1 Corinthians 10:8-10
We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.
The previous passage talked about idolatry. One of the biggest forms of idolatry is pleasing our sensual desires outside of God’s blessing of marriage. Paul returns here to the topic of sexual immorality he began in ch. 6. Lust is a problem that goes back to the earliest days of humanity. It appeals to our deep instincts of procreation. When we give into it, we are no better than the animals around us. But God created us in His image, not in the image of the animals around us. We are more than animals living to mate. We are created to love in whole ways that build others up and bring them to God. The ancient Israelites got out of control one day when they were worshipping the golden calf they had formed. When we replace worshipping God with worshipping idols, we live in order to please our own fleshly desires. The result is that the people around us suffer and we internally break apart. God has created us for something better than this. As Christians living in a culture crazed with sex, we must work extra hard to keep ourselves pure. The best way to do this is to keep God first and worship Him moment by moment.
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