Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 10:13

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it.]

13. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man ] Adapted to human powers ( ). A consolation, as the last verse was a warning. These words were intended to meet an objection that it was impossible to walk warily enough impossible to adjust aright the boundaries of our own freedom and our brother’s need. Every temptation as it comes, St Paul says, will have the way of escape provided from it by God: All that a Christian has to do is to live in humble dependence upon Him, neither perplexed in the present nor anxious for the future. Cf. 2Pe 2:9.

will with the temptation also make a way to escape ] The original is stronger with the temptation will make the way of escape also.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

There hath no temptation taken you – What temptation the apostle refers to here is not quite certain. It is probable, however, that he refers to such as would, in their circumstances, have a tendency to induce them to forsake their allegiance to their Lord, and to lead them into idolatry and sin. These might be either open persecutions, or afflictions on account of their religion; or they might be the various allurements which were spread around them from the prevalence of idolatry. They might be the open attacks of their enemies, or the sneers and the derision of the frivilous and the great. The design of the apostle evidently is, to show them that, if they were faithful, they had nothing to fear from any such forms of temptation, but that God was able to bring them through them all. The sentiment in the verse is a very important one, since the general principle here stated is as applicable to Christians now as it was to the Corinthians.

Taken you – Seized upon you, or assailed you. As when an enemy grasps us, and attempts to hold us fast.

But such as is common to man – ei me anthropinos. Such as is human. Margin, Moderate. The sense is evident. It means such as human nature is liable to, and has been often subjected to; such as the human powers, under the divine aid may be able to resist and repel. The temptations which they had been subjected to were not such as would be suited to angelic powers, and such as would require angelic strength to resist; but they were such as human nature had been often subjected to, and such as man had often contended with successfully. There is, therefore, here a recognition of the doctrine that man has natural ability to resist all the temptations to which he is subject; and that consequently, if he yields, he is answerable for it. The design of the apostle is to comfort the Corinthians, and to keep their minds from despondency. He had portrayed their danger; he had shown them how others had fallen; and they might be led to suppose that in such circumstances they could not be secure. He therefore tells them that they might still be safe, for their temptations were such as human nature had often been subject to, and God was able to keep them from falling.

But God is faithful – This was the only source of security; and this was enough. If they looked only to themselves, they would fall. If they depended on the faithfulness of God, they would be secure. The sense is, not that God would keep them without any effort of their own; not that he would secure them if they plunged into temptation; but that if they used the proper means, if they resisted temptation, and sought his aid, and depended on his promises, then he would be faithful. This is everywhere implied in the Scriptures; and to depend on the faithfulness of God, otherwise than in the proper use of means and in avoiding the places of temptation, is to tempt him, and provoke him to wrath; see the notes on Matt. 4.

Who will not suffer you to be tempted … – This is a general promise, just as applicable to all Christians as it was to the Corinthians. It implies:

(1) That all the circumstances, causes, and agents that lead to temptation are under the control of God. Every man that tempts another; every fallen spirit that is engaged in this; every book, picture, place of amusement; every charm of music, and of song; every piece of indecent statuary; and every plan of business, of gain or ambition, are all under the control of God. He can check them; he can control them; he can paralyze their influence; he can destroy them; compare Mat 6:13.

(2) When people are tempted, it is because God suffers or permits it. He Himself does not tempt human beings Jam 1:13; He does not infuse evil thoughts into the mind; He does not create an object of temptation to place in our way, but He suffers it to be placed there by others. When we are tempted, therefore, we are to remember that it is because He allows or permits it; not because He does it. His agency is that of sufferance, not of creation. We are to remember, too, that there is some good reason why it is thus permitted; and that it may be turned in some way to his glory, and to our advancement in virtue.

(3) There is a certain extent to which we are able to resist temptation. There is a limit to our power. There is a point beyond which we are not able to resist it. We do not have the strength of angels.

(4) That limit will, in all cases, be beyond the point to which we are tempted. If not, there would be no sin in falling, anymore than there is sin in the oak when it is prostrated before the tempest.

(5) If people fall into sin, under the power of temptation, they only are to blame. They have strength to resist all the temptations that assail them, and God has given the assurance that no temptation shall occur which they shall not be able, by His aid, to resist. In all instances, therefore, where people fall into sin; in all the yielding to passion, to allurement, and to vice, man is to blame, and must be responsible to God. And this is especially true of Christians, who, whatever may be said of others, cannot plead that there was not power sufficient to meet the temptation, or to turn aside its power.

But will with the temptation … – He will, at the same time that He allows the trial or temptation to befall us, make a way of deliverance; He will save us from being entirely overcome by it.

That ye may be able to bear it – Or that you may be able to bear up under it, or endure it. God knows what His people are able to endure, and as He has entire control of all that can affect them, He will adapt all trials to their strength, and will enable them to bear all that is appointed to them. This is a general promise, and is as applicable to other Christians as it was to the Corinthians. It was to them a positive promise, and to all in the same circumstances it may be regarded as such now. It may be used, therefore:

(1) As a ground of encouragement to those who are in temptation and trial. God knows what they are able to endure; and he will sustain them in their temptations. It matters not how severe the trial; or how long it may be continued; or how much they may feel their own feebleness; yet He who has appointed the trial is abundantly able to uphold them. They may, therefore, repose their all upon Him, and trust to His sustaining grace.

(2) It may be used as an argument, that none who are true Christians, and who are thus tried, shall ever fall away, and be lost. The promise is positive and certain, that a way shall be made for their escape, and they shall be able to bear it. God is faithful to them; and though he might suffer them to be tempted beyond what they are able to bear, yet He will not, but will secure an egress from all their trials. With this promise in view, how can it be believed that any true Christians who are tempted will be suffered to fall away and perish? If they do, it must be from one of the following causes; either because God is not faithful; or because He will permit them to be tempted above what they are able to bear; or because He will not make a way for their escape. Since no Christian can believe either of these, it follows that they who are converted shall be kept unto salvation.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 13. But such as is common to man] . Chrysostom has properly translated this word , , , ; that is, small, short, moderate. Your temptations or trials have been but trifling in comparison of those endured by the Israelites; they might have been easily resisted and overcome. Besides, God will not suffer you to be tried above the strength he gives you; but as the trial comes, he will provide you with sufficient strength to resist it; as the trial comes in, he will make your way out. The words are very remarkable, , “He will, with the temptation, make the deliverance, or way out.” Satan is never permitted to block up our way, without the providence of God making a way through the wall. God ever makes a breach in his otherwise impregnable fortification. Should an upright soul get into difficulties and straits, he may rest assured that there is a way out, as there was a way in; and that the trial shall never be above the strength that God shall give him to bear it.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

There hath no temptation taken you: temptation (as hath been said before) signifieth in the general notion of it no more than trials, and is often so used in holy writ. Now, in regard we are tried either by afflictive providences, or by motions made to us, either from God, or our own lusts, or the devil, or men of the world; temptations, in Scripture, sometimes signify afflictions, as Jam 1:2; 1Pe 1:6; sometimes, motions made to us by God, Gen 22:1,2; both which sorts of temptations are good in themselves. Sometimes the term signifies motions made by the lusts and unrenewed part of our own souls, or by the devil, or by sinful men in the world; these are sinful temptations, and what we most ordinarily call by that name. Whether the apostle here means all or some of these, cannot certainly be determined; what he saith is true of all, and therefore that is the safest interpretation of the term in this place. Though he had not been before speaking indeed of afflictive temptations, he had before affrighted them with minding them of the possibility of their falling, though they did stand, or thought they stood, and cautioned them to take heed: here he comforteth them, by minding them, that no temptation had befallen them, but what was incident and common to man, anthrwpinov, and they could not expect to be freed from the common fate of mankind: then he minds them, that that God who had promised strength and assistance to his people, Mat 7:11; Luk 11:13; 2Co 1:18; 1Th 5:4; 2Th 3:3, was one that would be as good as his word, being

faithful, and would not suffer them to be tempted above their strength, and ability to oppose and resist; yea, and would

make a way to escape, both the evil of the temptation, that it should not overbear them to a total ruin of their souls, and likewise the burdensome and afflictive evil, that it should not continually lie upon them, provided they used their just endeavours, and (as he had said before) took heed lest they fell.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

13. Consolation to them, undertheir temptation; it is none but such as is “common to man,”or “such as man can bear,” “adapted to man’s powers ofendurance” [WAHL].

faithful (Psa 125:3;Isa 27:3; Isa 27:8;Rev 3:10). “God is faithful”to the covenant which He made with you in calling you (1Th5:24). To be led into temptation is distinct from runninginto it, which would be “tempting God” (1Co 10:9;Mat 4:7).

way to escape (Jer 29:11;2Pe 2:9). The Greek is,”the way of escape”; the appropriate way of escapein each particular temptation; not an immediate escape, but one indue time, after patience has had her perfect work (Jas 1:2-4;Jas 1:12). He “makes”the way of escape simultaneously with the temptation which Hisprovidence permissively arranges for His people.

to bear itGreek,“to bear up under it,” or “against it.” Not, Hewill take it away (2Co12:7-9).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

There hath no temptation taken you,…. Some, indeed, understand these words by way of reproof, that whereas their trials and exercises which had attended them were very light ones, and comparatively trivial; and yet they had given way to these temptations, and had sunk under them, and fallen by them, for which they were greatly to be blamed; or as threatening them with something more severe than anything as yet had befallen them, signifying that though they had as yet stood, and thought they still should; yet they ought not to presume on their own strength, or depend on outward things; since the temptations that as yet had come upon them were such as men might easily bear; there was no great trial or experiment of their grace and strength by them; they had not yet resisted unto blood; there were heavier and severer trials they might expect; and therefore should not be too secure in themselves, but take heed lest when these things should come upon them, in such a time of great temptation, they should fall away: but I rather think the words are spoken by way of comfort to the saints; intimating that as no temptation or affliction had befallen them, so none should, but what either came from men, or was common to men, or which men by divine assistance, and under divine influence, might bear; and therefore should not distress themselves with the apprehensions of it, as if it was some strange or unusual thing, and as if they must unavoidably perish and be destroyed by it:

but such as is common to man: “or is humane”. There are divine temptations, or such as come from God; God may be said to tempt his people, as he did Abraham, by enjoining them things very hard and disagreeable to nature; and by afflicting them either in body or estate; and by withdrawing his presence, and withholding the communications of his grace, to try their faith, show them their weakness and need of himself. There are also diabolical temptations, or such as come from Satan; who tempts by soliciting to sin, by suggesting blasphemous thoughts, and filling with doubts and fears; and by dissuading from the use of means, as attending at the throne of grace, and on the word and ordinances: but the apostle here speaks of human temptations, such as come from men; meaning reproaches and persecutions, for the sake of Christ and his Gospel; and which are temptations or trials of grace, as of faith and patience, and under which there is great danger of falling away: now when the apostle says that none but such temptations had befallen them, he does not mean that they had been, or were, or would be entirely free from other temptations; but that those which they mostly dreaded, and were in danger by, were but human, such as came from men, and were, as our version suggests, common to Christian men, their brethren, who were in the flesh as they, and might be endured by men, strengthened by the grace of God; wherefore they had nothing to fear from hence, especially when they considered the faithfulness, care, and power of God next observed:

but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able: no man can be tempted, afflicted, or persecuted by men, but by a divine permission, and that voluntary; nor more than, or above that measure which God hath determined; who proportions the affliction to the strength he determines and promises to give, and does give, and the strength of his people to the temptation or affliction he suffers to befall them; for which his faithfulness is engaged, having promised that as their day is, their strength shall be; that he will never leave them nor forsake them, and that he will bear, and carry, and save them unto the uttermost, and that they shall hold on and out unto the end:

but will with the temptation make a way to escape; for as he by his permission makes way for the temptation or affliction, which otherwise could not come; and as he knows how, in what manner, and at the best time, to deliver his people out of temptations; so he does and will, in his providence, open a way that they may escape out of them, at least so as not to be overpressed and destroyed by them:

that ye may be able to bear it; for God does not always think fit to remove at once an affliction or temptation, though at the earnest request of his people, as in the case of Paul, 2Co 12:7 yet he gives them grace sufficient to endure and stand up under it, yea, to get the victory of it, to be more that conquerors, and triumph over it.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Hath taken (). Perfect active indicative of .

