no excuses

1 Corinthians 10:13

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. (NLT)

The only temptations that you have are the same temptations that all people have. But you can trust God. He will not let you be tempted more than you can bear. But when you are tempted, God will also give you a way to escape that temptation. Then you will be able to endure it. (ERV)

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (ESV)

No temptation has come your way that is too hard for flesh and blood to bear. But God can be trusted not to allow you to suffer any temptation beyond your powers of endurance. He will see to it that every temptation has a way out, so that it will never be impossible for you to bear it. (J. B. Phillips)

No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it. (The Message)

Any temptation you face will be nothing new. But God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can handle. But He always provides a way of escape so that you will be able to endure and keep moving forward. (The Voice)

I went to biblegateway.com & just scrolled down through the various translations they offer there for this single verse.

Ok, no matter how we translate this verse, they all say basically the same.

***Whatever we are tempted with is not all that unique, strange, special, or uniquely designed just for us individually – somebody else sometime in the past or present has or is experiencing the same thing.

***God's NOT gonna let us be tempted with something we can't handle – let me repeat that – God's NOT gonna let us individually be tempted by something that He knows we can't handle.

***And God's Always gonna provide a way out for each of us each time so we don't have to yield to it & end of sinning.

You know what this means, don't ya?

We ain't got no excuses.

“The devil made me do it.”

“I just couldn't control myself.”

“It was just SO overwhelming.”

“I'm just SO weak.”

“I just couldn't help myself.”

“It was stronger than me.”

“I'm just hopeless & helpless when it comes to that.”

“Something just took a hold of me.”

You have one you can add? Put it in the comments.

What's the bottom line here?

Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, a pretty sinful place.

(What place wasn't back then – what place ISN'T that way now, today?!)

And Paul just lays it out there – we can't make any excuses.

If we in our heart of hearts REALLY don't want to sin against God, we don't have to.

I know, I know – that's a hard sell – imagine what a hard sell that was for Paul!

But that's what Paul wrote the Christ followers in Corinth.

God protects us for stuff that too much for us & give us a way out & the strength to resist it.

Chew on that today – especially when we face the hurricane for temptations we will face today.