26 Does God Always Provide to Escape Temptation? (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word Podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today we're gonna study 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13. This is the 26th talk in our series on 1 Corinthians. You can follow along with lecture notes for today's talk by going to the link below the podcast, or you can find them on the website. Go to wednesdayintheword.com slash 1 Corinthians 2.6. And while you're there, take a moment to browse the website. There's no charge, no spam, no advertisements, just a lot of Bible study materials. Thanks for joining me today. We're only going to talk about one verse today, 1 Corinthians 10 13, because it's a familiar verse to a lot of believers, and it is one that is often quoted as a standalone verse. 1 Corinthians 10 13 reads, No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man, and God is faithful, who 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. As a new Christian, I was encouraged to memorize this verse as a universal promise. And for years I had no idea that it was part of a three-chapter argument, and I had no clue what Paul meant by it in context. I was taught that Paul gave us this verse to teach us how to successfully battle temptation. So every day we face various temptations to sin or be selfish. And how can I beat those temptations? How can I ensure that I partake of the victorious Christian life and not give in to those battles but emerge successfully obedient? Well, I was taught that every time we face temptation to sin, God has built a way out for us, as we know from this verse. So it's kind of like a secret trapdoor. God provides a way for us to escape the temptation. If we grab hold of that way out, we will avoid falling into disobedience and be delivered from temptation. So how do you avoid falling into sin in your life? Well, in each situation, you look to God for the way out and you follow it. Now it may be different in each case, but God won't let you down. He always builds in a way of escape, but in your sinfulness you may not find it. And if you don't find it, that's on you. It's your fault. Since no other verse in Scripture contains this particular piece of advice, this verse in Corinthians became a very important verse that I memorized and recited to myself in the midst of my struggles. There was only one problem. It didn't work. And that made it worse because there's an implicit rebuke in this verse. If I find myself sinning, it's because I didn't take the escape hatch. If I was on my own, well, of course I'd fail. But I'm not on my own. God is with me and God is faithful and he has provided a way out. I could have taken it, but I didn't, and that's my fault. So now not only am I guilty of sinning, I'm guilty of not having taken the way out. As a new believer, I kept this failure mostly to myself, but it was hugely discouraging. I assumed I was the only person who didn't get it, and it must be because I was such a new believer, because all my Christian friends seemed to be finding the way out. They looked like they had it all together. Well, that understanding of this verse is a kind of catch twenty-two theology. Catch twenty-two is a book you may have read in high school. In the book, one of the characters is desperate to get out of the army during World War II. He's going through hell and he wants out. And you can get out of the army if you're obviously insane, but by definition, if you want to get out, you're sane. So only the people who don't want to get out can leave. And if you want to leave, you can't. And that's the catch twenty-two. So a catch twenty-two is an idea that sounds like it's a good deal, but it's really not. Here's another way to think of it. Imagine you've got a terminal illness, and the only thing that can save you is a mineral that is found on the moon. But you can't go to the moon to get it, so your situation is hopeless. But God in his graciousness scoops up some of this moon mineral and brings it to Earth, and he puts it in a safe for safe keeping. That's the good news. God has graciously brought this unattainable mineral all the way down from the moon to Earth. The bad news is you don't know where the safe is, and if you find it, you don't have the combination to open it. Well that's the problem with this theology. If it's up to us to get this mineral, we're going to fail. When I taught second grade Sunday school, I explained it this way all of us are sinful. Our choosers are broken. That thing inside us that makes us choose ice cream over broccoli or games over homework, it's broken. It chooses the wrong thing. If it's up to us alone to choose life over death or right over wrong or holiness over sinfulness, we will choose sin every time because our choosers are broken. Left to ourselves, we are never going to choose the way out because we're sinners. We choose to sin. We want to sin. Paul discusses this problem in Romans 7. We need someone to fix our broken choosers just like we need the combination to the safe. How do we turn ourselves into the sort of people who can avail ourselves of all this godliness and escaping that God has given us? We lack the resources to do that. We can't choose it because our choosers are broken. That's why I call it a catch twenty-two theology. This idea that God's given you everything you need, but if it's not working, it's your fault is a hopeless position. When I was taught this, I was taught, well, you must not have enough faith, or maybe you're not praying enough, or you're not tithing enough, or you're not doing something right, but it all came down to you're not doing something enough. And you can't even say, God help me, because God has already done his part. According to this theology, he's given you everything you need for life and godliness. He's built in the way out, it's up to you to find it. But the problem