But such as man can bear ( ). Except a human one. Old adjective meaning falling to the lot of man.

Above that ye are able ( ). Ellipsis, but plain. There is comfort in that God is faithful, trustworthy ().

The way of escape ( ). “The way out” is always there right along with () the temptation. This old word only here in N.T. and Heb 13:7 about death. It is cowardly to yield to temptation and distrustful of God.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Temptation [] . See on Mt 6:13.

Common to man [] . The word means what belongs to men, human. It occurs mostly in this epistle; once in Rom 6:19, meaning after the manner of men, popularly (see note). See Jas 3:7; 1Pe 2:13; 1Co 2:4, 13; 1Co 4:3. It may mean here a temptation which is human, i e., incident or common to man, as A. V., or, inferentially, a temptation adapted to human strength; such as man can bear, Rev. The words are added as an encouragement, to offset the warning “let him that thinketh,” etc. They are in danger and must watch, but the temptation will not be beyond their strength.

A way to escape [ ] . Rev., better, the way of escape. The word means an egress, a way out. In classical Greek, especially, of a way out of the sea. Hence, in later Greek, of a landing – place. Compare Xenophon : “The ford that was over against the outlet leading to the mountains” (” Anabasis, ” 4. 3, 20). 110 For the sense of issue or end, see on Heb 13:7. The words with the temptation and the way of escape imply an adjustment of the deliverance to each particular case.

To bear. Not the same as escape. Temptation which cannot be fed must be endured. Often the only escape is through endurance. See Jas 1:12.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “There hath no temptation taken you.” (peirasmos humas ouk eilephen) “Not a temptation has taken hold of you.” Each thinks his trials and testings are unique, different from all others, but such is not true. The human nature is bad in all, Eph 2:1-2; 1Th 3:5.

2) “But such as is common to man. (ei me anthrpoinos) “Except what is natural to humanity.” Man’s natural lusts of his own depravity is the origin of his being led away from God, Jas 1:13-14.

3) “But God is faithful. (pistos de ho theos) The control of temptations is attributed to the power of God, for every man, Mat 6:13; Jas 1:12. God is faithful in restraining too great temptations and heeding His Son’s intercession for His children through them, Heb 7:25.

4) “Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.” (hos ouk easei humas peirasthenai huper ho dunasthe) “But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tested or tried beyond what ye are able (to bear).” Consider the trials of Job, the little maid of Samaria, Mary, our Lord’s mother.

5) “But will with the temptation.” (alla sun to peirasmo) “But in close association with the testing or temptation.” He who “never leaves or forsakes his own” guides them through, on to victory, even if in death, Heb 13:5; Heb 2:18; Heb 4:15-16. He intercedes in our testing hours, 1Jn 2:2.

6) “Also make a way to escape.” (kai poiesei ten ekbasin) “Also will make a way out.” He did for Israel, through the Red Sea, waters of Jordan, for the Hebrew children through the fiery furnace, for Peter, and Paul and Silas from behind prison bars, See 2Co 11:24-33.

7) “That ye may be able to bear it. (tou dunasthai hupenegkein) “So that ye may be able to endure.” He did with Joseph, and David, and Daniel, and the Hebrew children and the Faith persons of Hebrews Heb 11:1-40; Heb 13:5; and Peter.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

13. No temptation has taken you. (566) Let others take their own way of interpreting this. For my part, I am of opinion that it was intended for their consolation, lest on hearing of such appalling instances of the wrath of God, as he had previously related, they should feel discouraged, being overpowered with alarm. Hence, in order that his exhortation might be of advantage, he adds, that there is room for repentance. “There is no reason why you should despond; for I have not had it in view to give you occasion for despair, nor has anything happened to you but what is common to men.” Others are of opinion that he rather chides their cowardice in giving way, on being so slightly tried; (567) and unquestionably the word rendered human is sometimes taken to mean moderate. (568) The meaning, then, according to them would be this: “Did it become you thus to give way under a slight trial?” But as it agrees better with the context, if we consider it as consolation, I am on this account rather inclined to that view.

But God is faithful As he exhorted them to be of good courage as to the past, in order that he might stir them up to repentance, so he also comforts them as to the future with a sure hope, on the ground that God would not suffer them to be tempted beyond their strength. He exhorts them, however, to look to the Lord, because a temptation, however slight it may be, will straightway overcome us, and all will be over with us, if we rely upon our own strength. He speaks of the Lord, as faithful, not merely as being true to his promises, but as though he had said. The Lord is the sure guardian of his people, under whose protection you are safe, for he never leaves his people destitute. Accordingly, when he has received you under his protection, you have no cause to fear, provided you depend entirely upon him. For certainly this were a species of deception, if he were to withdraw his aid in the time of need, or if he were, on seeing us weak and ready to sink under the load, to lengthen out our trials still farther. (569)

Now God helps us in two ways, that we may not be overcome by the temptation; for he supplies us with strength, and he sets limits to the temptation. It is of the second of these ways that the Apostle here chiefly speaks. At the same time, he does not exclude the former — that God alleviates temptations, that they may not overpower us by their weight. For he knows the measure of our power, which he has himself conferred. According to that, he regulates our temptations. The term temptation I take here as denoting, in a general way, everything that allures us.

(566) “ Tentation ne vous a point saisis, ou surprins ;” — “No temptation has taken, or overtaken you.”

(567) “ Pour si petites et legeres tentations;” — “On so small and light trials.”

(568) The word ανθρώπινος ( human) may be understood here to mean — proportioned to man’s strength, or suited to, man’s weakness It is rendered in Tyndale’s version, and also in Cranmer’s: “Soche as followeth the nature of man.” Most interpreters understand in a similar sense an expression which occurs in 2Sa 7:14 — the rod of men, and stripes of the children of men. — Ed

(569) Mr. Fuller of Kettering, when comparing 1Co 10:13, with 2Co 1:8, justly observes: “The ability in the former of these passages, and the strength in the latter, are far from being the same. The one is expressive of that divine support which the Lord has promised to give to his servants under all their trials: the other, of the power which we possess naturally as creatures. We may be tried beyond this, as all the martyrs have been, and yet not beyond the other. The outward man may perish, while the inward man is renewed day by day.” — Fuller’s Works, volume 3, p. 609. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(13) There hath no temptation taken you.What is meant by a temptation common to man (or rather, suited to man) is explained further on as a temptation which one is able to bear. From the warning and exhortation of the previous verse the Apostle passes on to words of encouragement, You need not be hopeless or despairing. God permits the temptation by allowing the circumstances which create temptation to arise, but He takes care that no Fate bars the path of retreat. With each temptation he makes a way to escape from it. And that is so, must be so, because God is faithful. The state of salvation to which God has called us would be a delusion if there were an insuperable difficulty to our continuing in it. We have in this verse, perhaps, the most practical and therefore the clearest exposition to be found of the doctrine of free-will in relation to Gods overruling power. God makes an open road, but then man himself must walk in it. God controls circumstances, but man uses them. That is where his responsibility lies.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

13. There But your falling from grace, though possible, is by no means necessary. God, on his part, has done every thing for your perseverance if you do yours. He will keep you, none can pluck you from his hand, he will provide your escape from every temptation; only you must consent to be kept, to stay in his hand, and to escape by the way he provides. Sinners and apostates can defeat all the provisions of God’s grace. See our Note on Rom 8:35-39.

Common to man A prolix but correct rendering of the Greek word , human. No temptation not ordinary in the level of human probation. Whether to idolatry, to fornication, to presumption against Christ, or to murmuring against his Church, all are no greater than Israel suffered before you and others will suffer after you.

To escape Even if force compels a mechanical wrong act the will may refuse consent, and the deed is guiltless. If there were no power of escape, these would (unless we have wickedly destroyed our own power) be irresponsible for yielding to the temptation.

Able to bear Thus far does God’s grace go. No power of motive will oblige our wills to apostatize or sin. When we choose to sin, it is not because we have not the power of contrary choice, but because we do not use it, or have guiltily forfeited it. On the other hand, no divine efficiency or decree no motive force will oblige us to use the way of escape. When God purposes to leave our free wills to act on trial, he does not destroy the trial by previously fixing the way we shall choose. From the very nature of trial or probation that would be to upset his own divine purpose.

Resumption (from 1Co 8:13) of the response touching the eating of idolatrous sacrifices, 1Co 10:14 to 1Co 11:1.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘There has no temptation taken you but such as man can bear, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.’

Paul now intervenes in his catalogue of exhortation (1Co 10:1-9) with the assurance of divine aid. ‘If these failed what hope is there for us?’ some may ask. He does not want to make them too discouraged. His reply is to turn them, and us, to the faithfulness of God, as he did in 1Co 1:9. There He was faithful as the One Who would confirm us to the end. Here He is faithful as ensuring that we are not tempted above what we are able to cope with, and as the One Who will provide the way of escape from any temptations and tests that He does allow us to endure.

‘There has no temptation taken you but such as man can bear (such as is of a human nature, common to man).’ The stress here is on the fact that the temptations and tests that Israel endured, and that the Corinthians now endure, were of earthly origin. They were ones that come on them from outside, that ‘took’ them, and were such that men can face them with the confidence that they will overcome with God’s help. Whether having in mind the temptations of Satan in the world, or the trials of the world, all men experience them. And with God’s help they can be overcome.

Indeed for such temptations they can rest confidently in the faithfulness of God. In His watch as their keeper He will not allow temptations that they cannot overcome, and will ensure that they always have a way out, a way of escape.

