Take Heed

"Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12).

Paul here offers an urgent warning: never presume on the grace of God. Presumption is an attitude that acts as if it has greater liberty than truly possessed. It can be summed up in the old statement, "Give them an inch, and they want a mile." While it is true that there is freedom in the grace of God, it is not true to say there is license to do as we please.

Paul is writing to a group of individuals who were not living up to their profession of faith. They were confused in their theology and their practice. Some of them were beginning to flirt with idolatry again. Paul offers them a history lesson. He reminds them of the generation that came out of Egypt, but refused to obey the Lord, and died in the wilderness. He states, that their experience was analogous to the church, because the Exodus pointed to a day when Christ would lead his people out of slavery to sin and death.

Paul states, "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" (1 Cor. 10:1-5). Paul is urging them to consider the realities beyond the historical event, and how they point to Christ. Paul stresses that Moses' generation was unfaithful to God, and were destroyed. How much greater a punishment must rest upon one who has professed faith in Christ, but fails to walk in obedience.

Paul's warning means that proximity to the things of Christ is not salvation. Those who died in the wilderness saw the glory of God, were baptized, ate the bread and drank the cup, but never entered into the promise. This warning should not surprise us. Jesus offered a similar warning in Matthew 7:21-32.

Paul is not saying that we cannot be confident of our salvation. He is saying we cannot be confident in our flesh. The generation that grumbled against Moses and the Lord, demonstrated through their disobedience that they had no faith. Paul is calling us to look back at that generation, not with a sense of judgment, but with a spirit of sobriety. The warning presses us to see that if it could happen to them, it can happen to us.

This verse is a call to vigilance. Paul is saying we need to keep a close watch on our hearts at all times. We are soldiers in the midst of battle; the enemy is on every side firing with all he has got. We cannot rest in the the battle is over, until our King steps on the field and brings the final victory. There is no time for spiritual laxity. As Jesus said, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41).