is you lack the resources to find it. Well, as you've probably figured out, I no longer agree with that theology. So I want to take some time to look at what Paul is saying in this verse in the context of Corinthians. So first let's remember where we are in the letter. First Corinthians ten is the conclusion of a section that began in chapter eight. The church in Corinth was arguing over the issue of whether it's okay for believers to eat meat that was sacrificed to idols. One group insists that they have the right to eat this meat, and there's nothing wrong with eating it because the idols are fake and the meat is just meat. The other group argues that eating the meat is a form of participating in idolatry and the issue is splitting the church. In chapter eight, Paul said that it's okay to eat the meat, but if eating meat sacrificed to idols would cause someone else to stumble, then we should avoid eating it out of love for our neighbor. Then in chapter nine, Paul used his own situation as an example of how we should think about limiting our freedoms. And he argued that as an apostle he had the right to take support from those he preached to, but whenever taking money might hinder his ability to communicate the gospel, he declined to take it. So if taking money would open him to the charge that he was profiting from the gospel in some way or give someone cause to dismiss him as just after the money, then he refused to take support. But he tells us that he declined to take support for his own sake as well, that his free choice to work instead of taking support showed that he valued the gospel more than money, and that it was important to him that he believed this gospel that he proclaimed, and his choice showed that the gospel was important to him such that even when it cost him to do so he would continue to preach it. So Paul has been arguing that Christian freedoms are not absolute. The right to do something or the freedom to do something can be overshadowed by several other issues. And first is this love for my brother. It would be unloving for me to be that kind of stumbling block in someone else's life. Second, I have to remember that knowing and understanding the gospel is not enough. I have to believe it. I have to stake my life on it and make choices in keeping with faith and belief. And the way I live my life is a reflection of what I believe. So these kinds of situations can be a test of what do I really believe? Do I really believe this gospel that I say I do? And the Corinthians are facing just such a test. They're facing the test is the gospel, the real and valuable truth that we claim to believe, such that we're willing to limit ourselves and our choices to gain it. Or do we just want to have our own way and eat whatever we want to eat whenever we want it? What's more important to me, following what I know to be true and not causing another to stumble or getting my way. Chapter ten then expands on this second point that I have to live out the faith I claim to believe, and Paul looked at the example of the Israelites in the wilderness to make the point that being part of the tribe does not guarantee that God is pleased with you. Each individual has to choose faith and has to choose to follow God. So it's not enough to be part of the group, and he argued all the Israelites participated in the miracles, they saw the miracles, they drank water from the rock, they ate the manna, they ate the quail, they followed the pillar of cloud, they walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. But when life got hard, instead of trusting this God who performed all these miracles for them and taking care of them, they grumbled and rejected him. And Paul argues, learn from that lesson of the Israelites. You need to make a choice in your own life. It's not enough to be part of the tribe. So it is in that immediate context that he writes 10 13. And I'm going to read the New American Standard Version. No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man, and God is faithful, who 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. Let's start with this idea of temptation. What does Paul mean? No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man. This Greek word that's translated temptation shows up in several important passages in the New Testament, and the theme taught by these passages is very important. There are two ways this word can be translated, and both of them are legitimate depending on the context. One is to translate it temptation, as we see here. And this has the flavor of being enticing. For example, we see Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness, and Satan was trying to get Jesus to do something faithless and unbelieving. And that's one way of translating this word, this idea of dangling something in front of you to get you to do something wrong. More often, though, we find this word in the context of a trial or a test, and that's the other way it can be translated as a trial or a test. And the idea of a trial or a test is different. If I'm testing you, I'm not necessarily trying to get you to do wrong. I'm putting pressure on you to see what you're made of. I'm offering you a choice, and your choice will tell me something about you. And that's the difference. Tempt has this idea that I'm trying to get you to do wrong. Test has the idea of I'm trying to show what is true. And the first distinction we need to make then is this distinction between enticing and testing and figure out which one palmings here. The second distinction we need to make is what's at stake. With a temptation, obedience is at stake. So the cash register is left unattended, and I'm tempted to grab a 20, and the test is whether or not I will obey. I can see my neighbor's test paper, I'm tempted to copy her answers. The kids are being irritating, and I'm tempted to get angry with them. So something is tempting me to do something