So that let him that thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
Paul has just retold Israel's wilderness story: a people with every privilege who still fell. He now turns that history on his readers, warning that feeling safe can be the very thing that puts a person in danger.
One writer stresses that God designed those events as patterns, with us in view.
Verse 11 insists that all these things happened to Israel for types. They did not happen by chance, and they are not just handy lessons someone picked up later. God's own wisdom designed that history. He shaped it so that we would have these specific types to learn from. While they may not have been written to us, yet they are written specifically for us.
The Corinthians boasted about their privileges. One writer weighs how much security those privileges really gave.
Did the Corinthians boast of their privileges and endowments? Here they are shown how little security practices like baptism and the Lord's supper give to those who rest in them. It was not only preachers who were in danger, but everyone who professed faith — not some, but all. Look at the ancient people of God. They too trusted not in God but in His acts and ordinances, in their own special favours... To presume on institutions of the Lord, whether at the start or ongoing, is fatal.
Paul does not write "him who stands," but "him who thinks that he stands."
See the connection between "think" and "stand." If we think we stand, there is no security whatsoever. On the contrary we are very likely to fall. Our security depends not on our thinking but on faith: "and you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear" (Rom. 11:20). ... The believer need not fall if he takes heed.
The cure is not less confidence but confidence pointed somewhere else.
The true believer is marked by confidence in God. The simpler and more absolute that confidence, the better. It is just as true that he has no confidence in himself. The deeper his self-distrust, the better. It is when we think that we stand that we are in danger of a fall. It is quite another thing when a believer has confidence that "God is able to make him stand" (Rom. 14:4).
One writer points to Peter as proof that no one is beyond falling.
We are not to think of ourselves as incapable of falling. Peter's history, and the history of thousands of God's people, show what happens when self-confidence comes in. "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Sooner than we dream, Satan will use our very confidence to trip us into our fall. How many of us — indeed, can any of us — be sure to stand a single hour without falling?
Another writer points to the fear that keeps a person on his feet.
The day that a believer falls is the day that he ceases to fear to fall. So long as the fear is in the heart, the feet will be kept by God.
Some read this verse as a threat to a believer's security. One writer answers by asking whom the verse describes.
"Thinks he stands" has nothing to do with being "in Christ and Christ in us." For those, there is no condemnation. Nor will you find in the New Testament any word of a man being in Christ, or made alive, and lost. But this phrase does not necessarily involve final ruin. Any of us may fall if we are not watchful. We are already on the way to falling if we do not watch and pray so that we do not enter into temptation.
The warning does not end in fear. One writer shows the resource God gives, and the command that follows.
The Apostle warns us against the natural self-confidence of the flesh. Let us not think that, because we have taken part in the Supper, we are safe from falling into the grossest sins. But, we are reminded, God is our resource. The temptations that come upon us are common to man. God never allows us to be tempted without making a way of escape, though we may neglect that way. "Therefore," says the Apostle, "flee from idolatry."
- Written for us — God designed Israel's failures as patterns. The warning is not old history; it is for today.
- Privilege is no shelter — baptism, the Lord's Supper and gifts gave the Corinthians no protection. Israel trusted its own favours and still fell.
- The danger word — the risk sits in "thinks." Security rests on faith, not on what we think of ourselves.
- Confidence moved — distrust yourself deeply, and trust God absolutely. He is able to make us stand.
- A way out — every temptation is common to man. God always makes an escape, and our part is to flee idolatry.
No temptation has taken you but such as is according to man's nature; and God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able [to bear], but will with the temptation make the issue also, so that [ye] should be able to bear [it].
Paul has just warned the Corinthians: whoever thinks he stands should watch out for a fall. This verse is the comfort attached to that warning, and it raises two questions — what limits a temptation, and what God promises in the escape.
The promise stands against self-reliance. One writer contrasts two kinds of confidence:
The true believer trusts God, and the simpler and more complete that trust the better. Just as truly, he has no confidence in himself, and the deeper his self-distrust the better. It is when we think that we stand that we are in danger of a fall.
That matters for the promise itself. The measure of "your ability" is not set by natural strength:
He is speaking, of course, of a soul in the true condition of conscious helplessness before Him. If we are self-confident, we will find even the smallest temptation too strong for us. But if we are in a right condition — which should be normal for the Christian — God will not let temptation grow too strong for us.
Whatever the Corinthians faced was ordinary human trial. One commentator points out that Christ's own testing went further:
No temptation had come to them beyond what is common to man. Christ was tried beyond it while He lived on earth. He was tested at the start of His service as well as at the end. He was tried in all things as we are, apart from sin — and also beyond what belongs to man, tempted for forty days in the wilderness. We can only overcome in our little trials the way He overcame in His great ones. We depend on God and obey His word, and the Spirit arms that word with power against Satan.
Since God sets the limit, the weight of any trial is a matter of His care, not of accident:
When God puts His children in the school of the cross, He deals with them gently. He does not leave them without a promise: "God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability." He will not lay a giant's burden on a child's back. He will not stretch the strings of the instrument too far, in case they break. If God sees it good to strike with one hand, He will support with the other. Either He will make the faith stronger, or make the yoke lighter.
The English phrase can mislead. Commentators are careful to say the promise is not removal of the trial:
"Way of escape" might make us expect a way out of the temptation altogether. It is not that. It is that God always sees to it that there is a way through, by which we may come out unharmed at the other side. Temptation may be like a long dark tunnel, but the light of day is always visible at the far end.
The same distinction is put in terms of what the tried heart receives while the pressure lasts:
Notice, God does not promise a way of escape from the trial. He promises a way of escape in the trial, for the sorely tried mind and heart. Through this ministry of grace we can bear the trial to the glory of God.
God guarantees both the limit and the escape. So the verse removes every plea of helplessness:
We can never excuse sin in the least and say, "The flesh is in us, and we could not help it." The Christian's principle is this. We should never find the flesh at work anywhere but in the presence of God. There it is always in the presence of grace and of holiness too. This is the true power of our walk.
Others press the point to its furthest edge — the exit God provides may cost everything:
First, no one has to yield to temptation, for God is faithful and will always make a way to escape. Writers have often pointed out that the way of escape may be through death. No one can be forced to give way to temptation, since he can always choose to die rather than yield — "In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood."
- Danger: This verse answers self-confidence. The moment we think we stand is the moment we are near a fall.
- Limit: Nothing that reaches a believer is superhuman. It is the common trial of every human, and Christ went beyond it.
- Measure: God Himself sets the weight. He lays no giant's burden on a child's back. He either strengthens the faith or lightens the yoke.
- Escape: Not a door out of the trial but a way through it — grace to bear it, with light visible at the far end of the tunnel.
- Result: We can never blame sin on circumstance. The escape is always there, even if taking it costs life itself.