I Corinthians 10:13:13 No temptation[c] has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted[d] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,[e] he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Here is my take on this passage and verse:
- Temptation is part of the human experience. Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. He was tempted on a regular basis to prove His Sonship and His Messianic identity, so we shouldn’t think that we would outgrow the possibility of being tempted.
- Every temptation that comes to us has been deemed “resistable” by Jesus if we fully trust Jesus in the moment of temptation. With God’s help, you can choose not to sin. You can endure the temptation and stay faithful to Christ. You are never powerless when Satan presents you with a choice to sin. In Christ, you will have what you need to stay on the righteous path. II Peter 1:3 tells us that through His Divine power God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. That is everything and in all circumstances. No one “falls” into sin. They choose to sin. Sin is contemplated. Even the most impulsive person makes a choice to sin. It involves an act of our will. So, if someone can choose to sin, they can also choose not to sin.
- God will direct you away from the temptation to sin. God will bring options to your mind. God will deliver you in prayer. God will give you a word from Scripture to sustain you in the struggle. God will bring people into your path to warn you of the dangers of sin. He can literally put roadblocks to sin in your path, but you have to be looking for His way of escape and not just a way of escape. Don’t discount the role of the Holy Spirit in helping you to think on your feet and in ushering you in a different direction. I don’t want to oversimplify how we deal with temptation, but indulge me just this one comment: Any escape from sin is going to be an escape TO Jesus. He is the way of escape. If you run to Jesus, you won’t sin because He will never lead you to sin.
And given all that Paul has just said in these first 12 verses before this one about the ways the Israelites blew it, you have to include the next verse in this teaching, even though it is in a new section, because it is the whole reason verses 1 through 13 were shared. 14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. If you flee from idolatry whenever something tries to grab your heart, you give the devil a whole lot less to tempt you with. When you are tempted to start giving your attention and your heart to things God can’t bless, when you feed desires that are outside of a righteous path, when you start flirting with the things of the world, when you get impatient and want to take control of the times and details for your life, when you use your body in ungodly ways, when you allow your eyes to see things that move your flesh to desire that which is unholy, when you become aligned in your heart with the gods of this age like money and sexual perversion, when you deliberately rebel against God as your source and look to vices like drugs, alcohol, pornography, the acquisition of things, gaming, sexual promiscuity, social media, money, affirmation from people, food, an obsession with exercise, or experiences that gratify your flesh…when those things become your go-to for validation and significance or when you base who you are on the feelings you get from those activities and they consume the priority of your life or when you try to attain them for a feeling of power or control, you have an idol problem.
Or even when seemingly benign stuff like sports or hobbies become an obsession, when winning is everything, when that boyfriend or that girlfriend becomes “your everything,” when getting a certain job or getting into a certain college becomes your all-in-all, those things will eventually take the place of God and will stand as idols in your life. It’s almost unbelievable to us to see how Israel turned away from God to idols time after time, and yet we find ourselves being pulled in directions at times, that pull us at the same time, away from God.
The best way to prepare to be victorious in temptation is to choose to reserve your heart for God alone because once your heart is divided, once a love for something other than God takes root, if it is fed and given attention, it will grow. As it grows, it will overtake your heart for God. That is why we pay attention to our appetites, to our desires, to our thoughts, to our impulses, to the cravings in our bodies, to the longings of our souls. That is why we cultivate a love for God by immersing ourselves in the things of God.
If running to God in the midst of temptation isn’t enough instruction or inspiration to help us overcome temptation, how about we learn from history? How about we note the consequences that were endured when Israel chased after their idols? Read verses 1-12 of I Corinthians 10 for a full account. I Corinthians 10:13 tells me I can endure and hold fast to Christ in times of temptation and overcome as a result. I would much rather endure and triumph with Christ than endure the consequences that result from rebelling against God.
