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].
Bu ayetin yorumu
I have enough rich material. Let me compose the answer.
The Setting
Paul has just warned the Corinthians by Israel's wilderness history (1 Cor. 10:1–12), closing with "let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." Verse 13 follows as both a comfort and a caution: no trial they meet is unique, God is faithful, and with the temptation He will make a way of escape so that they may bear it.
A Comfort Joined to a Warning
Kelly draws out the apostle's purpose: Israel had every outward privilege yet thousands fell, so the Corinthian must not lean on his own strength — and yet God's faithfulness is set under him.
William Kelly"Wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful." This was a great comfort, but it was also a serious caution. "God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able." It is in vain, therefore, to plead circumstances as an excuse for sin.
No Excuse from Circumstances
Darby presses the same point against any attempt to blame the flesh or the situation for failure. The verse cuts off every plea of helplessness:
J. N. DarbyWe can never give the least justification to sin and say, The flesh is in us, and we could not help it; for "there has 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 you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it." The theory of the Christian is this — the flesh should never be discovered but in the presence of God... When I learn the flesh thus, I drink into the opposite of it, the grace of God, and so go forth in the strength of what is in God, and not in the shame and weakness of what is in myself.
Why Believers Still Fall — Self-Confidence
If God's pledge is so strong, why does anyone fall? Grant locates the answer in the inward state, not the outward pressure:
F. W. GrantNo force whatever of temptation would suffice to upset or draw away a soul which was finding its strength in God Himself. "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able," is ever true here... A soul that in the thorough consciousness of its weakness rests in God for help is unbreakable to assault. "When I am weak, then am I strong." Self-confidence, therefore, in some form, is the secret of all failure — the root of all actual commission of sin.
Ridout joins the warning of v.12 to the promise of v.13, and turns the believer Godward for the strength to stand:
Samuel Ridout"Let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall." That is true for all of us. We are not to think of ourselves as incapable of falling... when self-confidence comes in, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."... God alone is "able to make us stand." Oh, to realize more and more that we have not strength to hold ourselves up a single moment.
The Hedge of God's Care
The promise reaches beyond moral testing to every kind of pressure. Grant pictures it as a hedge:
F. W. GrantHetzron, "enclosure," may exhibit another kind of care, the hedge around His people which nothing but that which shall work blessing for them may come through. God guards them thus from what would from their feebleness be too much for them. This is a constant mercy, of which we need to be reminded... "He will not suffer us to be tempted beyond that we are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that we may be able to bear it."
Mawson applies it to the believer in actual trouble — sickness, anxiety, bereavement, peril — and links it to Christ's intercession:
J. T. MawsonWhether the sifting comes directly from Satan, or through our circumstances — circumstances of sickness, pain, anxiety, bereavement, hunger, nakedness, peril or sword — "God is Faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it"... think well of the Lord's words to Simon, "I have prayed for thee." He ever lives to make intercession for us.
Summary
- Common, not unique. Every trial that meets a believer is "such as is common to man" — no Christian is singled out for an unmatched test (Kelly).
- God's faithfulness is the anchor. The verse rests not on our strength but on God's character; He measures every trial and sets its limit (Kelly, Grant).
- No excuse for sin. Because the way of escape is always provided, the flesh and circumstances can never be pleaded as a reason for failing (Darby).
- Self-confidence is the real ruin. Falls come not from temptation's force but from a soul that has stopped finding its strength in God; weakness owned before God is real strength (Grant, Ridout).
- A way to bear it. God's promise is not always removal but power to endure — a hedge of providence and the intercession of Christ that carry us through (Grant, Mawson).