Montgomery - I Corinthians - 10

10:1  For I would not have you ignorant, brothers, how our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,

10:2  and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

10:3  They all ate of the same spiritual bread,

10:4  and all drank from the same spiritual stream, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

10:5  But in most of them God was not well pleased, for they were laid low in the desert.

10:6  Now this happened as a warning for us, that we might not long for evil things as they longed.

10:7  And you must not be idolaters like some of them. as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, And they rose up for idol dances.

10:8  Nor must we act licentiously, as some of them did, and fell in a single day, twenty-three thousand of them.

10:9  Neither must we presume upon the patience of our Lord, as some of them presumed, and were destroyed by the serpents;

10:10  nor murmur, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the Destroying Angel.

10:11  Now these things were happening to them typically, but were written down for our admonition who stand at the meeting of the ages.

10:12  So then let him who imagines that he is standing so securely beware lest he fall.

10:13  No temptation has overtaken you that is beyond man’s power; but God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but will, with every temptation, provide the way of escape also, so that you may be able to withstand.

10:14  So then, my beloved, continually flee from idolatry.

10:15  I am speaking to men of sense; do you yourselves judge what I say.

10:16  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a common participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a common participation in the body of Christ?

10:17  Because we who are many are one bread, one body, for we all do share in the one loaf.

10:18  Look at Israel according to the flesh; are not those who eat the sacrifices in communion with the altar?

10:19  What then shall we say? that an offering to an idol is anything? or that an idol is really anything?

10:20  On the contrary, what the heathen sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have communion with demons.

10:21  You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons; you cannot be partakers in the Lord’s table and in the table of demons.

10:22  What! would we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

10:23  "All things are lawful," you say? But not all things are expedient; "all things are lawful"; but not all build up.

10:24  Let not each one be always seeking his own, but rather his neighbor’s good.

10:25  Eat anything that is for sale in the markets, asking no questions for conscience sake;

10:26  for the earth and its fulness are the Lord’s.

10:27  If one who is not a believer invites you to his house, and you wish to go, eat everything that is set before you, without asking questions for conscience sake.

10:28  But if any one tells you, "This food has been offered in sacrifice," do not eat it, for the sake of him who told you,

10:29  and for your conscience sake - his conscience, not your own. "But," you may object, "why should my freedom be decided upon another’s scruples of conscience?

10:30  If I eat after giving thanks, why am I denounced for eating that for which I have given thanks?"

10:31  Because whether you are eating or whether you are drinking, you are to do it all for the glory of God.

10:32  Do not be a cause of stumbling either to Jews of to Gentiles, or to the church of God.

10:33  For so I also try to please all men in every way, not by seeking my own good, but the good of the many, that they may be saved.