“No temptation has overtaken you except something common to mankind; and God is faithful, so He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
People often quote this verse to encourage those who are going through trials or difficult circumstances, but the true context is in relation to temptation. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, a church that allowed immoral behaviors to continue among the body and failed to hold their brothers and sisters accountable for open sin. His letter is a strong rebuke to a carnal and spiritually immature body who struggled with separating themselves from the pagan culture around them.
1 Corinthians 10 is a blueprint for Christ-followers who want to walk in faithful obedience to God’s commands and avoid falling into sin when temptations come. Paul takes us back to a time period in Israel’s history that they would rather forget when he revisits the rebellious children of God in the wilderness. He begins by recounting their spiritual heritage. All the children of Israel experienced God’s miraculous rescue across the Red Sea; all ate the manna; all saw God provide water from a rock; all were protected by the presence of God in the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.
Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness. “Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved” (1 Corinthians 10:5-6).
All believers have access to the same spiritual resources found in Christ if we have been saved. Yet, it is our individual choices that determine how successfully we navigate the temptations of life, because faith is a personal experience.
Paul describes four actions or attitudes that tempted the Israelites to stumble and fall into sin. Each begins with the letter “I,” which is appropriate because just as faith is personal, sin is personal.
“Do not be idolaters, as some of them were as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play’” (1 Corinthians 10:7).
Paul quotes from Exodus 32:6. In that chapter, Moses had been up on the mountain too long, and the people panicked because they set their faith in a man instead of in the God Moses represented. Quickly forgetting all they had seen of God’s activity on their behalf, they abandoned their commitment to Him and demanded a god they could see and touch, an idol to which they could bow down.
Aaron complied, and the golden calf was presented as a poor imitation of the one true God who brought them out of Egypt. The people took the blessings of God (the plundered gold from their Egyptian masters) and used it to commit spiritual adultery, worshipping the gift instead of the Giver.
Idolatry tempts us to depend on our material possessions, relationships, careers, prestige, and status more than – or instead of – depending on God. We may not “bow down” to a golden idol, but anything that supplants God as the highest and final authority in our lives is an idol, as well as anything we turn to for satisfaction and fulfillment other than Him.
A good measure of idolatry is to ask ourselves if we own anything or have anything in our lives that we would be unwilling to give up, even if it meant disobeying God’s clear commands in Scripture. Is obeying, serving, and pleasing God the most important thing in our lives? In this same chapter of 1 Corinthians 10, Paul admonishes us that whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God (10:31).
1 John 2:16 – “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”
“Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day” (1 Corinthians 10:8).
Not content with simply substituting an idol for God, the people have descended into a new kind of sin, the worship of Baal of Peor. They intermarried with the daughters of Moab, a practice which was strictly forbidden for this very reason (Numbers 25). Baal was a fertility god and the worship rites often included sexual acts and child sacrifice to appease the gods and ensure good harvests.
Immorality comes from Greek word porneuō. It means to act the harlot, either literally by indulging in unlawful lusts, or figuratively by practicing idolatry. It is the same Greek word from which we get our English “pornography.”
Sexual immorality is perhaps what comes to mind immediately when we use the word “temptation.” While believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, we live in unredeemed physical bodies still plagued with fleshly desires. Not only that, but we live in a culture that worships sex and promotes sexual pleasure as one of the highest goals, and proclaims freedom to pursue it in all forms, at all costs, with nothing off limits. Marriage is irrelevant and unnecessary. Adultery is common. Pornography is accepted as normal. With the push for more and more “sexual freedom,” homosexuality, the attack on God’s created genders of male and female and the rise of transgenderism are no longer moral issues, but civil rights. There are even groups that are working to present pedophilia as simply another reasonable choice of lifestyle.
Immorality is a dangerous sin because it not only destroys our bodies, but our souls. God gives a simple plan of escape: flee! To flee is to run away quickly before we are caught. We remove ourselves from the place of temptation. We eliminate anything that would provide an opportunity for sexual temptation and commit ourselves to living in obedience to God’s commands. We choose not to meet with that person, to answer that text, or to go to that place. We move our computer to a public location with accountability. We trade in our iPhone for a flip phone. We cancel our movie channels and set up accountability programs on our tv and other devices. We flee.
1 Corinthians 6:18 – “Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
“Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents” (1 Corinthians 10:9).
What does it mean to “try” the Lord? The word is ekpeirazō, meaning to “put to proof God’s character and power.” God led the children of Israel the longer way around Edom, and the people became impatient because of the journey (Numbers 21:4). The road was hard. The circumstances were difficult. Food and water were scarce. God’s plan did not make sense to them, so they spoke against Him, and His leader, Moses, in their impatience, questioning God’s character and goodness.
When we face difficult circumstances and God does not seem inclined to rescue us or change our situation, we are tempted to question His character and His power because He is not acting quickly enough on our behalf. The truth is, we can never equate what we perceive as inactivity to be inability. In our impatience we are tempted to worry and complain (both sinful actions). We may dishonor God’s name by saying things about Him that are not true.
When we are tempted to sin in our impatience, we must choose instead to trust God, believing by faith that He is working all things for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). We remind ourselves that life is short, and trials and tribulations are temporary. We ask God to give us His perspective and wisdom and set aside any confidence in our own understanding (James 1:2-5; 4:13-17).
Proverbs 3:5-6 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”
“Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer” (1 Corinthians 10:10).
This verse refers to a time of division, jealousy, and conflict in the wilderness camp known as “Korah’s Rebellion.” Two hundred and fifty leaders assembled together to question why Moses and Aaron were given special honor as spokesmen for the Lord. They accused them of exalting themselves above the people. Moses called them out on their ingratitude.
You see, Korah’s family had already been set apart to serve in the Tabernacle. Moses confronts them, saying “Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to Himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them? … Are you seeking for the priesthood also?” (Numbers 16:9, 10b). They were not content with what God had already blessed them with; they grumbled. They were ungrateful, and so they sinned.
Gratitude is something that must be practiced intentionally. There will always be other people that seem to have more, or are able to do more, than we do. Falling into the comparison trap is a prescription for becoming unhappy, discontented, ungrateful grumblers. Gratitude shows that we are trusting God to provide all that we need and are satisfied with what He has already provided.
Isaiah 25:1 – “Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.”
Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Paul intentionally chose these four temptations: idolatry, immorality, impatience, and ingratitude, because they are common to man (1 Corinthians 10:13). We all struggle with allowing the things of this world to take precedence over our commitment to God. We all live in fleshly bodies that struggle with desire and lust. We all grow impatient at times when life is difficult or challenging. And we all have a tendency to forget how blessed we truly are.
Regardless, according to our key verse above (1 Corinthians 10:13), we don’t have to sin. God has provided a way of escape, no matter how intense the temptation or how weak we may be. God has promised to be faithful to show us that way, so that we can endure the temptation and come out of it victoriously.
There are many scriptures that give us wisdom and truth to overcome temptation in specific circumstances, but ultimately it comes down to our willingness to humble ourselves and ask God for help. Paul admonishes us in this same passage, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). James gives us the same advice as he remind us “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:6-7).
We can prepare ourselves for temptation by hiding God’s word in our heart (Psalm 119:11). We can pray when tempted (Matthew 26:41), knowing that Jesus identifies with our struggles and we can find mercy and grace to help in our time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16). God’s Spirit in us is greater than any temptation we face, and by faith we can, truly, be overcomers (1 John 4:4; 5:3-5).
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