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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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
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 ye are able. If God does not suffer us to be tempted beyond our strength, therefore much less, or rather in no way does God impel us to sin, as Calvin thinks.
2. Nor does God enjoin impossibilities, as Luther thinks, not foes He even permit them.
3. It follows from this that we can be so strongly tempted by the devil and the flesh as to be unable to resist if the grace of God does not succour us, as Chrysostom and Anselm say.
4. As a matter of fact there is no temptation so great but that it can be overcome by the grace of God.
5. The best remedy, therefore, against temptation is prayer, by which we call down the help of God from distrust of our own strength (S. Matt. xxvi41).
6. This grace is promised here and elsewhere, not inly to the elect, but to all who duly call on God. See also decrees of the Council of Trent (Sess. xxiv. can9 , and Sess. vi. can11). For the Apostle is speaking to the Christians at Corinth, many of whom were not elect, but some contentious, causing offence, and drunken (chap. xi21). What is more, none of them knew that they were elected, so as to be able to apply this consolation to themselves exclusively.
7. It is in the power of each Christian to obtain sufficient help to overcome all temptations and all sins; for God pledges His word to them to this, and He is One to be trusted, as the Apostle says here. His meaning is: no temptation can take you, except on your own side and by your own negligence; for on God"s side I pledge myself that God, who is faithful, will perform what He has promised, and will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, i.e, will not allow you to be tempted, except by human temptation. Understand, however, that this is if you seek His grace and help, as is right, and co-operate with Him. "God," as S. Augustine says (de Nat. et. Gratia, c43), and following him, the Council of Trent (Sess. vi. can. ii.), "God does not order impossibilities when He orders us to resist every temptation; but when He orders, it is to bid us to so what we can, to seek help for what we cannot, and then He lends the strength." See S. Matt. xi30,1 S. John v3.
S. Ephrem beautifully illustrates this saying of the Apostle as follows: "If men," he says, "do not put upon their beasts more weight than they can bear, much less will God put on men more temptations than they can bear. Again, if the potter bakes his vessels in the fire until they are perfected, and does not remove them before they are properly baked and of the right consistency, and again does not leave them in too ling, lest they be burnt too much and so become useless: much more will God do the same with us, trying us with the fire of temptations until we are purified and perfected; but beyond that point He will not suffer us to be scorched and consumed with temptation." (de Patienti)
But will with the temptation also make a way to escape. God, who suffers you to fall into temptation, will also make it turn out well, as Erasmus and Augustine (in Ps. lxii and Ephesians 89) understand it. He makes it good for you and your salvation, and will enable you to come out of it without less, nay, rather victoriously and with glory, as Anselm says.
1. The word translated "way of escape." according to Theophylact, Å’cumenius, and the Greeks, means a happy end of the temptations, so that it turns out well and promotes the good of the tempted; for God will either bring the temptation to a speedy ending, or not permit it to go on to the fourth day, if He knows that we cannot bear it for more than three days, as S. Ambrose says; or if He gives it linger life He gives us the power of bearing it, as Ambrose and Anselm say.
2. It does not signify any way of escape, but such a way as when a soldier comes out victorious from a battle of a single combat, more renowned and even with increased strength and courage. So have the saints come out of temptation. The Greek word then also means a progress. Not only will God make the temptation no obstacle, but a means even of advancement, causing an increase of strength, virtue, grace, victory, and glory, a more certain walk in the way of virtue and in the road to heaven. So Photius.
That ye may be able to bear it. The Greek literally means, "to more than bear it," i.e, so to bear it that strength remains over and above to bear something farther. God hives such help that any one can overcome temptation with flying colours, Hence the Fathers often remark that men advance in virtue through temptations chiefly; the reason Isaiah , that no one can resist them, except by putting forth contrary acts of virtue strongly and intensely, and where temptation brings out such acts it strengthens and intensifies their habits.
3. The righteous wins merit by such acts; he seeks and receives from God an increased infusion of grace and all virtues.
