April 22
“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, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)
When we as Christians sin, it is because we lose heart, we lose hope, we are deceived, we become proud, or we simply want to sin. We have the power to overcome, but we choose sin over victory. “But you don’t understand, the temptations are too strong for me! I have no choice!” I understand that it seems like temptation is too strong and that you have no choice, but that is an illusion, an excuse, a deception. How do I know this is true in every situation for every Christian? Because I know God’s promises are that He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape.
I also know God’s promise that greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4) I also know that Jesus promised that, “If you abide in My word then you are truly disciples of Mine, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free….If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:31, 32, 36) I also know that we have been “given everything pertaining to life and godliness…for by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” (2 Peter 1:3-4) I also know that “we have been buried with Him through baptism into death…so we too might walk in newness of life…knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:4-7)
Shall I go on? If we are in Christ, we are freed from sin, and sin has no authority to reign in us. When we sin as Christians, it is because we are choosing to sin. If you really think it through, there is a point when we are tempted that we give in, and we choose sin over fellowship with God, over obedience to God, and over the blessings of God. There is a time when we are tempted when we say “no” to the Spirit and “yes” to sin, it is our choice. The Spirit gives us a choice. The blood of Jesus and our identification with Him produces the capacity to say no to sin. The unbeliever doesn’t have that capacity.
The point here is that there is a way of escape, every time we are tempted, and if we want to find it, God will make it abundantly clear to us. If we stumble when we are around certain friends, then the point of temptation is whether we say “yes” to getting together with them; the way of escape is to say “no” to them, because we have proven time and time again that we are not able to resist temptation once we are in their company. Or if I get on the internet late at night, when I am tired and perhaps discouraged, I know full well when I get on in those situations that I will be tempted in a far greater way, far more so that during the daytime after I have had a good rest; for those tempted by pornography the way of escape is to not get on the internet in the first place, especially during the times you know you are most vulnerable. If you do, you are opening the door to sin and closing the door of escape. It should be no surprise that we are tempted and fall when we do such things.
We need to analyze carefully our sin patterns and the thinking and circumstances that precede our sins. In that analysis we will find keys to identifying and availing ourselves of the way of escape, and we can much more easily ready ourselves to avoid temptation.