1Cor 10:11-14 - Look Mom - No Hands!

11-14 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.


There is no need to repeat the comments on the deliberateness of the example provided in the history of Israel. The lesson is found in verse 12 here.

Therefore (that is - on account of the clear unfaithfulness of those upon whom God’s lovingkindness had been shown), let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. There is a sense in which we do not stand at all. In this sense, as soon as we think that it is we who are doing the standing rather than God Who is doing the holding up, we have already fallen. God is able to make us stand {Ro 14:4} . Yet God makes us to stand through the obedience of our faith. We must obey but we must never think that it is our obedience that makes us stand as if we had done God a favour or helped ourselves in any way. There is no room for the sustaining grace of God in such a scenario.

Also, when we find ourselves seemingly walking the Christian life and, like the boy riding the bike and showing off to his parents saying, "Look, Mom - no hands..." we are instantly confident in the wrong thing (our standing and not God’s upholding) - then we are going to come a cropper. Worse - if such an attitude overtakes our heart and finds root there, we are in danger of, at the best misunderstanding the gospel, and at the worst discovering that Christ is not truly in us because we live and stand unto ourselves, relying upon our own goodness and power.


Indeed, there are millions who do just this and who are ignoring the exhortation here and in 2Corinthians 13:5 to take stock of who it is that is producing the life and deeds in us, and to draw the appropriate conclusion. While we are not the judge of any one else’s heart we have a duty to warn appropriately. God is the judge, but He has spoken in His word, and it is the light and the standard by which we are to see what God adjudges right and wrong - firstly in ourselves, but also in the church.

Tonight I caught a glimpse of a television program in which the hosts find a needy and "deserving" family whose lives have been messed up by tragedy - and then build or rebuild a home for them and provide a cup running over with blessings. In this episode they enlisted what looked like the entire congregation of a church. Massively good deeds were done. There was great empathy and much crying and obvious giving. There were warm fuzzies all over the place - and there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with any of that. I rejoice at the goodness of God and the joy of both recipients and givers. I was both moved and convicted.

But absolutely none of this going on in them or in me necessarily has any bearing upon the state of the souls that are involved. It may be fruit of the Spirit in some and it may be mere human good works in others. Which is why I rejoice first and foremost in God for His goodness, and not in men for theirs. I would render thanks to whom thanks is due on the human level, but I would look to God who is the only good in existence - the ultimate Good - the Source of all that is good.

But there are Bible verses that warn about doing good to be seen of men, and about not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing, and not blowing trumpets and wearing broad phylacteries etc, etc. Again, I am not the judge - God is the judge by His Word - but the Truth itself must be brought to the attention of all who would seek to do good. If it is not wrought in Christ, through faith in Christ, out of love for Christ, then it is of no avail in God’s eyes. It will not justify the unsaved, nor will it add to the salvation or the rewards of the redeemed.

And the question always starts with, "Is what I do wrought in Christ and do I run in vain?" But Luther’s horse has two sides and we must not be paralyzed by the fear of falling off the other flank after we have mounted. We must not hide our light under a bushel or bury our talent in the ground out of fear of making a mistake. We shall all be beaten with stripes - the only question is whether it will be few or many. {Heb 12:6} So what we do must be wrought in Christ but we must not be found doing nothing because we want to first be sure of our motives. There is a place for this. But it is only as we live out our lives in faith that anything at all is wrought in Christ.

Going back to the small child and the bicycle - imagine the first time the training wheels come off and you must launch out seemingly unsupported in order to be found actually riding. No amount of instruction will do then riding for you. But if you know and believe that daddy will catch you if you begin to fall, then you might muster up the courage to push off and go. Imperfect analogy, of course - but helpful.


So again I affirm that to do good out of any other resource and for any other motive than abiding in the grace of God in Jesus Christ abiding under the shadow of the Almighty - necessarily brings a self-satisfaction that defeats the whole object of the glory of God. God has made this plain in His Word. It is not about us and what we do, but about God and what He has done in Jesus Christ. All things are from and to and through and for Him. If we do good then we must point to Christ and thank God. If we do evil we must point to ourselves, confess to God and repent of our evil, trusting in the gracious and undeserved mercy held forth in 1John 1:9. Either way God is glorified in Jesus Christ.

The support for this God-centred view comes immediately in the context from the description of how God permits temptation and tribulation in order to build our trust and confidence - not in ourselves, but in Him, for Christ’s sake - who is able to provide the way of escape in all circumstances howsoever difficult. So long as we do not take the overly simplistic view that a "way of escape" means the utter avoidance of all tribulation and suffering we shall understand what is being said. It is through suffering that we are made "perfect" and God is in charge of when and how much we must suffer. In fact, it is by trusting Him in the midst of the storm that we endure whatever His loving hand ordains for us at the profit of our souls, to the glory of God. The ultimate escape may be death during torture. Or it may be something substantially less. God knows and He has a perfect plan for us.

Who is faithful? Is it us, according to the text here? Or is it God? God both brings (or allows) the trouble and He gauges it according to what He (but not necessarily we) knows we can bear. Our bearing is not - repeat not - related in any way to our strength, but to weakness. Only insofar as we believe and are trusting in God on account of Jesus Christ can we stand. Faith itself does not even make us stand. God makes us stand in the fullness of our weakness in Him, through faith.

Now, there are indeed brave, courageous, strong people who have endured great hardship and tribulation in their own strength, out of their own grace and nobility. Christianity does not deny these things. But Christianity says that if these noble men and women did not stand in the grace of Jesus Christ, by the power of God, through faith in Him, then they are not glorifying Him as they should - but are ultimately glorifying themselves, no matter how altruistic their actions may appear. Any lesser view ultimately fails the Biblical test of what the Christian view is. Outwardly there may be no difference to see, but on the inside, where God’s eye sees, one stands to himself and the other, in his weakness, stands unto the Lord.

Why else would Paul logically make reference to idolatry here? "Therefore," he says, "Flee from idolatry." What’s the "therefore" there for? It’s not simply because there are external idols to tempt the Corinthians (though there are) - but because the greatest idol of all is the self - and this is what Christ came to save us from. We are being saved from the arrogant and ridiculous notion that we can do anything of ourselves. We are being brought back not to self-sufficiency, but to God-dependency in all things. Not that we ever escaped real dependency, but that we distorted reality, experience, history and our pitiful lives by thinking ourselves independent, self-sustaining - and therefore worthy of our worship and service, and then we acted accordingly.

Let it be said of us as it was said of the Lord Jesus Christ mockingly - "He trusts in God, let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him." {Mt 27:43} And this was spoken while He hung on the cross at the height of His torment.