Another thing we need to remember is what Paul tells us in verse 13: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” This is a verse you should memorize and get in your mind early in the Christian life. It says temptation is common, and just because you are a Christian, you are not going to escape it. But in the very temptation, God provides the way of escape for Christians. So if you fall into sin, it is not God’s fault. You cannot say that you just could not help it. That is a lie of the devil. You could help it because God gave you the way of escape. The reason why so many of us fall so often is that we are not looking for that way. Instead we are looking at the temptation, and the devil is asking us, “Wouldn’t you like to do that?” And then we are shown the open door by which we can escape it, but we do not want to go through the door because we are more interested in the temptation.
At this point it is really worth thinking about the ways temptation comes because as you study what the Bible has to say about temptation, one thing we learn is that temptation comes to us from different sources. Some temptation is toward what it calls the flesh. We probably first think of sexual sin here, but there are other fleshly sins as well. Overeating is a fleshly sin. Laziness is another one.
There are also sins that come to us from the world, as it tries to force us into its mold. We are constantly told to think like the world, to have the world’s priorities, and to make choices the way the world does. People are tempted to try to get to the top of their profession at the expense of other people, to put on airs at a party, to cut other people down because they think it makes them look better. All that is worldliness. We are also told of a third category of temptation, which comes to us directly from the devil.
It is interesting as you study what the Bible has to say about those different sources of temptation that we are given different instructions in resisting them. In other words, there is to be a different strategy in each category. Take this matter of fleshly sins first of all. What does the Bible say that we are to do in that case? Well, when Paul was writing to Timothy in his first letter to the young pastor, he was talking about sexual immorality. Paul gave him very simple advice that any young man or any young woman should heed in similar situations. He said to run away from it. If you find yourself in a situation where you are tempted to a fleshly sin, do not stand around and debate it. Get out of that situation.
Why are we to handle those kinds of sins in that way? Because in other situations, you always have your reason on your side. For example, if you are tempted to cheat on your income tax, you can think that you might get away with not paying a right amount of tax. But then you logically think through the matter and conclude that the computers people use are pretty accurate, and you might get caught. Your reason comes as an ally to offset the temptation.
But if you are tempted to sexual sin, for example, you know that your reason does not have a whole lot to do with it. I doubt very much if a couple ever got into sexual involvement outside of marriage after sitting down and reasoning it all out. It just does not work that way. This is why you are to run from that kind of situation. Get it in your mind that when that particular temptation comes, you are going to flee from it because that is how it is overcome. The same thing applies to overeating. The only way to resist overeating is stop eating. Get up from the table and go do something else. If you are indulging in too much television, the only thing to do is to turn it off.
