1 COR. x. 13. “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.”
THE apostle has just been warning against too much self-
confidence; he now speaks against the opposite faults, too
much downheartedness and despondency.
I. There is a precise correspondence between strength
and trial. The temptation is proportioned to the power
of resistance. Do not think that there is something hard
and heavy and worse than all the past to come: the burden
is made for the back.
II. The very same Divine act makes both the trial
and the way to get out of it. God tempts us only in the
way of testing us, and He points a way of escape. We
are never brought into a blind alley, it is a thorough-
fare, and we can get out if we please; with the Egyptians
on this side, and the sea on that, God will clear the waters
of the deep to make a way.
III. This must be so unless God make Himself a liar.
I wish to put it strongly. If it were not so, men would
have a right to turn upon God and to say, “Thou hast
deceived me.”
God does not force His help upon us; but nothing will
come to us that we shall not be able to baffle and beat, so
long as we have His strength for ours.
Alexander Maclaren, D.D.