Note that this is not a promise that we will not be tempted. That would not be good for us. It is rather the promise that, if we are His, God will sift temptations in accordance with our ability to deal with them, and that when we are being tempted we will be enabled to bear it, partly because we are confident of God’s willingness to provide the way of escape, and partly because He will be with us in it and will indeed provide that way of escape. It does not mean that we will never fail. Peter was an example of one who was warned, and yet fell, but he found a way of escape for he fled to the mercy and forgiveness of God and was enabled to bear it (Luk 22:31-32).

So we need not despair, for God is with us in our temptations and through them, and can give us strength and wisdom to overcome, and provide forgiveness when necessary. Note how Paul is turning their thoughts from their own ability to deal with such things, to God’s. Their pride must not be in themselves, and what they are, but in what God is.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

1Co 10:13. Common to man, &c. ‘, which may signify, proportionable to human strength, as well as frequent to human creatures. God encourages his people to hope for his presence and help in pressing danger. See ch. 1Co 1:9. Doddridge and Mintert.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Co 10:13 . Encouragement to this . “Your temptations, as you know, have not hitherto gone beyond your strength, neither will they, through the faithfulness of God, do so in the future.” Rckert follows Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Grotius, Bengel, Zachariae, and others, in his interpretation: “You are not yet out of danger; the temptations which have hitherto assailed you were only human ones, and you have not withstood them over well(?); there may come others greater and more grievous.” Similarly Olshausen, de Wette, Osiander, Neander, Ewald; so that, according to this view, Paul seeks first of all to humble, and then, from onwards, to encourage, a connecting thought, however, being interpolated between the two clauses (“sed nunc major tentatio imminet,” Bengel).

] The context makes no special mention of sufferings and persecutions (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Camerarius, Grotius, Ewald, al [1624] ), but of incitements to sin in general, as things which, if not overcome, instead of being a discipline to the man exposed to them, will bring about his ; but suffering is included among the rest in virtue of the moral dangers which it involves. Pott restricts the reference too much (comp also Hofmann): “tentatio quae per invitationem ad convivia ilia vobis accidit,” which is inadmissible in view of the general terms employed in 1Co 10:12 ; the particular application follows only in 1Co 10:14 .

] marks the continuance of the fact of its not having taken them. It has not done so, and does not now. This use of , in reference to fortunes, states, etc., which seize upon men, is very common in the classics (Thuc. ii. 42; Pind. Ol. i. 130; Xen. Symp. i. 15, and often in Homer). Comp Luk 5:26 ; Luk 7:16 ; Wis 11:12 ; Bar 6:5 .

] i.e. viribus humanis accommodatus , . See Pollux, iii. 131. The fact that in the second clause of the verse this phrase has and corresponding to it, militates against the rendering: “ not of superhuman origin ” (comp Plato, Alc. i. p. 103 A; Phaedr. p. 259 D; Rep. p. 497 C, 492 E), i.e. either not from the devil (Melanchthon, Piscator, Vorstius, al [1628] ), or not from God (Olshausen, who finds an allusion in the second clause to the dolores Messiae ). Comp , Polyb. i. 67. 6, and the like; Plato, Prot. p. 344 C, Crat. p. 438 C; , Thuc. vi. 78. 2; ( sc [1630] ), Plato, Rep. p. 467 C; , Soph. Oed. Col. 604. Chrysostom: , , , .

] for if He allowed them to be tempted beyond their powers, He would then be unfaithful to them as regards His having called them to the Messianic salvation, which now, in the case supposed, it would be impossible for them to reach.

] in the sense of , like the German “er der.” Comp Bernhardy, p. 291. would be still more emphatic.

] what you are in a position to bear . The context shows the more special meaning. Comp on 1Co 3:2 .

. . [1633] ] but will with the (then existing) temptation make also the issue, i.e. not the one without the other. God is therefore conceived of here as He who makes the temptation, i.e. brings about the circumstances and situations which give rise to it (comp on Mat 6:13 ), but, previously , as He who lets men be tempted. The two things, according to Paul’s view of the divine agency in the world, are in substance the same; the God who allows the thing to be is He also who brings it to pass. Hence the two modes of conception may be used interchangeably, as here, without contradiction. Comp on Rom 1:24 .

. ] the issue ( egressum , Wis 2:17 ; Wis 8:9 ; Wis 11:16 ; Hom. Od. v. 410; Xen. Anab. iv. 1. 20, iv. 2. 1; Polyb. iv. 64. 5) from the temptation, so that one escapes out of it morally free (comp , 2Pe 2:9 ); similarly Eur. Med. 279, . Theophylact gives the sense with substantial correctness, ; but it is unsuitable to make, as he does, the . . [1637] refer to coincidence in time ( ); so also Hofmann. Bengel puts it well: “ , etiam , indivulso nexu.”

.] does not say wherein the issue might consist ( of being able to bear the temptation; comp Fritzsche, a [1639] Matth. p. 844), for the . is no (the taking it so is illogical ); but it is the genitive of design: in order that you may be able to bear it (the temptation). Were it not that God gave the along with the , the latter would be too heavy for you; you would not be able to bear up under it, but would be crushed altogether. But that is not His will . That should be supplied to . ., is clear of itself from what precedes. See Khner, a [1640] Xen. Mem. iii. 6. 10.

[1624] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.

[1628] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.

[1630] c. scilicet .

[1633] . . . .

[1637] . . . .

[1639] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[1640] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1972
THE SECURITY OF GODS TEMPTED PEOPLE

1Co 10:13. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

WE are ever prone to run into the opposite extremes of presumption and despair. To check the former, we should reflect upon the manifestations of Gods wrath; and to avoid the latter, we should bear in mind the promises of his mercy. With this view St. Paul sets before the Corinthian Church the judgments that had been executed on the Israelites in the wilderness; but lest they should turn his warnings into an occasion of despondency, he assures them, that God himself had engaged to keep all who diligently sought him, and humbly relied upon him.
His words naturally lead us to point out,

I.

The temptations of Gods people

Many, doubtless, are the temptations with which the godly are beset
[It seems from the preceding context that the word temptation is to be understood in its most extended sense, as comprehending every thing which might endanger their steadfastness in the ways of God. The world strives to ensnare them both by terrors and allurements The flesh strongly inclines them to gratify its appetites and Satan labours incessantly to beguile them by his wiles and devices [Note: Satan can easily assume the appearance of an angel of light: and he does so especially when he stirs up religious professors to distract the minds of the simple with matters of doubtful disputation, and thus to turn the weak, and the conceited, and the vain, from the simplicity that is in Christ.] ]

But the temptations of all are such only as others experience in common with themselves [Note: may signify also proportionable to human strength; but the common translation seems perfectly just.]

[All are ready to suppose that there are none tempted like them: but if we knew the experience of others, we should find that, as face answereth to face in a glass, so does the heart of man to man All indeed are not tempted exactly in the same manner or the same degree (for there are temptations peculiar to mens age and condition in life) but there are none so singularly tried, but that there are many others in similar circumstances with themselves; and the ascertaining of this point often affords much consolation and encouragement to tempted souls.]
Nor are there any trials so great but that believers may be confident of,

II.

Their security in the midst of them

God himself is interested in their behalf; and they may safely rely on,

1.

His power

[That they may not be tempted above that they are able, he will proportion their trials to their strength. Are they at present too weak to endure hardship? He will delay its approach [Note: Exo 13:17.]: or, if he permit it to come upon them, he will weaken its force [Note: Psa 76:10 and Isa 27:8.]: and, if they be likely to faint under it, he will shorten its duration [Note: Psa 125:3 and Isa 57:16.] If he do not see fit m any of these ways to lighten the temptation, he will proportion their strength to their trials, so that, if there be not a way to escape, they at least may be able to bear them. This he effects sometimes by communicating more abundant grace [Note: 2Co 12:9.], and sometimes by filling them with the consolations [Note: 2Co 1:4-5.] of his Spirit, and giving them near prospects of the glory that awaits them [Note: 2Co 4:16-17. Rom 8:18.]. Thus will he keep them by his power unto everlasting salvation.]

2.

His faithfulness

[No man, however eminent, could stand, if left to himself: Satan would sift us as wheat, and scatter us as chaff [Note: Luk 22:31.]; but God has promised that he will keep the feet of his saints; that sin shall not have dominion over them; that none shall pluck them out of his hands; that the gates of hell shall not prevail against them. Nor shall one jot or tittle of his word ever fail: He is not a man that he should lie, or the son of man that he should repent. He has exhausted all the powers of language in labouring to persuade us of this truth, that he will never forsake his people [Note: Heb 13:5. Here are no less than five negatives in the Greek.]; and they may safely rest on him with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.]

Address
1.

Those who are conflicting with temptation

[What a blessed promise is that before us! What can God himself say more for your encouragement? Dry up your tears: know that as your day is, so shall also your strength be: there are more for you than against you: trust therefore in Him who knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and is able both to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy [Note: 2Pe 2:9 and Jude, ver. 24.]. But do not say, God will keep me, and therefore I will rush into temptation: such an abuse of his mercy as this would surely bring with it the most tremendous evils. We are to trust God when in trouble; but not to tempt God by exposing ourselves to danger without a cause.]

2.

Those who are yielding to temptation

[The generality complain, That they cannot resist temptation, and yet they venture continually into those very scenes which most endanger their virtue. What hypocrisy is this! If flesh and blood be, as they justly acknowledge, so weak and frail, why do they not flee from the occasions of sin? and why do they not cry unto God for help? Let all know that their impotency is no just excuse; that all shall receive succour if they will but seek it; and that Gods strength shall be perfected in their weakness [Note: Heb 2:18; Heb 4:15-16.]. But if we will not repent of our sins and turn unto God, the power and faithfulness of God are engaged against us, and will be glorified in our everlasting destruction.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

(13) There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (14) Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. (15) I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.

This is a very sweet Scripture, and hath been found truly refreshing and consolatory to God’s children, in all their exercises. Jesus too well loves his people, to suffer any temptations to be brought upon them, but what he himself knows shall minister to his glory, and their welfare. And what endears the thought yet more, he is with them in all, and supports them under all, and will bring them through all, Deu 33:27 ; Heb 2:17-18 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it .

Ver. 13. But such as is common ] Such as is human, . (Xenophon.) Either such as is incident to men as men, Job 5:6 ; or such as men may well bear without buckling under it; or such as come from men, not from devils; “Ye wrestle against flesh and blood,” &c. Or you are yet only allured to idolatry, not forced by persecution. You gratify your idolatrous acquaintance with your presence at their idol feasts; you are tempted and soon taken.

But God is faithfid ] When Mr Latimer stood at the stake, and the tormentors about to set fire to him and Ridley, he lifted up his eyes toward heaven with an amiable and comfortable countenance, saying these words, Fidelis est Deus, &c. God is faithful, Ridley also at the stake, with a wondrous cheerful look, ran to Latimer, embraced and kissed, and, as they that stood near reported, comforted him, saying, Be of good heart, brother, God will either assuage the fury of the flame, or else will strengthen us to abide it. (Acts and Mon.)

