Be careful not to fall

 This week's verses are 1 Corinthians 10:1-13:

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, 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 were all drinking from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were cut down in the wilderness. These things happened as examples for us, so that we will not crave evil things as they did. So 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.” And let us not be immoral, as some of them were, and 23,000 died in a single day. And let us not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes. And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So let the one who thinks he is standing be careful that he does not fall. No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others. And God is faithful: He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it.

 We sometimes look at ourselves as if we were living in extreme circumstances. We imagine ourselves to be the most wronged, the least loved, the victims of the most injustice, as though no time in history had ever been this bad, this corrupt, or this difficult for the Christian life. But that's what people have always thought.

The Corinthian church also seemed to be victims of some exceptionalism. They'd seen a lot of supernatural things and perhaps let it go to their heads. And they'd also seen some hard times, living amidst militant Roman paganism. But Paul reminds them that there have always been people who have been favored by God and even those most favored people still faced difficulties and sometimes those favored people lost their way and failed to measure up.

Our ancestors, in a traditional sense, all saw God face to face in the wilderness and witnessed God parting the Red Sea to deliver them from the oppression they'd lived under. If ever there was a sign of favor, that was it. And yet even those people managed to mess up badly enough that God sentenced some of them to death later on.

And those same ancestors faced hardships in the desert, stuff that would make you and me turn against each other and fight, most likely over a bottle of water. And even though they were favored and God had invested so much in bringing them that far, they still faced punishment for their sins when they let their favor go to their heads and became overconfident underachievers.

So Paul spells it out for us: "Let the one who thinks he is standing be careful that he does not fall." In other words, if you think you've got this Christianity thing handled, or maybe you think you will never be tested worse than you are right now, be careful! The Israelites who went on autopilot after they crossed the Red Sea didn't handle the challenges well that came later on. 

And he demolishes the stronghold of exceptionalism: "No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others." No matter how hard things may seem, or how bizarre the circumstances, some other believer has faced the same basic thing, or worse, and prevailed. There's no state of hardship or victimhood that entitles you to stop trying, or to ignore how God wants you to live. There is no "free ride" card for miles walked in uncomfortable shoes.

Finally, Paul gives us the good news: "And God is faithful: He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it." In other words, if you're still in the game, you've got a shot at winning. You're not out of your league.

But that's not always what we want to hear. We live in a society, many of us, which idolizes victimhood. Deep down, we want to be told that the system is stacked against us, that the only option is to make ourselves comfortable, turn on the TV, and give ourselves decades of luxurious palliative care before the clock finally runs out. 

Or maybe we want to hear that we really are special, that God favors us so much more than previous generations, that we are the ones who will make the real difference, that we're so good, so tuned into the Holy Spirit, so fresh and attuned to God's will, that we can just put the cruise control on, close our eyes, and imagine how very, very good we will look when we cross that finish line.

But we're not so good that we don't have to push ourselves, and we're not so doomed that we don't have a chance. We have the examples of people who fell off the cliff on both of those extremes. We can learn from them and have a better chance at victory.

So, you already know you have a chance to prevail. And nothing you're ever going to face is going to be worse than what other people like you have endured righteously. So be careful to remain standing and be careful not to fall.