1 Timothy 1:18-20

"This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme."

Christian warfare doesn't involve tanks, guns, or forceful tactics. Believers are never to advance the gospel through shedding people's blood or through threatening them with some earthly consequences. The Christian warrior wages spiritual warfare through holding fast to his faith. The gospel permeates every aspect of his life, enabling him to look at the outworking of faith in his life with a good conscience. This kind of life is infectious, but it is not easy.

Holding fast to your faith is warfare. The entirety of the world's system is pushing you away from standing true in the gospel. False teachers want you to reject Christ's substitutionary (vicarious) atonement. Worldly acquaintances want you to live faithlessly, as they do. Your flesh want you to indulge it so that it can overtake you. And we are not impervious to these things. Christians never have to fall. But they often do, and when the dulling of their conscience is severe, it leads to an all out shipwreck of faith.

Paul could name people who followed this path (and I can too). He had encouraged them to repent, but because they had gone so far and rejected his calls to repent so often, he "turned them over to Satan." This is not some pagan sacrifice but a releasing from church care, allowing the person to have their own way. When a Christian pursues ungodliness with passion, he is left feeling deplorably empty and even depressed. This turning over to Satan should lead you back to Christ.

If you are a Christian who has turned from a genuine Christian life, be honest with yourself. You are miserable. Sin is not making good on its promises. Repent and turn to God. Reject the lies that you have believed and walk with God again. If you are a Christian who is holding your faith in good conscience, continue to fight to avoid shipwreck. How? Read your Bible. Pray. Share God's truth with others. Live out what you know to be true!

My prayer: You are merciful, Father. You know what is best for me and You urge me to it. You are my strength in battle. You keep me from destroying myself. God I pray that I would always war against sin in my life. Keep me close to You and far from shipwreck.

1 Timothy 1:15-16

"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life."

Jesus came into the world to save sinners. We must accept this! Jesus did not come for the sake of those who are perfect. He did not come for those who had things under control spiritually. There are no such people. Jesus came to save sinners.

Jesus came for the worst of sinners. Paul called himself the foremost of sinners (perhaps because of his former opposition to the gospel's advance or perhaps because he just knew his own heart they way we know our hearts). Paul wasn't saying that no sinner worse than him could get into heaven. He was saying that if God accepted him, then everyone should know that God is extremely patient, and His grace is for you too—regardless of what you have done.

Are you a sinner? Then Jesus came into the world to save you.

My prayer: Father, it is hard to understand why You sent Your Son for sinners. It is such a mystery that many people have rejected it. But You sent Jesus for the good of Your sworn enemies. You love those who hate You. And Your mercy can change their hate into love. Thank you for loving even me, and help me to show others that You love them too.

1 Timothy 1:3-4

"As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith."

The purity of the church's teaching is a serious thing and was one of the major reasons Paul left Timothy in Ephesus. Timothy was supposed to stay to keep false teaching from spreading. There were some people who were becoming sidetracked. They were not focused on Christ and the outworking of faith in Him. These distracted people were giving attention to intellectually intriguing diversions that were directing them away from God and toward themselves.

A self-ward focus is incredibly easy to develop, but it is not satisfying. We are not designed to find happiness in ourselves. Everyone is designed to find his joy in God. And beyond that, for those who are believers, there is a special responsibility to find our joy by walking with God as we advance the plan of God in our lives. But when we focus on distractions rather than Christ, we are poor stewards who have given ourselves to worthlessness.

1 Corinthians 15:29-34

"Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame."

Without the resurrection, what is the point? If the dead will not live again, then why bother giving attention to what comes after death. Without the resurrection, Christian sacrifice is ridiculous. If this life is all there is then, unmediated hedonism is the best there is to live for.

Although fulfilling selfish pleasures is the best that many people have, the passionate pursuit of satisfaction in earthly pleasures always leaves the pursuer empty. What's more it has a degenerative effect. Seeking joy and not finding it, the hedonist goes ever further away from God, thinking that there will be true pleasure in his next gratification, but all the time he is going ever further from the only source of true satisfaction.

How then should I live? I should provide avoid sin, providing an example of a joy-filled life without sinful self-gratification. I should live in the knowledge that Christ has been raised from the dead and the knowledge that I will follow Him in this. Knowing my end, I should display it for others to see.

1 Corinthians 11:27-30

"Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. "

Continuing to show the importance of carefully observing the Lord’s Table, we are told to examine ourselves before participating in the Lord’s Table. Flippancy brings guilt and judgment. The good act of observing the Lord’s Table, if done the wrong way, can bring illness or even death.

