Myths about Temptation
I Corinthians 10:6-13
Introduction:
Have you ever heard the stories about siblings who convince one of their siblings that they were adopted? It often really affects the one that is made to believe they are adopted. What a relief they feel when they finally talk to the parent and find that it isn’t true.
Many times, what we think we know about a situation is more problematic than the situation itself. This is just as true of a child believing that he has been adopted as it is of each of us believing a myth about temptation. How can we hope to live victoriously in and for Christ if we believe temptation attacks us because we’re horrible human beings of because God is mad at or wants to mess with us? How can we hope to overcome temptation if we think we must rely on our own strength to do it- especially when it seems designed to target the weak spots in our armour?
There’s something freeing and perspective-changing about learning the truth and dispelling a myth. In fact, that’s one of the premises of the television show Mythbusters. If you aren’t familiar with the show, they take many things that happen in movies or made famous from YouTube clips and test them in the real world to see they are real or make believe. Once we know the truth, we can walk in it with confidence. And what better truth is there than what we find in God’s Word?
One of the well-know Bible passages dealing with temptation is in 1 Corinthians 10. What’s amazing to me is that they key to dispelling three of the most prominent myths about temptation is found in a single verse:
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.
1 Corinthians 10:13
Let’s begin to examine some common myths about temptation and see what the Bible really teaches about that myth.
1. Myth #1: “I’m being tempted because I did something wrong.” (Job 8:1-6)
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard some variation of this myth. It is beyond common for us to believe that trials and temptations come into our lives because we’re weak or broken or guilty of some sin. Now, don’t get me wrong; when we fall to temptations, we have sinned. But too many people believe that the very presence of temptation indicates a problem. They think, “there must be something wrong with me because of the way I’m tempted.”
One of the problems with this logic is that it’s self-defeating. If I believe I’m only tempted because there’s something inherently wrong with me, the battle’s already half lost. Before long, I’ll lose the motivation to fight at all. I’ll start thinking, “I don’t have a chance of beating this, so what’s the point of trying?” Soon, I’ll be giving way to temptation left and right and staggering under the weight of my own shame.
TRUTH: EVERYBODY GETS TEMPTED.
Here’s the truth: there’s nothing wrong with you. You are not the first to struggle with temptation or a set of temptations. Everybody- from the worst person to the “holiest" person you can think of- is tempted. We know this because in 1 Corinthians 10:13 Paul tells us temptation is “common to man.” While temptation is not common in the sense that we are all tempted by the same sin or trial, it is common in the sense that it happens to all of us, without fail!
Audience members of television talk show will sometimes find themselves the lucky beneficiaries of gifts ranging from the useless to the extravagant, depending on the generosity of the show’s producers. A comedian once joked that Oprah’s audience gifts were so lavish they bordered on the ridiculous, like a personalized Rolls Royce. Little did he know that in 2007 for her annual “Favourite Things” episode, she really would give everyone in the audience a brand-new car.
Although the temptation is certainly not a gift we want, it presents itself to all of us at various times in our lives. It doesn’t come only to the rich because they have more resources to be tempted by. It doesn’t come only to those who have made mistakes in the past because they’re more likely to mess up again. Temptation happens to EVERYBODY!
It happened to Adam and Eve, the first people ever created. (Genesis 3:6) Even Jesus experienced temptation (Luke 4:1-13; Hebrews 4:15). We’ll talk more about this later, but one thing we can conclude is that if Jesus was tempted, the problem must not be with being tempted! It’s not sinning to simply be tempted. The problem concerns how we RESPOND to temptation.
2. Myth #2: I can’t resist temptation.”
Oscar Wilde famously once said, “I can resist everything except temptation,” and sometimes this is the attitude we take when a test arrives in our lives. We give temptation too much credit in assuming it is inevitable that we will fall to it. Once I heard a woman complaining that she’d just ruined a weeks-long diet because a co-worker brought a plate of brownies to the office kitchen. When asked why she’d eaten them, she answered, “They just sat there, tempting me, taunting me, daring me. What was I supposed to do?”
TRUTH: TEMPTATION DOESN’T HAVE TO WIN.