I shouldn't do, and what's at stake is will I obey or not. With trials, persevering in the faith is at stake. The test is not whether I'm a sinner. That question's already been answered. That test is over and we all failed. We are all sinners. That's a known fact. As we live our lives, we will find sin, selfishness, and evil in ourselves. And we will all be selfish, unloving, and rebellious to God in some circumstances. In a trial, what's typically being tested is faith. The question on the table is who or what am I counting on? Do I really believe the promises of the gospel such that when it matters, I choose the way of God over the way of the world? Am I open to the truth of God or not? Will I admit that I'm a sinner and I need God's mercy? When I fail in obedience, will I repent and grieve over my sins? Life is going to present me with circumstances over and over again that confront me with the choice to choose God or the world. And they ask me, what is it you really want? Who are you really counting on? What are you really hoping for and what do you believe? So the issue is not will I sin in this particular moment? The question is will I persevere in faith? And when I fail in a moment, do I turn back to God seeking his mercy and grace or not? When I succeed in a particular moment, do I rejoice with thanksgiving that God has turned me into the kind of person who rejects sin? So what's at stake is whether I stand firm and hold on to the gospel. And we see this idea in Romans and Hebrews and James and 1 Peter, it's a major theme in the New Testament. This idea that God takes us through circumstances that force us to clarify what are our lives really about. Are we going to follow God or not? So that's our second distinction. This issue of whether I'm truly a believer, whether I really have a heart from God. All of us are going to be shown to be sinners, but some of us will be shown to be followers of Christ. For some of us, God has opened our eyes, softened our hearts, and changed us from the inside out so that we want the grace he offers through Christ, and we will make choices that reveal that we're following God. So a trial is when I face a fundamental choice that reveals exactly what my life is about. And I would argue that Paul has been talking about trials in chapter ten. In the early verses of this chapter, he argued not everyone who followed Moses in the wilderness found a favor with God. In fact, most of them didn't because they lacked faith. They refused to trust God and follow him, and they grumbled in the wilderness. So they faced tests or trials in the wilderness, and those trials showed that they lacked faith, and they died in the wilderness and did not enter the promised land. And in several places it says that God tested them to see what was in their hearts. Paul has been arguing in chapter 9 that he faced a test when he had to decide whether or not to take support from the Corinthians. That choice tested what he valued more, getting paid and having an easier life or preaching the gospel clearly and without obstacle. And he chose to preach the gospel clearly, and that revealed something about the nature of his faith. The Corinthians are facing a test of eating meat sacrificed to idols. They want to eat the meat, but it might cause their brothers to stumble and fall back into idolatry. And the test is what's more important to them, loving their brother or getting their way. God says love your neighbor as yourself, but the Corinthians appear to just want their own way. So I would argue up to this point Paul has been talking about trials and not temptations. Translating this word temptation in this verse raises the issue of is God tempting you? And we know from James that God tempts no one. But the Bible does teach that though God does not tempt you, God does test you. God puts you in circumstances and situations that reveal the genuineness and the maturity of your faith. Hebrews uses this same word to say that God tested Abraham, talking about the time that God asked Abraham to offer up Isaac on the altar. God did not tempt Abraham, but God did test him. Now don't think of this testing as a kind of tug of war with God. It's not like I'm trying to win this battle with sin and God is on the other end of the rope pulling against me. That's not the kind of test it is. Of course, in a battle like that I would lose, but that's not the picture. God is not on the other end of the rope trying to get poor innocent little me to sin. The motivation to sin comes from me. I'm the one who wants to sin because I'm a sinner. My own evil heart is pulling the rope towards sin. God's not trying to get you to sin when you wouldn't naturally sin because left to ourselves we would all naturally sin. Rather, God's the one saving us from ourselves. God is the one doing heart surgery to remove our hearts of stone and give us a soft, clean heart. He's testing our faith so that it will grow and mature, and then we have visible, tangible evidence that our faith is real and we stand to inherit the promises of the gospel. So given all of that, you probably won't be surprised to learn that I think temptation is the wrong way to translate this Greek word in this context. I think he's talking about testing or trials. Paul has just been talking about how God tested the Israelites in the wilderness and most of them failed. The problem was not that they were sinners. The problem was that they were sinners who rejected God. They didn't believe. God demonstrated his miraculous care for them over and over again, and then life gets hard and there's nothing to drink, and they grumble and say, Let's kill Moses and go back to Egypt. That's not falling into a little temptation along the way. That's fundamental rebellion. They're rejecting God. The Israelites weren't being enticed to do sin against their better judgment. They were being tested to see if they would follow God in