God Doesn't Give You More than WE Can Handle

Dear Help Seekers and Finders,

When seeking advice from the Bible, it’s important to understand for whom the advice was intended. Reading the Bible as a collection of sayings randomly curated to match a particular emotional moment can get you into trouble.

There’s the story of the man who was going through a difficult time in his life and so he decided to use the Bible as a tool to determine his next course of action. Like the old Magic 8 Ball that you would ask a question, shake the orb and look at the little screen for an answer, he closed his eyes and randomly opened the book, forcing his finger to an exact spot on the page. Opening his eyes seeking divine guidance, he read these words from Matthew 27.5: “Throwing down the money in the temple, he (Judas) went out and hung himself.” Realizing the guidance was clearly incorrect, he tried again, flipping this time to Luke 10.27b: “Go and do likewise.” Somewhat shaken, he decided for a third try, this time settling on the phrase from John 13.27b: “What you are about to do, do quickly.” 

Of course, context is everything, and the interpretation of Biblical context is at the root of many contemporary arguments about what Scripture does and does not say concerning many moral issues perplexing our culture. To read a verse or two without understanding the historical audience at best brings irrelevant drivel, at worst drives us to defend prejudice and intolerance. There are verses which appear to defend slavery, subjugation of women, stoning of disobedient children, etc. etc., none of which appear helpful to current conundrums.

But my musing today is not about how Scripture guides moral behavior, but how a particular verse has been used in direct opposition of the writer’s intent. The verse is 1 Corinthians 10.13: 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 (NIV). This is frequently paraphrased as, God never gives you more than you can handle, usually tossed out as the dismissal of another who is feeling overwhelmed. The implication is that your world consists only of you and God and whatever is troubling your day. Take comfort, we say, in God’s knowing what you can endure; whatever it is, it will never be too much. It’s dismissive. In sharing the verse, the speaker abdicates all responsibility for support, or compassion, or interest, in effect saying, Have a good day with your struggle. If you screw up, it’s not God’s fault or mine; it’s on you.

Yet throughout the chapter, and the whole book of 1 Corinthians for that matter, Paul is not speaking of the emotional fortitude of the individual; Paul is talking to the whole Christian community in Corinth. The ‘you’ in this context is plural. If a member of the church finds themselves in an overwhelming situation, Paul commends the whole community to rally around the one struggling, to collectively find endurance, guiding the individual and the community away from temptation. It is correct that God never gives you more than you can handle, provided we understand that God’s Spirit inhabits the whole community of faith as a collective resource for strength, endurance, even righteousness. The passage is not intended to further burden the struggling ones, but as a call for the community to rally around the overwhelmed, bringing strength and resolution together.

This transforms the meaning and the power of being Church. We are not a clinic where helpful aphorisms are handed out like vitamins to the weary, but a collective smorgasbord of experience and shared nourishment; a place where the weary may safely rest while the vigilant keep watch, knowing that our endurance does not arise from individual fortitude but from the deep and broad well of a Spirit-indwelled community. It’s no accident that Paul’s call for collective rather than private endurance leads to the 12th chapter where, in that same book, Paul uses the metaphor of a body to describe integrated form and mutual function, as the church together exercises a variety of spiritual gifts. If an ear is overwhelmed because it cannot see, then the eye needs to say, Don’t worry, I’ve got this (1 Corinthians 12.16). 

So, if you find yourself randomly poking at the Bible for answers like the ill-fortuned guy in this musing’s introduction, the problem isn’t your bad luck in proof texting, but isolation from true Christian friends. It is only in relationships that we can make sense of anything beyond ourselves.

Hoping to find help, not Bible verses, when feeling overwhelmed, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor