# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1855_S353
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Lehre und Wehre.

Volume I. December 1855. No. 12.

(Submitted by Pastor Hoyer.)
Exposition
of
1 Corinthians 10:14–22.

The words of the Apostle Paul, to the understanding of which may God now graciously enlighten us, contain in verse 16 a statement concerning the Holy Supper which, especially for the past year, has occupied the writer of these lines almost daily. It was for him a personal need to set down what he had come to perceive of the content of that extraordinarily rich passage, in order to gain a clear overview of it; may it, by God's grace, also succeed in edifying his dear brethren in the faith through the communication of his understanding of it!

Before verse 14 the Apostle had held up to the Corinthians the example of the Israelites, who, despite the fact that God led them out of Egypt and through the wilderness with an outstretched arm and endowed them, above all peoples, with the knowledge of his holy will, nevertheless showed themselves so hardened and obstinate in manifold sins that they were struck down in the wilderness. Among the various sins by which the Israelites drew upon themselves so grievous a punishment, the Apostle also named idolatry (with reference to the worship of the golden calf), and to this portrayal of the terrible fall of the Israelites he then added a beautiful word of comfort and gospel: that just as God had thus far allowed the Corinthians to fall only into such temptations as they could bear, so too that same faithful God would not, in the future, tempt them beyond their strength, but would rather lead them victoriously through every temptation. Now from the warning history of the Israelites, and from the gospel bound up with it — that God does not permit temptations too severe to bear, and gives strength for victory in temptation — the Apostle draws the conclusion:

V. 14. "Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry."

The enticement to idolatry was great in Corinth, where, for example, the licentious worship of Aphrodite was carried on in a dreadful manner. Consider, in addition, that surely many Christians belonged to families whose members,

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