1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Break this down into its component parts. Temptation first overpowers us, it happens to all of us. Then we see that God has provided a way to escape. Sadly we have to endure that temptation that has a grip on us until we discover His escape plan.

The power of temptation is hidden from us until God shows us we are being held captive. Escape plans only work for prisoners. What? Me? Really, I am a prisoner? In some cases the insidious plans of the enemy are so sly we do not even know we are infected until we start to exhibit symptoms of the disease.

2 Corinthians 2:11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

We might know his designs but the cunning devil uses temptations to outwit us and we will begin to act in a manner that is inconsistent with our abiding love.

Psalm 73:22 I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.

We are not animals but when we begin to act like animals, then something is wrong. The power of temptation will lie to us and say “God made you this way, you can’t help yourself.” That is when the Holy Spirit reveals the truth and says, “You are a child of God, act like it.”

Acts 21:28 crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”

Those priestly men set up a permanent structure to house their most sacred relic, the Ark of the Covenant. They designed its structure after the wilderness tabernacle. What they failed to recognize was that the wilderness tabernacle was a temporary place that was never meant to be unmovable. In creating a building to house the Ark, they made His law intractable.

• Romans 8:3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
• Hebrews 7:28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

The temporary was replaced by the permanent.

• 1 Corinthians 13:9
  For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
• 1 Corinthians 13:12
  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

In dentistry a partial only fills in the gaps of missing teeth to allow us to chew better.

Partial knowledge and partial prophesy fill in the missing parts and allow us to eschew the truth in order for us to properly digest it in fulfilling God’s will for us in the here and now, today.

1 Corinthians 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

Having it all does not make us more loving.

The whole purpose behind Christ dying for us was to show the love of God to a lost and dying world. Sinners will only surrender to someone they can trust,where they can recognize the love that is God sent.

Gangs know that and gather the disenfranchised by offering them a place of protection, identity, and what they have not found at home or in their community, love of any type. Sure they are being used, but being used is better than being ignored.

Jesus ate with sinners and it did not change who He was but we are not Jesus. There is always that human side of us that says something along the line, “I am an alcoholic, I cannot go to a bar where drinks are served.” Drug addicts have to stop associating with users and dealers. Those are just the realities of the weakness of our humanity.

Jesus would say  “You are healed, go and sin no more.” To the blind man who sees for the first time, he has to ask himself, did my sin cause me to be blind? No it didn’t, it just means something worse might befall him if he were to sin. We should look at the circumstances of that time. The Holy Spirit had not yet been given. God had not yet given the helper to identify and resist sin.

Temptations abound in this world and we might not even be aware of some of them because we have not been tempted in every way. There is always that possibility. In order to resist temptation don’t you need to recognize it as a temptation. The diabetic knows temptation because a doctor has diagnosed him. Temptation; I know thee and thy name is Bluebell coffee ice cream. Other brands don’t tempt me as much even though they are just as dangerous as Bluebell. Now let us address temptations’ power.