1 Corinthians 9:24–10:13

²⁴Don’t you realize that everyone who runs in a race runs to win, but only one runner gets the prize? Run like them, so that you can win. ²⁵Everyone who enters an athletic contest goes into strict training. They do it to win a temporary crown, but we do it to win one that will be permanent. ²⁶So I run—but not without a clear goal ahead of me. So I box—but not as if I were just shadow boxing. ²⁷Rather, I toughen my body with punches and make it my slave so that I will not be disqualified after I have spread the Good News to others. 

10TH CHAPTER

Learn from What Happened in the Time of Moses

¹I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that all our ancestors ⸤who left Egypt⸥ were under the cloud, and they all went through the sea. ²They were all united with Moses by baptism in the cloud and in the sea. ³All of them ate the same spiritual food, ⁴and all of them drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from the spiritual rock that went with them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵Yet, God was not pleased with most of them, so their dead bodies were scattered over the desert. 

⁶These things have become examples for us so that we won’t desire what is evil, as they did. ⁷So don’t worship false gods as some of them did, as Scripture says, “The people sat down to a feast which turned into an orgy.” ⁸We shouldn’t sin sexually as some of them did. Twenty-three thousand of them died on one day. ⁹We shouldn’t put the Lord^ato the test as some of them did. They were killed by snakes. ¹⁰Don’t complain as some of them did. The angel of death destroyed them. ¹¹These things happened to make them an example for others. These things were written down as a warning for us who are living in the closing days of history. ¹²So, people who think they are standing firmly should be careful that they don’t fall. 

¹³There isn’t any temptation that you have experienced which is unusual for humans. God, who faithfully keeps his promises, will not allow you to be tempted beyond your power to resist. But when you are tempted, he will also give you the ability to endure the temptation as your way of escape.