Communion in Christ

Introduction
Over the last couple weeks we’ve been talking about idolatry.  It is        something that has plagued mankind since being expelled from the Garden.  It was a problem to the Israelites under Moses.  It was a problem to the believers in Corinth.  It is a problem for us, and it’s not just a little problem, it’s sin that keeps us from communion with God.  Last week I challenged us all to read 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 everyday, and pray that God would alert you when you were using human wisdom, which leads to self-centeredness and idolatry, instead of God’s wisdom, which leads to love for God  and  people.  I trust you took that challenge.  How has it been so far?

In 1 Corinthians 10, the Spirit continues to tell us to flee from idolatry and cling to community with God and His people.  God has organized perfect community among His people, the Church, although the church only acts as perfectly as those who are part of it.  Hence the problem!  Within the church, God provides everything we need through Christ and He gives us the Holy Spirit to enable us to function as a very successful unit.  Jesus said that the gates of Hell could not withstand the power of His Church.  But we are always fouling up that community by our own sin and self-centeredness which inevitably leads to idolatry within the church and making my liberty more important than anyone (or anything) else.  We thus rob the Church of its power.

So, let’s hear what the Spirit says to the churches in I Corinthians 10:14-22…

Communion in Christ:
Seek Communion in Christ (10:14-17)
As we read 10:14, we see God’s command the church to, “flee from idolatry.”  We’re told to stop loving anything more than we love God and His People.  As most of you know, we had shirts made up that say, “life is short, serve hard”, because that’s the essence what God says many times in the New Testament.  Until the day we die our God-given purpose is to love Him and His Church such that we are compelled by that love to serve Him and His church.  What does that kind of love look like?  Well, Matthew 10:37-39, gives us a clue.  It says, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”  Now, it seems like anytime you hear a message on those verses, you hear apologies and sidestepping, but it means what is says!  No apologies.  If we are to be counted worthy of Christ, we can’t just serve Him when it’s convenient for us.  He can’t just be one of our priorities, He must be our only priority.  He told us to honor father and mother, and to care for our kids, raising them in Godly homes and giving them the love they need, yet, our love for God should far exceed our love for anyone else. 

Think about this sequence of statements over the last several chapters of 1 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 6:19 “your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit -you are not your own.”
1 Corinthians 7:19 “keeping the commandments of God is what matters…”
1 Corinthians 8:13 “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. “
1 Corinthians 9:19 “for though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more.”

As followers of Christ, we are not our own to go off doing whatever we want, whenever we want, and we better be careful what we say, think, and do since we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit.  After all, it is important to keep God’s commands, not to earn salvation, but to be His holy people as He commanded.  Something that He commands over and over again is to love people, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ.  So, out of my love for others, I will limit even the things that might be okay to say or do if in the process I cause them to be tempted and sin.  In fact, even though I am not under obligation to men, I will make myself a slave to all so that I might win them to Christ through the Gospel of Christ.  But instead of loving and worshiping God like that, we just go on doing our thing, living as we want, which throughout history has led to serving and loving idols.

Reading on in 1 Corinthians 10:15-17, we see that our ability to flee from idolatry has strong connections with the community we have in Christ.  Not only is communion with God and His people why I should flee from idolatry, it is how I flee from it.  As believers, we are meant to be in communion with the blood and body of Christ and with each other.  The cup of blessing is a symbol of our being united by the blood Christ, united to Him by His sacrificial death on the cross in our behalf.  The bread of blessing is a symbol of our being united in the body of Christ.  We are many, but we are one body.  Thus, my idolatry is sin against Father, Christ, and the Temple of the Holy Spirit.  It is also sin against God’s people, Christ’s Body.  It takes my time and passion away from God and His Church.  The Spirit has given each of us at least one spiritual gift and we rob God and His Church when we don’t use it, or worse yet use it on ourselves.  Jesus commanded His disciples: “but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses…” (Acts 1:8).  If you have the Holy Spirit, that is your job.  Idolatry will definitely keep you from that job.  However, if you are truly in communion with God and the Church, you will have plenty of strength against any idol, and addiction, and the worship of anything other than God Himself.

So, flee from idolatry and instead seek communion with Christ and His Church.

Forsake Communion in Demons (1 Corinthians 10:18-23)
In 1 Corinthians 10:18 we are reminded that the priests in the Old Testament we told to partake of certain offerings, they ate some of the meat from sacrifices on the alter.  We partake of the Communion Table as an act of worship and unity.  Then 1 Corinthians 10:19-20, like 1 Corinthians 8:4 says, “an idol [itself] is nothing.”  But there is more to it, for behind the idol is most often a demon who wants nothing more than to steal the worship we owe to God.  The idol is just an object, person or activity, but the force behind it that makes it appealing to us is demonic.  The fact is that we are in a spiritual battle. 

Now if we’re talking about drugs, witchcraft, child abuse or murder, we’d all say, “yeah, that’s demonic.”  But if we’re talking about sports, TV, shopping, entertainment, or family…anything or anyone that we love and sacrifice for more than God, we say, “that’s not demonic!  That’s nothing!  Those are harmless things!”  But anything that robs God of the love, worship, and service He deserves…is sin.  Stop the fellowship with demons.  Why do we struggle with idols so much?...because we try physical defenses; it doesn’t work. 

Finally, 1 Corinthians 10:21-22 tells us we cannot worship God and idols too.  The Israelites tried that all the time in the Old Testament and it didn’t work for them either.  We cannot have communion with God and with demons.  God won’t let us get away with that.

Conclusion

My challenge to you this week: READ 1 Corinthians 10:14-22 everyday this week, and pray that God will remove the idols and prepare you to be His witness so some person in the next 30 days.