There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Why is this written if we are now so endowed that by the strength of our free will we are able to overcome all temptations merely by bearing them? Letter , To Bishop John.
There hath no temptation taken you. The Vulgate reads the verb in the imperative—"let no temptation take you." His meaning is: Be it, O Corinthians, that you are tempted to schisms, lawsuits, lust, idolatry, yet remain constant, for these temptations which take you are common to Prayer of Manasseh , and therefore you can easily overcome them if you like.
If you take the Roman reading, the meaning Isaiah , When, as is often the case, any temptation of those which I have mentioned, or any other, attacks your minds, do not take it in and foster it, so as to let it grow imperceptibly in power, and to become at last unconquerable: for it is impossible to exclude altogether human and light temptations so as to never feel them. Anselm says: "To be overcome by malignant temptation and to sin from malice is devilish: not to feel its power is angelic; to feel it and overcome it is human." See also S. Gregory (Pastoral. i. cxi.).
God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that...
But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
Let no temptation take hold on you. Or, no temptation hath taken hold of you, or come upon you as yet, but what is human, or incident to man. (Challoner)
The sense of these words is obscure: we may expound them by way of prayer, let no temptation, but such as are of human frailty, and not hard to be overcome, happen to you. See the Greek text.
Will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it. The literal signification of the Latin, compared with the Greek is, that God will bring you off, and make you escape out of those dangers, when you are tempted. (Witham)
The most violent temptations are occasions of merit and triumph to such as are in the hands of God; whilst the lightest are snares and a deep abyss to such as are in their own hands.
In whom enduring, ye shall escape all the assaults of this world: for "He is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which ye are able."
Paul implies that there must be temptations which we cannot bear. What are these? Well, all of them in effect. For the ability to bear them comes from God’s grace, which we obtain by asking for it. God gives us patience and brings us speedy deliverance. In this way the temptation becomes bearable.
Thus, because he terrified them greatly, relating the ancient examples, and threw them into an agony, saying, Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall; though they had borne many temptations, and had exercised themselves many times therein; for I was with you, says he, in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling: 1 Corinthians 2:3 lest they should say, Why terrify and alarm us? We are not unexercised in these troubles, for we have been both driven and persecuted, and many and continual dangers have we endured: repressing again their pride, he says, there has no temptation taken you but such as man can bear, i.e., small, brief, moderate. For he uses the expression man can bear , in respect of what is small; as when he says, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. Romans 6:19 Think not then great things, says he, as though ye had overcome the storm. For never have ye seen a danger threatening death nor a temptation intending slaughter: whic...
Paul did not pray that we should not be tempted, for a man who has not been tempted is untried, but that we should be able to bear our temptations as we ought. .
And for this give thanks to the Lord, because He has deemed you worthy of showing you beforehand this affliction, that, knowing it before it comes, you may be able to bear it with courage."