Scripture Daily

Context No. 371 of 4322 · 1 Corinthians

Context · Reflection

1 Corinthians 10:13-18: in context

13No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 14Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 15I speak as to wise men. Judge what I say. 16The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ? 17Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf of bread. 18Consider Israel according to the flesh. Don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?

This passage holds one of the most quoted promises in the New Testament, and it is worth reading the fine print. No temptation has overtaken you, Paul says, except what is common to man. That first line already does something important: it tells you that whatever you are wrestling with is not unique to you, not a sign that you are uniquely broken or uniquely cursed. It is common, shared, human. Temptation almost always whispers that you are alone in it, and Paul cuts that lie off at the start.

Then the promise: God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, so that you can endure it. Two things in that are easy to miss. First, the ground of the promise is God's faithfulness, not your strength. And second, notice what Paul says immediately after: therefore, flee from idolatry. That is not a change of subject. It is the shape the way of escape usually takes. The escape God provides is rarely a sudden lifting of the desire while you stand still; it is a door marked flee, and you have to actually walk, or run, through it. The very next word after the promise of an exit is a command to use your feet. And most of us, honestly, would rather stand in the temptation and try to master it, to prove we can handle it, than take the un-heroic door of simply leaving.

That is the quiet challenge here. God has promised there is always a way out, and the way out is usually not glamorous; it is fleeing, removing yourself, closing the door, walking away. Where am I standing my ground in a temptation, waiting for it to lift or determined to conquer it head-on, when God has already set an exit right beside it, marked flee, that I keep refusing to walk through?

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