1 Corinthians 10:13 There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful… The design of the apostle seems to be the establishment of two things — 1. That it is not man himself, but God, who delivers out of temptation; and — 2. That the ways by which God does this are above man's power, and for the most part beyond his knowledge. Now these considerations are great in themselves, but greater in their practical consequences. These are: — I. THAT THE ONLY TRUE ESTIMATE OF AN ESCAPE FROM TEMPTATION IS TO BE TAKEN FROM THE FINAL RESULT OF IT. From whence these two things follow. First, that an escape from a temptation may consist with a long continuance under it; indeed so long, that God may put an end to its life altogether. Secondly, that a final escape may well consist with several foils under a temptation. For a foil given or received is not a conquest. The tempter may be worsted in many a conflict, and yet come off victorious at last. True, "if we resist the tempter he will fly from us," but he may return and carry all before him. It is not every skirmish which determines the victory. Let no man then flatter himself, yet let him not despond; for God may deliver him for all this; only let him continue the combat still. Nothing should make us give up our hope till it forces us to give up the ghost too. But God will have us wait His leisure. There is a ripeness for mercy as well as for judgment, and consequently there is a fulness of time for both. II. NO WAY OUT OF ANY CALAMITY IF BROUGHT ABOUT BY SIN OUGHT TO RE ACCOUNTED A WAY MADE OR ALLOWED BY GOD. On the contrary, it is a seeking to cure the burnings of a fever by the infections of a plague; a flying from the devil as a tempter, and running into his hands as a destroyer. The temptations which men generally attempt thus to rid themselves of are either from suffering, or from the pretence of compassing some great good by an action in itself indeed evil, but vastly exceeded by the good brought to pass thereby. But this is a wretched fallacy. The procurement of the greatest good cannot warrant the least evil, nor the safety of a kingdom commute for the loss of personal innocence. While men fly from suffering, they are so fatally apt to take sanctuary in sin: which is to go to the devil to deliver them out of temptation. For so men certainly do where suffering is the temptation, and sin must be the deliverance. III. TO CHOOSE OR SUBMIT TO THE COMMISSION OF A LESSER SIN TO AVOID THE COMMISSION OF A GREATER OUGHT NOT TO BE RECKONED AMONGST THOSE WAYS WHEREBY GOD DELIVERS MEN FROM TEMPTATION. I have heard it reported of a certain monk, who for a long time was worried with three temptations, viz., to commit murder, or incest, or to be drunk; till at length, quite wearied out, he pitches upon the sin of drunkenness, as the least, to avoid his solicitation to the other two. But the tempter was the better artist. For having prevailed upon him to be drunk, he quickly brought him in the strength thereof to commit both the other sins too. Such are we when God abandons us to our own deluded and deluding judgment. IV. IF IT BE THE PREROGATIVE OF GOD TO DELIVER MEN OUT OF TEMPTATION, LET NO MAN, WHEN THE TEMPTATION IS FOUNDED IN SUFFERING, BE SO SOLICITOUS HOW TO GET OUT OF IT, AS HOW TO BEHAVE HIMSELF UNDER IT. Nothing so much entitles a tempted person to relief from above as an unwearied looking up for it. In every arduous enterprise, action must begin the work, and courage carry it on; but it is perseverance only which gives the finishing stroke. V. THERE CAN BE NO SUFFERING BUT MAY BE ENDURED WITHOUT SIN; AND IF SO, MAY BE LIKEWISE MADE A MEANS WHEREBY GOD BRINGS A MAN OUT OF TEMPTATION. The Christian martyrs were a glorious and irrefragable proof of this. No evil, how afflictive soever, ought to be accounted intolerable, which may be made a direct means to escape one intolerably greater. And death itself, which nature fears and flies from as its greatest enemy, is yet the grand instrument in the hand of mercy to put a final period to all temptations. (R. South, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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