But will with the temptation ] He proportioneth the burden to the back, and the stroke to the strength of him that beareth it. I thank God, said Mr Bradford, my common disease (which was a rheum, with a feebleness of stomach) doth less trouble me than when I was out of prison, which doth teach me the merciful providence of God toward me.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

13 .] There are two ways of understanding the former part of this verse. Chrys., Theophyl., Grot., Est., Bengel, Olsh., De Wette, al., take it as a continuation, and urging of the warning of the verse preceding , by the consideration that no temptation had yet befallen them but such as was , ‘ within the power of human endurance :’ but ‘major tentatio imminet,’ Beng.: while Calvin, al., and Meyer regard it as a consolation, tending to shew them that is within the limits of their power, seeing that their temptation to sin was nothing extraordinary or unheard of, but only ‘ according to man :’ and they might trust to God’s loving care, that no temptation should ever befall them which should surpass their power to resist. This latter seems to me beyond doubt the correct view. For (1) in the parallel which they bring for the former sense, Heb 12:4 , is distinctly expressed, and would have been here also, had it been intended. Besides, in that case, , as having the primary emphasis, would have been prefixed , as in Heb 12:4 ; Then again (2) this restricts the sense of to persecution , which it here does not mean, but solicitation to sin , in accordance with the whole context.

has taken you , not , ‘took you,’ shews that the temptation was still soliciting them.

] not, as Piscator, al., and Olsh., originating with man , as opposed to other temptations originating with the devil, or even with God’s Providence: but, as Chrys.: , opposed to , adapted to man.

] He has entered into a covenant with you by calling you: if He suffered temptation beyond your power to overcome you, He would be violating that covenant. Compare 1Th 5:24 , , .

= .

]. Then God makes the temptation too: arranges it in His Providence, and in His mercy will ever set open a door for escape.

.] the [ way to ] escape , i.e. which belongs to the particular temptation : , Theophyl.

.] in order that you may be able to bear (it) : obs., not, ‘will remove the temptation:’ but, ‘will make an escape simultaneously with the temptation , to encourage you to bear up against it .’

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

There hath, &c. Literally Temptation hath not (Greek. ou).

but = except. Greek. ei me.

such, &c. = a human (one). Greek. anthropinos. See 1Co 2:4.

faithful. Greek. pistos. App-150and App-175:4. Compare 1Co 1:9. 1Pe 4:19. 1Jn 1:9.

above. App-104.

also make, &c. = make a way to escape also.

a way to escape. Greek. ekbasis = a way out. Only here and Heb 13:7.

bear = endure. Greek. hupophero. Only here, 2Ti 3:11. 1Pe 2:13.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

13.] There are two ways of understanding the former part of this verse. Chrys., Theophyl., Grot., Est., Bengel, Olsh., De Wette, al., take it as a continuation, and urging of the warning of the verse preceding, by the consideration that no temptation had yet befallen them but such as was , within the power of human endurance: but major tentatio imminet, Beng.:-while Calvin, al., and Meyer regard it as a consolation, tending to shew them that is within the limits of their power, seeing that their temptation to sin was nothing extraordinary or unheard of, but only according to man: and they might trust to Gods loving care, that no temptation should ever befall them which should surpass their power to resist. This latter seems to me beyond doubt the correct view. For (1) in the parallel which they bring for the former sense, Heb 12:4, is distinctly expressed,-and would have been here also, had it been intended. Besides, in that case, , as having the primary emphasis, would have been prefixed, as in Heb 12:4; Then again (2) this restricts the sense of to persecution, which it here does not mean, but solicitation to sin, in accordance with the whole context.

-has taken you, not , took you, shews that the temptation was still soliciting them.

] not, as Piscator, al., and Olsh., originating with man, as opposed to other temptations originating with the devil, or even with Gods Providence: but, as Chrys.: ,-opposed to , adapted to man.

] He has entered into a covenant with you by calling you: if He suffered temptation beyond your power to overcome you, He would be violating that covenant. Compare 1Th 5:24, , .

= .

]. Then God makes the temptation too: arranges it in His Providence, and in His mercy will ever set open a door for escape.

.] the [way to] escape, i.e. which belongs to the particular temptation: , Theophyl.

.] in order that you may be able to bear (it): obs., not, will remove the temptation: but, will make an escape simultaneously with the temptation, to encourage you to bear up against it.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Co 10:13. , temptation) It is mere human temptation, such as may be overcome by a man, when the man has to do either with himself, or with others like himself; to this is opposed the temptation of demons; comp. 1Co 10:20; 1Co 10:14. Paul had greater experience; the Corinthians were inexperienced, and therefore more free from concern.- , has not taken) he says , not . He is, therefore, speaking of some temptation, with which they are at present struggling; comp. with , hath taken, Luk 5:5; Luk 5:26; 2Co 12:16.- , but faithful) An abbreviated expression, of which the one member must be supplied from the other. Hitherto you have not been severely tempted; you owe that not to your own care, but to the protection of God; but now a greater temptation hangs over you; in it God also will be your defence, but be ye watchful. Thus , but, extends its meaning to 1Co 10:14. God is faithful in affording the assistance which both His word and His former works promise.-, to be tempted) by men or demons.-, you are able) viz., to bear, from the end of the verse.-, with) God permits us to be moderately tempted; and at the same time provides a way of escape.-, also) the connection being unbroken.-) a way of escape, which takes place gradually, even while some things remain to be borne. The same word is found, Wis 2:17; Wis 8:8; Wis 8:11 :(14)15.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Co 10:13

1Co 10:13

There hath no temptation taken you-[Seized upon you, or assailed you, as when an enemy grasps one and attempts to hold him fast.]

but such as man can bear:-Temptations come to all men to test, prove them, and show their fitness to enter the kingdom of heaven, and their worthiness to stand before God in the immortal state. [In verse 10 was a warning; this is an encouragement. Having just heard what efforts even Paul had to make in order to run successfully the Christian race, and how terribly the Israelites in the wilderness had failed, they might be inclined to throw up every effort in despair. Paul, therefore, reminds them that these temptations were not superhuman, but such as man had resisted, and such as they could resist.]

but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able;-[This was the only source of security, and this was enough. If they looked only to themselves, they would fall. If they depended on the faithfulness of God, they would be secure. Not that God would keep them without any effort of their own; not that he would secure them if they plunged voluntarily into the temptation, but if they used the proper precautions to avoid it, if they resisted temptation, if they sought his aid, and depended upon his promises, then he would certainly perform his part of the covenant. This is everywhere implied in the Scriptures; and to depend on the faithfulness of God otherwise than in the proper use of the means, and avoiding the places of temptation, is to tempt him, and provoke him to wrath.]

but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.-God permits those whom he loves to be tempted to test, prove them, and show their worthiness to stand before him in the immortal state. If we do not escape, pass through the temptation without sin, we may know that we are not true to God as we should be. God is faithful and never fails to provide the way of escape if we have the fidelity to resist and escape. Men are given to excuse themselves for their wrongs because they are not able to bear temptations. [As temptations vary, so the means of escape also vary. We have in this verse, perhaps, the most practical and therefore the clearest exposition in the scriptures of free will in relation to Gods overruling power. God makes an open road, but then man must walk in it: God controls circumstances, but man must use them. This is where mans responsibility lies.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Trust in God and do the Right

God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.1Co 10:13.

1. The reason for our confidence that every temptation can be overcome is that God is faithful. God is faithful, says the Apostle, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it. Notice, the Apostle does not give as his reason for confidence that man is strong, but that God is faithful. Men who have faced temptation confiding only in their own strength have come to grief. It is the men who, distrustful of self, have leaned upon God who have come off more than conquerors.

2. Should we be disposed at any time to doubt this, we may reassure ourselves by remembering how Gods faithfulness is guaranteed.

(1) God cannot be true to His purpose of grace and yet allow us to be overcome by the sheer weight and pressure of evil without a possibility of escape. For what is the purpose which we see revealed in the gift of Christ? It is that we may be saved from sin; and salvation from sin implies that we shall be strengthened against the temptations by which it seeks to prevail. God is faithful to His purpose, and His purpose is to save and keep all those who put their trust in Him. He never departs from this. He has it always before Him. It is the end to which He makes everything subordinate. He is never off His guard, never asleep, never too busily engaged to attend to the wants of the very least of His children. Sin can lurk nowhere without being detected by His all-seeing eye. It can devise no stratagem without being clearly visible to Him. Still less can it strike down or fatally wound any who look to Him for help.

(2) But not only would it be inconsistent with His purpose of grace were God to suffer overwhelming evil to assail us, it would also place Him in contradiction to Himself. His nature is to love goodness supremely, and He has pledged Himself by the gift of His Son to leave nothing undone to give it the victory. But if He were to stand aside, and see us beaten down by sin without interposing; if He were to allow temptations to muster in irresistible force; this would not only defeat His manifested purpose, but destroy His character for holiness. The very fact that God is good, that He loves and cherishes with a compassionate eye every movement of a human soul to purity and truth, involves His doing everything that wisdom, and power, and pity can do to make us triumphant over sin.

When man thus considers the wealth and the marvellous sublimity of the Divine nature, and all the manifold gifts which He grants and offers to His creatures, amazement is stirred up in his spirit at the sight of so manifold a wealth and majesty; at the sight of the immense faithfulness of God to all His creatures. This causes a strange joy of spirit, and a boundless trust in God, and this inward joy surrounds and penetrates all the forces of the souls in the secret places of the spirit.1 [Note: M. Maeterlinck, Ruysbroeck and the Mystics, 140.]

A beautiful instance is recorded in the life of Catherine of Siena. The plague was abroad, and Father Matthew, the Director of the Hospital, caught the infection while ministering to a dying person. The next day he was carried like a corpse, livid and strengthless, from the chapel to his room. The physician said that every symptom announced the approach of death. But Catherine loved him sincerely, and when she heard of his illness she went to his room and cried with a cheerful voice, Get up, Father Matthew! Get up! As she left the house, another friendRaymond of Capuawas entering, and said to her, Will you allow a person so dear to us, and so useful to others, to die? I know your secrets, and I know that you obtain from God whatsoever you ask in faith. She bowed her head, and, after a few moments, looked him in the face with her countenance radiant with joy, and said, Well, let us take courage; he will not die this time. The good Father immediately recovered, and sat down to a light meal with his friends, chatting and laughing gaily with them. Catherine believed in the promise, The prayer of faith shall save the sick. She was bold in appealing to the truthfulness of the Divine Healer, and she was not disappointed. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God; the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him (Deu 7:9). We very seldom put the veracity of God to the test. But the more we venture on Him and on His gracious words, the stronger and clearer is our faith bound to become.1 [Note: J. A. Clapperton, Culture of the Christian Heart, 52.]

I sometimes think that in the case of those who are not tried by sharp outward temptations to break Gods commandments, the trial may come in inward temptations to distrust His grace. It would be a bad business for us if we were not tried in some way.2 [Note: The Life of R. W. Dale of Birmingham, 544.]

