Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Key to Decision Making | New Testament | 1 Corinthians 10

Episode Date: June 20, 2023

What is your decision making process like? Do you ever feel like you have decision fatigue? Turns out, the people in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 10 were in the same boat. In today's episode, Tanya shares how to make sure your decisions align with God's desires. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Corinthians 10 Megaphone Update Test - Submitted on 6/14/23 @ 2:50pm CT

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. So I'm laughing out loud lately about the questions we ask teenagers. It's a season of transition. They're leaving one school year. They're preparing for something new. For some, it's just a new grade.

And for others, they're preparing for a new home away from home. In this season of transition, we tend to find any teenager walking on the street and start asking them all kinds of questions. What's your major? Where are you applying for college? Are you going to keep playing your sport or instrument? Do you want to leave home? What kind of internship do you want? Are you going to study abroad?

Gaging from my own teenagers, they don't know the answers to our questions, and they oblige out of trained politeness, because it's what we do and how we connect. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul was in tune with the newness and the decisions the first century Christians in Corinth were facing. With the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they had new questions about how to live out their Christian identity in a pagan culture.

Maybe they had what we might today call decision fatigue. What was permissible now that Christ had fulfilled the law? What could they eat and drink? And how should they worship now that the old sacrificial system was replaced by the eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ? One particular decision they had to make was about eating meat. They wondered, could they eat meat that had been sacrificed to pagan idols in the temple? The answer was no. Could they eat meat from the market, not knowing if it had been part of idle sacrifice or not?

The answer was yes. Could they eat meat when they went to someone's house if the host said it had been part of idle sacrifice? The answer was, maybe. That's enough to give anyone some decision anxiety. So Paul digs deeper to give them assurance that wouldn't change, even when the meat situation was questionable. And really, this was about more than just meat. The Corinthians were struggling with the newness of life in Jesus.

and temptation to go back to old ways. So Paul handles this by taking them back to the most obvious and relatable story he can think of, the story of the Israelites being delivered out of Egypt. Paul reminds them of the way the Israelites ate the spiritual food. Remember the manna that fell from the sky? And drank from the spiritual rock. Remember when water came from the rock in the desert? And he says that rock was Jesus Christ.

In fact, Jesus has always been the rock of our salvation. The one thing that would ground all the decisions the Corinthians needed to make was the unchanging character of God. He was and is and would be their deliverer. So speaking of the Israelites, Paul reminded them of times that the Israelites made the wrong decisions out of rebellion and God judged them. In verse 6, Paul gives a lengthy warning about what we should all learn from the Israelites when he says, now these things took place as examples for us.

so we would not fall into evil as they did. And there are four warnings that should guide our decisions, according to Paul. The first is about idolatry. The Corinthians were tempted by pluralism, worshipping God and taking the sacraments of Jesus while also participating in temple festivities and sacrifices to pagan gods. Paul related his warning about idolatry to the way God judged Israel for building a golden calf to worship

because they said they needed it. Anything that would lead us into loving or worshipping or thinking we need something other than God is never a direction we want to take. The second is about sexual immorality. The dinners and parties happening in the pagan temples condone sexual practices as part of the celebration. They would come, they would eat, they would drink a lot of wine, and it would usually end in some kind of prostitutes coming in and all kinds of sex happening in the temple. And Paul warns the Corinthians, the Christians, to be aware of anything that deviates from Jesus teaching about sexuality. The third is testing or

rationalizing. Some of the Christians in Corinth were eating the sacrifices in the temple and then telling others, hey, it's okay, because nothing bad had come to us. This is never a good way to guide our decisions. And the last involved grumbling. It sounds kind of odd in this list, but apparently Paul wanted the people of Corinth to remember that when the Israelites grumbled, about food and wanted to go back to Egypt, they were out of line, relationally speaking, with God. Grumbling is a sign that we're looking for satisfaction in the wrong places, and it's not a good place to make a decision.

Instead, Paul says in verse 31, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. In other words, Paul reframed the decision-making grid. They should make every decision with consideration for others, with thankfulness, and with the sole purpose of giving glory to God. They should ask, is this helpful and life-giving,

not only to me, but others? Is there something God has done for me in the past that helps me make my decisions about my future? How can I make decisions out of gratitude instead of anxiety? And am I making this decision to please myself or to give glory to God? Paul is a gospel preacher, and that means that whether his hearers need more warnings about how to live for Christ or more assurances that they are in Christ, Jesus Christ is always the focus. Whatever we do or say, eat or drink, the Lord Jesus Christ is always faithful.

That means we practice humility and love in our decision-making because we know our deliverance costs him everything. and we have peace in our decision-making because we know his love is unconditional. The more we understand this, the more our lives will be marked by the command. Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Okay, so let's talk for a minute about the tens or maybe hundreds of decisions you have to make a day if you have kids. I'm still in this, so I'm passing down good information from people that are head of the game, not telling you what I'm doing right. Our goal as parents is generally to remove restraint.

as our kids get older, not add to them, which means they're also making more decisions. This takes active parenting, where you model and talk through decision hits and misses with your kids. Talk about why they did something, how they came to that decision. Don't just talk about the consequences, but the motivation behind their thinking. Help them understand their heart motives. Admit when you make bad choices and what you learn from those. Then when they're teens and they ask for questions, and they ask for permission to try or do new things, see if they're mature enough to talk about the challenges

they might face or the temptations they'll face when they get there. If they don't want to talk through those things or acknowledge them, then they're probably not ready. We can also talk to our kids about how we contribute to our own decision fatigue when we keep allowing the same choices to be in front of us. If we keep putting ourselves in positions where we're tempted by the same things, we're more likely to wear down in making that decision over and over again. Just because we're growing in maturity, it doesn't mean we won't wear down. Paul talks about this too. In verse 12, Paul says, therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

We want to raise kids that are internally motivated to make their own good decisions and willing to admit when they need help. Now, since we started this podcast with a list of questions that tend to wear out our teenagers, let's end with some questions that might spark some good conversation and open some doors to future decisions. These work with older people too. I've tried them out. Just ask my running group. They're always up for some podcast research. Okay, here are some questions you can talk through. What's something that's happened in your life recently that went uncelebrated? And why was that important to you? What's something you'd like to do more of in this next season? What about something you'd like to do less of? and is there anything you need to rebalance to make that a reality? And finally, how do those things you mentioned help you give thanks to God or motivate you to trust God more?

I hope you feel encouraged, not just in your decision making, but in your identity in Jesus Christ. Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.