  It is thought that the Games may have been played just before Paul wrote this letter.  As a sport’s fan, the games were impacting on the dialogue Paul was having with the Corinthians. Paul starts off with a question that everyone knows the answer.  What is it?  Don’t you know that there is only one winner in an athletic event?  Even now we recognize that truth.  When Paul speaks of runners and boxers, he knows the Corinthians can relate to his message because they are sports fans too.  What is the point Paul is making about competing in an athletic event?  It is serious business. 

While there will be a lot of people competing for the championship, there will be only one winner and a lot of losers.  As a Redskin fan, you can guess what group I’d be in.  The person who wins generally has given up the most.  He has given up time with his family.  Time to relax and have fun.  Time to pursue a career.  The discipline of training demands time if you are to be good at the sport.  It always amazes me during the Olympics when they interview a fourteen year old girl competing in figure skating and she has spent fifteen and sixteen hours a day skating and twisting her body and legs in an effort to achieve perfection.  For just a few, all of that work will pay off.  For most people, they will never win the gold or play in the major leagues.  But, they still go out there and train and beat up their bodies just for the chance.  The Christian has to train like an athlete.  The major difference is that everybody training to be a Christian wins.

You see, what Paul saw in Corinth was that some of these people thought that they were spiritual champions.  Paul tells them that there is more at stake than the shadow they cast in  the church.  Those athletes who won only got a wreath made of leaves.  In a few days that wreath will turn brown and the leaves will fall off.  All that will remain from that win will be a pile of dried leaves and a few twigs.  In a life of faith, the stakes are eternal.  Paul tells them that he doesn’t just run around without any plan about getting in shape.  He has a purpose and he stays focused on that.  Even with focus, it isn’t easy.  You have to be ready to sacrifice your body and establish control over it.  In other words, there has to be discipline in your Christian life if people are to accept your witness of the Gospel.

1 Corinthians 10:1 I do not want you to be unaware, 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 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.

Paul seems to switch gears as we move into Chapter 10.  He has gone from athletes and running to ancestors dealing with clouds and seas.  What’s he talking about?  To  make sense of what he writes, we have to understand what Paul was trying to get at.  Paul is trying to have the Corinthians see that God’s people haven’t always had a smooth relationship with God.  There have been a lot of pot holes along the road to redemption.  Israel’s experience should be a warning for the Corinthians that they aren’t dealing with a few petty disputes that won’t effect how God deals with them.  There is a real danger that their relationship with God may be on the line.

Paul starts out saying that he doesn’t want them to be what?  Unaware.  This wording would have hit the Corinthians right between the eyes.  To be unaware is to be without knowledge - to be stupid.  One of the problems the Corinthians were having was that they thought they were smarter than everybody else.  Paul is saying, “Maybe you aren’t as smart as you think because you are overlooking something.  Sit up and smell the coffee.”  What does he call them?  He draws them into a bond with himself by calling them his brothers and sisters.  In this way he can now have them share, as a family member, things that happened to Paul’s ancestors, the Jews, and by extension to their new ancestors.  Corinthians aren’t Jews but through Christ they share all of God’s efforts in dealing with Jews. 

Some wonderful things happened to their adopted ancestors, the Israelites.  A fiery cloud of God covered and protected them, leading them out of Egypt.  When the Pharaoh’s army came after them, the Red Sea parted and with the walls of water churning on each side, they could pass over safely to the other side.  After they got there and Pharaoh’s army pursued them right into the middle of the dried up sea, the walls of water collapsed and waves washed over the Egyptians killing them.  Through these happenings, the Israelites and Moses had forged a strong bond.  It could even be said that they had been baptized into Moses much like the Corinthian Christians were baptized into Christ.  There was even a form of the Sacrament of Communion there. 

As the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, they came close to starvation.  What did God provide to keep them alive?   Manna from heaven.  Manna in a sense is a spiritual food like the bread in Communion is a spiritual food.  When they got thirsty what happened?  Moses struck a rock and water flowed and they all drank from a spiritual rock that followed them.  What was the spiritual rock that followed them?  What kind of rock would be following them?  

