Recently I was on a trip with my family. Usually I ask the Lord to show me where He wants me to read in His word, when fasting from life. As soon as I opened my Bible it was clear where, two locations actually. One of them is 1 Corinthians 10. If you would focus on 11-14 for a few moments…
“Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.”
First and foremost—“God is faithful”. Yes He is. I’m not all the time, I doubt you are either. God is faithful, in an infinite way. According to the passage, it shows especially when we aren’t faithful. Temptation happens, and we fail sometimes. One thing we can’t do is think ‘we got this’, because we don’t. This is exactly what he says here— “let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” This happens too, doesn’t it? Even when we do… God is faithful.
You’re not alone. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.” Nothing special about your temptation. It may have some tailoring to you, but it’s the same kind of temptation everyone else has had, and will have. The trick is the phrase “taken you”. It’s not the temptation that comes your way, but the one that takes you. There are some temptations that cause us to fail. In so doing, we aren’t faithful. It happens, to all of us, more than we all care to admit.
Even though we fail, God doesn’t. Satan will tempt us, but God is faithful. He will not allow a temptation to hit us head on that is not beyond our ability to get out of it. We always have an off-ramp, because God is faithful. “but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.” He brings us an opportunity in the temptation to get out of it. A way to escape. “…but will with the temptation also make a way to escape.” God plants, in the temptation, our off-ramp. That off ramp is built into all of the temptations, because the off -amp is within us. It isn’t our ability, our spirituality, our toughness. Nope, nothing about our humanity, remember we are not always faithful. But who is? God is. Our way out is: The Spirit within.
Our faithful God does all of this so that we will be about to “bear it.” Cant avoid it. Sin happens, and we are human. This produces a significant edge against us. But, God is faithful, even when we aren’t. He knows our struggles, after all, He lives within. Yes, the whole time we are unfaithful to Him, we drag Him within, with us.
What’s the conclusion to this text? “Flee idolatry.” Of all things, this? Makes sense. You see, when we get close, in any way, to idols of this life… we are severely tempted to turn. We must flee these. It’s not a gold statue in the corner of your living room. Or if it is, please throw it out. Normally it is a thing or person. Idolizing, sacrificing for, dwelling on… anything more than God is wrong. He must have not only first place, but the most space in our life. When we allow any one, or thing, to get that much position with us, we are committing idolatry. Idolatry must be fleed from. We must identify what is taking up this kind of space in our life and run from it.
Temptations that ‘take us’ is one thing, but actively inviting one into our life, in an ongoing basis, is ridiculous. We lose this battle all the time. No doubt we will be unfaithful, we invited it in. But, God is faithful. So flee from this sort of temptation, before we become so unfaithful that we no longer feel the sting of sin.