Year 5, Day 78: 1 Corinthians 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

I think that 1 Corinthians 10:1-5, 12 are verses that I am going to mentally add to my “scariest verses of the Bible” list.  The other passages that I put on that list are Matthew 7:13-23 and Matthew 25 (Yes, the whole chapter).  But rest assured, these verses from 1 Corinthians 10 are challenging indeed.

You see, Paul reminds us that the evil wicked generation that were condemned to wander the wilderness saw incredible displays of God’s hand.  In fact, they may have seen more incredible displays of God’s power than any other generation.  They saw the whole of the plagues in Egypt.  They crossed over dry ground along the bottom of the Red Sea.  They ate manna in the wilderness.  They drank water from a rock twice!  They saw Aaron’s staff bud.  They walked under a pillar of fire and smoke.  They saw God give the 10 Commandments to Moses.  They saw God’s presence enter and leave the Tabernacle.  They saw people be healed from snake bites by looking upon a bronze serpent.  Their life was abundant with displays of God’s awesomeness.

But they remained an evil and wicked generation.  They remained doomed to die in the wilderness.  Why?  Because their identity was not in God.  They weren’t really interested in doing God’s will.  They were interested in what God could do for them.  They wanted God to buy into their identity rather than let their identity come from buying into God.

Then we hit verse 12.  Therefore let anyone who thinks they stand take heed, lest they fall.  Who among us is not susceptible to the error of the Hebrew people in the wilderness?  I know I am – especially when my identity is not coming from God.  Take heed.  Get your identity from God.  Buy into His ways, lest you or I fall.

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