The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 345

of temptation ha~ often been shown in the hour after temptation. l\fany who ha~e ial!en "into manifold temptations" have beeu led to "count it all joy" (Jas. i. 2). ll. To DE TEMPTED IS NOT TO srn. We need to remember this. Some sensitive natures conclude that they must be very sinful because they are so much tempted whereas multiplicity of temptation is often mther an evidence of faithfulness anti integrity. The strongest attacks are made upon the strongest forts. Satan does not waste his ammunition. He would not be so earnestly seekin.~ to capture us if we were already completely his captives. Repeated temptation argltcs the existence of resistance. Sin is consent to the temptation. \Vhere there is no acquiescence there is no sin. The greatly tempted Christ was the perfectly sinless Christ. III. TEMPTATION 1s NOT COMPULSION. Some dread temptation, because they think it will force them to that which is evil. But since the world was, no man has ever been compelled to commit a sinyle .~in. Satan has no power of compulsion. Indeed, to be "compelled to sin" involves a contradiction in terms; if we are compelled, there cau be no sin. \Ve could not be responsible if we wcrn under compulsion. Tern1,tation at its strongest is only inducement. Satan said to Christ," Cast thyself down;" he can s,1y no more to us; he cannot cast us down. Here the responsibility of sin comes in,. Emry sin that we commit is voluntary. We do it-no one else. . IV. Gon's GRACIOUS PROVISION FOR HIS TEMPTED PEOPLE. 1. He will not allow them to be u1,duly tempted. Our temptations are under his control. His eye is upon us wbiist we are tempted. His hand is stretched out. His voice says, "Thus far." Though he never tempts us in an evil sense, every temptation is weighed by him before it reaches us. He is faithful to his covenant with believers (1 Thess. v. 24). 2. He will provide the appropriate means for dealing with the temptation. A "way of escape," not necessarily from the temptation, but from the peril of it. As with Job, Daniel, l'aul (2 Cor. xii. 8, 9). " The way of escape" as it should be rendered-the precise way in which the temptation should be received, borne, resisted. This way of escape comes with the temptation: when the temptation comes, this comes also; to the true believer the two are inseparable. With the sickness comes the cure, with the shaft the shield. In temptation we should look to God; from him cometh our help. When the enemy comes in like a flood, he lifts up the standard against him. '!'be promise is only to those who are in alliance with God. Others go down under temptation, not because they are compelled, but because to the invitation from without there is a quick response from within. We should enter into covenant with God through Christ; then we shall be in his hands who can "keep us from falling" and who will.-H. Vers.14-22.-Wariness in Ch,·istian walk. A bumingquestionamongstCorinthian Christians was whether they were justified in partaking of sacrifices offered to idols. With this the apostle deals in several parts of these Epistles. Note the course of his argument here. I. HE LIFTS THE VEIL FROM IDOLATRY. He is quite willing to allow that an idol is nothing in itself, and that meats offered to an idol are in themselves as though they had not been so offered. But he thrusts upon the attention the startling truth that, when men professedly sacrifice to idols, they really sacrifice to devils. " They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not" (Deut. xxxii. 17). 1. The characte'I' ,:f many of the heathen deities was Satanic. '!.'he conception of the worshippers was largely a conception of the character of devils. 2. Paganism is a part of the Satania ki,,gdom. lt is not of the true God, and what is not of him is of the devil. '!'here are but two masters. Pagan worship is the worship of the false, and the false is of Satan, not of God. Behind every idol, because it is an idol, lurks a devil. The dumb image and the supposed deity associated with it are but masks hiding the face of the fiend. An idol is nothing; yes, but "nothings" are generally the veils of very palpable " somethings." Beware of the nothings of life; they am most dangerous because least dreaded. 3. When any objects are worshipped in the 7,lace of God, the devil-king- d?m is served. Idolatry of whatever sort involves "sacrifice to devils." All sin is homage and offering to Satan, the "god of this world." The truth applies when pure things, as well as when impure, are substituted for God. Satanic interests arc advanced; a sacrifice is laid upon the altar of darkness. • lL HE SHOWS WHAT PAll'l'AKlNG OF HEATHEN SACRIFICES INVOLVES. 1. To all. As l:H. x. 1-33.J TllE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE com~THIANS. 349