1 Corinthians 10: The Courage to Flee Temptation

Introduction

"No temptation has taken you except what is common to man." This verse, 1 Corinthians 10:13, belongs according to David Garcia in the "top 50," "even the top 10" of promise verses. It is quoted very often, "maybe too often," sometimes appropriately, sometimes not, to the point of sounding like a good slogan.

What do we really do with it? A verse that soothes, a breath of oxygen in a hard moment, "a little wave of a magic wand that perks you up"? The preacher, who is speaking that morning to two congregations meeting together, suggests reading the first fifteen verses of chapter 10 to put this promise back in its context. That takes nothing away from how it can be used elsewhere, since the whole Bible remains the context in the widest sense.

What he finds there: a magnificent promise, surrounded by a warning and an exhortation. God is faithful, and that is exactly why you are called to have the courage to flee.

Outline of the Message

1. A Famous Verse in a Disorderly Church

Paul founded the church in Corinth on his second missionary journey, around the year 51. He stayed there eighteen months.
His letter aims to correct disorders and to answer questions that members of the church had put to him in writing. "If I talk about this, it is not because I think there are disorders here. But there may be some in our own lives."
The church is divided: factions have formed, rich and poor despise one another, brothers take each other to court, some visit prostitutes, there are cases of incest, questions about marriage and about meat sacrificed to idols, accusations against Paul, peculiar uses of spiritual gifts, a challenge to the resurrection.
Corinthian society and the thinking of the day had seeped into the church. Some had perhaps never made a clean break, others had relapsed.
Many remember verse 13 but not its context: "Yes, I know the verse, I've already read it. So wait, let me think."

2. Trial or Temptation?

The Nouvelle Bible Segond speaks of a trial: "With the trial, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." La Colombe and Le Semeur 2015 speak of temptation.
The Greek word peirasmos can be translated either way. Today the verse is used sometimes for temptation, sometimes for trial, and perhaps more often for trial.
In this context, "temptation" seems more consistent, but that does not remove the sense of trial. A trial can give rise to temptation: "You are not taking care of me, this has been going on for six months, a year, two years, three years." It is the temptation to turn on your heels.
Temptation, for its part, is always a trial. In both cases it is a crossing of the desert, and the two often overlap.

3. Craving, an All-Powerful Desire

Paul has just recalled Israel's unhappy episodes in the wilderness: the idolatry of the golden calf, sexual immorality, putting God to the test, grumbling. He warns the Corinthians not to fall in their turn. By the time he writes, it is already well under way among them.
According to Paul's conviction in verse 13, Israel had the possibility of not falling. God was holding out his hand, but a number of them chose to give in.
The grumbling was about longing for Egypt: the manna was "not great," "it was better before," they thought of the cucumbers and the rich food of the past. The people let themselves be carried along by the "mixed multitude" that had come out of Egypt with them (Numbers 11:4-6).
"Sometimes we tell ourselves: it's just a little thing." Craving is far more than a small seduction: it is an all-powerful desire for us humans. Its object, whatever it is, can become a rival to God, an idol.
Solomon, the great king who had received wisdom, understanding, wealth and glory, the one who built the temple, let himself be trapped by his own loves. He even went as far as worshiping Ashtoreth. His heart was not wholly devoted to Yahweh (1 Kings 11:1-9). He had forgotten that everything came to him from God.
The Hebrews had forgotten too that God had delivered them from slavery. Christ has delivered us, set us free from certain death. So why long for and crave what lies behind us, to the point of giving the object of our craving the place of God?
"How many times have I heard: I never had a youth, I have to taste a little of it." That is believing that those who live without God live without constraint.
Paul warns against frequenting pagan temples, which was tied to meat sacrificed to idols. The question for today: "Do you have a pagan temple this morning? What is the object of my craving? Who is my idol?"
"My freedom in Christ allows it"? Paul answers a few verses later: all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable, not all things build up (1 Corinthians 10:23).

4. The Frame Around the Verse

In many Christian homes, a verse hangs in the entryway, like "we will serve Yahweh." If you were to frame 1 Corinthians 10:13, what would you put around it?
Before: "Therefore let him who thinks he stands beware lest he fall" (verse 12). After: "Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry" (verse 14).
"The verse on its own makes very little sense." Isolated, it suggests that there is no demand at all and that God takes care of everything.
Everyone is liable to fall, Paul included. Then comes the promise, then the call to flee. "Everything is said: warning, encouragement, promise and exhortation."
It is "a package." We often pull out a word because it suits us, telling ourselves: I'll take the promise, nothing will happen to me. But the promise does not cancel the warning, and it does not excuse us from good advice.

5. Beware of Self-Confidence

The warning is aimed at those who think they are safe, more spiritual than others, strong in their gifts, free to spend time with whomever they like without being influenced.
"It is when we are young that we think we are strong and exempt from listening to those who came before us." But as we grow older, we stay the same if we have not dealt with the problem. There are fifty-year-olds who want to catch up on the passions of youth (2 Timothy 2:22).
"Pride, the source of self-satisfaction, is a great springboard for a fall." It is like skiing: we think we can absorb every fall, until the real fall.
Paul calls the Corinthians to put their trust in God, and not in themselves, in an ideology, a guru or a star.
He does it with brotherly love: he calls them "my beloved." His concern is to help and to point to the way out, not to condemn. "When you love, you dare to say hard things to one another."
His best advice: flee, "take to your heels," turn away, go far away. "The situation is serious. Danger of death." Every distancing from God leads into idolatry, because the empty place is given to something or someone else.