If that lady had read our verse closely, she would have known what she was supposed to do. She was supposed to acknowledge the fact that she did have a choice. The first words are, “There hath no temptation taken you.” The ides in the word translated taken means to be “overtaken.” You see, while temptation my come, no temptation needs to overtake us. Succumbing to temptation is not inevitable.
If giving in to temptation were inevitable, there would be no need for the latter half of 1 Corinthians 10:13, which tells us that God provides a way of escape.
3. Myth #3: “God won’t give me more than I can handle.”
Some Christians love to interpret 1 Corinthians 10:13 to mean, “God will never give us more than we can bear.” I understand why we would want to think about this. It sounds great in difficult times, and sometimes it even brings a measure of comfort, however small. We think, “If God won’t give me more than I can handle, He must have thought I was strong enough to handle this.”
The problem with this logic is that it puts the burden of getting through temptation and other difficult times squarely on us. But if God wanted us to handle our own problems, why would we have verses like these?
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1 Peter 5:7
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psalms 46:1
If anyone knew trouble in the Bible, it was David. In 1 Samuel 30- hunted by King Saul and on the run for his life- David’s situation went from bad to much, much worse. He and his men returned from a trip to their encampment at Ziklag to find it burned and their wives and children were taken captive. David’s men, who had been loyal to him until that point, had finally had enough and were talking about killing him.
I’m sure some well-meaning person could’ve chosen that moment to commiserate with David, to pat him on the back and tell him, “Cheer up, mate, God won’t give you more than you can handle.” But David didn’t waste time trying to figure out whether or not he was strong enough to survive this latest trouble. He turned to his only source of help.
And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
1Samauel 30:6
TRUTH: GOD WON’T GIVE YOU MORE THAN HE CAN HANDLE- AND HE CAN HANDLE EVERYTHING!
If you’ll look back over the hardest times in your life, you’ll quickly find a pattern emerges: most of the things you thought you couldn’t handle were things you actually couldn’t handle! Not in your own strength, anyway. You see, God routinely gives us more than we can handle. And He does it with the purpose that leads back to Him.
Our society is consumed with the idea that we are in charge, that we should be our own heroes. The late Nelson Mandela, who was a hero to many, was said to be fond of the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley. The last stanza reads,
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
The thought that our “fate” is up to us is empowering, in a way. It makes us feel we can do anything. But here’s the truth: if you’re the captain of your soul, the only thing you’ll do is cause a shipwreck. There is one story for all of human existence, and God is the author, the finisher, and the only hero of it. He is the only one capable of rescuing our souls from eternal spiritual death through salvation. Our victory over temptation in life can only come as we realise our utter dependence on Him and His everlasting faithfulness to us. This is why Paul concluded in the latter half of our key verse, “…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.” I (Corinthians 10:13)
Listen to these testimonies of our faithful God:
Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
Deuteronomy 7:9
It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
2Peter 2:9
But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
2 Thessalonians 3:3
This realisation should fill you with indescribable joy. God’s power is so unimaginably great that He can save us from the pull of sin if we choose to yield to Him rather than to temptation. What’s more, He keeps His Word- always! We read in 1 Thessalonians 5:24 that “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” But the key to knowing God’s victory in life is knowing God personally as Lord and Saviour.
The writer of Hebrews wrote, “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” If we reject the offer of salvation made possible through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we will never have the escape route we need to resist temptation and avoid sin and its resulting consequences- death (Romans 6:23). The only reason we even have the power to say “no” to temptation in the first place is because Jesus died to free us from our slavery to sin. Paul explained that before Christ, we were “the servants of sin” (Romans 6:17). This means we had no choice but to do wrong. Even the things we would think of as “righteousness” do not measure up to God’s standard:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 3:23
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Isaiah 64:6
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Romans 6:22
Do you know that you have a relationship with God? Do you personally know the faithful One who is our resource for victory over temptation and sin? If you do not or if you are not sure, I’d encourage you to speak to me after the service!
If you do know Christ as Saviour, realise that He not only saved you from the penalty of sin- eternal separation in Hell- but He also saved you from the power of sin in your daily life. Because of what Jesus did at the cross, you and I have a way to escape from temptation.
This message series is based upon the book Escape: How to Have Victory Over Temptation by Stephen Chappell.