all circumstances. And not once did they find themselves in a hard place and say, Hey, you know what? God provided water for us last time. I'm sure he's going to continue to care for us. Let's stop and pray and trust our needs to him. They never did that. Instead they grumbled and they complained. They were being tested to see if they would genuinely believe a God they literally followed as a pillar of cloud, and they failed. So they faced a test, not a temptation. And remember the point Paul has just made is that all of them were part of the tribe. All of them followed Moses, all were part of his community, all of them saw the Red Sea parted, they walked over on dry ground, they ate the quail, the banana, they drank the water from the rock. But not all of them believed. In fact, most of them didn't. Being part of the community is not enough. Individually they have to choose to follow God. And that's the point Paul's making. Paul's point to the Corinthians is if you think you're standing, you'd better take heed. Being part of the church in Corinth, going through the motions of religion is not enough. You have to believe this gospel you claim to follow, and you're in the midst of trials that test whether or not you have genuine saving faith, and some of you are making the wrong choice. Stop and reconsider what you're doing. So the issue in context is perseverance. It's running the race and finishing it, receiving the prize because you finished the race versus falling away in the wilderness. That's what Paul's been talking about. He's talking about circumstances which test and reveal whether or not we have genuine saving faith. So I would translate this verse No trial has overtaken you but such as is common to man, and God is faithful who will not allow you to be tested beyond what you are able to. But with the trial will provide the way of escape also so that you will be able to endure it. I think that brings us much closer to the context. Paul's been saying some very sobering and serious things here. He's talked about athletes training for the race and some of them fail. He's just quoted numerous Old Testament stories that didn't end so well for the people of God, and he's wrapping up this three-chapter argument where his warnings have become increasingly more pointed and challenging. So I think 1013 is meant to be an encouragement. He's challenged them with some pretty heavy stuff. God's going to test our faith, but he's not setting out to destroy us. That's the encouragement. God is on your side. He's not against you. He's not there trying to get you to stumble and fall away. Paul's speaking to this fear that we all have that if God really put enough pressure on us, we would certainly break. And apart from his grace, we cannot stand. We need his grace. And there's this fear that says, ooh, maybe God's out to get me. Maybe that's why life is so hard. Or as the Israelites said, He brought you brought us out here in the desert so that we would die of thirst. He's just out here to kill us. And Paul is speaking to that fear. He's saying, that's not what God is doing. God is not pushing you until you break. God will not allow you to be tested beyond what you're able to bear. He's not going to break you. God is setting out to test you so that you will grow in faith and maturity. God is not setting out to test you to make you stumble. So he says, No trial has overtaken you but such as is common to man. Your trials are common. All human beings face them. Your trials are human, typical. They are hard, but they're not extraordinary. They don't require the abilities of a superhero. They're just normal trials, and God is faithful. While this verse is an encouraging verse in the context, it's not a promise that there's an escape hatch to avoid sin. There is no promise here that I will be able to evade sin in any particular moment. Because the issue is not whether I will sin, the issue is whether I will persevere in faith, whether my faith will endure. And Paul's saying God's not going to break his promises. Having given you saving faith, God will not take it away. Yes, the trial's hard, but God is faithful. He's not going back on his promises. Now we still have this language about the way of escape to sort out. What does Paul mean by that? This word translated escape here is kind of tricky. There are three main ways it's used. The first is a way out or an exit. And literally this word was used in shipping when your ships are coming in from the ocean and they come to shore and there's no harbor, there's no port. So there is no this word. There's no way out, no way to disembark the ship. Second, the word can mean the end or the conclusion, so it's the finish or the end of something. And third, it can mean the outcome or the result. And there's only one other place this word is used in the New Testament, and that's in Hebrews. And in Hebrews it seems to me that it means the result or the outcome. In Hebrews 13 7, it clearly can't be exit. So how do we put this limited data together? We're looking at a situation where God's testing us. God is faithful, and in the midst of the test, he is providing this word so that we will be able to endure the test. Paul might be saying that God has set a time limit on how much he will test us so that we will endure, and that would be taking that as the end or the finish. But I think taking it closer to outcome makes a much more powerful point. For the people of God, God not only provides the test, he determines the outcome. That is, he ensures that you pass. Having given you saving faith, he will grow it and strengthen it so that the result will be maturity, not failure. So literally, the translation would read something like this God will make together with the trial the outcome also, so that you might be able to endure it. To be able to endure is the outcome that He's providing. Not for everyone who's tested, that's the lesson