Temptations Seize Us

By Cal Cook

This week’s excerpt from 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 at first glance seems to be out of left field. It starts with a statement that sounds like it’s part of a greater statement, and it is…kind of. Paul in the previous chapter is writing about how those who do the work of the Lord deserve their pay yet, he has tried to be an example for them. Paul writes of a runner striving towards the goal and athletes training for the prize. So he also strives to bring his body into submission and under control to win the eternal prize. His last line is most insightful for our reading:

1 Corinthians 9:27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

So then the example of the Israelites in the wilderness is given as people who were disqualified to see the Promised Land. The analogy to us as those under the Grace of Christ can be seen in the references to the Israelites being baptized as followers of Moses. Even after having been given this great privilege of experiencing this miraculous delivery from Egypt, being led by the cloud of God, eating spiritual food (manna) and drinking spiritual water that burst forth from the rock that is Christ…they still sinned repeatedly.

We are given a similar great privilege. We are not under the difficult requirements of the Law, we have been given the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us. We have the spiritual food of the Word of God available to us in greater abundance than ever before. We have the refreshing water that flows from the spring of Christ within us…we have so much freedom available to us!

Don’t abuse it as many of the Israelites did! Their desires were placed on evil things; they were placed on things other than what God freely gave them. Much Like Adam and Eve in the Garden, they desired the one thing that they were told not to eat.  

Genesis 3:6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.

It’s like we as a people refuse to learn from those who go before us! It would seem as if we’re doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again…are we? Well of ourselves I say yes, yet with Christ all things are possible.

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.

We find our hope in the one who went before us and showed us the way! He was tempted, just as we are…yet he did not sin! We look to the cross as our hope in this life and for the next. In this life there sometimes seems as if there is no hope. People are grasping for hope in all sorts of things, money, possessions…family. Yet our hope is found in the One who made us, who has given us example after example for us to learn from. He gives us opportunity after opportunity to choose His way; He gives us a way out every time today’s passage tells us. Yet He loves us so much that even when we can’t seem to learn from others and have to learn for ourselves…the price is paid…if we just turn to Him and ask, we are forgiven.

Temptations seize us all, yet because of love we don’t have to let them control us!