In my last post, we learned that nowhere in the Bible are we told to resist temptation. To do so actually empowers it since it consumes our thoughts. It is a self-defeating strategy. So, how then, do we defeat temptation?
Here’s 1 Cor. 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 [not a way of escape], so that you will be able to endure it. [italics mine].
The verse says that God provides the way of escape so that we can endure the temptation, not avoid it. The way of escape, therefore, is not a process, but an outcome. It’s not a course of action, it’s a result. A single Greek word, ékbasin, is translated way of escape, and it’s a noun, not a verb. In other words, it’s not an action word. It’s the finish line in a race of endurance.
Hence, there is no “escape” from temptation in the usual sense of the word. The “way out” is not getting out of a tempting situation. It’s the outcome of successfully enduring a tempting situation.
A single Greek word, ékbasin, is translated way of escape, and it’s a noun, not a verb. In other words, it’s not an action word. It’s the finish line in a race of endurance.
Unfortunately, there is truly no way around temptation other than to endure it. What I find encouraging is that, while I do have to endure temptations,
- I never have to endure them alone—the Lord is always with me.
- I know that the Lord has already given me what I need to endure them successfully.
- I will grow stronger in the Lord as a result and acquire more power over temptation and sin.
Following is a two-minute video clip from The Breaking the Chains Seminar that illustrates how the “way of escape” should be understood. This is the first time it has been made available apart from the paid seminar curriculum.
