Temptation

Passage: 1 Corinthians 10:6-10,13; Exodus 17:2-7

English Standard Version Chapter 10

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.

“No Temptation”

Same word within the Greek (peirasmos / πειρασμός)

“He will not let you be tempted”

“We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did (v. 8)”

The word “tempt” can be too limiting in its translation.

When we think of being “tempted” we think of lust, greed, and many other things.

What we DON’T think about is cancer, job loss, violence.

The Context of v.13; v.6-10

English Standard Version Chapter 10

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.

We must not “desire evil as they [Israelites] did”

We must not “put Christ to the test , as some of them did”

We must not “grumble, as some of them did”

English Standard Version Chapter 17

2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the LORD said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

This is the passage that Paul uses as an example for falling into temptation.

“Why do you test the Lord (v.2)”

“We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did (1 Cor. 10:9)

“the people grumbled against Moses (v.3)”

“… nor grumble as some of them did (1 Cor. 10:10)”

The temptation (test) in verse 13 is anything that threatens us or makes us want to grumble.

Sex

Lack of Necessities

Danger / Threaten to Safety

Think of the Nature of Temptation

All temptations are tests of faith

When you are tempted by anything, your satisfaction, contentment, and faith in God is tested.

All tests, therefore, are temptations not to trust God.

Don’t limit temptation to a few sins

Summary:

Tests and Temptations are the same word in the original language

The context refers to both the tug toward the sexual sin and the tug toward anger and fear over the possible pain of obedience.

All temptations are tests, and all tests are temptations; They both always threaten to lead our hearts away from God and His ways.

Temptations threaten to pull us away from God with deceitful pleasures.

Tests threaten to push away from God because of the pain of obedience.