no excuse

There really isn’t much excuse for my sin, except my own lack of self-discipline.

Here’s how Paul explains it, in 1 Corinthians 10:12-13: “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

Two things strike me in these verses. First, all my temptations are the same things other people are tempted by. All my temptations are “common to mankind.” That means that if others in my church manage to resist them, I can too. There’s nothing special about the things I’m up against, and if I make them out to be extra hard or tougher than normal, I do more than just make excuses. I belittle the spiritual strength of my brothers and sisters who have  been more faithful.

Second is that God makes sure that I’m stronger than my temptations. Paul notes that not only will God not let me be tempted beyond what I’m capable of handling, but also that whenever I am tempted, there will be a way out of temptation. When I claim I had no choice, I belittle the goodness of God himself, who promised that would never be true.

I guess in truth there isn’t any excuse. No excuse except my own choice to do a thing that disrupts my relationship with God, a preference for self-destructive self-indulgence over the only thing that can save me.

Those choices are just stupid. So maybe in the end stupidity would be a partial excuse.