Are You Smart Enough To Resist?

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: Are You Smart Enough To Resist? ------------------- Date: 3/14/2001
Keywords: "Common" "Faithful" "No temptation"
Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation.

Passages:

1 Corinthians 10:13*

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Ecclesiastes 1:10-11*

10. Is there anything of which one might say, "See this, it is new"? Already it has existed for ages Which were before us.

11. There is no remembrance of earlier things; And also of the later things which will occur, There will be for them no remembrance Among those who will come later still.

Questions

1. Do you feel alone in your temptations? Do you view your struggle with pornography as a common problem shared by many?

 

2. How might strong, lasting temptations affect our relationship with God?

 

Practical help

This passage from 1 Corinthians has been a lifeline for innumerable Christians since the time of Paul. He is saying to us, "Hang in there." But note that the verse does not promise relief from the temptation. The promise is for endurance. Your escape from temptation is the strength to endure, not a secret trapdoor that removes you from the struggle.

Temptation never feels "common." It seems to hit in a very personal way. So it's easy to think that Paul's words are out of touch. Our circumstances are too unique, aren't they? What can an ancient document have to say to our "modern" dilemma? Never before this last decade was there a technology capable of bringing pornography into millions of homes by the touch of a button.

But then there's King Solomon (who was ancient history even in Paul's day)… Here was a king so powerful and wealthy, he had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3). Talk about easy access to temptation! But this same king tells us that nothing is new. Our real problem, according to Solomon's work, Ecclesiastes, is that we don't think clearly when "surprised" by what appear to be "new" situations. To paraphrase verse 11, we don't think about the past ("earlier things"), or consequences to our actions ("things which will occur").

Men living every "current" generation always believe they are the smartest, most unique and gifted people to have ever lived. And they believe that their brains will help them escape the consequences of temptations that have ensnared their predecessors. It is true that each succeeding generation has a broader base of data from which to retrieve information. And the massive retrieval-power of the Internet seems to support this illusion of power at our fingertips. But take it from Paul and Solomon, the answer to your problem with temptation is to call on God. Solomon concludes the book of Ecclesiastes this way.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14*

13. The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.

14. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.
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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."