1 Corinthians 10:6, We Should Not Lust After Evil Things

1 Corinthians 10:6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

Barnes observed well what it means to lust after evil things, “Desire those things which are forbidden, and which would be injurious. They lusted after flesh, and God granted them their desires; and the consequence was a plague, and the destruction of multitudes.  So Paul infers that the Corinthian Christians should not lust after, or desire the meat offered in sacrifice to idols, lest it should lead them also to sin and ruin. “

Numbers 11:4 And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?

Numbers 11:31-34 And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp. And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague. And he called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.

Indeed, the Exodus was a vivid picture of the pitfalls of carnality that God’s people are awakened to behold. May the Lord bless His people from the propensity to sin by His grace. Amen.