There are two possible ways of looking upon trial. The first is that God is angry with the sufferer and is taking His revenge. It is a view old as the fears and the morbidness of man. The friends of Job are its champions in every generation. It seems so obvious to those who hold it that few of them give any pains to think it out to its issues, or realize how small a God this of theirs must be. Those who seriously believe in God at all will have little difficulty in passing to the second way of looking upon trial, and if their faith is worthy of the name, it will be quite as obvious as the former. Once seen it can never again be doubted, though it may sometimes require a strong effort to realize and hold by it. When we hear that certain troops have been sent into the most dangerous and trying post on the battlefield, how do we judge of them? Is it that their general has wished to punish them, or is it not rather that he believed in them best of all? And is not such confidence an honour greater than all other praise? To look at life under that light is to be done with fears and doubts. And along with that we take the further assurance that God sends no man into any battle that he may fall. None of all His troops are ever sacrificed to the exigencies of the field.3 [Note: J. Kelman, Honour towards God, 52.]

And this shalt thou know most surely, God breaketh His faith with none.

Teach thy thoughts neer from Him to wander, since Himself and His ways are One.

3. God is faithful, says St. Paul, and proceeds to point out to the Corinthians the ways in which Gods faithfulness is shown towards them in the matter of their temptations. He tells them (1) that God permits the temptation, suffers them to be tempted; (2) that He proportions the temptation to their strength of resistance, not suffering them to be tempted above that they are able; (3) that He provides the way of escape from every temptation. So we have

I.The Control of Temptation.

II.The Adjustment of Temptation.

III.The Escape from Temptation.

I

The Control of Temptation

The term proof, temptation, comprehends all that puts moral fidelity to the proof, whether this proof has for its end to manifest and strengthen the fidelityit is in this sense that God can tempt,or whether it seeks to make man fall into sinit is in this sense that God cannot tempt, and that the devil always tempts. It may also happen that the same fact falls at once into these two categories, as, for example, the temptation of Job, which on the part of Satan had for its end to make him fall, and which God, on the contrary, permitted with the view of bringing out into clear manifestation the fidelity of His servant, and of raising him to a higher degree of holiness and of knowledge. There are even cases in which God permits Satan to tempt, not without consenting to his attaining his end of bringing into sin. So in the case of David. This is when the pride of man has reached a point such that it is a greater obstacle to salvation than the commission of a sin; God then makes use of a fall to break this proud heart by the humbling experience of its weakness.1 [Note: F. Godet, Commentary on Corinthians, ii. 70.]

When Jehovah asked the question: Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in all the earth? Satan said, Hast thou not put a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? I am very thankful for Satans own confession of the security of this servant of God. The hedge was so high, says one of the old Puritans, that the big demons could not get over it, and so thick that the little demons could not get through it.2 [Note: J. G. Mantle.]

1. Since God controls the temptation, and is testing us by it, we ought to bear it faithfully, believing in His faithfulness. We know Gods faithfulness to us only when we are honestly faithful to ourselves. He is no paternal despot who will make us good by force; and no more shameful cry than that petulant demand exists. He preserves our independence; it is dear to Him; He will compel us to work out our own salvation with resolute labour, and in this more than in all else His faithfulness to us is shown. That fidelity is often stern enough, it inflicts our due penalties, it proves to us the weaknesses of our nature by the trials in which they break down, it reveals what is strong in us by testing it sometimes to the last strand of the rope, and we quiver under the severity of the test; but what is the worth of our manliness, and what the use of a long experience, unless we are sufficiently strong of heart to realize that faithfulness is often sternness, and love sometimes apparently cruel?

We shall all be tempted, but the effects of the temptation depend upon ourselves. Fling into the same flame a lump of clay and a piece of gold, the clay will be hardened, the gold will melt; the heart of Pharaoh hardened into perfidious insolence, the soul of David melted into pathetic song. Bear temptation faithfully, and it will leave you not only unscathed, but nobler.1 [Note: F. W. Farrar, The Silence and the Voices of God, 112.]

O Beauteous things of earth!

I cannot feel your worth

To-day.

O kind and constant friend!

Our spirits cannot blend

To-day.

O Lord of truth and grace!

I cannot see Thy face

To-day.

A shadow on my heart

Keeps me from all apart

To-day.

Yet something in me knows

How fair creation glows

To-day.

And something makes me sure

That love is not less pure

To-day.

And that th Eternal Good

Minds nothing of my mood

To-day.

For when the sun grows dark

A sacred, secret spark

Shoots rays.

Fed from a hidden bowl

A Lamp burns in my soul

All days.1 [Note: Charles G. Ames.]

2. We must trust Him in the darkness of our temptation. He is faithful; but to us in our blindness, ignorance, waywardness, He does not always seem so. To the strong man when he sits, despairing and stricken, amid the ruins of his life, to the father whose erring son causes him agony and shameto these the sun shines not, and the stars give no light, the heavens above their heads are iron, and the earth beneath their feet is brass. Yet, how gently He heals even for these the wounds which His own loving hand has made; how do the clouds break over them and the pale silver gleam of resignation brighten into the burning ray of faith and love. For our path in life is like that of the traveller who lands at the famous port of the Holy Land. He rides at first under the shade of palms, under the golden orange-groves, beside the crowded fountains with almonds and pomegranates breaking around him into blossom. Soon he leaves behind him these lovely groves; he enters on the bare and open plain; the sun burns over him, the dust-clouds whirl around him; but even there the path is broidered by the quiet wayside flowers, and when at last the bleak bare hills succeed, his heart bounds within him, for he knows that he shall catch his first glimpse of the Holy City, as he stands weary on their brow.

There came a cloud; it fell in shining showers.

Lo! from the earth sprang troops of radiant flowers.

Grief oer a joyous heart its shadow threw.

Lo! in the darkness loves sweet graces grew.

The golden sun dropped sudden out of sight.

Lo! silver stars made glorious the night.

Death came. The soul, affrighted at its guise,

Was led protesting into Paradise.

3. Because God is faithful, He sends temptation to drive us to Himself. There is no escape from His love; no escape from the restlessness He will excite in our hearts till we find rest in Him. A thought will rise in our minds, we know not whence, a dim emotion kindle there which will seem to have no cause; they are the inspirations of God. In early times we have heard, as Samuel heard, His voice, and, unlike Samuel, we have forgotten. In after years, in issuing into life, we have met Him, in our first loneliness, as the infinite Inspirer. He has kindled in our hearts a fire of duty and hope and aspiration; but we have lost the music of that vision in the din of business and the clangour of the world. But He will not lose us; we forget, but not He. Again He comes to make our life shake in the tempest. If tenderness will not touch us, perhaps this stern education will. Therefore, there comes keen testingthrilling anguish, the death of earthly hopes, the hours in which life seems a dreadful dream out of which we cannot wake. For only so can some be awakened to feel that they are not their own, but Gods; that the invisible is the real, and the visible unreal; that this world is, to us, children of immortality, no more than one flash of the shuttle through the loom, in comparison with the eternal world in which we are at one with Him.

Many men are distressing themselves, when they think of their trials, by imagining that they must have done something wrong, or God never could have sent such afflictions to them personally or to their household. That is a mistake. There are trials that are simply tests, not punishments; trials of faith and patience, not rods sent to scourge men because they have been doing some particular evil thing. Gods people are tried. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. The honour is not in the trial, it is in the spirit in which the trial is borne.1 [Note: J. Parker.]

4. It is an awful thought, this unremitting faithfulness of God, for it means, if we resist Him, stern, unrelenting work upon us. It is in vain that we say to Him, Let us alone, torment us not. He never takes offence; He has none of the jealousy of vanity; He is never unkind, though His strokes are hard; never wanting in swift reciprocation of the faintest utterance of love, the faintest cry for forgiveness; always ready to listen with tenderness, though wise enough not always to grant our prayer; always reasonable, always just, so that He can make excuse, can weigh the force of trial on our character, can understand the force of the circumstances which betrayed us into guilt. He knows all, and there is infinite comfort in that.

You may assure your soul, when you are marching forward into the darkness of some valley of the shadow of death, that God would never have sent you to face that trial unless He had known that you could master it. Life is often difficult: it is never impossible for the man that has to live it. If the trial be very sore, if it shake your strength and strain your patience almost to the breaking-point, if the agony of conflict surprise you, then that only shows that you are stronger than you took yourself to be. Had you been unfit for it, this post of danger would never have been assigned to you. Your God has gauged your powers of resistance with exact knowledge, and the duty He shall set you will always be well within the limits of these powers.1 [Note: J. Kelman, Honour towards God, 53.]

5. In the face of such faithfulness, we dare not do less than our best. It is a shame to sink wilfully below that which we know we ought to be. There are those who talk of their weakness, their yielding nature, as if it were something beautiful to be feeble; as if there were some poetical quality in giving way to that which they choose to call Fate; as if ideals were given them in order that they might sigh sentimentally over their unattainability, and not in order that they may pursue them with a resolute will. This is the infidelity of lifefar worse than all else, when it is worstturned into the ghost of an artistic dream and made the ground of vanity. Feebleness is never beautiful, and to choose feebleness as the rule of life is disgraceful in man or woman, however we may deck it with fine fancies. The real beauty of life is in health of mind, strength of will, vigour of purpose. The real poetry of life is in the noble effort which does not rest till it has accomplished its end; in the undying pursuit of that which we know to be best; in the battle for right; in the resolution and the power to live above the standard of the world; in the ravishment which is born of seeing truth, love, justice, purity, as they are seen by God; and in unresting, yet unhasting endeavour to become at one with them.

Led by Gods Spirit to the battle-ground, there is no assault in which any man is doomed to be defeated, and there is no temptation which it is impossible for a man to overcome. The conditions of life that tempt us are but the challenges that incite a man to assert his mastery. The lusts of the body, the pride of life, the meaner parts of human nature that offer a morbid pleasantness,all that they can do at their worst is to give him the choice whether he shall respect himself or bow his neck. Let him remember that God has trusted him for this conflict also, trusted him to assert his best manhood, and to show its mastery. Let him remember that he is upon his honour, and that God counts on him to keep his honour bright as his sword.1 [Note: J. Kelman, Honour towards God, 57.]

Was the trial sore?

Temptation sharp? Thank God a second time!

Why comes temptation but for man to meet

And master and make crouch beneath his foot,

And so be pedestaled in triumph? Pray

Lead us into no such temptations, Lord!

Yea, but, O Thou whose servants are the bold,

Lead such temptations by the head and hair,

Reluctant dragons, up to who dares fight,

That so he may do battle and have praise.2 [Note: Browning.]

