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Examined Doctrine
PASSAGE · BSB

1 Corinthians 10

10 positions in the corpus lean on this chapter. Cited verses are marked.

1I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea.

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

3They all ate the same spiritual food

4and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

5Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.

6These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

7Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.”

8We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.

9We should not test Christ, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes.

10And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.

11Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

12So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall.

13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it.

14Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

15I speak to reasonable people; judge for yourselves what I say.

16Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?

17Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf.

18Consider the people of Israel: Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar?

19Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?

20No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.

21You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.

22Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

23“Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is edifying.

24No one should seek his own good, but the good of others.

25Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience,

26for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”

27If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat anything set before you without raising questions of conscience.

28But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience—

29the other one’s conscience, I mean, not your own. For why should my freedom be determined by someone else’s conscience?

30If I partake in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

31So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

32Do not become a stumbling block, whether to Jews or Greeks or the church of God—

33as I also try to please everyone in all I do. For I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, that they may be saved.

Who leans on it

Calvin on the lord's supperPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Christ is truly given and truly received, but the body stays in heaven and the Spirit does the carrying: 'what our mind does not comprehend let faith conceive—viz. that the Spirit truly unites things separated by space' …Chrysostom on the lord's supperPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°As realist as patristic language gets, and the cell records that rather than softening it. On 1 Corinthians 10:16 he glosses Paul's "communion of the Blood of Christ" as "This which is in the cup is that which flowed fro…Chrysostom on divine plurality & the unseen realmDISPUTED READINGNOT FRAMED°He never poses the question about the elohim of the Hebrew Bible. The nearest he comes is 1 Corinthians 10, where he holds two things together: an idol "is nothing" and can do no injury, and yet what the Gentiles sacrifi…Jonathan Edwards on the lord's supperPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°The Supper is a mutual covenant transaction: through the minister's words and actions Christ presents himself to believing communicants and seals his engagements, while they profess to receive him. The elements are "outw…Irenaeus on the lord's supperPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°He states the identification flatly and never explains it. The bread that receives the invocation of God "is no longer common bread"; the cup Christ "has acknowledged... as His own blood" and the bread "He has establishe…Tim Keller on the lord's supperSTANDARD ACCOUNTAFFIRMS°Spiritual presence received by faith.Second London Baptist Confession on the lord's supperPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Chapter 30.7 follows WCF 29.7 closely: worthy receivers really and indeed feed on Christ crucified, not carnally or corporally but spiritually, and Christ is spiritually present to faith. Paragraph 30.6 rejects transubst…Luther on the lord's supperPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°The bread and wine are the true body and blood of Christ, on the strength of Christ's words and nothing else. Luther's test case is the unworthy communicant: the body and blood are "given and received not only by the god…John MacArthur on the lord's supperPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Primarily commemorative — "the commemoration and proclamation of His death until He comes" — and the elements are explicitly "only representative" of Christ's flesh and blood, ruling out transubstantiation and Lutheran r…Westminster Confession on the lord's supperPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°WCF 29.7 rejects both rival positions inside one sentence. Transubstantiation has already been dismissed in 29.6 as 'repugnant, not to Scripture alone, but even to common sense and reason'; 29.7 then denies the Lutheran …