With consequences that are so severe and with warnings that seem to be so frequent, one might come to the conclusion that it would be better just to abstain. Some times that is true. If you are not willing to examine yourself, you better not take communion. However, these verse are not encouraging abstinence but rather careful observance. We are told to examine ourselves and then partake.

Consider your relationship with the Lord. Is there anything between you and the Lord? Is there any anger, bitterness, envy? Are you willing to deal with it? Focus on what God has done for you, and let it effect your life and relationships. Before and as you partake, think on these things.

1 Corinthians 11:17-19

"But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized."

How pitiful it would be for a Christian to faithfully go to church week after week, even multiple times a week and for God to say to him, "Your going to church was a waste of time," or perhaps closer to the text, "Your going to church hurt your walk with Me." Such a statement would be devastating, but the seriousness of these instructions warrants the severity of the warning.

The Corinthians were observing the Lord’s Table (or communion) in a fashion that was so damaging that it made church attendance counterproductive. Before addressing the specific problems with their observance of the Lord’s Table, Paul shows us the foundational problem—divisions among the believers.

Verse eighteen says, "when you come together as a church, . . . there are divisions among you." They were coming together, and yet they were not together. The divisions mentioned in earlier chapters were among factions within the church. Groups of believers had aligned themselves with this or that person. But here the divisions are social and economic. People were allowing what they had to make a clear distinction between them and their fellow believers.

There are some distinctions that are natural and beneficial. For example, there are some people in churches who passionately follow after God. When they come to church, they sing from their heart, and throughout the week you can see that God has done something special and humanly unexplainable in their lives. Other people in churches profess to know God, but when you look at their lives, you cannot see anything different in their lives from the life of an unbeliever. That kind of natural distinction must be recognized because it helps us know how to better minister to the different types of people in our church. However, separating believers on the basis of something as spiritually irrelevant as economic status, is in no way beneficial. In fact, those kind of distinctions can make church attendance worthless.

1 Corinthians 10:22

"Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?"

The first question warns us not to be spiritually unfaithful, knowing that our God is a righteously jealous God. The second question is a natural continuation of the warning in the first question. The warning calls us to realize that if we make God jealous, we are making the only all-powerful sovereign of the universe jealous. We are not stronger then he, so we should not be unfaithful.

Jealousy—at first it seems out of character for God. How can jealousy ever be right? It can be right if it is without sin. We are God's and God is willing to fight for us. In my mind it is like a husband who thwarts the efforts of a man who would steal his wife. We look at jealousy and think of the distrust and unnecessary anger of an insecure husband. But jealousy is not that way when God is involved. God is perfectly secure, He simply wishes to protect that which is His—namely you. It is for your good and His glory that He is jealous for you. 

1 Corinthians 10:18-21

"Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons."

All sin is bad, but for the Christian to participate in idolatry is particularly heinous. In our devotional time, my wife and I are currently reading in Judges. Over and over the people of Israel turned from the one true God and worshiped idols, and over and over God punished them for it. Why? Why make such a big deal about the matter? Why record it for countless others to read? Why does it matter?

To worship false gods is horrible, but to know the true God to worship Him and then to worship the false gods is even worse. How can one align himself with the sovereign of the universe, claiming to have a close personal relationship with Him, if he also worships demons? It is incomprehensible. Worship of the living God and worship of the no-god idols are mutually exclusive.

Today, most of the western world does not have figurines to which they sacrifice, pray, and show honor. Traditional idol worship still goes on in the world, but most idol worship has left what we generally think of as idolatry and has become more subtle. Instead of brass, gold, and wood figurines, we have set our self-will, desires, and passions up as modern day idols. This more sophisticated method of idolatry may seem less offensive, but it takes you away from the worship of the true God and is equally demonic. We must worship God and Him alone.

1 Corinthians 10:15-17

"I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread."

We, who are Christians, are in an intimate relationship with Christ and with all who are His. We are connected to one another, all being members/organs/integral parts of the same body—the church. And if each of us is part of the body, then the actions of each individual reflect on the whole. If one ministers the word or gives a cup of cold water, the church takes part in it. But if one practices idolatry then the church does so as well.

If you get caught stealing, you would not think to object, “Oh, no! That wasn’t me that stole. That was my hand.” Why not? You would never give that excuse because you know it would never get by. Yes, your hand stole it, but your hand is part of your body. Therefore you stole it not just your hand. This is part of the reason why sin is such a big deal. You, as a Christian individual, reflect upon the church as a whole. What kind of reflection are you casting?