II

The Adjustment of Temptation

We are to believe that whatever our trial or temptation may be,however heavy, however formidable,it will, at least, never come in a light, random way to us. It is all measured before, and it is in strict order and proportion to something. He who made our body and our mind, and who knows exactly our every sensitive fibre, and the capacity of eachwhat each can and cannot endurehas fitted everything accurately to our constitution, to our circumstances, to our body, to our mind; and this sense of adaptation or proportion will of itself be an immense strength to us. It gives such dignity to affliction, and establishes at once a limit beyond which it can no more go than the sea can pass high-water mark. The mere knowing that there is a boundary line perfectly defined, though we do not see it, will give us courage to bear all that falls within that line. It will come to pass thus. It will sometimes happen to us to feel in our sufferingIf this trial were to go one inch further, I could not bear it; it would crush me. But it will never go that inch. We shall not be crushed.

The words beyond what ye are able come as a surprise. Has man then some power? And, if the matter in question is what man can do with the Divine help, is not the power of this help without limit? But it must not be forgotten that, if the power of God is infinite, the receptivity of the believer is limited: limited by the measure of spiritual development which he has reached, by the degree of his love for holiness and of his zeal in prayer, etc. God knows this measure, St. Paul means to say, and He proportions the intensity of the temptation to the degree of power which the believer is capable of receiving from Him, as the mechanician, if we may be allowed such a comparison, proportions the heat of the furnace to the resisting power of the boiler.1 [Note: F. Godet.]

1. There are two factors in every temptation, the sinful heart within, the evil world without, and they stand to one another much in the relation of the powder-magazine and the lighted match. Temptation originates in the heart, says St. James, and that is absolutely true. The heart is the powder-magazine. But for the lusts raging there, the allurements of the world would be absolutely powerless for harm. Temptation comes from the sinful world, says St. Paul; that is also true. The world is the lighted match; but for the allurements and incitements of the world, the sinful desires of the heart would never be called into play. It is when the match is applied to the powder-magazine that danger arises. So the power of the temptation may vary and the power of resistance may vary.

2. There is no greater mystery of providence than the unequal proportions in which temptation is distributed. Some are tempted comparatively little; others are thrown into a fiery furnace of it seven times heated. There are in the world sheltered situations in which a man may be compared to a ship in the harbour, where the waves may sometimes heave a little, but a real storm never comes; there are other men like the vessel which has to sail the high seas and face the full force of the tempest.

(1) That which is a temptation at one period of life may be no temptation at all at another. To a child there may be an irresistible temptation in a sweetmeat which a man would never think of touching; and some of the temptations which are now the most painful to us will in time be as completely outlived.

(2) One of the chief powers of temptation is the power of surprise. It comes when we are not looking for it; it comes from the person and from the quarter we least suspect. The day dawns which is to be the decisive one in our life; but it looks like any other day. No bell rings in the sky to give warning that the hour of destiny has come. But the good angel that watches over us is waiting and trembling. The fiery moment arrives; do we stand; do we fall?

(3) Every man has his own trials; and every condition and circumstance of life its own peculiar temptations. Solitude has its temptations as well as society. St. Anthony, before his conversion, was a gay and fast young man of Alexandria; and, when he was converted, he found the temptations of the city so intolerable that he fled into the Egyptian desert and became a hermit; but he afterwards confessed that the temptations of a cell in the wilderness were worse than those of the city. It would not be safe to exchange our temptations for those of another man; every one has his own.

In speaking of Knoxs Rambles, and the effects of association with men in sharpening the intellect, you remark that this seems inconsistent with the fact that great spirits have been nursed in solitude. Yes, but not the ploughmans solitude. Moses was forty years in Midian, but he had the education of Egypt before, and habits of thought and observation begun, as shown in his spirit of inquiry with regard to the burning forest. Usually, I suppose, the spark has been struck by some superior mind, either in conversation or through reading. Ferguson was, perhaps, an exception. Then, again, stirring times set such master-minds to work even in this solitude, as in Cromwells case. I remember, too, a line of Goethes, in which he says:

Talent forms itself in solitude,

Character in the storms of life.

But I believe both your positions are true. The soul collects its mightiest forces by being thrown in upon itself, and coerced solitude often matures the mental and moral character marvellously, as in Luthers confinement in the Wartburg. Or, to take a loftier example, Paul during his three years in Arabia; or, grander still, His solitude in the desert: the Baptists too. But, on the other hand, solitude unbroken from earliest infancy, or with nothing to sharpen the mind, either by collison with other minds, or the expectation of some new sphere of action shortly, would, I suppose, rust the mental energies. Still there is the spirit to be disciplined, humbled, and strengthened, and it may gain in proportion as the mind is losing its sharpening education.1 [Note: F. W. Robertson, in Life and Letters, 222.]

Trench, in his poem The Monk and Bird, shows that the very blessedness of the consecrated life may become a temptation.

Even thus he lived, with little joy or pain

Drawn through the channels by which men receive

Most men receive the things which for the main

Make them rejoice or grieve.

But for delight, on spiritual gladness fed,

And obvious to temptations of like kind;

One such, from out his very gladness bred,

It was his lot to find.

When first it came, he lightly put it by,

But it returned again to him ere long,

And ever having got some new ally,

And every time more strong

A little worm that gnawed the life away

Of a tall plant, the canker of its root,

Or like as when from some small speck decay

Spreads oer a beauteous fruit.

For still the doubt came back,Can God provide

For the large heart of man what shall not pall,

Nor through eternal ages endless tide

On tired spirits fall?

Here but one look towrd heaven will oft repress

The crushing weight of undelightful care;

But what were there beyond, if weariness

Should ever enter there?

Yet do not sweetest things here soonest cloy?

Satiety the life of joy would kill,

If sweet with bitter, pleasure with annoy

Were not attempered still.

This mood endured, till every act of love,

Vigils of praise and prayer, and midnight choir,

All shadows of the service done above,

And which, while his desire,

And while his hope was heavenward, he had loved,

As helps to disengage him from the chain

That fastens unto earthall these now proved

Most burdensome and vain.1 [Note: Trench, Poems, 13.]

3. The severity and the variety of mans temptations, together with the persistently lofty and urgent appeals addressed to him, are a supreme tribute to the grandeur of his moral nature. In a race the severity of the handicap is an indication of the capacity of the runner. A great deal is expected from a man who can give another a hundred yards start. The runners are not all of equal calibre, and they are not handicapped above that they are able. Can we not see here what God is doing? Can we not see how He is dealing with us, according to this Pauline statement? So far from making things too difficult, He is trying to make them easier; He is tempering the strife to each mans strength; He does not want us to lose, but to win; not to fail, but to overcome. That is not harshness, it is kindness; that is not undue severity, it is magnanimity, it is compassion, it is fair-play. Let us not allow ourselves to curse our circumstances, or to arraign God and His plans and His world, as if they were all in special conspiracy against us. The fact is that most of us are in conspiracy against ourselvesperhaps without knowing it. We have groaned about our difficulties, instead of accepting them and using them as stepping-stones to success. We have kicked against our limitations, instead of allowing them to develop our resources. We have resented our hardships and our handicaps, instead of making them contribute to our manhood. We have sat and gloomed at our temptations and roundly cursed our fate, but we have never considered the ways of escape. Thus we have been at once unfair to God and have courted failure for ourselves.

You all know the story about the Black Prince at the battle of Crecy, how his father refused to send help to him when he was hard pressed. It would have been easy for the king to keep the prince out of reach of danger; but no, the father said to those who came appealing for help, Let the boy win his spurs, and let the day be his.1 [Note: F. de W. Lushington, Sermons to Young Boys, 24.]

III

The Escape from Temptation

1. God will with the temptation make also the way of escape. Sometimes we want to see the way of escape before the temptation, but the way of escape comes with the temptation, not before it.

It may have happened to us, in some of our visits to the grandest scenes of nature, to be wending our way along a lake or river where mountains are before us, so close and so encompassing that they appear not only to bar our own progress, but to leave not the smallest outlet for our little boat. But, as we neared these vast barriers which edged us in, we gradually descried an opening between the hills which, as we went on, grew clearer and clearer, and wider and wider, till, safely and smoothly, our little bark floated on by a channel just made for us from within apparently impenetrable masses, to other regions which now range before us in their loveliness. So when the hindrances are the thickest, and the difficulties the most insurmountable, we feel that our faithful God, who made these fastnesses for this very end, will Himself provide the issue, and with the temptation make also the way of escape, that we may be able to endure it.

2. God is said here to make the temptation as well as the way of escape. Nor is this without a purpose. He knows precisely the strength we need, because He has prepared the occasion on which we shall be called to use it. It will never fail through any miscalculation or ignorance on His part. It will never be too feeble or too long upon the way. We may always be sure His succour will be at hand, a very present help in every time of trouble. Even in those moments in which our temptation comes upon us most suddenly, so that it may seem to have taken even God Himself by surprise, His way of escape will be close beside us. For the swiftest and most unforeseen of temptations are all equally under His control.

I leave you to call this deceiving spirit what you likeor to theorize about it as you like. All that I desire you to recognize is the fact of its being here, and the need of its being fought with. If you take the Bibles account of it, or Dantes, or Miltons, you will receive the image of it as a mighty spiritual creature, commanding others, and resisted by others: if you take schyluss or Hesiods account of it, you will hold it for a partly elementary and unconscious adversity of fate, and partly for a group of monstrous spiritual agencies connected with death, and begotten out of the dust; if you take a modern rationalists, you will accept it for a mere treachery and want of vitality in our own moral nature exposing it to loathsomeness or moral disease, as the body is capable of mortification or leprosy. I do not care what you call it,whose history you believe of it,nor what you yourself can imagine about it; the origin, or nature, or name may be as you will, but the deadly reality of the thing is with us, and warring against us; and on our true war with it depends whatever life we can win. Deadly reality, I say. The puff-adder or horned asp is not more real. Unbelievable,those,unless you had seen them; no fable could have been coined out of any human brain so dreadful, within its own poor material sphere, as that blue-lipped serpentworking its way sidelong in the sand. As real, but with sting of eternal deaththis worm that dies not, and fire that is not quenched, within our souls or around them. Eternal death, I saysure, that, whatever creed you hold;if the old Scriptural one, Death of perpetual banishment from before Gods face; if the modern rationalist one, Death Eternal for us, instant and unredeemable ending of lives wasted in misery.

This is what this unquestionably presentthis, according to his power, omni-presentfiend, brings us towards, daily. He is the person to be voted against, my working friend; it is worth something, having a vote against him, if you can get it! Which you can, indeed; but not by gift from Cabinet Ministers; you must work warily with your own hands, and drop sweat of hearts blood, before you can record that vote effectually.1 [Note: Ruskin, Time and Tide (Works, xvii. 365).]

3. The way of escape must be sought for, or it may not be found. It is not always forcibly obtruded. It reveals itself to the humble and watchful eyethe eye that has become single, and waits only upon God. And if we are tempted, and can see no mode of relief, then we must search for it. Gradually it will open and widen before us.

4. How is it that God makes the way of escape? Notice that it is not a way, but the way of escape; the one separate escape for each separate temptation.

