Tuesday 20 February 2018

Cultivate God-confidence.

1Co 10:12      Don't be so naive and self-confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence.

Take heed lest he fall. The Corinthians, thinking that they stood, asserting that they all had knowledge, proud of the insight which led them to declare that "an idol is nothing in the world," were not only liable to underrate the amount of forbearance due to weaker consciences, but were also in personal danger of falling away. To them, as to the Romans, St. Paul means to say, "Be not highminded, but fear" (Rom 11:20).

1Co 10:13       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.

But such as is common to man; rather, except such as is human; i.e. such as man can bear. The last verse was a warning; this is an encouragement. Having just heard what efforts even St. Paul had to make to run in the Christian race, and how terribly their fathers in the wilderness had failed to meet the requirements of God, they might be inclined to throw up every effort in despair. St. Paul, therefore, reminds them that these temptations were not superhuman, but were such as men had resisted, and such as they could resist. God is faithful He had called them (1Co 1:9), and since he knew "how to deliver the godly out of temptations" (2Pe 2:9), he would surely perform his side of the covenant, and, if they did their parts, would stablish and keep them from evil (2Th 3:3). Also. The mode of deliverance shall be ready simultaneously with the temptation. Away to escape; rather, the way to escape. The way to escape is different in different temptations, but for each temptation God would provide the special means of escaping it.

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