of the first part of the chapter in the Israelites in the wilderness. But for God's people who have genuine saving faith, the outcome will be passing the test. God's behind it and he guarantees it. To go back to my earlier analogy, it's as if God retrieved the mineral from the moon, he comes to our bedside, gently holds our hand, and gently gives us the medicine, pours it down our throats. If it were up to us alone and to our humanity, we would fail. But we're not alone. We are God's, and He will not let us fail. So no matter what trials come along, God will not let us go. In spite of our humanity and our tendency to fail, God is faithful. He's so faithful that even if his children fail the immediate test, they will eventually repent and grieve over their sins and turn back to him. So we might sin, but we won't fall away. And we know this is a biblical idea. We see Paul making this point in other letters. For instance, in Romans, he says nothing can separate us from the love of God. But I would argue Paul is not saying, if you ever find yourself in a circumstance where you're tempted to sin, look for the escape route God has provided and you'll be able to avoid that sin. Instead, I think Paul is saying, you're being tested. The issue in the test is faith, whether your faith will persevere or not. You're in the midst of a hard circumstance which forces you to confront these fundamental questions of who am I counting on and what am I hoping for. The test is hard, but God is faithful. If you are his, he will finish what he starts and he will not let you fall away. He's not trying to break you, he's trying to strengthen and mature you, and he is determined that the outcome of this test is that you will get to the end of the race with your faith intact. Now let me make a couple of closing comments. First, I want to say again that this catch twenty-two theology, or more properly, victorious Christian living theology, it's just wrong. Any theology that says you can solve your problem with sin now, that you can be prosperous and happy now and escape all your trials now, it's all within your grasp if only you learn our keys to living or find the escape hatch or appropriate the power, it's wrong. The language varies, but it comes down to the same thing. Any theology which says you can be happy and perfectly obedient now, and if you're suffering, you're not doing it right and you need to get your act together, that theology is wrong. Just read James, read first Peter. It's all throughout the New Testament. And I would argue that if we go take a look at each of the passages that they claim support this theology, that they have misunderstood those passages. Trials are part of God's plan for those he loves. Overcoming is persevering in the faith. Being victorious is clinging to and standing firm in the faith despite the trials and the circumstances we face. And finally, God's fingerprints are all over our sufferings. And let me explain what I mean by that. The theology that says God has nothing to do with the bad stuff in this life is wrong. The theology that says God would never actually act in such a way that my life could be difficult or less than ideal is not biblical. Paul says explicitly here that God makes together with the trials the outcome. God makes the trials, God makes the conclusion. He makes both of those things. It is so important to God that we have saving faith and that we grow in our faith and we live our faith out that He lovingly and purposely tests our faith. Like any good parent, God disciplines his children because he truly loves them. And God is willing to sacrifice comfort and ease now for the sake of wisdom and maturity in the end. Because it's much more important that I grow in faith and maturity now than it is that I have an easy life. Because having saving faith in the long term is much more important than being happy in the short term. If I have saving faith, then I have everything worth having, because saving faith is what grants me an inheritance or a place in the kingdom of God. God loves us too much to leave us lost and hopeless in our sins. The way out of that sinful, rebellious state is having saving faith, and therefore God is in the business of making sure that we have saving faith, and that involves testing our faith through trials. So I would say, yes, my ultimate happiness is very much part of God's agenda, but he knows in the long run it's better to go through suffering now that develops a strong, mature, saving faith than it is to be happy now and be oblivious to the gospel. So we don't need to be afraid to say that God put us in trials. It's very much under his control and part of his plan. That's why the biblical authors can talk about rejoicing in trials. Not because they're fun, they're not fun, they're very hard. But we can rejoice at the outcome of the trials. We can rejoice because the suffering is not in vain. It has a grand and glorious purpose, and that purpose and result, that outcome is worth suffering for. So I think that's Paul's point here. God is faithful. Be encouraged. He has a plan and a purpose for your trials that is for your ultimate good. He is on your side, and not only will he get you through, he will bring about strong, mature, saving faith such that you inherit the eternal life he promises in the gospel. You've been listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. My mission is to teach you both what the Bible means and how we know. I pray that this podcast has blessed you. And if it has, please share it with a friend and take a moment to leave a positive rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you leave good ratings, it really does help others on podcasts. To find out more or hear previous episodes, please go to wednesdayintheword.com. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coast. You can find his music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.