(1) Sometimes the only victory over a temptation is not to argue with it, not even to wrestle with it, but simply to get away from it. Brethren, let us not be righteous over-much! St. Paul, indeed, uses no grandiloquent speech as to what a man should do when he finds himself beset by temptations. He does not in this place recommend a man to draw his sword, and plant his right foot forward, and clench his teeth, and do many another strenuous and showy thing which looks so well in a picture and sounds so well when addressed to a great audience, but which is all, as a matter of fact, futile in those hot, and terrible, and lonely hours when we are sorely tempted to do wrong. No; St. Paul tells us here that when we are tempted, the first and only thing to do is to get away from the spot, to run in fact for our life. This is one of those simple and obvious things which never occur to any of us until a genius arises to say themwhen you are hard pressed by evil, move on, get away, escape. That may sound tame. It may sound less than the highest; but it is the very highest. Nay, it is the only truth and fact of the matter. There are situations in life, dark turnings in the moral world, sheer precipices where we must not trust ourselves, where the only sensible and religious course is to get away.

In passing through the Inferno, Dantes spiritual guide would not allow him to stand still for a moment.

What! a wayward youth might perhaps answer, incredulously; no one ever gets wiser by doing wrong? Shall I not know the world best by trying the wrong of it, and repenting? Have I not, even as it is, learned much by many of my errors? Indeed, the effort by which partially you recovered yourself was precious; that part of your thought by which you discerned the error was precious. What wisdom and strength you kept, and rightly used, are rewarded; and in the pain and the repentance, and in the acquaintance with the aspects of folly and sin, you have learned something; how much less than you would have learned in right paths can never be told, but that it is less is certain. Your liberty of choice has simply destroyed for you so much life and strength, never regainable. It is true you now know the habits of swine, and the taste of husks: do you think your father could not have taught you to know better habits and pleasanter tastes, if you had stayed in his house; and that the knowledge you have lost would not have been more, as well as sweeter, than that you have gained?1 [Note: Ruskin, Queen of the Air (Works, xix. 409).]

(2) The way of escape may be very near the entrance gate. It often is. And the victory may be won by watchfulness over the thoughts. As is the fountain, so will be the stream. Quench the spark, and you are safe from the conflagration. Crush the serpents egg, and you need not dread the cockatrice. Conquer evil thoughts, and you will have little danger of evil words and evil ways. The victory over every temptation is easiest, is safest, is most blessed there.

Wasps nests are destroyed when the wasps are only grubs like caterpillars, and before they have learned to fly. You get a squib, like those they fire off on the fifth of November, and light the end and put it into the hole in the ground where the nest is, and cover it over with a turf. And then all the grubs in the nest are suffocated by the smoke. If you wait till the grubs have wings and have learned to fly, then a ton of dynamite will be of little use; for the wasps will be buzzing all round your ears, and stinging you, and then flying away.2 [Note: W. V. Robinson.]

(3) Sometimes prayer is the only way of escape. Sometimes the doors are all shut upon human sympathy and understanding, but there is always a way of escape towards God. I have been driven many times to my knees, said Abraham Lincoln, by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.

There is a picture by one of our great artists of a young knight on the verge of a dark wood through which he has to pass. That wood contains all manner of lurking perils and stealthy enemies, and before entering it the young knight has taken off his helmet, and is pouring out his soul in prayer. And the legend at the foot of the picture is this: Into thy hands, O Lord. We too stand, like that young knight, face to face with all manner of dangers and perils; fierce and deadly temptations of many a kind will assail us as we make our way through the mystic wood. What better can we do than commit ourselves into the keeping of the same gracious and mighty God? Into thy hands we commit ourselves.1 [Note: J. D. Jones.]

I was in the Puzzle Garden one day at Hampton Court (there they call it a maze), and after getting to the centre, I had the greatest difficulty in getting out. But in the centre of that garden there is, not a summer house, but a raised platform. And a man stands on it, and he can see every one in the maze. Soon I heard him calling to me: Turn to the left, sir, To the left again, Now to the right, until I got out. Life is like a puzzle garden sometimes. We do not know which way to turn, whether to go forward, or to turn to this side or to that; but if we look up to God in prayer, He will show us the way, and bring our souls out of trouble. We shall hear a voice behind us saying, This is the way, walk ye in it.2 [Note: W. V. Robinson.]

A young lieutenant who had seen one campaignalone, and without any of the means and appliances of such war as I had been apprenticed toI was about to take command, in the midst of a battle, not only of one force whose courage I had never tried, but of another which I had never seen; and to engage a third, of which the numbers were uncertain, with the knowledge that defeat would immeasurably extend the rebellion which I had undertaken to suppress, and embarrass the Government which I had volunteered to serve. Yet, in that great extreme, I doubted only for a momentone of those long moments to which some angel seems to hold a microscope and show millions of things within it. It came and went between the stirrup and the saddle. It brought with it difficulties, dangers, responsibilities, and possible consequences terrible to face; but it left none behind. I knew that I was fighting for the right. I asked God to help me to do my duty, and I rode on, certain that He would do it.3 [Note: Edwardes, A Year on the Punjab Frontier, ii. 318 (Ruskins Works, xxxi. 495).]

(4) There is the way of submission and resistance. It is all summed up in that word of St. James: Submit yourselves therefore unto God, but resist the devil. That is the way of submission and resistance, and it is the secret of victory in the hour of fierce temptation. Submit yourselves to God. Let us yield our nature absolutely and unreservedly to Him. Make an unconditional surrender. Then trust Him to come in the Person of His Spirit, and garrison every part of that yielded being, and undertake the battle for us. Then, when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. As the flood rushes onwards carrying everything before it, so the tempter comes upon men, if perchance he may find them unprepared and sweep them off their feet. What happens to the man who is submitted to God? The Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against the enemy. An ungrieved Spirit will always mean victory in the hour of temptation. First submit, and then resist. Trust Him to undertake the conflict and then resist.

In an old Continental town they will show you a prison in a tower, and on all the stones of that prison within reach, one word is carvedit is Resist. Your guide will tell you that years ago a godly woman was for forty years immured in that dungeon, and she spent her time in cutting with a piece of iron on every stone that one word, for the strengthening of her own heart and for the benefit of all who might come after her, Resist! Resist! Resist!1 [Note: J. G. Mantle.]

I hoped that with the brave and strong,

My portioned task might lie;

To toil amid the busy throng,

With purpose pure and high;

But God has fixed another part,

And He has fixed it well;

I said so with my bleeding heart,

When first the anguish fell.

Thou, God, hast taken our delight,

Our treasured hope away;

Thou bidst us now weep through the night

And sorrow through the day.

These weary hours will not be lost,

These days of misery,

These nights of darkness, anguish-tossed,

Can I but turn to Thee:

With secret labour to sustain

In humble patience every blow,

To gather fortitude from pain,

And hope and holiness from woe.

Thus let me serve Thee from my heart,

Whateer may be my written fate:

Whether thus early to depart,

Or yet a while to wait.

If Thou shouldst bring me back to life,

More humbled I should be,

More wise,more strengthened for the strife,

More apt to lean on Thee:

Should death be standing at the gate,

Thus should I keep my vow:

But, Lord! whatever be my fate,

O let me serve Thee now

Trust in God and do the Right

Literature

Aitken (W. H. M. H.), Temptation and Toil, 91.

Banks (L. A.), The Great Promises of the Bible, 112.

Boyd (A. K. H.),Counsel and Comfort from a City Pulpit, 251.

Brooke (S. A.), Short Sermons, 269.

Caulfleld (S. F. A.), The Prisoners of Hope, i. 76.

Cuckson (J.), Faith and Fellowship, 283.

Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, v. 41.

Faithful (R. C.), My Place in the World, 157.

Farrar (F. W.), The Silence and the Voices of God, 101.

Fraser (J.), Parochial Sermons, 167.

Hutton (J. A.), The Fear of Things, 81.

Jones (J. D.), Elims of Life, 92.

Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., iii. 93, v. 234.

Lushington (F. de W.), Sermons to Young Boys, 22.

Mantle (J. G.), Gods To-morrow, 67.

Moinet (C.), The Great Alternative, 105.

Mursell (W. A.), The Waggon and the Star, 49.

Robinson (W. V.), Sunbeams for Sundays, 49.

Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, l. (1904) No. 2912.

Stalker (J.), in The Worlds Great Sermons, ix. 167.

Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit) ix. (1872) No. 749.

Christian World Pulpit, xlviii. 142 (Wickham); lxix. 298 (Dale); li. 217 (Gore).

Churchmans Pulpit: Ninth Sunday after Trinity: xi. 129 (Field), 134 (Boyd), 137 (Rice), 140 (Cotton).

Clergymans Magazine, vii. 25 (Griffith); xv. 18 (Rogers); New Ser., vi. 95 (Proctor).

Methodist Times, June 2, 1910, p. 6 (Hutton).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

hath: Jer 12:5, Mat 24:21-24, Luk 11:4, Luk 22:31, Luk 22:46, 2Co 11:23-28, Eph 6:12, Eph 6:13, Heb 11:35-38, Heb 12:4, Jam 5:10, Jam 5:11, 1Pe 1:6, 1Pe 1:7, 1Pe 5:8, 1Pe 5:9, Rev 2:10, Rev 3:10

common: or, moderate

but: 1Co 1:9, Deu 7:9, Psa 36:5, Psa 89:33, Isa 11:5, Isa 25:1, Isa 49:7, Lam 3:23, Hos 2:20, 1Th 5:24, 2Th 3:3, 2Ti 2:11-13, Heb 6:18, Heb 10:23, Heb 11:11, 1Pe 4:19, 1Jo 1:9, Rev 19:11

who: Exo 3:17, Psa 125:3, Dan 3:17, Luk 22:32, Joh 10:28-30, Rom 8:28-39, 2Co 1:10, 2Co 12:8-10, 2Ti 4:18, 1Pe 1:5, 2Pe 2:9

make: Gen 19:20, Gen 19:21, Psa 124:7, Jer 29:11, Luk 16:26, Act 27:44, Jam 5:11

Reciprocal: Gen 22:1 – God Gen 22:12 – Lay Gen 22:13 – behind Gen 42:36 – all these things are against me Num 4:44 – General Deu 33:25 – and as thy 1Sa 29:10 – General Job 1:12 – only Job 2:6 – save Job 5:7 – man Job 5:19 – deliver thee Psa 62:2 – I shall Psa 71:2 – cause Psa 102:2 – Hide Isa 27:8 – measure Mat 6:13 – lead Mat 26:41 – enter Mar 2:21 – seweth Mar 4:17 – when Joh 18:8 – let 2Co 1:7 – as ye 2Co 4:8 – not in despair 2Co 12:9 – My grace Eph 6:11 – able Phi 2:27 – but on Heb 2:18 – them Heb 13:7 – the end 1Pe 4:12 – as 2Pe 2:7 – delivered

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

TEMPTATION

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.

