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‘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.’
1Co_10:13
‘ ’Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall.’
It is of the last importance for our soul’s good that we should keep this distinction ever sharp and clear. It belongeth to devils to feel temptation and to sin from very wickedness. It belongeth to angels not to feel temptation and to serve God with perfect service. It belongeth to man to feel temptation and to conquer.
I. Before temptation can become sin a threefold process must take place, not always, perhaps, separable in time and action, but separable in thought.
(a) There comes the temptation properly so called, a suggestion, that is, to do something which the conscience tells us is wrong, in the region of body, soul, or spirit. But temptation does not remain long in its suggestion stage.
(b) The suggestion is pushed. Satan, like a cunning fisherman, parades his attractions, makes his bait more seductive, lays siege to the will by carefully arranged inducements to bring about acquiescence.
(c) The barrier is passed when the will gives way. It is the consent of the will to temptation which marks the advent of sin; and so in cases where no action follows, where action is not possible, or has been hindered, sin remains in the consent of the will. To will to sin is, in God’s sight, to commit sin.
II. It is important that we should recognise that not only has God never promised us immunity from temptation, but that in the nature of things temptation is inevitable, and that no life is so sheltered as to escape from that which seems to be a necessary part of its discipline. This conclusion is forced upon us if we study the inward meaning of our Blessed Lord’s Temptation. If He Who could not sin was tempted by Satan; if He Who on any showing presented no point of weakness to the seductions of the world was tempted in the three well-known regions of temptation—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life—it is not reasonable to suppose that we can escape. Holiness, abhorrence of sin, do not of necessity keep away temptation; they may attract it.
III. The words of St. Paul ought to be full of hope to us all in a real trial.—Do not let us think for a moment that it is a strange and unusual thing which is trying us, or look upon ourselves as an escaped weed among the choice flowers of Christian holiness. ‘There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.’ We are not engaged in a battle in which we are foredoomed to failure by preliminary unfaithfulness. We might go so far as to say that the very fact that we are tempted proves that we are worth something, that God has something to lose and Satan something to win by our fall. But the consolation which St. Paul gives is even greater than this. There is no temptation too powerful for us if only we are in earnest. This is it: Satan is not going to be driven back by a listless, faithless combatant, who neither believes in God nor in his own God-given strength. David, who trusts in God and is in earnest, can lay low Goliath. A very Samson who forgets God and his duty can be laid low by a woman. Do not despise temptation, you will often have to fight your way step by step to that way of escape. Satan contests every inch. He says you cannot; your nature is weak, your friends have given in, and that it is only a question of time. To repel him now is only to have him back again with renewed force. You cannot. ‘Nevertheless my feet had almost gone, my treadings had well-nigh slipped.’ It is then that an old familiar prayer rises to your lips. Memories of your Confirmation come back to you. Faint and dizzy, you call upon God, and the way of escape seems far away, but gradually the foe falls back. You have won a victory, and to have won a victory means that you have found out your strength.
—
Rev. Canon Newbolt.
Illustration‘When the order comes to go into battle, it may be to defeat and death, but it may also be to glory and victory. Joseph out of the same temptation is brought to ascend the steps of that throne from which David and Solomon after him were thrown down and deposed. The friendless youth who fearlessly can say, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” finds in the fierceness of his temptation the occasion of his future greatness. David, the man after God’s own heart, and Solomon, the wisest of men, find in the same temptation the occasion of falling from their high estate. God forbid that we should minimise for one moment the fierceness and the stress of the trial. The lives of the saints are full of that struggle in which their enemies sometimes took concrete shape, which, like the devil in the Gospel narrative, rent and bruised them, even while departing from them.’
‘God … will with the temptation also make a way to escape.’
1Co_10:13
I. What God promises is the adaptation of the tempting power to the supernatural strength given; and the making with the temptation ‘a way to escape.’ This word is very remarkable; literally it means ‘the exit,’ ‘the way out.’ God promises that with the temptation, which He Himself does not make but merely controls, He will also make ‘a way out.’ It is His promise to the believer in Christ; and if He did not make this ‘exit’ He would not be true.
II. The promise is literally true.—There is a moment in every temptation, a pause between the suggestion and the execution of every wrong thing, when God provides this exit, this ‘way of escape.’ An angry retort, a profane jest, a cruel stab is upon your tongue, but it need not become articulate. A passionate impulse, a sinful desire is in your heart, but if you seek His aid you can resist that last volition which constitutes the actual doing of the sin itself. When lust conceives, it bringth forth sin. The conception and the birth are separate from each other.
III. Away then with all excuses for being what we are.—You do not stand alone in the ranks of fallen beings, that you can make your temptations a pretext for weakness, for worldliness, for self-indulgence, for lack of influence. Despise yourself till, with St. Paul, you are able to confess ‘No temptation has taken me but that which is common to man.’ But, if God adapts the temptation to the strength, you must pray. There is no promise for the strength of grace but to the praying man; and finally, when the temptation is upon you, look out for God’s way to escape.
IV. God has made the way to escape.—Take heed that you miss it not. Each act of sin is a sort of lifetime, with beginning, middle, and end. There is no room here for debate, for weighing, for judging; there is just room for a prayer. This is God’s Will—your sanctification; this is God’s will—that you should be saved. Trifle not, but buy up the opportunity, which is the life of time.
Dean Vaughan.
Illustration‘A German picture called “Cloud-land” hangs at the end of a long gallery; and at first sight looks like a huge, repulsive daub of confused colour. As you walk towards it, it begins to take shape, and proves to be a mass of little cherub faces, like those in Raphael’s “Madonna san Sisto.” Close to the picture, you see only an innumerable company of little angels and cherubim. How often, frightened by temptation, we see nothing but a confused and repulsive mass of broken expectations and crushed hopes. But if, instead of fleeing away into unbelief and despair, we would only draw near to God, we should soon discover that the cloud was full of angels of mercy.’