Daily Devotional For Saturday, January 13, 2024

Happy Saturday. Well, for some this is an extended weekend due to the Martin Luther King federal holiday on Monday. If that is you, I pray you have a great day off in the Lord. Another misused and misunderstood Bible verses is 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (ESV). 

Many Christians claim this verse as a “promise” that God will never allow them to experience more difficulties than “they can handle.” But we need to read this one verse in the context of 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, which deals with temptation and one’s ability to overcome it. Yes, the passage is promising us that God will give us the ability to overcome the temptation and to say “NO” to it. In fact, the Apostle Paul learned that sometimes God allows us to go through certain situations that will test us beyond what we think is our ability to withstand it. 

Look at 2 Corinthians 1:8-11, "For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itsel f. (9) I ndeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. (10) He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again. (11) You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many” (ESV).

The misuse and misinterpretation of this Scripture is found in the phrase “way of escape.” This gives the impression that there is a way around it, or we can skip it, or we can go over it or somehow, it simply goes away. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reason many Christians believe this is because they do not understand the context of 1 Corinthians 10:13.

The words “common to man” is the Greek New Testament word [ἀνθρώπινος, anthropinos] and it literally means “that which is characteristically belonging to mankind, that which is human.” It may sound strange, but the Apostle Paul said there is no such thing as superhuman or supernatural temptation. Why? Temptations are characteristically a human vulnerability. This is why Jesus taught us in The Lord’s Prayer to pray this in Matthew 6:13,” And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (ESV). The word translated as “evil” in Matthew 6:13 is [πονηρός, poneros] which literally means “evil one.”

Therefore, we can never experience a temptation that others have not experienced already. Oh, the situation may be different, but temptations at their core are not new. This is why we have an Advocate Who understands — Jesus. Look at Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One Who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (ESV). This means that because Jesus was tempted as we are and never sinned, He is the best to show and help us when we experience temptation. That is the point of Hebrews 2:18, “For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted” (ESV).

Now 1 Corithians 10:13 affirms that “. . . God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, He will provide the way of escape . . .” This means no Christian can ever say he had no choice or was simply under so much pressure to give into the temptation, they could not resist. 

Years ago when I was younger, an entertainer named Flip Wilson, had a character he names, Geraldine. Geraldine had this often repeated line, “The devil made me do it.” The Bible says we can’t even say that. This means the devil cannot make us sin. The Apostle’s Paul’s point is that we have a bigger and more powerful resource at our disposal — God the Holy Spirit to help us resist temptation. So, why do we give into temptation and sin? We want to, we choose to, and we desire to do it. 

1 Corinthians 10:13 is less about temptation and more about God’s faithfulness. If anyone understood temptation, it was Job. After God allowed the devil to continue and repeatedly assault him, Job’s wife continue to say to him in Job 2:9, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die” (ESV). Look how Job responded to both the devil’s temptation and his wife’s in Job 2:10, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”[a] In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (ESV). And later in Job, Job writes this in Job 5:19, "He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no evil shall touch you” (ESV). Job has many more chapters before God puts a stop to the devil’s attacks. Everyone sins because they willingly choose to sin. 

Now the phrase “the way” is the Greek New Testament word [κβασις, ekbasis] and the Greek structure means there is only one way — God’s way — through it. Whatever the temptation is, or even if it is a test from God, the only way to escape is through it. So what is the point. We do not escape temptation by avoiding it or getting out of it, but by going through it. We see this happened with Jesus when God’s Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness in Matthew 4:1-11 to be tempted by the devil. 

Greek New Testament scholars Robertson and Plummer suggest 1 Corinthians 10:12–13 provides two admonitions; one to the self-confident who think they have no need to be watchful and the other to the despondent, who think it useless to struggle with temptation (Robertson and Plummer, First Corinthians, p. 208). Paul does not specify the nature of the temptation, a term that can refer either to an external trial (testing) or to the internal allurement of sin (Man Taylor, The New American Commentary, “1 Corinthians,” p. 237).

And we see from Jesus’ experience three ways God provides how to go through temptation (adapted from John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, pp. 229-230).

• First, Jesus prayed. That is what we should do. If we do not pray, then we will become prey. When Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane His last night alive, He went there to pray. Knowing how vulnerable His disciples were, He said this to them in Mark 14:37-38, “And He came and found them sleeping, and He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? (38) Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (ESV).
• Second, Jesus trusted God to help Him get through it. We see this in Jesus’ second temptation, where Jesus refused to jump on the top of the temple. He trusted God’s way for people to learn He was the Messiah and Savior of the world. According to Lamentations 3:37-40, “Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? (38) Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? (39) Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? (40) Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!” (ESV). What is the point? — No temptation or test can come to us unless God allows it. Not so that we fall and sin, but so that we push through it so that our character becomes more like the character of Jesus Christ.
• Third, Jesus put all His attention to get though His third temptation by reminding Himself to keep His attention on God. So, the path through any temptation is praying, trusting God and keeping our focus on the King of kings and the Lord of lords — Jesus Christ. No one who has ever lived has ever had to endure more than Jesus Christ did while He was here, His scourging, His crucifixion, His becoming sin for us and feeling the effects of that on the cross in Matthew 27:46, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (ESV). This is the point of Hebrews 12:3-4, "Consider Him Who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (4) In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (ESV).

Scripture To Meditate On: James 1:13-14, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. (14) But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (ESV).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I am so vulnerable to temptation. I do not want to sin against You because I want to bring You glory through my obedience. I realize that “the escape”is pushing through the temptation by utilizing prayer, trusting You and keeping my focus You, Jesus. When a temptation comes by the devil or a test by You, please remind me push through the temptation so that becomes my way of escape. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”