1 Corinthians 10:14

"Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry."

Knowing that we are idol factories, given to sin and knowing that we do not have to sin should motivate us to flee from sin! Run away from it. Avoid it.

After I finished the last entry my mind was puzzled by the question "if we don't have to sin, why do we? Why does it seem so inescapable?" I think that this verse answers that question at least partially.

We want to sin, and wanting sin, we do not run from it. When we want it and do not run from it, even though we could have avoided it by fleeing, it traps us. Better not dabble. Better not linger. Instead, take your flight! In some battles running away may be cowardly, but here it is wise. May God give me the grace to flee from temptations to sin.

1 Corinthians 10:13

"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."

Lest we think that our sinfulness makes resisting temptation futile, God counters the truth of our proclivity towards sin with the truth that we do not have to sin. This second truth is both shaming and encouraging. We are shamed by the truth of this verse because it tells us that, as Christians, we never sin because "we cannot help ourselves." God never allows temptation to come our way if it is too strong for us. He knows what we can handle (which is more than we usually know), and he does not allow temptation to go beyond that level. Therefore every sin that a Christian commits, he selects to engage in it. Furthermore, none of us face a peculiar temptation that exceeds the level of temptation that is common throughout all people everywhere. It may take a different form, but essentially, it is the same sin. Others choose not to engage in it, and we do not have to indulge either.

Thankfully, the shame of our past sins, unnecessarily chosen, should give way to confident joy a resolve when we consider the faithfulness of God. He knows our limits and gives us means of escaping sin. We may have grown disconsolate, thinking there is no point. We may have failed so many times that we consider just giving up. But God tells us not to. He will never put you in a situation that is more than you are capable of handling. He is absolutely faithful in this.

1 Corinthians 10:11-12

"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. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."

Desiring evil, idolatry, immorality, grumbling, and complaining—at first they seem to be a rather mixed bag, but they all have discontent at their root. We desire evil, commit immorality, and worship other gods because we do not think that our relationship with God will satisfy us. And when we grumble and complain we expose the fact that we do not like what God has given us.

We need to take notice. The Israelites had evil in their hearts and fell to sin. Most people would object. Evil in my heart? That's extreme! Surely I'm not like that. If you think that way, you need to wake up to the condition of your heart. Are you discontent with all that God has given you? Do you ever grumble or complain? Do you want to relate to God in ways that He has not condoned? If any of these things are so, you are capable of falling just like the Israelites fell. And if you do not face this fact, you almost certainly will fall.

I too must be careful. God has done wonderful things in my life and kept me from many sins. But I am still a sinner, and this thread of discontent runs deep within my heart. For me to assume that I am somehow immune or impervious to the natural tendency towards sin would be the ultimate deception and would lead me to speedy disaster. In guarding against the mistaken notion of personal strength, I must be especially aware of my need to actively find my contentment in God. When I am tempted to complain about my circumstances or seek unbiblical ways to satisfy spiritual desires, I must face the fact that I have sinned, and facing this I must repent and trust God to satisfy perfectly.

1 Corinthians 10:9-10

"We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer."

What does it mean to "put Christ to the test"? Numbers 21:5 says "the people spoke against God and against Moses" by complaining. They were not happy with where they were or what they had to eat. And God sent the serpents in response.

Grumbling and complaining—when we do it, it seems so justified, and we scarcely think of the severity of what we are doing. But by grumbling and complaining, we are saying, "I'm not happy with you God." I do not want what you have given. You don't give good gifts. Give me something better. We would probably never say that, but it is what is behind our complaint, and God knows it.

1 Corinthians 10:7-8

"Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, 'The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.' We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day."

As slaves in Egypt, the Israelites saw the powerlessness of the Egyptian gods. When the Lord sent the plagues, the false gods of the Egyptians could do nothing. But the Israelites’ hearts were still inclined toward idolatry. After the Israelites saw the impotence of the gods of wood, stone, and metal and after they saw the Lord deliver them with a mighty hand, they called upon Aaron to make them an idol.

How quickly our hearts forget what God has taught us. How quickly we turn away towards our own sinful desires. Those desires are strong and ever present. But God would not have given us these negative examples, admonishing us not to follow them, if the situation were hopeless.

We do not have to give in to our sinful desires. We do not have to fall as so many others have fallen. I remember talking with a friend who was discouraged about the large number of Christian friends he had who were making bad choices. He asked “with all these people falling, what is the point even trying to stand true?” That perspective is backwards. When we see or hear of failures, we should be spurred on to increased faithfulness.

1 Corinthians 10:6

"Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did."