Here is what Paul is getting at.  This business about the spiritual rock that followed the people was taken from a tradition that the Rabbis believed in.  In Numbers 11, God allowed Moses to draw water from a rock to quench the thirst of the people.  Rabbinic tradition held that after that, the rock followed the people so that if they ever got thirsty again, they had water to drink.  This does not appear in scripture but Paul was a trained Rabbi and knew about the tradition.  If this water from the rock was spiritual water, it closely resembles the Rock of our Salvation whose blood we incorporate spiritually in Communion.

1 Corinthians 10:6 Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did.  7 Do not become idolators 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 indulge 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 they did, and were destroyed by the desroyer.  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 testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

Even with all of these good things happening to the people, God was not pleased and struck them down.  What displeased God?  Well for starters, while Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, what were the people doing?  Making a golden calf to worship.  It seems like the people are never satisfied.  It is like they are saying to God, “What have you done for me lately?”  And, if it isn’t manna from heaven or water from as rock, they tell God to stop bothering them.  They will find another god to give them the things they want.  But there were other things too.  Even out in a lonely desert, they found women to play around with.  And not nice, take home to Momma, Jewish girls.  They got women from other tribes like the Moabites and Midianites to mess around with.  Just an ungrateful bunch of losers, it seems to us knowledgeable winners.

Paul tells the Corinthians that this should be a lesson to them.  God can get tired of folks turning their backs on him after all of the things he has done for them.  So what mistakes made by the Israelites should the Corinthians watch out for?

(1) Do not become idolaters like some of them did.  They had the golden calf which was to take God’s place.  It wasn’t so much the golden calf as it was that they had broken their deal with God.  How did that apply to the Corinthians?  When they or we give all of our time and energy and thoughts to things that give us pleasure, then we are treating that pleasure as a god.  The attention we give it is our worship of that god.

(2) We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did.  Man seems destined to always be tempted to be immoral.  It seems to us that there is no time in history where immorality is packaged in such an attractive way as it is now.  Immorality is not only accepted, it is even endorsed by our society.  But, as bad as it appears today, Corinthian Christians were just as tempted.  After all, don’t forget about those priestesses in the Temple of Aphrodite.  If they had have had HBO or the internet, it is no telling how much more Paul would have dealt with on the subject of sexual immorality.

(3) We must not put Christ to the test.  People seem to always try to see how far they can push the envelope.  Just how far can we go before God gets really mad at us.  Consciously or unconsciously, deliberately or unthinkingly, a lot of people trade on the mercy of God.  At the back of many of minds is the idea that, “It will be all right.  God will forgive us.”  We have to remember that while there is a forgiving side of God, there is also a holy side, too.

(4) And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed.  There is a temptation to grumble and complain about our life and how God isn’t doing what we want him to do.  God has given us life and we have the freedom to shape that life.  We shape it by having either a positive attitude or a negative attitude.  Unfortunately, many people face life with a whine and not a cheer.

Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians that these are examples of how the Israelites missed the boat.  They need to be seen as warnings about which road the Corinthians pick to follow.  But, his point is very clear: Watch where you are standing because you may be on shaky ground.  He lets them know that they aren’t the only ones who have been tested.  Every  generation has had it’s problems.  If you put Christ to the test, then you are on your own.  However, if the world tests you, if it wants to see what you are made of and things seem to bear down on you too much, God will remain faithful and give you the support you need.

So, what have we learned from this study?  I guess it all boils down to this.  I’m never going to make the major leagues.  But, we are faced with the choice of which league we’ll join.  Will it be the world’s league or the spiritual league?  To join the spiritual league is going to take just as much effort and maybe more discipline than the major league and that’s Paul’s point.  In our life we get to decide which league we  want to join. Christ is standing there and beside him the world.  It’s our choice.  Christ or the world.

Prayer: Father, we are tested by temptations and problems every day.  Strengthen us that we will have the power to overcome these temptations and problems confident in your faithfulness.   Amen.