Those whom God has promised to save, he has promised to render watchful. Who will not suffer you to he tempted above that you are able^ i. e. able to bear. This is the proof of his fidel- ity. Sut loill loith the teinptation make a way of escape. This means either, that when the temptation comes, God will make a way of escape ; or, that when God brings the temptation he will also bring the way of escape. In the latter sense God is regarded as the author of the temptation, in the former he is not. The latter is to be preferred on account of the o-vV, with. * He will make with the temptation a way of escape,' i. e. he makes the one, he will make the other. The apostle James in- deed says, " God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempt- eth he any man," James 1, 3. To tempt there, however, means to solicit, or attempt to seduce into sin. In that sense God tempts no man. But he does often put their virtue to the test, as in the case of Abraham. And in that sense he tempts or tries them. What the apostle here says is, that when God thus tries his people it will not be beyond their strength, and that he will always make a way of escape that they may he able to hear it. This expresses the design of God in making a way of escape. (The genitive rov Swao-^at, &c., is the genitive of design).
Proof that attendance on sacrificial feasts in a heathen temple is idolatry. Vs. 14-22.
This whole discussion arose out of the question whether it was lawful to eat the sacrifices offered to idols. Paul, while admitting that there was nothing wrong in eating of such meat, exhorts the Corinthians to abstain for the sake of their weaker brethren. There was another reason for this absti- nence; they might be led into idolatry. By going to the verge of the allowable, they might be drawn into the sinful. There was great danger that the Corinthians, convinced that an idol was nothing, might be induced to join the sacrificial feasts within the precincts of the temples. The danger was the greater, because such feasts, if held in a private house, lost their refigious character, and might be attended without scruple. To convince his readers, that if the feast was held in a temple, attendance upon it was an act of idolatry, is the ob- ject of this section. The apostle's argument is from analogy. Attendance on the Lord's Supper is an act of communion with Christ, the object of Christian worship, and with all those who