It is a sad reality that naturally we all desire evil. Our sinful nature lusts after evil. We are greedy for bad things. It is a universal reality.

Some former coworkers of mine have a very cute daughter. When she was younger, I called her the Touchinator because she would try to touch everything in sight. Her parents allowed her to explore most of the time, but when she started examining the water cooler, which contained instant boiling water, they strongly protested. After being told not to touch the cooler, the little girl seemed to have an insatiable desire to play with it. She was greedy for wrong even though the wrong would hurt her.

We are just as foolish. So God recorded examples of people suffering because of wrongdoing that we would "not desire evil as they did" and as we do naturally.

1 Corinthians 10:1-5

"For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness."

In a section warning us not to engage in idolatry, our attention is first taken to the Israelites, who were in a position of great privilege but who none-the-less suffered because of their idolatry. They were physically led day-by-day by the Lord under a cloud. They passed through the Red Sea, walking on dry land. They were lead by Moses, a man whom the nation of Israel still venerates. They were fed manna and drank water from stone. Even more, they had a relationship with God, looking (through the sacrifices) to what Christ would do on the cross.

But in spite of their great privilege, they were spiritually unfaithful, and their unfaithfulness brought consequences. As Christians, we too enjoy great spiritual privileges. Our privileges should always spur us on towards greater faithfulness for we too will experience consequences for spiritual infidelity.

1 Corinthians 8:7-13

"However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble."

The Christian who understands that he has the freedom to do something (in this case, eat meat once offered to a fake thing) has the responsibility to make loving choices that will build up other Christians, making them stronger and bringing them into a closer relationship with God. If, on the other hand, the knowledgeable Christian over-values his freedom to do something, he will make choices that will be destructive. The choices may not be self-destructive, but they will hurt others.

If another Christian is unsure about doing something and he sees you doing it, he may be encouraged to do that thing, which to him seems like a sin. Then after he has done it, his conscience plagues him. He may think himself to be a failure, and acting on his presumed failure, he may turn away from Christianity and return to his former practices.

Knowing the potentially damaging effects of your choices, you must sensitively seek to build you fellow Christians up in love. Christ died for your brother. Can you fail to love him? But one protests, “I know that I am allowed to engage in this activity,” remember the words of verse two: “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.”

1 Corinthians 6:18-20

"Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

The first reason given for avoiding sexual immorality was that our bodies were not made for sexual immorality, and the second was that our physical bodies are spiritually joined to Christ. And now we read that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and our bodies are not our possession. They have been paid for by Christ's death. We have been purchased.

All sin is bad, but sexual sins, for the Christian, are particularly severe. Before a Christian engages in immorality, he needs to stop and think about what he is doing. Not only is he breaking God's law and thus dishonoring God. But he is sinning "against his own body," and because of the relationship between God and his body, he doubly dishonors God.

Even with the higher stakes, the sexually immoral person can be forgiven. But let us avoid that need. We are God's, and He intends for us to bring Him glory through our bodies.

1 Corinthians 6:15-17

"Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, 'The two will become one flesh.' But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him."

Not only does our body belong to Christ, but it is joined to Him. Our bodies are "members of Christ." In a spiritual sense, we are part of Christ as our finger, arms, or shoulders are part of us physically.

Our relationship with Christ goes beyond mere friendship or familial ties. We are part of Him. Should we then, being part of him, be joined with a prostitute? The concept is revolting and blasphemous.

1 Corinthians 6:12-14

"“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power."

We have many different natural desires. Some desires can seem very strong and nearly overwhelming. But we are never to be brought under the power of our desire for anything. Take food for example. Our bodies (especially our stomachs) were created to require food, and food was made to be eaten. But eventually we will no longer need food nor our stomachs, and they shall both be destroyed. It is lawful for us to eat any kind of food that we can imagine. But it is not helpful to eat a bag of marshmallows for three meals a day. Someone who would eat such an unhealthy (or unhelpful) diet would likely be doing so because of a lack of control. The acceptable desire for white fluffy sweetness has overwhelmed him. So there is a lawful acceptable desire, but then there is also the unhelpful, misuse of the natural desire.

Another natural, lawful desire is the desire for sexual fulfillment. We were created with this desire. But we are not to fulfill that desire through immoral means (i.e. outside of a monogamous, heterosexual marriage relationship). Our bodies were created with the lawful desire, but we may not attempt to fulfill this desire in an unhelpful, unacceptable, unlawful way. Intensifying the importance of this matter is the fact that our bodies are not our own. Our bodies are "for the Lord."