Have you heard this taught? As a blanket statement, it has to be false.
One example that counters this is,
2 Corinthians 1:8-11,
“For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;
Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.”
Will God protect us from suffering beyond our natural ability to endure? Some so teach.
Does God truly restrict and spare what troubles a person might in and of himself handle? The apostle says God so allowed them, God's ministers, to suffer exceedingly while in Asia. Notice his comments:
Paul was “pressed out of measure.” The pressures Paul's group suffered was an extraordinary threat. It was an apparent seemingly hopeless danger to life or health.
Paul was “pressed above strength.” Paul felt things were beyond human ability to endure.
Paul “despaired even of life.” They felt despair; that there was no solution, and no “way out” (Robertson's).
Compare with 2 Corinthians 4:7-12; Acts 19:23-35; 1 Corinthians 15:32, 1 Corinthians 16:9.
THE SOLUTION. The Spirit through Paul tells us that in spite of the adversities of one's life, God can deliver those of us who trust not in themselves but trusts in God who “delivers us.” If God did not deliver Paul's group until after they had totally despaired and beyond their endurance, then we can not say God does not allow one to suffer beyond what one is capable of enduring. Neither can one say it is one's personal fault if he is having to suffer. The fact is one can suffer as a consequence of doing right. Christians are threatened periodically. The early martyrs, including Paul, are examples, of circumstances of suffering beyond their physical abilities.
God's gift of survival is shown to be possible if (1) one “trusts” God and the Lord to deliver them in addition to (2) many faithful “helping by prayer.” At one time, however, God told Paul that He would not remove a “thorn in his flesh" (possibly an illness? Or persecutions?), a messenger of Satan, because God's grace was sufficient for him to endure (2 Corinthians 12:7) in order to keep him humble unto the Lord. Janie rightly points out to me that the Lazarus that Jesus mentioned going to the bosom of Abraham at his death had lived the life of a beggar who had to beg for crumbs. Even so, we are assured, "Pray for one another so that you might be healed. The prayer of a godly person is powerful. It makes things happen. ” (James 5:16, New International Reader’s Version).
DOES NOT APPLY TO TEMPTATIONS TO SIN. On the other hand, God does not allow anyone to be tried or tempted to sin above which he can personally manage to escape. Consequently, if one sins, he must blame only himself. Not God.
This is confirmed in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: 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.”
The context is cataloging Israel's temptations and sins following the exodus and entering the wilderness.
THE TEMPTATIONS. Are you enticed to “lust after evil things” like delivered Israel did (1 Corinthians 10:6-10)? Are you tempted to “worship falsely or worship idols” like them? What about being tempted to “commit fornication”? Or, to “murmur against Christ”? To have pride in “never falling”? God has protected us by creating in us the ability to say “no.” The Spirit promises that temptations to sin will not be more than we can personally handle. That's the teaching of 1 Corinthians.
DO NOT SAY “God does not allow us more than we can bear” in regard to the troubles and pains that come our way in this life. All are destined to die; some with more accompanied pain than others.
Meanwhile, those temptations to sin are common to all. But each is responsible to decisively choose not to surrender to the enticements.
Romans 3:23, 24, teaches “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Thanks to God, Jesus saves us from the sins.
But once redeemed by God's grace through our obedience to the Faith's baptism into Christ, Romans 6:13 reminds us that we are still individually responsible to reject common temptations. “Never offer any part of your body to sin's power. No part of your body should ever be used to do any ungodly thing. Instead, offer yourselves to God as people who have come back from death and are now alive. Offer all the parts of your body to God. Use them to do everything that God approves of” (God's Word translation).
There is a distinction in the Bible made between temptations to sin and physical suffering. Temptations to sin, which are “common to all”, are relative to one's ability to withstand. The physical trials of suffering, on the other hand, that especially include persecutions for believing in Christ, are not restrictive. Philippians 1:29, “(BBE) Because to you it has been given in the cause of Christ not only to have faith in him, but to undergo pain on his account.”
= GAYLON WEST ............ edited by Janie Ward and Mary West
