by Pastor Joey Carroll
“Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed…” (1 Corinthians 10:12, NASB).
I have spent time in many different cultures. Some places I only visited for a brief period of time, while others I stayed for much longer. But I have found our southern culture to be a one-of-a-kind culture, mostly for good reasons. We appreciate good food, and we can find it in many places. We enjoy sports, and we are passionate about it. And we especially love being outdoors; thankfully, we live in a great place to enjoy nature. But something I have grown to dislike more and more is the “church culture” of the South.
I have never been exposed to another church culture quite like that of the South, where almost everyone you speak to is absolutely convinced of his salvation. In almost all other places I have visited, the people willingly confess that they know nothing of Jesus. Which is actually refreshing because you know exactly where to start, and you know exactly where you hope to end – in their faith and trust in the person and work of our Savior. However, in the South, even though almost everyone claims to know Jesus, the evidence in their lives is not so convincing.
I am sure there are many reasons for this contradiction between profession and practice, but the reason given in 1 Corinthians 10 was a false reliance on religious experience rather than faith in God. Ancient Israel experienced God’s work in amazing ways. One of those was passing through the Red Sea. If you do not know the story, spend some time reading Exodus 14 and 15. The story is about God’s mighty rescue of Israel from their enemies by walking through the bottom of the sea on dry land. When their enemies pursued them, the sea was suddenly not so dry anymore. The words “dry land” is repeated four times in the story. It was the most amazing thing about their rescue from Egypt. Can you imagine being among those people who had been rescued in such an amazing way! But that was only the beginning of their extraordinary experiences. God would soon feed them every morning with bread from heaven, and provide water for them all from a rock. You would think that they would all be faithful followers from that day forward. But the Bible has a different testimony, “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness,” (1 Corinthians 10:5, NASB). The words “laid low” is as ominous as it sounds. It literally means God scattered their dead bodies in the desert. How could this happen? What more does someone need to convince them to trust God?
After that amazing experience, as well as dozens of other fresh encounters with God, their lives looked identical to who they were before God intervened in their lives. In the next five verses, we read a description of how they lived in spite of having experienced God. They continued to desire sinful things, rather than the things of God. They continued to devote their lives to other things, rather than to God. They continued to act immorally, rather than pursue holiness. They continued to put God to the test, rather than to trust Him. And, they continued grumbling and complaining about their lives, rather than rejoicing and being thankful. In other words, they identified themselves as the people of God, but they continued to live as people who belonged to the world.
We must learn from the mistakes of Israel. In fact, that is why Paul wrote this warning in 1 Corinthians 10. Experience is no replacement for relationship. In our day, it seems for some people that the measure of success for a Sunday morning worship service is the amount of emotional expression and response. Now I enjoy experience and emotions as much as anyone, but those things never change the heart of a man. Grace does.
If we are to avoid the mistakes of Israel, we must measure the genuineness of our faith based on a life marked by humble obedience. That is, after all, the promise of the gospel. Experience and emotions can be deceiving. Evidence is found in a changed life that is growing to look just like Jesus.
This article originally appeared in The Clarion Newspaper.
Corinth Baptist Church 