6. Watching and Drawing Near to God

Jesus teaches us to pray: "Bring us not into temptation" (Matthew 6:13), a teaching and an exhortation. If Christ has overcome, we in our turn must put all our energy into overcoming with him, through him and even for him.
Peter writes: "Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). "That is not gentle."
James adds: "Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you" (James 4:7-8). To watch is to give God his rightful place, to spend time with him alone and together with the congregation.
Paul tells Timothy to pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Timothy 2:22), and to train himself in godliness, to practice staying attached to God (1 Timothy 4:7). God will not do everything in your place: he has already done everything and wants to take your hand and walk with you. "But you have your part."
The Word is that pearl of great price we love to talk about. "But is it my pearl? Do I devour it?" Psalm 1 and Psalm 119 push us toward it. Listen to God, speak to him, confess what needs to be confessed: that is how he opens the way to the escape.
Attachment to God, godliness, produces the fruit of the Spirit, all the way to self-control. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:22-24). We have no need to be seduced by the world's futile, fleeting and dangerous pleasures.
Jesus, tempted forty days in the wilderness, answered with the Word. We can do the same by pulling out a verse learned by heart, or through a living Word we are steeped in. For the one who believes in him, rivers of living water will flow from within him (John 7:38): no need to look elsewhere.

7. The Courage to Flee

The spirit of the age says something else. Oscar Wilde wrote: "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it," and "I can resist everything except temptation." Mirabeau said that the surest way to be rid of temptation is to give in to it. "There are plenty of friends today on their side. I pray that none of us will be one of them."
It is hard to resist the pressure, not to do as everyone else does. Hence what the preacher dares to call "fleeing courage": usually, courage stands and faces; here, we face it by turning away. It takes courage to walk against the current.
"It is not enough to tell yourself: don't worry, God has planned everything, even the way out of the tunnel." There is also the call: flee what is troubling to God.
Miguel de Unamuno wrote that arguing with temptation means being about to yield to it. "Should I go, should I not, it's no big deal." By getting too close, we flirt with it, and our prayer "keep us from yielding to temptation," said almost mechanically, may no longer really match the desire of our heart.
Alfred Kuen tells the story of a business owner looking for a driver. One question for the three candidates: how close to a cliff would you drive my car? The first: one meter. The second: fifty centimeters. The third: as far away as possible. "Which one did he hire? I'll let you conclude."
Three things to conclude. First, humility: no one is safe from falling, and maturity in Christ is not a matter of accumulated knowledge but of putting it into practice and of communion with Christ.
Next, God's faithfulness, the heart of verse 13: not that God does everything in our place, but his presence and active participation in our walk. "Apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). One day at a time.
Finally, our response: undivided faithfulness, which flees every form of idolatry, without leaving the world where we are called to be salt and light. Our stands are often far more powerful than our words.
This promise is not a charm, a lucky token that we shake while waiting for things to get better tomorrow. "Let us choose faithfulness, which means fleeing when necessary. Let us choose God, let us choose Jesus Christ."

Key Takeaways

1 Corinthians 10:13 is framed by a warning (verse 12) and an exhortation (verse 14). Cut off from its frame, it loses much of its meaning.
Craving is an all-powerful desire: its object can take the place of God, as with Israel in the wilderness and with Solomon.
Self-confidence and pride are a springboard for a fall. No one is safe, whatever their age.
God is faithful: he is present and active in your walk, but you have your part, to watch, to draw near to him, to feed on his Word.
In the face of temptation, courage means fleeing, and staying as far as possible from the cliff.

Personal Application

When you quote 1 Corinthians 10:13, do you use it as an isolated promise or together with its warning and its call to flee?
What is your "pagan temple" today: what is the object of your craving, or who is your idol?
In what area do you think you are strong enough not to be influenced?
Is God's Word really your pearl: do you read it, feed on it, are you steeped in it?
How close to the cliff are you driving your life right now, and what do you need to flee this week?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 1 Corinthians 10:13 mean in its context?

Paul is writing to a divided church, where the thinking of Corinthian society has seeped in. He has just recalled Israel's falls in the wilderness. For David Garcia, verse 13 is framed by a warning ("let him who thinks he stands beware lest he fall") and an exhortation ("flee from idolatry"). Taken alone, it loses much of its meaning.

Should we speak of a trial or a temptation in 1 Corinthians 10:13?

The Greek word peirasmos can be translated either way: the Nouvelle Bible Segond says "trial," while La Colombe and Le Semeur say "temptation." In this context, "temptation" seems more consistent, but the sense of trial remains: a trial can give rise to the temptation to turn your back on God, and temptation is always a trial.

Why does it take courage to flee temptation?

Usually, courage means facing things. In the face of temptation, David Garcia speaks of "fleeing courage": you face it by turning away. It takes courage to walk against the current in a world where everyone lives the same way, and not to argue with temptation.