Season 4 - Episode 24
To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly.
There’s a common expression, used in many church circles, claiming, “God will never give you more than you can handle.” It’s rooted in one reading of 1 Corinthians 10:13. This isn’t going to be a long post, but let’s briefly consider that idea in this Covenant Weekly for February 18, 2025.
1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” The word translated as “temptation” could mean temptation to sin. It could also mean trial or struggle. And many conclude from this that God will never give us struggles we can’t bear.
A major problem with this way of understanding the verse is that it is in direct conflict with the lived experience of Paul - the guy who wrote this. Paul had much that he could not bear. That’s s why he talked about God’s strength being perfect when his strength was gone. He couldn’t bear it anymore and needed to trust God to take it on in his stead.
Beyond that, Paul told the church to bear one another’s burdens. He presumes that there will be times when we can’t bear all that is weighing us down. We need each other to share the load.
A second challenge with this understanding is that it is in the context of temptations to sin - to not trust God. The next verse tells them to not worship idols - to not put created things above the creator. He’s talking about the temptation to put our trust in other things and assuring his readers that they will not be tempted to things other than the way of Jesus in such a way that it will be impossible to choose Jesus. Temptation to power? You can say no and follow Jesus. Temptation to trust our base reactions as the way to resolve conflict? You can reject that and follow the way of Jesus. It isn’t a matter of “bearing” a struggle. It is the strength to stand in the way of Jesus despite pressures to bend. This makes sense given the comfort he offers his readers: “When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”
The result may not be “victory” in the human sense. For Paul himself, his endurance in Christ led him to be martyred. But for the early Christians, this was standing. On one hand, it was suffering more than they could bear. But on the other hand, they stood strong. Both were true because they weren’t conflicting ideas.
Don’t feel, in your struggle, that you need to deny or dismiss the reality of the weight you’re carrying. Bring it to God and your brothers and sisters in Christ and ask them to bear it with you. And, at the same time, stand strong in the way of Jesus knowing that he will never leave you or forsake you.