1 Corinthians 10:5-22

5They all received the same help from God, but most of them did not please God. God caused most of them to die in the wilderness.

6We must learn from those things that happened to our ancestors. We must not want to do very bad things, like they did.

7Do not worship idols, as some of them did. The Bible says: ‘The people sat down to eat and to drink. After that, they got up from their meal and they danced.’

8Nor must we ever have sex in wrong ways. Some of our ancestors did that, and 23,000 of them died in one day as a result.

9Nor must we do bad things to see whether the Lord will punish us. Some of our ancestors did that, and God sent snakes to destroy them.

10Do not complain against God. Some of our ancestors spoke like that, and God sent an angel of death to kill them.

11All these things happened to our ancestors so that we would learn from them. They are written in the Bible to teach us important lessons. We are people who live at a time when all things will become complete.

12If you think that you are standing strongly, be careful! Do not fall down!

13You may often want to do wrong things. The things that are difficult for you are difficult for other people too. Remember that God is always there to help you. He will not let any bad thing be too difficult for you. He will help you to stand against it. When you want to do something wrong, God will make you strong in your spirit. He will show you a way out, so that you do not do anything wrong.

14So, my friends, keep away from idols. Do not worship them.

15You are people who think carefully about things. So think about what I am saying to you.

16When we eat the Lord's Supper together, we remember that Christ died on our behalf. We thank God for the wine that we drink from the cup. In that way, we remember that we all belong to Christ because of his blood. We also break the bread and we eat it together. In that way, we remember that we all belong to Christ because of his body that died on the cross.

17We are many people, but all of us eat part of the same loaf of bread. That shows that we are one group of people. We belong together because Christ died on our behalf.

18Think about Israel's people. They eat part of the animals that the priests offer on the altar as a sacrifice. This shows that they share together in the sacrifice.

19So think about food that people offer to idols as a sacrifice. I am not saying that the idols are real gods. The food that people offer to them is not special food.

20But the people who offer food to idols are worshipping demons. They are not worshipping God when they do that. I do not want you to share in what they do to worship demons.

21If you drink anything from the cup of demons, you can not then drink wine from the Lord's cup. If you share a meal with demons, you can not also share in the Lord's meal.

22If we do things like that, we will cause the Lord to be angry. We should worship only him. You know that we are not stronger than he is!