Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
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. “
God was not pleased with the Israelites who murmured against Him despite the good care that they received from Him. There is that tendency to take granted the goodness of God in our lives. Why did God allow Israel to go through the wilderness experience? What was the lesson?
The children of Israel experienced the sufficiency of God in their wilderness experience. God supernaturally protected them from their Egyptian oppressors. The sustenance the children of Israel experienced was traced to Jesus Christ.
There were many in Israel who experienced the mercies of God in the wilderness and yet will not acknowledge God’s goodness but chose to still murmur and complain. This is the heart of sinful men whose life is lived after the flesh and not in the spirit.
The Apostle Paul recounted the event of the Exodus when God delivered Israel out of bondage in Egypt through many miracles of extraordinary measure. And yet when Israel was brought to the brink of the Promised Land, they had not the faith to enter. Many were overthrown in the wilderness because of their unbelief.
The Apostle Paul speaks of a vigilance to spiritual discipline lest he disqualifies himself from the work through sin. And he is careful to warn his readers not to yield to temptation. He watches himself carefully so that he may be rejected by the Lord, not standing the test and be a castaway.
The athlete’s greatest fear is that he is injured because it disqualifies him from the competition. Even though he may have trained hard for a long time to prepare for the race, he will not win the prize because he cannot participate in the race.This is the same for the servant of God. Sin disqualifies him from his reward from God because of the “disciplinary disapproval of God” [William MacDonald]. The Apostle Paul sends a word of warning for all servants of God to live circumspectly, by the grace of God to exercise self-control, be led by the Spirit to live a victorious life of service. There is reward awaiting the faithful servant.
Poole observed well, “I give you no other counsel than I myself take; I endeavour so to live, so in all things to behave myself, as I may not be at uncertainties whether I please God by my actions, or shall get to heaven, yea or not. I am a fellow soldier with you, fighting against sin; I make it my great business, not so to fight, so to resist sin, as if I did beat the air; that is, get no more fruit, profit, or advantage by it, than if I threw stones against the wind, or with a staff did beat the air. It is not every running, or every fighting, that will bring a man to heaven; it must be a running with all our might, and continuing our motion till we come to the end of our race; a fighting with all our might, and that against all sin.”
The promise of eternal reward for the faithful Christian is his motivation to serve Christ. Just as the athlete who seeks to wins a competition does all he can to keep himself in his best physical state, so the Christian in his spiritual state, for a heavenly reward.
Athletes go through much self-discipline to condition themselves in the best physical condition for the competition. So does the spiritual athlete. To be temperate is to exercise self-control. “He who has no self control is like a dilapidated city” is a good paraphrase of this proverb (Timothy Tow, Pearls of Great Wisdom – A Study of the Book of Proverbs). Self-control is the spiritual quality or virtue that enables a Christian to have the power to keep himself/herself in check against the sin of the flesh and the spirit.