1Co 10:13

Even Shakespeare, with his great knowledge of character, can help us here:

Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,

Another thing to fall.

It is of the last importance for our souls good that we should keep this distinction ever sharp and clear. It belongeth to devils to feel temptation and to sin from very wickedness. It belongeth to angels not to feel temptation and to serve God with perfect service. It belongeth to man to feel temptation and to conquer.

I. Before temptation can become sin a threefold process must take place, not always, perhaps, separable in time and action, but separable in thought.

(a) There comes the temptation properly so called, a suggestion, that is, to do something which the conscience tells us is wrong, in the region of body, soul, or spirit. But temptation does not remain long in its suggestion stage.

(b) The suggestion is pushed. Satan, like a cunning fisherman, parades his attractions, makes his bait more seductive, lays siege to the will by carefully arranged inducements to bring about acquiescence.

(c) The barrier is passed when the will gives way. It is the consent of the will to temptation which marks the advent of sin; and so in cases where no action follows, where action is not possible, or has been hindered, sin remains in the consent of the will. To will to sin is, in Gods sight, to commit sin.

II. It is important that we should recognise that not only has God never promised us immunity from temptation, but that in the nature of things temptation is inevitable, and that no life is so sheltered as to escape from that which seems to be a necessary part of its discipline. This conclusion is forced upon us if we study the inward meaning of our Blessed Lords Temptation. If He Who could not sin was tempted by Satan; if He Who on any showing presented no point of weakness to the seductions of the world was tempted in the three well-known regions of temptationthe lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of lifeit is not reasonable to suppose that we can escape. Holiness, abhorrence of sin, do not of necessity keep away temptation; they may attract it.

III. The words of St. Paul ought to be full of hope to us all in a real trial.Do not let us think for a moment that it is a strange and unusual thing which is trying us, or look upon ourselves as an escaped weed among the choice flowers of Christian holiness. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. We are not engaged in a battle in which we are foredoomed to failure by preliminary unfaithfulness. We might go so far as to say that the very fact that we are tempted proves that we are worth something, that God has something to lose and Satan something to win by our fall. But the consolation which St. Paul gives is even greater than this. There is no temptation too powerful for us if only we are in earnest. This is it: Satan is not going to be driven back by a listless, faithless combatant, who neither believes in God nor in his own God-given strength. David, who trusts in God and is in earnest, can lay low Goliath. A very Samson who forgets God and his duty can be laid low by a woman. Do not despise temptation, you will often have to fight your way step by step to that way of escape. Satan contests every inch. He says you cannot; your nature is weak, your friends have given in, and that it is only a question of time. To repel him now is only to have him back again with renewed force. You cannot. Nevertheless my feet had almost gone, my treadings had well-nigh slipped. It is then that an old familiar prayer rises to your lips. Memories of your Confirmation come back to you. Faint and dizzy, you call upon God, and the way of escape seems far away, but gradually the foe falls back. You have won a victory, and to have won a victory means that you have found out your strength.

Rev. Canon Newbolt.

Illustration

When the order comes to go into battle, it may be to defeat and death, but it may also be to glory and victory. Joseph out of the same temptation is brought to ascend the steps of that throne from which David and Solomon after him were thrown down and deposed. The friendless youth who fearlessly can say, How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? finds in the fierceness of his temptation the occasion of his future greatness. David, the man after Gods own heart, and Solomon, the wisest of men, find in the same temptation the occasion of falling from their high estate. God forbid that we should minimise for one moment the fierceness and the stress of the trial. The lives of the saints are full of that struggle in which their enemies sometimes took concrete shape, which, like the devil in the Gospel narrative, rent and bruised them, even while departing from them.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1Co 10:13. The Bible does not teach that God will do something for the salvation of one man that He will not, do for another under the same circumstances, therefore this verse does not justify the theory known as “Special Providence.” The plan of salvation is completely offered in the New Testament (Col 2:10), and all of the human race have equal access to it. The other passages showing this truth are too numerous to be cited here. No miracle is promised as an escape from temptation that has not been provided for in the Gospel. If such a favor were intended by this passage, Paul certainly would not have written chapter 9:27, for he would have expected the Lord to provide such an escape for him that he should not become a “castaway.” Will with the temptation, etc. In the management of the universe, if it is God’s will to bring about some conditions that might be too trying for a Christian, then He will so regulate those conditions that nothing will be beyond the protection offered the Christian in the written Word.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Co 10:13. There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bearGr. but what is human.

but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are ableto bear and overcome.

but with the temptation make also the way of escape. There seems here an evident reference to some special temptation, the severity of which was pressing upon the Corinthians at this time; and as in the next verse the apostle resumes the topic which gave rise to this long digression with the stringent call to flee from idolatry, there can be no doubt that the temptation specially referred to here arose from difficulties on this subject which were pressing so hard as to endanger their whole Christianity, if not resolutely met.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Here the apostle answers a plea which the Corinthians might probably make for their compliance with their fellow-citizens, in eating things offered unto idols in their temples with them; namely, that thereby they should avoid persecution.

Fear not that, says the apostle, you have hitherto been preserved, and no temptation has taken you, but such as is common unto man; that is, you have not yet been exercised with any trial, but what is human, what the ordinary strength and resolution of human nature is able to bear: but in case you should be tried with extremity of suffering, and that you must either comply with the heathen idolatry, or endure suffering to extremity, yet you have the promise of a faithful God for your support in that case: God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted at any time above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way so far to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Learn hence, 1. That it is a great addition to an affliction not to see or discern a way to escape, and get out of affliction: God is exceeding gracious in our afflictions, in that he doth not hedge us in on every side, and hinder all possibility of escape out of our troubles.

Learn, 2. That the consideration of God’s strength to support us in and under our sufferings, is a mighty encouragement to us to grapple with them resolutely, and to bear them patiently and submissively: if our sufferings were intolerable, and human nature were not divinely assisted to stand under them, we should be forced to consult our present ease and deliverance, and choose sin rather than affliction; but the assistance of God makes suffering work easy.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it. [The temptations which befell the Corinthians were such as men had resisted and could resist. The temptations which had overcome some of the Israelites had been resisted by others of their number. The faithfulness of God who called them would give them strength for the journey which he required of them (2Pe 2:9; 2Th 3:3; 1Th 5:23-24). God shows his faithfulness by providing an opportunity of escape, and we must show our faithfulness by seizing the opportunity when it presents itself. As temptations vary, so the means of escape also vary. God permits temptation for our strengthening, not for our destruction.]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

13. No temptation hath overtaken us except human. If we should encounter superhuman temptations, we would certainly go down under them. But, since Christ Himself is a man, He is sure to give His victory over every human temptation. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but with the temptation will also make a way of escape by which you shall bear up under it. It does not mean that He will take away the temptation, as in that case we would miss a blessing; because temptation is certainly one of the greatest sources of blessing this side of Heaven, as we always gain strength by the battle and courage by the victory. The soldier who fights no battles, wins no victories and will never wear the laurel crown. Hence you need not expect to get where you will have no temptations, as in that case you would have to go out of this world, which is thronged with evil spirits, Satanic and human, besetting you with temptations on every side. But as these temptations are only human, and none of them superhuman, and our Savior Himself is a man, He is certain to give us all the help we need to triumph over every foe and have victory in every temptation. He does not promise to take us out of temptation, but to make a way of escape by which we shall be able to bear up under it. Hence the soldier is not relieved of the battlefield, but he is not only immortal, but invulnerable. Therefore it is fun to fight and conquer and achieve. This Scripture certainly covers all the ground on the temptation problem, assuring you that victory is always at hand, and a glorious blessing for you in every temptation. You enter the battlefield with victory in sight, and the mount of triumph cheering you onward.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

1Co 10:13. Encouragement after warning.

Temptation: whatever, painful or pleasant, tends to lead us to sin, and thus tests our loyalty to Christ. Cp. Mat 4:1-10.

Human: within the limits of the spiritual powers God has given to men.

We can conceive higher intelligences to be attacked by severer temptations.

Faithful: 1Co 1:9. To what has been (1Co 10:13 a) in the past, Paul adds what will be in the future.

Will not let: for each temptation attacks us under His eye and restraint.

Will make etc.; does not imply that the temptation is God’s work, (though, in a sense, this is true: cp. Gen 22:1,) but that God will provide that it shall be accompanied by the way-out. And that God is faithful, pledges Him to do this. For He has promised life to all who believe; and this implies escape from all temptation, which in turn implies that we shall not be tempted beyond the powers God has granted to men.

That you may etc.: God’s purpose in making the way out. We endure temptation by flying from it.

SECTION 17 confirms strongly my note under Rom 11:24 in disproof of Calvin’s doctrine that all who have been justified will be finally saved. The word rejected in 1Co 9:27, supported as it is by examples of those who never entered Canaan, can refer only to rejection from heaven. And Paul must have thought this possible in his own case; or the motive given in 1Co 9:27 would be utterly unreal. Yet he was quite sure (Rom 5:9 f; 2Co 5:18) of his own justification. The examples of those who, as Paul so emphatically tells us, actually started for Canaan but never reached it, would be quite inapplicable to those who, the right start once made, could not fall finally.

Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament

10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to {l} man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also {m} make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it].

(l) Which comes from weakness.

(m) He that would have you tempted for your profit’s sake, will make a way for you to escape out of the temptation.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The apostle did not want his readers to overreact and become paranoid as they considered Israel’s record either. Failure was not inevitable. The temptations the Corinthians faced were not unique, and the Lord would give them grace to handle any temptation they might face. [Note: For other verses dealing with God’s part in temptation, see Exodus 16:4; Deuteronomy 8:2; 1 Chronicles 21:1; Job 1:12; 2:6; Matthew 6:13; and James 1:13.]

God has promised to enable us to do His will in any and every situation, and He will stand true to His promise (cf. Mat 28:20; et al.). He provides a way of escape with every temptation He allows to touch us, namely, power to overcome every temptation. The use of the definite article "the" with both "temptation" and "way of escape" points to a particular way of escape that is available in each temptation. Paul did not mean there is one way of escape that is available regardless of the temptation. If we deliberately put ourselves in the way of temptation and so put God to the test (1Co 10:9), we are not taking advantage of the way of escape. We may fall. Therefore we should flee from idolatry (1Co 10:14; cf. 1Jn 5:21).

The Corinthians were putting themselves in danger by continuing to attend cultic meals, which they needed to stop doing. Nevertheless God had made a way of escape open to them, as He had with Israel. The Lord’s Supper and the Christian fellowship connected with it was His divine replacement of this idolatrous activity (1Co 10:16).

This whole section (1Co 10:1-13) deals with the dangers involved in participating in pagan activities. Some of these activities are wrong in themselves because they involve idolatry, and Christians should not participate in them. If we should participate, we need to be aware that in doing so we are walking on the edge of a precipice over which many other believers have fallen, including the Israelites in the wilderness. We dare not underestimate the danger of the situation or overestimate our own ability to handle it. We need to walk closely with God every day.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)