1 Cor 10:21 (Traditions of Men)

I was spending some time in prayer one morning last week and the Lord spoke a scripture to me during that time. I didn't know what He was referring to, nor what it really truly meant, so i decided to study it out. I know I bounce around here and there, but I try to follow after the Spirit of the Lord and what He would be trying to say to me, and the church (since I am sharing these blogs with others as well).

My findings have really lead me into a place in the Word that I wasn't really anticipating, although it has been exciting what the Lord has shared with me.

Here is the scripture that I heard the other morning, "YE CANNOT DRINK THE CUP OF THE LORD, AND THE CUP OF DEVILS: YE CANNOT BE PARTAKERS OF THE LORD;S TABLE, AND OF THE TABLE OF DEVILS." (1 Cor 10:21)

I decided to go check out what all of my friendly commentators have said. (By the way, not all of them follow after the Spirit of God, we have to use discernment in reading other people's writings, as you should as i write my findings on studying the Word. Don't just take at face value what i say to be ultimate truth, because NO ONE has ultimate truth, and we can all be wrong! I always try to urge friends of mine to study things out themselves and ask God to reveal these things to them, so that they know that they are not being deceived.)

There are really so many things that the Lord has been showing me in this study, it may take me a few different blogs to get it all out, since our eyes tire of lengthy reading at times.

TRADITIONS OF MEN:

Something that i did not realize, (which is a tradition at weddings here in the US), was what the origins of a wedding tradition was. Let me better explain. As i studied, i found several (at least 3) different commentators make reference to our wedding toast traditions. What i didn't know was that this was something that heathens (meaning those that had strange gods, not believing in the One True God, Jehovah of the Hebrews, but Jesus Christ, the God Man), in an act of worship, people would take a food and drink offering and offer it to their heathen gods. when they had a guest partaking, they would first offer the drink or meat to the god or idol, and then to the guest of the celebration. they would pronounce some sort of toast or prayer, if you will to that idol, giving honor to it. this is paganistic worship. but what is it that we have always seen done at weddings? there is a toast made by close friends or relatives to the couple, in honor of them, and some sort of blessing or wish spoken as well.

I am not saying that if you have toasted folks at their wedding, than you are performing heathenistic practices, but i do feel that it is important that we begin to question all of the traditions of men that we willing engage in without ever giving thought to or asking questions about the reasons why we do it and the origin of the tradition. i have a point with bringing this up though, and it leads to my next portion of comments i will share.

some of my commentators explain this much more profoundly than i am able, so i will share what i read:

John Gill states, "They (meaning those that partake of the Lord's cup and the Devil's cup), could not truly drink the cup of wine in the Lord's supper,l in the true faith of Christ's bloodshed and his sacrifice offered for them, in remembrance of his love, and to the honor of his name; and also the cup of wine of libations offered to heathen dieties, these things are utterly inconsistent; no man can serve two masters, God & mammon, or God & Baal, Christ & Belial, or agreement between the temple of God & idols."

Barnes' notes said this: "the custom of drinking of toasts at feasts and celebrations arise from this practice of pouring out wine, or drinking in honour of the heathen gods; and is a practice that partakes still of the nature of heathenism. the toast or sentiment which now usually accompanies the drinking of a glass in this manner, if it means anything, is now also a prayer: but to whom?" And he goes on to state that if our partaking is not of that of Christ, it is actually offering ourselves and yielding ourselves as friends or having fellowship with idols or false gods.

all of which is true. a few years ago, i went to pick up some chinese food that my aunt had ordered down the road from where we lived. i walked into this resteraunt, having never been in there before, was shocked to see a budda statue down at my feet at the counter. what they had done was built a little shrine to this statue, and laying at the feet of this smiling piece of tin formed with man's own hands, was what appeared to be a drink and meat offering to him. i was utterly amazed at the stupidity of such action! (nothing against them, i'm sure they do it in faith...but, could it be a chinese tradition of men? could it be that they are not aware that they are only partaking in the foolish relics of men that will only end in death and not life eternally?) some believe that all gods are the One God, and i have to totally disagree! budda did not know me when i was not even formed in my mother's womb, nor is he intimate with me, he doesn't bring me blessing, and he didn't die for me, therefore, i find him to be a mere stature, a god or idol made by man's hands and nothing more.

in 1 Kings 18:21 we could read the story about this very same thing back then, nothing new under the sun, what has been shall be! I'm not going to make quotes, nor refer much to it, just making mention of the story for those who may either already know it, or are interested in checking it out, it's a good and exciting read. Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal. He tells them that their god is not real and challenges them to offer up a bullock to their god, and he would his as well, they would each build a fire, and lay their offering upon the altar that they built. they each built and offered alike, they called on their god, while he mocked their foolishness. but what they were looking for was the god that would answer by fire, and whosever god answered by fire, was the real True God. of course, we know that Elijah's God, our God, answered by fire. they fell down and worshipped our God, it made them believers. Oh, if we had that kind of tanicity and boldness these days!

There's more for me to cover, so for the sake of people's eyes, i will make another one available in the morning for reading, as i am still studying and have more findings to share. yeahhhhh! i love the Word of God. :D